Posted on Saturday, 23rd January 2010 by Auw Jimmy

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The first thing that I need to do to refurbish my Hickok 539B Tube Tester is to clean up its appearance. I bought CRC QD Electronic Cleaner. This quick drying and no residue formula should be OK for my purpose. I remove all the buttons to wipe out all the dust and dirty things from the front plate.

crc-button

The initial impression, not “too dirty” for around 40 years old stuff but dirty is dirty, period. Some of the buttons removed to simplify the cleaning process.

1-dirty

Cleaning process completed. Well, not too clean but for the first stage, this should be more than enough. I’m gonna buy some more cleaner to make it even more shiny.

2-clean

The meter seemed OK in terms of the appearance. I think the function also still OK.

3-meter

The bias meter also looked good. This bias meter is one of the special features of the Hickok 539 series.

4-biasmeter

Another special feature is the dedicated AC Volt Meter. The line usually will sag a little bit when testing and with this dedicated meter, we can adjust if any sag is detected during the measurement. The sag will affect the measurement for sure.

5-acmeter

The roll chart is smooth and some buttons from P1-P7 could be used depends on our needs.

6-rollchart

Another special feature is the noise test. We can use special headphone to check whether your tube is noisy or not. Two bulbs from Hickok also used. One if #81 for fuse and the other is NE-51 (110V, 1/25W) Neon for shorts. I think the power (pilot) indicator is #49.

7-bulb

The shunt and filament voltage selector. Hickok 539B support from 0.6 to 117V filament, also for ballast tube.

8-shunt

The signal selector consists of 6 types, from 600-60000 micromhos. Also selector for testing rectifier and VR tube.

9-function

Short test selector. The combination from 1-5 will create a simple matrix to identify the short position. Must check the manual book to understand more. While the position from A-E is used for leakage test. Details explained in the manual.

10-short

That’s all folks. I will continue with the inside part exploration later (don’t know when).




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Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (6)

6 Responses to “Cleaning Up My Hickok 539B Tube Tester”

  1. Bill Eccher Says:
    February 20th, 2010 at 09:52

    Hi,
    Nice looking unit and I’m sure you will be pleased with it. I have a couple of 539C’s and have owned a few 539B’s in the past. I have been putting together a calibration manual for the 539C and will do the same for the 539B. If you are interested I’ll send you a copy email when I finish at no charge.
    Take care,
    Bill



  2. Jimmy Auw Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 18:23

    Hi,
    Thanks Bill. Appreciated.



  3. Joel Says:
    February 5th, 2011 at 14:33

    The 539B has two tubes in it. What number are they?
    Thank you.
    Joel



  4. Auw Jimmy Says:
    February 5th, 2011 at 17:57

    Hi Joel,
    It’s #83 Mercury and 5Y3.
    Thanks.



  5. Bruno Says:
    December 25th, 2012 at 00:09

    Hello Jimmy,
    Nice Hickok 539B, good pictures of the innards all along your blog +++. I wait for my recently bought 539B to be delivered, and certainly I will need to clean it as you do. I have the well-know and useful calibration procedure from Daniel Schoo, but have you ever received any calibration manual as kindly offered by Bill Eccher ?
    Thanks & Greetings,
    Bruno.



  6. Auw Jimmy Says:
    December 25th, 2012 at 00:11

    Hi Bruno,
    Congrats on your purchase! Definitely this 539B is a tube tester of the dream.
    I have a lot of calibration guide, from Daniel and also Bill (he is a nice guy), but unfortunately I haven’t done it to mine.
    Thanks.



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