What's your specialty?

On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Tony Duell wrote: Sounds like the same reasons I write code. My favorite stuff to work on are old boards full of nothing but logic gates and such. Modern gear usually contains a few ASIC chips and a few support components. I miss being able to troubleshoot a board with nothing but a multimeter and a logic probe. Or, the part is so expensive, that replacement would cost more than the whole board. In those cases, I pack the board away in a box with a note to myself as to what is wrong with it and why I didn't repair it. I've later repaired some boards like this, when the parts that were needed eventually turned up. I'm the same way. If it isn't potted in epoxy, I can repair it. I've repaired a few small bits of stuff that were potted, but larger stuff is somewhat difficult to unpot w/o damage. I've heard there are some solvents that will soften the compound to allow it to be removed, do you know what those might be called? One bit of equipment I wish I had kept now was an original coda-phone made by Bell. I scrapped it back in the early 90s, but kept most of its internals. I think it had like 12-14 small relays and a few very old pc boards in it. The wiring harnesses were tied up with waxed string, which would have been typical for the time period that the thing was made in. I think it was made in the early to mid 1970s, so if the folks that visit lots of scrap shops could keep a look out for one of these, I'd appreciate it. Size wise, it is about 2/3 of the size of a modern VCR, but weighs about 25-30lb. It had a permanently wired handset (like those used on the old Bell standard phones), which was gray in color and had a button built into the handle. Maybe one of these days I'll find another one of those units to put on the shelf :/ I'm just getting started with tube (valve) gear, but I really enjoy troubleshooting the early transistor based amps. -Toth