Let me just add my encouragement. 12-13 years ago, a window well filled up
and caused many gallons of water to pour down directly on the top of my
TS-930 in the basement shack. The good news was that it did not stay
submerged for long. Many hours with a hairdryer top and bottom, then
turned it on and ... I'm still using it today.
73, Pete
At 07:56 PM 8/3/2005, Paul Whatton wrote:
>Hi Bill
>
>An amateur friend of mine has a business hiring out PMR radios. As you
>can imagine they sometimes come back from hire in a terrible mess having
>been dropped into everything you might imagine, the least of which is
>dirty water. His solution is to drop them into an industrial ultrasonic
>cleaning bath and then, as Gary suggested, oven bake them dry. Over the
>years he has "subjected" hundreds of radios to this treatment and,
>without fail, if it is done carefully, they work fine afterwards. The
>ultrasonic cleaning bath is filled with tap water and a splash of some
>commercial additive is added. I can find out what it is if you want.
>
>One day he suggested I might want to clean my transceivers by dropping
>them in the bath. I was very reluctant but, what the hell, I trusted
>this old friend. I did remove the mains transformers for reasons which
>will become clear but otherwise I dropped whole rigs in the bath and
>then oven dried them. Bingo! Not only did these radios work but they
>worked better because the ultrasonic cleaner had got to all the contact
>surfaces in the plugs, relays etc. The front panels sparkle like they
>are new.
>
>The only reason I removed the mains transformers was drying time. When
>water gets inside the windings it is difficult to dry out.
>
>What have I learnt from this? Water itself, even tap water, isn't a
>problem provided that the radio is FULLY dried out. Dirty water, the
>kind you have experienced is a problem because the impurities make it
>conductive. Even if it is dried out you may experience problems from
>conductive deposits and/or corrosion.
>
>What to do? In my opinion you should wash the SB-220 very thoroughy. I
>think that means taking it out into the yard and very thoroughly hosing
>it down. There is nothing to loose by doing this, it already has dirty
>water in it. If you can find someone with a big enough industrial
>ultrasonic cleaner then put the whole amp in it. Then dry it. And then
>dry it again. It will take hours and hours., days and days. By all means
>oven bake it or use the hot Sun. Total drying is vital. Last week I
>dropped a friend's 2m mast-head preamp which was badly corroded and, he
>thought, a write off, into the ultrasonic cleaner for 20 minutes. After
>3 hours oven baking there was still sufficient moisture inside the tuned
>circuits to de-tune it. After a week in the hot Sun in my shed it worked
>perfectly. Thorough drying is crucial.
>
>Good luck! With patience I am sure you can save the amp.
>
>Paul G4DCV
>
>Bill Smith wrote:
>
>Other than the obvious "dry it out" what should a guy
>do to get a SB-220 back on after having been submerged
>in a basement for over a week?
>
>A friend of mine was away when a very bad storm
>flooded his basement. The water flowed up the stairs
>and out the front door!! So much for living at the
>bottom of the hill and having no check valve on his
>sump pump connection to the city sewer!! Against city
>rules many people had connected their sump pumps to
>the city sewer. That in turn over loaded the system
>as well as the water coming down the street filled a
>lot of basements.
>73,
>Bill
>
>Bill Smith KO4NR
>
>
> >
> >
>
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