Equipping a decent radio / TV workshop

[Lucien Nunes]

As it looks like we might have some radios and TVs on the boil soon at MEET, I had better start thinking about a dedicated workshop for them. My normal electronics workshop has a bunch of test gear but none of it is specifically oriented towards radio and TV, as my day-to-day work is in a different sphere.

So, what's the pick of 2022 for good quality, practical, usable radio and TV servicing tools? Need to be able to handle AM & FM radio, 405 & 625-line TV. I don't mind whether they are old or new models, solid-state, valve, diesel or steam-powered but the following two criteria are important:

* Nothing too obscure. No point putting the Hokey Cokey 3000 on my wants list if they never turn up, or only appear on the market when they are basket-cases.

* I want to use the testgear to fix the sets, not the other way round. While fixing testgear can be interesting, that is not the point of this exercise. Therefore reliability and stability are key.

Some items I already have. AVOmeter for example, valve tester, isolating transformer, scope, lamp limiter, electrolytic reformer, all sorted. What next?

[ms660]

Originally Posted by Lucien Nunes

Some items I already have. AVOmeter for example, valve tester, isolating transformer, scope, lamp limiter, electrolytic reformer, all sorted. What next?

Signal generator, Advance/Avo/Taylor etc.

Lawrence.

[ex seismic]

Sig gen.

Ooops, beaten to it by Lawrence!

[The Philpott]

Holistically speaking, fluid for killing furniture beetle would be on the list (saves taking things home for treatment)

Dave

[paulsherwin]

You don't really need much test equipment apart from the obvious things. You just need a good understanding of the engineering principles involved, which you seem to have already.

[factory]

Pattern generator for the TVs, CRT tester or adaptor for the valve tester and a signal tracer for radios, whatever you go for make sure service information is available, because it will probably fail at some point.

David

[Radio Wrangler]

Telequipment 2 channel transistorised scope would be radio/TV workshop style. A Hameg might be more reliable. Or a Tek 465 might be a bit too posh. Cossor CDU150 maybe. It depends on what turns up.

Classic AVO 8 meter, maybe a DVM handheld or an advance shelf one.

Philips for scope, TV sig/pattern gen, wobbulating radio sig gen?

David

[factory]

Forgot to add a high voltage probe for checking/adjusting TV EHT and maybe a yoke/flyback tester.

David

[high_vacuum_house]

I would add a Weller TCP soldering iron and a selection of bits. A good industrial workhorse that is available with a reasonable budget.

Fluke 73 multimeter. A good quality reliable meter which is very safe (i.e. properly fused)if a mistake occurs. They cost more than the cheaop ebay ones, but if you are still in one piece or dealing with a fire after a major whoopsie, then it is defiantly worth spending extra especially poking around mains powered equipment.

Raaco drawer sets for all of the small components

Christopher Capener

[Radio Wrangler]

Taking a different tack, where would such a place have got its test gear from? This may set what they have.

A commercial radio/TV workshop is going to have a steady flow of reps plying their wares in terms of parts and tools. It's likely that they bought test gear from RS, CPC, Farnell Philips/CES and all the usual players.

A creative boss might have bought some gear from the back pages of WW, possibly Telford Electronics and Stewart of Reading so military surplus and industrial surplus might figure.

David

[Lucien Nunes]

I should perhaps have asked more explicitly for recommendations of specific models of test-gear that you would consider the best or definitive choices for radio/TV work. E.g. of all the signal generators in the world that are suitable for aligning radios, which model would you most like to find in a Christmas stocking?

My day job includes designing and building electronic equipment so I already have an equipped workshop, but not one aimed at vintage TV and radio. Amongst its stock of equipment are some spare items that could earn their keep better by relocating to the radio workshop, but likewise they are not radio/TVspecific. Here's a more detailed list of stuff already earmarked, that needs no further consideration.

AVO 8
Fluke DMM
Weller irons
Isolating transformer + Variac + lamp limiter
ESR meter + reformer
AVO VCM Mk. IV
Tek 465 scope c/w TV trig
AVO Douglas coil winder
Various PSUs

Also worth mentioning that this is not a period workshop, just one where I can get on with stuff. There will be a separate project to equip a static display of a vintage TV workshop with appropriately historic items.

Fluke 73 multimeter. A good quality reliable meter which is very safe (i.e. properly fused)if a mistake occurs.

I used to think my toolbox Fluke 77 was indestructible. It had fallen in the Thames, the Grand Union Canal, the Channel and out of a first-floor window. I had it for 24 years, used it in 17 countries and took it along on all my adventures. Then one day by sheer 'fluke' the test probes, that I had hung on the dowser knob of a xenon lamphouse, fell off and landed in the lamphouse just as the igniter that I had just repaired came to life. Apparently a Fluke 77 cannot withstand 25kV. Thankfully I had its twin that I kept in a cupboard all that time as a backup.

[Wendymott]

Mains isolation transformer.

[David Simpson]

Kitting out workshops is a subject many folk, myself included, have banged-on about over the years. Shan't start over again regarding equipment.
However, as I've got older, and the weight & size of available decent 2nd hand test equipment hasn't reduced much, the term" ergonomics" has become more important.
Chose a height of workbench which suits your height - say belly button height - which means you're not constantly hunched over when standing. Also - chose the position of shelfed test eq. so that you're not reaching over an exposed live chassis under test.
Have a sturdy table or storage surface - just inside (or outside) your workshop doorway - so that heavy stuff being brought inside from your carboot to work on - means that you can have a wee rest whilst you decide where to exactly place it(for God's sake - not on the heffing floor).
A year or so before Covid, I repaired a huge heave steel-cased Pye Workshop Rack & really struggled to move it just a few feet. It was to be FCS'd down to Yorkshire. Shaun Williams kindly collected it & shifted it with the greatest of ease !
Choice of a decent stool &/or comfy adjustable swivel-type office chair is important.
'Cause, if you've got deep pockets - splash out on a heap of 21st century digital chinko test equipment & tools from RS & other internet suppliers. Me - love using my Hameg scopes, AVO equipment, and have recently replaced my huge Marconi TF995A/5 with a decent smaller TF2015. Along with other Marconi gear of similar proportions.
Finally, for those folk approaching 3 score years & ten, or over - dont sit/stand over a job - take a break, walk about. Generally try & adopt a daily exercise/fitness regime to suit your abilities.

Regards, David

[Heatercathodeshort]

Don't buy an expensive load of sophisticated test equipment from the word go. Start with the basics that no doubt you already have to hand and add what you require as you go along.
Most analogue equipment TV/radio requires nothing more than an AVO 8 and a signal generator.

Back in the shop days I knew a number of guys in the trade that had all the gear and honestly not a clue! They used to bring me TV receivers they had given up on. Almost without exception the faults were pretty basic. The test gear will not repair the receiver for you!
Test gear can help but it is the interpretation of the results that are important and I'm confident that would not be a problem for yourself. Don't get me wrong, I had/have all the gear necessary but a lot of it just gathered dust on the shelf at the back of an 8ft long bench. John.

[high_vacuum_house]

A good old fashioned anglepoise lamp or 2 will certainly pay for themselves well to get well needed light into the corner of a rats nest of a chassis or to do a fiddly job with small screws ECT.

Christopher Capener

[Lucien Nunes]

Some good points above, but we're missing the key aspect of my question: What radio and TV test gear do you recommend?

I'm comfortable with the general fit-out, ergonomics and resources of an electronics bench as I have been running one professionally for 30 years. I build, hack and modify professional media equipment for the film production industry, ranging from analogue audio, digital video, networking, cameras and workstations. Although it's about sound and vision, technology-wise the work has little in common with vintage radio & TV.

To be fair, 30 years ago when I first left university I was earning a crust repairing CRT monitors commercially and it did look a bit like a telly shop here at times. As recently as 2006 I was routinely changing tubes in professional video monitors and repairing digital VCRs not because I wanted to be saddled with a load of repair work, but because I always enjoyed getting the best out of a tube or a mech alignment and couldn't leave them alone. I have always had a hand in valve audio of some form.

That was then, this is now. That was work, this is museum. I'm a 1V video and valve audio man with way less experience on consumer sets with tuners and IF strips and don't have the experience of which bits of test gear are the most convenient and effective to work with. Hence my casting a net for makes and models of your favourites, to go in my new workshop at the museum stores.

[joebog1]

I think you already have EVERYTHING you need.


AVO 8
Fluke DMM
Weller irons
Isolating transformer + Variac + lamp limiter
ESR meter + reformer
AVO VCM Mk. IV
Tek 465 scope c/w TV trig
AVO Douglas coil winder
Various PSUs

Except the electric cooled autobot, that does the work for you.

You have everything already.
The other essential is experience and a bit of theory.
WHY you need a DVM beats me a bit, everything I ever worked on ( mostly) specified 20,000 ohms per volt.

If you want to make window dressing, add everything with lots of knobs, dials and buttons. They dont need to work.

With repect

Joe

[Ed_Dinning]

No t quite test equipment, but a good, well organised set of spares is essential

Ed

[TonyDuell]

Two instruments that I would find useful :

1) A TV-rate pattern generator. I built the later Manor Supplies one about 30 years ago and it's still going strong. Not only useful for producing the cross-hatch pattern for convergence adjustments, but also for producing a known signal for just checking a monitor or whatever is doing something.

2) A coil/transformer ringing tester. Again mine is home-made, to one of the many designs published in Television magazine over the years. OK, I normally use it for switch-mode PSU transformer testing (to be sure that shorted turns are not the reason why the chopper transistor explodes at switch-on) but also very useful for line output transformers, etc.

[Sinewave]

I think a lot of this largely depends on if this is a workshop for a business or a hobby. Thinking straight down the line business wise, you'll want to only have the equipment you need.

Some of us tinker with radios, repairs etc as a hobby rather than as a business. Of those who do it as a hobby, some have an electronics/electrical background and may already have equipment that we don't really need for radio repair.

Those who don't have that background and those that do may still find that the equipment they use is as much as the hobby as the satisfaction of getting a set up and running. It's your hobby, so have what you test gear you want, even if someone is trying to say you don't need it. Many of us have other things we don't need, but we want it because it's nice, like that extra nice car, or fancy golf club set!

It's your hobby, enjoy it!