1. "TOOLS" FOR TESTING
2. AM RADIO
3. FM RADIO
4. POWER MONITOR TESTS
5. TV TESTS
6. ANTENNA SYSTEMS
7. SEMICONDUCTOR TESTS
8. TESTING FETs
9. POWER SUPPLIES
10. REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEMS
11. ELECTRONIC ORGANS
12. ELECTRONIC VOCAL CORDS
13. INTERCOM SYSTEMS
14. GARAGE DOOR OPENERS
15. AUTO IGNITION SYSTEMS

Preface

When a resistor opens and is visually defective--broken in half-when a capacitor is dead shorted and reads zero ohms, when a transformer starts burning, the test is almost automatic and the conclusion is definite. There are no if’s, and’s or but’s; the eye, ohm-meter and sense of smell tell you what part is unsatisfactory. However, when your garage door opener goes up but won't come down, when your neighbor without a larynx has his electronic vocal chord stop producing his voice, when your car starts to miss and your intercom begins whistling, the test is not exactly automatic and you have no immediate idea of which part is unsatisfactory. During such an electronic crisis, you have to perform tests to determine what is unsatisfactory. Or you have to retune a circuit to re-establish perfect alignment. During my 25 years of work in home-type electronic equipment, I've been called upon to test and align practically everything electronic. Most of the jobs have been on radio and TV type objects , but there have been all kinds of other jobs from the roof antenna to the living room electronic organ.

The following 199 tests and alignment techniques are a potpourri of what you might be called upon to do. Included are tests and alignment procedures for AM, FM, stereo, monochrome and color TV, auto ignition systems, all kinds of remote control , electronic organs , electronic vocal chords, intercoms, garage door openers , FM converters for TV sets , diodes, zener diodes, varicap diodes, bipolar transistors, JFETs, IGFETs, MOSFETs , multi-testers, wattmeters , field strength meters , signal generators, color-bar generators, vectors cope, oscilloscope with high-impedance and demodulator probes, auto timing light, tachometer, transistor and FET testers, and other things.

A guide like this would not have been possible without help from various manufacturers. I'd like to thank RCA, EICO, Magnavox and others. I'd like to personally thank Jim Smith, former Chief Field Engineer for Sencore for all his help. I hope these tests and techniques will enable you to perform your electronic chores in a quicker , more reliable and safer manner.

NOTE: This guide is based on the 1972 TAB book: 0-8306-2593-3; Library of Congress Card Number: 74-188706.

Also see: Industrial Electronics (in the early 1960s)