Alcohol sounds good, and after any soaking, you should bake the radio at a
low temperature, but hot enough to dry things out. I was once at an Army
Depot in Germany where they rebuilt MIL Spec electronic stuff. They
routinely steam pressure washed T-195s, R-390s, RTTY printers etc. and those
things could take it in stride. They even steam cleaned Collins KWM-2s.
Then they baked them for a few hours to drive moisture out from everything.
Ham gear will not stand that. I would try to keep anything out of semi
sealed inductors etc. If you are sure that water got inside IF cans etc. the
only thing you can do is to slow bake it and hope for the best. I would be
leery of soaking semi sealed parts in anything.
Les Cushman W1BX, once told me about his radio business back in the
'30s. (Les founded Cushcraft) In the 1938 hurricane, many autos were
submerged in salt water. He lived in Fall River, MA. He got an assembly line
going where he dunked the radios in several 55 gal drums filled with fresh
water. He kept changing the water as he dunked more radios. The final dunk
was in clean fresh water and all the salt was hopefully removed. He then
heated the radios in some sort of oven to bake out the moisture. He said the
trick was to soak the radio in fresh water early on or it was not
salvageable. The salt would attack the thin copper wires etc. It worked,
and he said they worked reliably afterward, but a 1938 car radio is not a
modern ham radio either!!
K1WHS
-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Cutler
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2012 9:27 AM
To: Tim Marek ; 50mhz ; vhfcontesting@contesting.com ; wswss@mailman.qth.net
; NCCC Postmaster
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Help!
how much white alkalie can you mechanically remove while still dry? Not sure
the best approach beyond that, but that would be my first approach - use the
dry brush first and gently remove as much as possible. All around that
simplifies things once you move to a solvent....
An electrically-friendly solvent is high-concentration rubbing alcohol
(90+%). That would be my first recommendation over water.
________________________________
From: Tim Marek <K7XC@charter.net>
To: 50mhz <50mhz@mailman.qth.net>; vhfcontesting@contesting.com;
wswss@mailman.qth.net; NCCC Postmaster <nccc-owner@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, 7 June 2012, 9:15
Subject: [VHFcontesting] Help!
Going thru the 6M KW Rover truck getting it ready for its return to the road
in a few days....
The 12V deep cycle battery is dead... Fine... but...
Once tested I find that the 706mkIIg is DOA! Verified on the bench dead.....
Open it up and find residue on the inside of the bottom
cover of massive water contamination has invaded
the rig over the winter while parked outside...
Massive amounts of water over repeated times spanning
8 months.
Removinag all the boards and inspecting them reveals
one with plenty of multi colored corrosion alomng with
white alkalie like substance from evaopated water.
Other than the corrosion I see no broken or damaged
components so hope a good cleaning with bring it back
to life.
I plan to use disilled water as a solvent with gentle use
of a old toothbrush... DOes anyone have any suggestions
on something to add to the water to gently aid the cleaning?
I was thinking lemon juice to counter the alkaly.... maybe
some weak soapy water? regardless... the initial rinse will
begin soon.
Thanks for all the suggestions to come...
73s de Tim - K7XC - DM09nm
Operator of the 6M KW Rover set to depart VERY SOON!
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