I have an RCA "Little Master A" (Canadian made) which has an annoying drip sound. Every 2 seconds there is a sound that is almost like a water drip in a metal sink; just a constant "drip,drip,drip". Other than that the radio plays well. The sound is there, no matter where the dial is positioned or whether it's on a station or not. When I first got the radio there was only the usual loud humming and I changed the electrolytic caps which tested weak. I also adjusted, by ear, the I.F. condenser screws which brought in the stations nice and loud as they only came in very faintly after changing the electrolytics. Does anyone have an idea as to how to clear up this "drip,drip.........? Thanks for any help!!

Make sure that all of your condensers are good--no leaks and no opens. They can't have any leakage at all...not even in the millions of ohms. The drip sound makes me think about unwanted feedback, which might be due to an open filter condenser (other than electrolytics....you'll sometimes find condensers around .1 MFD on screen grids if they are fed by a successive resistor). Could also be due to a leaky condenser feeding unwanted B+ into a successive stage, but is unlikely.

Also check your resistors for drifting and opens. If they are out of order, circuits can perform strangely, and do random oscillations, etc.

The trouble could also be due to an arcing condenser or resistor, though that usually creates a pop or a crackle.

If nothing else helps, check all tubes for element to element shorts (something a tube tester doesn't normally do....you have to adjust the levers in a different way to perform this test).

Make sure that there isn't anything in your home that's causing interference. If you can't find interference, try operating the radio at a friend's house. This will surely determine if there's something coming from your home.

Thomas

Not having feedback yet,from Sir Thomas's last statement on confirmation of external interference.
(¿¿ Y, por que su nombre no es Tomas Dermondez
o...o...Dermondinez...pero...Dermondy ?? )

Question:

Does the volume control level setting seem to have any effect solely on the SPEED of the drippy-drippy, as we would certainly expect the accompanying audio level diminishment down to the threshold of being able to hear it.

That definite, fixed time constant of occurrence tends to suggest a R-C effect being involved.With one other thought, you mentioned the adjustment of the I.F.'s, I wonder if there might be the possibility of
their multiple peaked tunings to a common resonance frequency might have them going into a quick squegged burst of oscillation and a quick recovery and quenching from the time constant of the AVC loop. Of course...this being an attributable due to a shortcoming / gradual deterioration of the RF bypass filtering capacitors of screen supplies, K bypassing or power supply bypassing in the RF-IF sections of the receiver.

To qantify this possibility, how about "tic" reference marking (with a micro tip Sharpie) the slots on the IF transformers padders, as referenced to the adjunct outer can ...so that you can find your way back from the jungle....

Then get the unit "drippity dripping" and make a minute adjustments off/of and back / onto the initial references of each can, to see if at one point, your drip speeds up, slows down or just dissappears.

Standing by for feed back...

P.S....¿ Gotta schematic reference site for that unit ?

73's de edd

Not Spanish. Hence the lack of a Spanish name. C'est la vie. I'd say something in Gaelic, but I don't know any. Too bad, so sad.

T.

:Not having feedback yet,from Sir Thomas's last statement on confirmation of external interference.
:(¿¿ Y, por que su nombre no es Tomas Dermondez
:o...o...Dermondinez...pero...Dermondy ?? )
:
:Question:
:
:Does the volume control level setting seem to have any effect solely on the SPEED of the drippy-drippy, as we would certainly expect the accompanying audio level diminishment down to the threshold of being able to hear it.
:
:That definite, fixed time constant of occurrence tends to suggest a R-C effect being involved.With one other thought, you mentioned the adjustment of the I.F.'s, I wonder if there might be the possibility of
:their multiple peaked tunings to a common resonance frequency might have them going into a quick squegged burst of oscillation and a quick recovery and quenching from the time constant of the AVC loop. Of course...this being an attributable due to a shortcoming / gradual deterioration of the RF bypass filtering capacitors of screen supplies, K bypassing or power supply bypassing in the RF-IF sections of the receiver.
:
:To qantify this possibility, how about "tic" reference marking (with a micro tip Sharpie) the slots on the IF transformers padders, as referenced to the adjunct outer can ...so that you can find your way back from the jungle....
:
:Then get the unit "drippity dripping" and make a minute adjustments off/of and back / onto the initial references of each can, to see if at one point, your drip speeds up, slows down or just dissappears.
:
:Standing by for feed back...
:
:P.S....¿ Gotta schematic reference site for that unit ?
:
:73's de edd

Thanks Thomas and Edd for all the the suggestions. I took the radio to a friends house and the radio played perfectely with no "drip,drip"; brought it back home and the "dripping" started again. Well I left the radio on for about 4 hours; till about 5 pm and suddenly it stopped. This suggests that it's something external causing the problem although I've never had this same problem with any other radio. I'll have to try and figure out where this source of interference is comming from. There is a large power generating plant about a 1/4 of a mile away and sometimes when its damp outside you can hear the wire humming away like crazy. I just might wander over there and ask them if they could shut down the plant to see what effect this has on the dripping !!! Thanks again; Andy
:

Andy,

Your last comments reminded me of a situation a couple of years back. Was getting a lot of interference on the TV and radio. I looked at everything I could think of that was int he same rooms as the TV and radio - with no luck in locating the source. Then one day while I was doing some work outside and had to plug in my AC powered drill, the wife came out and asked what did I do, to which I replyed - what do you mean. She said the interfernce just stopped. What happened, I un-pluged a heat blanket for the dog house from an outside outlet to plug in the drill. Plugged the blanket back in - interference - un-plug - interference gone. The problem turned out to be a temp/pressure switch in the blanket. Replaced blanket and no more interference.

David S.

::Not having feedback yet,from Sir Thomas's last statement on confirmation of external interference.
::(¿¿ Y, por que su nombre no es Tomas Dermondez
::o...o...Dermondinez...pero...Dermondy ?? )
::
::Question:
::
::Does the volume control level setting seem to have any effect solely on the SPEED of the drippy-drippy, as we would certainly expect the accompanying audio level diminishment down to the threshold of being able to hear it.
::
::That definite, fixed time constant of occurrence tends to suggest a R-C effect being involved.With one other thought, you mentioned the adjustment of the I.F.'s, I wonder if there might be the possibility of
::their multiple peaked tunings to a common resonance frequency might have them going into a quick squegged burst of oscillation and a quick recovery and quenching from the time constant of the AVC loop. Of course...this being an attributable due to a shortcoming / gradual deterioration of the RF bypass filtering capacitors of screen supplies, K bypassing or power supply bypassing in the RF-IF sections of the receiver.
::
::To qantify this possibility, how about "tic" reference marking (with a micro tip Sharpie) the slots on the IF transformers padders, as referenced to the adjunct outer can ...so that you can find your way back from the jungle....
::
::Then get the unit "drippity dripping" and make a minute adjustments off/of and back / onto the initial references of each can, to see if at one point, your drip speeds up, slows down or just dissappears.
::
::Standing by for feed back...
::
::P.S....¿ Gotta schematic reference site for that unit ?
::
::73's de edd
:
:Thanks Thomas and Edd for all the the suggestions. I took the radio to a friends house and the radio played perfectely with no "drip,drip"; brought it back home and the "dripping" started again. Well I left the radio on for about 4 hours; till about 5 pm and suddenly it stopped. This suggests that it's something external causing the problem although I've never had this same problem with any other radio. I'll have to try and figure out where this source of interference is comming from. There is a large power generating plant about a 1/4 of a mile away and sometimes when its damp outside you can hear the wire humming away like crazy. I just might wander over there and ask them if they could shut down the plant to see what effect this has on the dripping !!! Thanks again; Andy
::

*****
"There is a large power generating plant about a 1/4 of a mile away and sometimes when its damp outside you can hear the wire humming away like crazy. I just might wander over there and ask them if they could shut down the plant to see what effect this has on the dripping !!!"
AAAAHAAAAA......The dreaded "Ozona Corona Effect".
How about using a less massively disruptive mode. Just get your radiator doing its drippity-drip mode and then dispatch " Mama Cass" or Little Dudley Do-rite" to the breaker box and have a temporary disconnect of each circuit breaker at a time and then move the radio to a different
branch to check on the one line that you had it plugged into, when IT was the one that lost its power, and a final check on flipping that line off. That should answer as to the inteference being home sourced, but not a very close neighbor. That might best be zeroed in on with the
use of a battery powered transistor Am radio, Then rotate it horizontally to be able to utilize the 90 degree peak and null axis' to serve as a direction finder to the sourcing of the inteference. Also, working with the inductive and electrostatic enhancement of reception when
brought in closer proximity of select different AC lines to see if that inteference is present on a particular line.

73's de Edd
*****

:Andy,
:
:Your last comments reminded me of a situation a couple of years back. Was getting a lot of interference on the TV and radio. I looked at everything I could think of that was int he same rooms as the TV and radio - with no luck in locating the source. Then one day while I was doing some work outside and had to plug in my AC powered drill, the wife came out and asked what did I do, to which I replyed - what do you mean. She said the interfernce just stopped. What happened, I un-pluged a heat blanket for the dog house from an outside outlet to plug in the drill. Plugged the blanket back in - interference - un-plug - interference gone. The problem turned out to be a temp/pressure switch in the blanket. Replaced blanket and no more interference.
:
:David S.
:
:::Not having feedback yet,from Sir Thomas's last statement on confirmation of external interference.
:::(¿¿ Y, por que su nombre no es Tomas Dermondez
:::o...o...Dermondinez...pero...Dermondy ?? )
:::
:::Question:
:::
:::Does the volume control level setting seem to have any effect solely on the SPEED of the drippy-drippy, as we would certainly expect the accompanying audio level diminishment down to the threshold of being able to hear it.
:::
:::That definite, fixed time constant of occurrence tends to suggest a R-C effect being involved.With one other thought, you mentioned the adjustment of the I.F.'s, I wonder if there might be the possibility of
:::their multiple peaked tunings to a common resonance frequency might have them going into a quick squegged burst of oscillation and a quick recovery and quenching from the time constant of the AVC loop. Of course...this being an attributable due to a shortcoming / gradual deterioration of the RF bypass filtering capacitors of screen supplies, K bypassing or power supply bypassing in the RF-IF sections of the receiver.
:::
:::To qantify this possibility, how about "tic" reference marking (with a micro tip Sharpie) the slots on the IF transformers padders, as referenced to the adjunct outer can ...so that you can find your way back from the jungle....
:::
:::Then get the unit "drippity dripping" and make a minute adjustments off/of and back / onto the initial references of each can, to see if at one point, your drip speeds up, slows down or just dissappears.
:::
:::Standing by for feed back...
:::
:::P.S....¿ Gotta schematic reference site for that unit ?
:::
:::73's de edd
::
::Thanks Thomas and Edd for all the the suggestions. I took the radio to a friends house and the radio played perfectely with no "drip,drip"; brought it back home and the "dripping" started again. Well I left the radio on for about 4 hours; till about 5 pm and suddenly it stopped. This suggests that it's something external causing the problem although I've never had this same problem with any other radio. I'll have to try and figure out where this source of interference is comming from. There is a large power generating plant about a 1/4 of a mile away and sometimes when its damp outside you can hear the wire humming away like crazy. I just might wander over there and ask them if they could shut down the plant to see what effect this has on the dripping !!! Thanks again; Andy
:::

My 1941 Sunbeam Mixmaster model 7 has all sorts of filter condensers inside of it so that it doesn't cause interference. If I'm listening to a radio and there's static, all I need to do is plug in the mixer (not running or running, though I prefer it not running when I'm listening to the radio), and the interference goes away. Same with my 1948 Electrolux XXX.

Thomas

:My 1941 Sunbeam Mixmaster model 7 has all sorts of filter condensers inside of it so that it doesn't cause interference. If I'm listening to a radio and there's static, all I need to do is plug in the mixer (not running or running, though I prefer it not running when I'm listening to the radio), and the interference goes away. Same with my 1948 Electrolux XXX.
:
:Thomas

Hey Thomas,

I have had some luck with using power plugs (the all-plastic types) with different values of capacitors inside.

Radiodoc

Hi

They used to sell these filters years ago with built in cap. It would plug into the wall and radio plugged into the adapter. Probably best to use around .01 mf cap?

Norm

::My 1941 Sunbeam Mixmaster model 7 has all sorts of filter condensers inside of it so that it doesn't cause interference. If I'm listening to a radio and there's static, all I need to do is plug in the mixer (not running or running, though I prefer it not running when I'm listening to the radio), and the interference goes away. Same with my 1948 Electrolux XXX.
::
::Thomas
:
:Hey Thomas,
:
:I have had some luck with using power plugs (the all-plastic types) with different values of capacitors inside.
:
:Radiodoc
: