Beomaster 3000-2
This one came from an owner, who first had the Beomaster in for service somewhere else.
They were asked to repair several issues but "I have no faith in them anymore", was how he put it.
At the very moment he handed it to me, I immediately understood what he meant...

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Martin

hehe...details, details, details
That would make one question a repair shop. It makes you wonder how many other things are put in backwards.

John

Obviously one meant for the Australian market - priceless!

Dave.

There was a Beomaster 4400 on eBay with a similar situation, only worse. I thought about advising the seller of their problem obtaining a single bid, but decided to stay out of it. Thanks Martin, for the morning chuckle!

In America we call that "comedy gold."

JET505
From my own collection.
I have owned this set for decades but it just stood on a shelf in the dungeons until now, when
I felt the urge to hear it play.
Dial printing a little blurry as most of these are, two tiny wormholes on one side - not a
surprise either, but otherwise a very beautiful set.

Experience has it way back from my childhood, that the high-voltage filter capacitors
should be respected. One particular cap in an old TV set found in the street, almost had me reconsider
electronics as a future hobby when it went bang the moment I switched on the set.
You tend to remember things like that.
So from then on, I am always checking, and depending on type and age preferably replacing, the HT filter
and reservoir cap(s) before applying power to anything valve-based that stood unused for a long time.
So a replacement cap was lined up on the bench already before I had the back off the set.

And wow, what a beautiful set; No fingerwear to any knobs, no wear to the dial string, no heat
distortion to the masonite back, - apart from a thin layer of dust and a couple of
dead spiders I'd say it looked new.
No heat marks on components, no milky or black deposits at the inside of the valve glass envelopes.
Hey, not even a trace of a crack to any of the ceramic power resistors, which is otherwise quite common.
If I didn't know better, I'd say it looked unused. I could hardly wait to get this thing working.

Well, the filter cap was duly replaced. As were a couple of other problem-prone caps, the output
pentode grid coupling and decoupling caps, the mains suppresion cap and a couple of safety caps related
to the inputs.
The mains cord felt a little crumbly, so was also replaced with a new length of cloth sheathed modern PVC.
All ready to fire up.
First test saw all the valves light up and of course the large dial lamp. A healthy hum sneaked out from
the test speaker, a buzz could be had when a small screwdriver was inserted in the gramophone input, but
no radiostations could be found anywhere. Not even static.
I checked the frontend valve - it was fine, as were all the other valves, absolutely like new.
I then checked a few more caps that could have been the cause but that didn't bring any results either.
Out came the multimeter to check the anode voltages on the frontend valve and it was soon discovered, that
no voltage could be found anywhere around this valve.
The next valve in the lineup was fine and its DC voltages was within reason.
No wonder it was silent on all wavebands with no power to the first valve.

The voltage comes from a splitting point near the rectifier valve and I had fine voltage there but nothing
at the other end of the white lead that goes to the frontend anode circuits.
I measured again and I doublechecked. I had voltage on the splitting point but not at the business end.
Birds nest constructions, as this, can be difficult to work on, components hide eachother and sometimes
some components will have to come out to gain access to others deeper in the nest.
I desoldered a few components near the splitting point and pushed them aside, which allowed me to see the
problem. There it was in plain sight. One white lead, prepared for soldering to the splitting point but
sitting 10mm away from its blank and empty soldertag.
It was never soldered...
So the set never played anything - well, gramophone at the most, but nothing else.
No wonder it all looked new, then.
I cut a fresh 4mm off the insulation on the lead (it had a little oxidation so wouldn't accept solder),
soldered it to its tag and with a mere 66 years delay I finished the factory guys job.
Power on. All voltages now fine. And lots of stations with just about one meter of lead as antenna.
I can't seem to understand, how this set passed the final tests and quality control and I suppose the
short answer would be, that it didn't.
But it has a radioshop label at the back, so it was sold.

I've found factory mistakes before - even the odd missing component - but they were all of minor
importance and the sets all worked - sort of - as were, but never something like this.
Must have been a great disappointment to the previous owner.
But now, finally, it was allowed to do what it was made for. And it did so for the rest of the evening.
Truth be told, there isn't a lot of interesting stuff going on on the AM wavebands, mostly weatherforecasts,
fishermens notes and the likes - and most of it in russian - but I managed to find a good german station
broadcasting nice classical music in very good quality, fine with me and it seemed to suit the JET as well.

Martin

What a nice story!

Hey Martin,

this JET505 must be a figment of your imagination as there are no pictures!

Sounds like another great job.  Would be nice to see it.

Dave.

Very nice story indeed, and exceedingly well written.

Martin one would NEVER know that English wasn’t your first language…. and I really mean this.

Jeff

sonavor wrote:

I still have a Beomaster 4400 that I use every week but have never recapped. I have parts to recap it but I don't see the need to do it yet.

I'm sure everyone will cry "apples to oranges" (at least those familiar with this English idiom), but you would never hear someone say, "I'm not going to worry about replacing the tires on my car until they blow up as I'm driving down the road."