[Dekatron]

Somewhat on topic for this is that I've recently helped two gentlemen to get their VCM163s up and running after problems with the oscillator and amplifiers not working properly.

Both gentlemen were a little bit reluctant to replace components as they wanted the original look, but in the end it turned out in both cases that replacing all of the electrolytic capacitors was enough to get them both up and running perfectly - all of the old electrolytic capacitors measured ok on capacitance and ESR I was told as they were tested, but they obviously didn't work properly in the circuit as replacing them got the testers up and running.

Some of the resistors that were out of tolerance and the transistors had been replaced previously with no effect. So even if you test these electrolytics for capacitance and ESR they obviously didn't work well in the real circuit.

Putting the transistors back and some of the resistors that weren't far out of tolerance had no effect as the oscillator and amplifier still worked after replacing the electrolytic capacitors, but the more out of tolerance resistors made them stop working.

So as I've said many times before I regularly replace the electrolytics first, then check for out of tolerance components and replace those and as a last resort replace transistors - of course you need to check the transformers so they are ok as a first step.

If your meter isn't working you'll either have to replace it with a new meter or build an opamp to counter the magnetic flux it has lost over the years.

I already have new meters working in the VCM163, with new scales, but Covid-19 hit me early last year and stopped me in my efforts to finish that project and write an article about it. I will get back to it when I can but I don't know when that will happen, probably later this year, maybe after the summer if I am well enough.

I'll help out where I can, if time and well being permits me, if someone want to build and test something new. I think that the test specifications for the transformers will be enough for Ed to wind some new transformers that can be used for experiments.