OM, In a former life, I was a radio fixer for a large police department. Smoke DOES mess up relays and anything that is not sealed. It took us YEARS to convince the powers that be to ban smoking in the dispatch center. It took complaints from some of the non-smoking dispatchers and a plastic-cased relay with a coating of "disgusting yellow-brown goo" (the boss' words, not mine) to get the place declared "non-smoking." (I supplied the relay which was in a console but not used in our configuration.) Smoke gets into nearly EVERYTHING. Pots, relays, jacks, some switches, meter movements, panel surfaces and microphones. I've spent hours spraying relays that were intermittant from a coating of smoker residue. These were small signal relays with gold (non-corroding) contacts. The smoke acted as a sometimes insulator. I'd not purchase a radio from a smoker. 73 Tim Colbert K3HX -- Randy Russe3ll wrote: Plus the majority of smokers nowdays have to go outside to smoke anyway. Which means we need a service to coat our rigs with that fine patina of smoke varnish that preserves the rigs. I dispute the assertion that it affects relays. If you need to clean your relay contacts, it's most likely because they were exposed to corrosion. IMHO, results may vary. 73s Like I say, I personally don't want one around cats. --- Ken Brown wrote: > The priority of reasons I don't want a rig that has > come from a smoking > environment are as follows: > > 1. They often have a terrible stench. > > 2. They often have an unattractive yellow brown > color. > > 3. The effects of the smoke may cause failures, > particularly in relay > contacts and potentiometers, sooner than if they had > non been exposed to > the smoke. > > Those of you who are habitual smokers can probably > scratch number one > right off the list, because your sense of smell is > ruined. I think most > non-smokers are less concerned about number three > than the first two. > > DE N6KB > > _______________________________________________ > TenTec mailing list > TenTec@contesting.com > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ TenTec mailing list TenTec@contesting.com http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec ________________________________________________________________________ Try Juno Platinum for Free! Then, only $9.95/month! Unlimited Internet Access with 1GB of Email Storage. Visit http://www.juno.com/value to sign up today!