:So my Sparton 7-46 was working fine. Then one day started losing stations. So I played around with the two different antenna's. One just a loop around the back and attaches to the chasis. Other copper wound loop around a wooden box. Before I knew it...smoke. The power tube looked like it took up a bad habit. I pulled the tube and the bottom encased glass is smoked. Oh what shall I do? Oh...where do I start? Why now? Why me?...blah, blah, blah...
:BTW, last post was to be "DeaR Edd" not "DeaD Edd". little fingers did it.
:So any ideas where to start looking? Remember I have a bad back and this is a big, heavy one. The chasis is very heavy...so the easier the better....Thanks a million...if I had it...
Cindy:
This isn't Edd (who could be except Edd?) but here is my thought:
When a tube is manufactured, they can only pump out so much air with a ppump, the remaining air just expands to fill up the space levt over by the pump. So there is thingy called a "getter" which is fired when the tube is sealed, and a prety selver colored "getter oxide" I shall call it, is on the glass envelope of the tube, and a nearly perfect vacuum is left inside. If the tube is cracked or broken, the silvery color turns to a white smokey looking deposit is now inside the tube where the getter deposit was. You let the vacuum out, the air in, and the getter finished oxidizingand turned white.
Lewis
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