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Old 28th Feb 2021, 5:53 pm   #21
G6Tanuki
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Default Re: The worse hacked set ever

I once bought one of the ubiquitous late-40s/early-50s 1-V-1 'midget' TRF radios which had originally used a line-cord. This had been nefariously replaced by several of the RS "Polo Mint" ceramic power-resistors - each was attached to the bakelite case by a nut-and-bolt; the heat from the resistors had well-and-truly 'cooked' the bakelite - so much so that a good poke had the bit-of-bakelite-attached-to-the-bolt breaking away un-neatly from the cabinet and the polo-mint dropping inside.

It must have really smelled-bad while the bakelite was 'cooking'! I scrapped the bakelite cabinet and made up a nice aluminium 'rather'military-looking' replacement using the metalwork shop of a place where I 'helped out' as a schoolboy at weekends. And yes I did put in a proper isolating-transformer.

I've also seen plenty of instances where an energized speaker has been replaced by a permanent-magnet type and the old speaker's field-coil has been cut-out and hung crudely inside the case to continue as a smoothing-choke.

Another 'hacked' TV I remember had the failed mains-dropper resistor replaced by a combination of 110-volt ES lightbulbs and a strange cylindrical wirewound thing that looked like it came from a hairdryer - all suspended in free-space on lengths of the green-plastic-coated steel wire usually used to train vines up walls!
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Old 28th Feb 2021, 6:10 pm   #22
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Default Re: The worse hacked set ever

I think that about 75% of the BC348s I've ever seen are contenders here.... One had assumed a 3-D rhomboided shape (and those familiar with these sturdy sets will appreciate that this would take some effort....), I wondered if it had been a prop in one of those innumerable film scenes where they're down to two faltering engines, low on fuel and everything that can be is being tossed out of the waist gun positions. Or maybe even in real life. The RF 6K7s had been replaced by 6SG7s, the grid leads being repositioned and lengthened by split-off bits of bell wire messily taped to grid-cap and socket-tag connections. No soldering! A low impedance speaker output was procured with the nastiest and one of the rustiest scavenged domestic set output transformers I've ever seen, its vestigial flying leads again being taped into circuit with miscellaneous scrap wire. It had been "secured" in place by dint of parcel string around one of the rectangular 500nF can caps. Thank goodness the owner hadn't attempted an internal mains conversion.
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Old 1st Mar 2021, 2:13 pm   #23
ChristianFletcher
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Default Re: The worse hacked set ever

Based on one of the previous comments I thinking that the hackery is proportional to the age of the set. I guess the more hands that a set goes through the more likely it is to encounter a butcher on its journey through time. I think ex military radios sets generally fair worse as radio amateur bought them with the clear intention of making mods and really didn’t care very much how the work was done. Now there are some great radios amateur around that did amazing work but some perhaps not so good and aspiration was greater than their practical skills. So they will attempt to do work the average guy would never consider doing to a domestic receiver.

I do think it’s extra special to find some really old signs of hackery from 70 years ago. Reminds me there is nothing new under the sun my grandad would say
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Old 4th Mar 2021, 2:39 pm   #24
Maarten
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Default Re: The worse hacked set ever

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lloyd 1985 View Post
Does this one count as hacked about?!

Looks like a rather plain old TV22, but something looks a bit off about the CRT, it looks like it’s slipped back from the mask a bit, then look inside!!
Looks relatively nice. Not really a hack in my opinion. Let's hope it was done this way to make the best out of a scrap set.
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Old 7th Mar 2021, 12:09 am   #25
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Default Re: The worse hacked set ever

I have seen a few horribly bodged vintage TV sets over the years. I went miles to buy a nice console set a few years ago it had a chassis from another make bodged inside it, still an old chassis but newer than the original set. I suppose the original set had become beyond economic repair so someone 'updated it'
It was a real disappointment! The empty cabinet later appeared on ebay for sale so I guess someone bought it and stripped the bodged chassis out.
Another set was originally dual standard but had had all of the 405 parts removed not just the system switch wired into the 625. It also had a Thorn 1500 tuner fitted badly in place of the original valve one the set was a GEC.
One of the worst radios I bought at auction without looking at it properly it looked in lovely condition but inside it really had been butchered the main pcb had been chopped out, there were parts hanging loose, it was a right mess !
I wondered why I had got it so cheap, obviously everyone else had looked at it more closely than me!
Caveat emptor...
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Old 8th Mar 2021, 10:44 am   #26
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Default Re: The worse hacked set ever

My worst was a non hack - an interesting looking old valve radio that 'worked well' (of course) but had been in the chicken shed so came complete with a thick coating of guano, the back photo showed NO valves but plenty of black tar had boiled out of the rusted transformer. To add to the attraction the speaker could not be seen and when I asked about it got the reply 'oh that's missing too'. Needless to say I passed up this 'fantastic bargain'.
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