I note a bug with the word claim. I edited this & ended up removing it as it is coming out wrong?

Digression some times points out pitfalls, outside of the topic that can have serious ramifications.

It would be handy to have a circuit. We really need to know what has, or has not, been done to it other than the obvious tampering and that needs to be checked to see if the components used are correct. There were those who repaired, using anything on hand & a Midwest I serviced had several wrong plate resistors & these came from several era's.

While a weak valve is not out of the question, its a case of which one, but also a case of the peripherals (and it more often is) depriving it of volts, feeding positive to its control grid, or is it a case of the thing being miss aligned & that's pretty common especially if parts were changed & no or, improper adjustments made.

Where there are cathode resistors, and back bias, these can be a good guide as to how the group or, an individual valve is running,

So without a valve tester as another guide, Its Volts, alignment, aerial & substitution of valves one by one into a set with the same one. If you have a pale blue halo outside of the elements (not dark blue inside) or the getter has all turned white, not silver or black, that tube is likely gassy.

Do make sure the rating of the filters is appropriate I have had & seen several cheap 450V ones let go quickly & leak so I do not use 450V ones on 5Y3 / 80 for one.

Easy way in restoration Carl (something that I always did ) was just replace everything where its in a position of more than say 100 volts going through it.

Paper caps throw the lot out all 50 plus years old good for nothing , put new yellows in - there is half your grief gone out the window .

Where you have carbon resistors in higher values they go high 50k goes to 80k 500k goes to 900k etc etc .
If the resistors more than 10% out the door as to what they should be!---------just replace them.

Mica's... well you soon pick them if they have gone to god because your volume will be up and down like a bulls roar / and / or your stations will go for a wander !

You can replace near all caps electros / resistors in a basic 5 valve set for like $25 at worst ! why would anybody sit for hours try and chew the fat over the problem where in 85% of case all problems can be solved by mass elimination of the old higher voltage components!

Electrical safety act hmm I dunno, cant say I agree with it to much - common sence normally stops most people trying to turn on sets 70 year old.

Safety acts country wide have gone to far where to a point everybody and everything is mothballed . no not good, and it was not there some years before! Basicaly its all the Pollie Correct crap, it may be there, but who say's its right ??? more so whom support it ?- mostly the iphone slick haired 30 year old - yuppies, panzies poodles and poofs brigade - lol mums boys you know !

Bugger em ! when I had shops & sold sets I said there it is all restored and the rest is up to you !

I gave a 12 months Gaurantee and in 12 years only 2 sets ever came back to me with a problem ! ( 2 from around 1900 sold & restored - not a bad strike rate ) but I was not wiping their bum after the 12 months had run out !

1 MINUTE PAST THE 12 MONTH DEAD LINE THEY GOT THE 1.T.S. WARRANTY THEN ----- IT DIED = I.T.S........... ISN'T THAT SAD ))) LOL LOL

I must have bought 800 sets from shops over the years all dead as maggots - didn't worry me you don't ask for / or get a gaurantee with a dead set !( it's caveat emptor )

People sueing each other over crap as this ? ive never seen it ! I think people watch to many USA movies - film stars all sueing each other ! maybe they do ....but ( over old radios ? )) nar I think you'd have to be desperate lol.

Well guys I found the issue. The issue was the volume switch was a little dirty so I sprayed a little wd40 ( all I had ) into the switch and then used a pair of multigrips on the retaining nut to loosen it and tighten it. ITS A REAL BOTTLER.

Steve that radio had been recapped. With all the good stuff I must say.
When I said I didn't know why the cord was cut, it was because I could see that a lot of work had been done and I was questioning myself as to whether there was a problem or not. I do realise that there are certain legalities as to why . I just thought maybe I am chasing my tail . But as I get more test equipment this will be less of a issue. I always have the attitude of asking the " STUPID QUESTION " because it may not be stupid after all. LOL.

It's always the one that does not play ball that educates: Ask & you will get a dozen opinions, but this is a good example of checking rather than assuming resulting in a good outcome.

Good that the lead was cut off, because it had the neutral (blue) switched instead of the active (brown) - so incorrect.

From what I see on the American forum, domestic electrical wiring has been a Hotch Potch, for decades & they are only in recent times catching up.

Some of their Utility plugs & entire buildings were wired with no earth / ground wires & despite Line & Neutral having different blade sizes, they are parallel So many two pin plugs are made with the smaller size on both & they are reversible,

Between that & Rafferty's rules you would never know which was what. Then of course they made huge numbers of AA5 & similar radio's with no transformer. I was looking at one today on their forum and sure enough the circuit is showing spst mains switch in the Neutral. So the chassis relies on the cold rectifier to stop Line (Active).

This only works if the socket is right and the plug is not inverted. In many sets that meant that the chassis was "hot"

Marc

Can you imagine when I went to the Philippines and discovered they had 240 volts via the American wiring system.Plus they have next to no safety standards over there. If you want to run power to your house all you do is tap into the nearest cable and loop it around a nother cable for support and swing it over to your house lol or just tap into your neighbours line lol.

One of the few things I've disagreed with in SC editorials over the years was the idea that unlicenced people should be allowed to work on the hard wiring installed in their own home. Over the years I have seen so many examples of rough and illegal wiring work that I'd need a Chinaman with an abacus to keep a count. Sadly, there'd be some of this work completed by those who are supposed to be licenced tradesmen but the majority was clearly done by those who've never seen a copy of the SAA Wiring Rules (AS3000) let alone used it to guide them through the process.

Many people who have entertained the thought of doing their own electrical work have refrained only because it is illegal and because they either don't want to kill themselves or be faced with the $22,000.00 fine for each offence. Many others don't care and just go ahead anyway.

Now, there'd be a few people who would copy licenced work and do the job correctly but most would not understand what rules apply, where and when. There's a lot to consider and it is seldom as simple as running some cable and connecting it at each end.

Trust me with this - mention was made of Filipinos just tapping in to existing wiring but there's been times when that has happened here too and that sort of thing will become more common if restrictions on working on hard wiring are relaxed.

There was a time when I had to use a raised walkway in Manila when it was raining and I went to grab the handrail to steady myself and omg 3 inches off the handrail was the street wiring n yes I agree Brad leave it to licenced electricians and maintain the standards.

I have a friend in the refrigeration business and from what he tells me there is scope for improvement in training a few of them. I have to agree as I have see a few of the things that they have done.

I had one power pole go to ground from one getting its wiring wrong, an aerial almost cause a bushfire by using a earthing type clamp to join a overhead line wire, another clown bored a screw into the active of the feeder & got bitten;

Fortunately in one way he did not kill himself (but probably will). I did not need all the stress from the paperwork that I would cop, if he turned to a crispy critter

One even managed to wire the meter so it ran backwards & I had 84V on Neutral,, brilliant that one?

One even managed to wire the meter so it ran backwards

I could make use of that one around here.

I can tell you of a fellow that lived in a unit in Melbourne for 25 years. The day he vacated the unit he switched the power off and realised that the hot water system was still running. On further investigation he found out that it was wired to his neighbours Meter box LOL.

Back in the 80s I rented half a house, and eventually found that the powerpoint in the hallway was connected to the neighbour's electricity. Guess how many heaters and so on I plugged into it?