Posted on Monday, 8th February 2010 by Auw Jimmy

Due to high workload on my primary job, I prefer to leave my serious listening session for a while. So if you are waiting for my Gainclone Project initial impression, perhaps you must wait a little bit longer. Sorry to say. Also my Duelund CAST Silver delayed to mid of March. It makes me also miss the Duelund sound so much. That’s also another reason to stay away from serious listening session, for a while.

I prefer to do simple pending task, like disassembly my Hickok 539B Tube Tester. This heavy tube tester really consumes my energy more than I expect.

Below is the general appearance inside the tester. Two rectifier, one is the “deadly” #83 Mercury Vapor Rectifier and the other is 5Y3GT Rectifier.

1-all

High quality and heavy transformer. Dark color lamination indicates high quality vintage material. Probably Z11 or even better (M6?).

2-transformer

The transformers appearance from the top. So many secondary taps, usually for the filaments. Some high Wattage resistor also laying around.

10-transformer

Hickok’s name is related with high quality build tester. As you can see, the resistors are all 1% tolerance.

3-signalling

Neatly build, perfectly soldered parts. I believe some parts value already drifted from the original one. Must check one by one and replace the necessary one.

4-voltage

The roll chart and the spring-test buttons.

5-rollchart

Another view at the resistor behind the bias meter. I haven’t checked the function of this parts.

6-bias

The VR Volt adjuster. Used when testing the VR Tubes.

7-VR

Most of the cables are protected by the ferrite bead. This to improve the test result and stability. As you know, many cables are hanging around. Potential for interferences are everywhere.

8-ferrite

The rectifier socket. One is UX4 for #83 and the other is Octal for 5Y3GT.

9-rectifier-socket

Another complete shoot from the top-side view.

11-all-side

The multi-jog-dial appearance from the back. The function is to select the parameter of tested tube. Thinking of number combination to open your safety box ;) Wrong adjustment means wrong parameter and it means wrong result (lucky if it doesn’t blow away your tube) ;)

12-jog-dial

The short test selector. I could see at least 4 or 5 gangs on the selector. I don’t really want to know how does it work ;)

13-shorts

The function switch to select the MHOS/signal scale is even more complicated. If I remember correctly, the selector is 6 gangs and 8 positions. I do really don’t want to screw up this one.

14-signalling2

High quality and nicely build transformer. The cables are arranged so neat, protected with some black sleeve. You can see that date marking showing Dec 1960. Now is 2010. So you are 50 years old tester!

15-transformer2

The power adjust trimmer. Simple function, to adjust your input voltage to match the required value to run the tester accurately.

16-poweradjust

The Raytheon #83 Mercury Vapor Rectifier and RCA 5Y3GT Rectifier. The #83 is hardly used, I think. Need replacement soon, with Solid State one ;)

17-rectifier



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Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (4)

4 Responses to “Disassembly Hickok 539B”

  1. Arie Says:
    February 15th, 2010 at 16:23

    Yaaaaah…. dinyalain aja dulu GC nya…
    gak usah didengerin…
    setelah 200 jam, baru deh, serius dengerin hehe..
    Ayo donk Pak Jimmy…

    salam ngarep,
    Arie



  2. Jimmy Auw Says:
    February 16th, 2010 at 13:23

    hehehe… lagi “M” nih Pak… ;)



  3. Kasan Santosa Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 18:49

    Om Jimmy,

    Ayo GC nya dikelarin donk, mau tau nih review hasil ultimate GC nya…

    Regards,



  4. Jimmy Auw Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 21:42

    Hehehe… sabar aja Pak… ;)



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