UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post

David Simpson · 30th Mar 2021, 11:13 am

Quite frankly Martin, the issue of access to vintage documentation has been a sore point with many VR folk in the UK. VMARS have a great archive, but there used to be issues with Royal Signals/WS19 folk over free access to their stuff, for example.
Back to reality - can someone with better eyesight & patience than myself - please sum up(briefly) the origins of the 163 woes(real or imaginary), and how things stand just now.
My belief is that eddy currents around the treacherous Cornish coast have somehow affected the ferrite cores of wee transformers. However, in reality, some genuine and careful 163 owners do have concerns about their aging but loved hexpensive valve testers.
Over the years I've communicated with a number of AVO VCM owners & not one of the 163 folk have raised issues about the semi-conductor circuitry. Pretty bomb-proof I would have thought. My hero, and all-time foremost Valve Tester UK expert - Denis Tabor - speaks very highly of the 163.

Regards, David

30th Mar 2021, 11:13 am	#142
David Simpson Nonode Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Aberdeen, UK. Posts: 2,859	Re: AVO 163 amp board ~ transformers Quite frankly Martin, the issue of access to vintage documentation has been a sore point with many VR folk in the UK. VMARS have a great archive, but there used to be issues with Royal Signals/WS19 folk over free access to their stuff, for example. Back to reality - can someone with better eyesight & patience than myself - please sum up(briefly) the origins of the 163 woes(real or imaginary), and how things stand just now. My belief is that eddy currents around the treacherous Cornish coast have somehow affected the ferrite cores of wee transformers. However, in reality, some genuine and careful 163 owners do have concerns about their aging but loved hexpensive valve testers. Over the years I've communicated with a number of AVO VCM owners & not one of the 163 folk have raised issues about the semi-conductor circuitry. Pretty bomb-proof I would have thought. My hero, and all-time foremost Valve Tester UK expert - Denis Tabor - speaks very highly of the 163. Regards, David