Linear Amplifier rebuild / repair first look at walk-thru using a Windjammer Power Modulator

DIsclaimer: This video is for research, scientific, technical, experimental, entertainment, and educational purposes only. My first time back on the bench after the big flood. I had picked up a few toys over the last few months. Not many, I am slowing down. Actually, slowing way down. However, saw this Windjammer Power Modulator on Ebay in pretty good condition for a 50 year old. She wasn't cheap (I like cheap dates) but some things you just have to pay for. TBH, with shipping and taxes, she was right at $200. Sure, I know some people wouldn't pay 20 cents for one of these, but to each their own. I like them. They do what they are designed to do and they do it well. When it comes to swing and audio, they are the best of all the small sub 100 modulators that I can think of. That audio does come with a cost though. They are not clean. Can't have everything, right? Also, though I like meters, the lights on these puts on a show. A Neon Bulb in the "Modulation" window and a 10 LED mod meter indicator with another power on LED. These are made for 1-5 watts drive and around 16 watts peak modulated drive. They are designed to put out 1-5 watts dead key adjusted by an insulated hex tool and will swing to about 75 watts peak. They made 2 versions of these. Some had the input adjustment on the front and some, like this one, has it on the top. I think the front is more convenient, but I don't like the looks of the front adjustment hole. On this Windjammer, it's little brother, the Powe Modulator with a meter and no LED's and the Blackcat small modulators, the JB-12, 150, and 76, the variable tuner is actually an inductor that tunes the Input. On a normal amp, you tune the Input for lowest Input SWR which will usually also be close to the max output of the amp. Not with these little modulators. Tune that little tuner for max watts or lowest input SWR and you will blow the amp. These modulators really volt up the tube with both the plate and screen. They have very high gain and are very sensitive to the watts coming in. Too many watts coming in will blow the amp. Blackcat even tried the "Set To Line" with the meter to try to keep people from tuning for max. Tuning for max with these will literally give you max smoke.... literally. Anyway, back to the basics. I made this video to show the steps I go thru when I first pickup an amp. I do this with any amp I get. The very first thing I check is the fuse. I make sure it's not over-fused or even worse, someone has ran a heavy wire across the fuse. With this one, someone soldered in a fuse on top of the slide in fuse-holder. Brilliant, but I have seen worse. Other than the fuse and the 1 resistor that was badly soldered in, it actually looks good for an old girl. I always recap these old amps and clean the relays. I also check the bleeder/equalizer resistors (these were off), check the other resistors and do a diode test on all the diodes. I do a continuity test on the relay, but if you are not familiar with N/O and N/C or have fat fingers, then maybe you may want to leave that one alone. I did a vid on the #1 killer of amplifiers, the SO-239 pins being bent out, weak, or not making a good contact. I will clean these and make sure they give good grip. If bad grip, they will be replaced. After I get all that fully checked and straightened out, I slowly fire up the amp on a variac and watch my amps. This little amp should pull no more than 1 amp as it is fired up. If it starts pulling amps as you variac up the ac power, them something is wrong....diodes, transformer, tube, or short? Anyway, that's it for this one. More to come on the Windjammer later.