hallicrafters S-40A

A couple of weeks ago I went to a local swap meet that happens on the first Saturday of each month (only in winter), here in Phoenix. It is called the Thieves market. It's kind of a hipsterish, crafter, American pickers type of swap meet, where people bring "antiques" and other stuff you generally don't see at swap meets around here anymore. When we got to the swap meet and were parking I spotted this from the car.

I know it's not anything super neat and special but I figured "what the hey". I asked the guy how much and was shocked when he didn't want an arm and a leg for it.

I bought it, and since it was heavy I took it straight to the car. It even came with a set of Trimm headphones. I won't be able to start working on it for a couple of weeks as I am in the middle of completely redoing my computer/hobby room. But today (after checking it out carefully) decided to take a chance and see if it works. First thing I did was inspect it. I oiled the bearings in the tuner and other parts. I cleaned all the pots, and had to open the power switch and spray deoxit in it as the switch was not making contact.

It's not in this picture but when I opened the top there was a cord inside. Not sure if it was from this radio as it did not match the cord wires coming out the back. I didn't find any cracked or burned resistors. no blown or split capacitors. no sign of anything singed.

I was confused since the operating manual, and sams shows an 80 tube for the rectifier, but the hallicrafters service manual shows a 5y3gt. This one has an 80.

I replaced the power cord.
I brought it up very slowly on my variac with my dim bulb tester. Although it says it can operate between 105-125vac I kept it at 117vac. The lights came on the heaters lit, and nothing... no hum, no buzz, no hiss, nothing...

Oh right, ANTENNA! hooked up my random/long wire and there it was AM radio. I went through the bands and kept an eye on the electrolytic cap, and the transformer to see if they were getting warm, but they did not.

So the dang thing works just fine. Not wanting to tempt fate I shut it down after about 15 minutes.

I will start recapping it sometime in the next month.