Pluggers by Rick McKee for August 09, 2022

He’s a tube man.

Nothing like a good slap, tap, bang to get things working again.

Works some of the time, and vents some of your frustrations at other times.

I remember those days with the out of control vertical control flipping the screen.

Ah the old hit em and make em work again trick.

In the pre-computer era, that trick might just work.

Pluggers have CRTs?

I’m actually surprised nobody is making consumer ones, if only to make a bit of coin from the retro gaming market.

It works on some things some of the time.

Nothing like a Do It Yourself repair that works ;-)

What the heck is he banging on??? Lmao!

It works on desktop pc’s too!

Take all the tubes out, blow the dust out, wash the circuitry with tuner cleaner, and reassemble.

Also worked for ‘fine tuning’ the picture.

Replacing tubes was easy, but fixing the power supply for a flat screen TV is much easier than for a tube set.

Why does this sound like an actual thing?!

I have three TVs in my house but only one is a “tube TV”. It is in the basement and only use it when I am ironing. Yes, I am a plugger! When it finally dies, I will replace it with a flat panel, probably a smart TV, if they make one in a 19" size.

there’s a growing number of PEOPLE that need “percussive maintenance” performed on THEM!!

Haha, it works on my PC!

Dislodges dust. Or just spit in the back…

Because it works. Sometimes.

Even Pluggers need to update sometime. :)

LOL… and aluminum foil on the rabbit ears antenna, too…

That old CRT would still have an analog tuner and thus unable to pick up digital OTA stations; don’t see any cable/converter box.

I first heard that term on “Only Connect”. Excellent nomenclature.

I didn’t do much with tubes growing up (but I knew about them and remember seeing the testing stations), but I did get a chance to play around with non-functioning electrical devices (toasters, non-tube radios, my dad’s 1939 H/O gauge train set, etc.). I could take them apart, clean them up, replace/repair parts, put them back together and get them running again. I had so much fun! I never lost pieces. I always took them apart in such a way as to keep track of what when where so I never had pieces left over, either. It is such a thrill when they worked afterward.

My husband and I took the Jeep to the PO one day. Came out and the steering wheel, for reasons known only to the Jeep, was frozen. We tried EVERYTHING. Called my son, a Benz-certified mechanic of some years experience. He came out, tried the same stuff, then took out a rubber mallet and whacked the steering column, after which we never had a problem. Not to mention how satisfying it was.

Used to work on a SPA-4 repeater on the bridge of the USS Blue Ridge back when the Blue Ridge was new 52 years ago. Now it’s the third oldest commissioned ship in the Navy. USS Constitution, USS Pueblo, USS Blue Ridge.

Funny…. I remember those days, when the vertical, or horizontal hold went askew, and we’d bang on the cabinet to get it to straighten out…provided the horizontal, and vertical hold adjustment knobs didn’t work. chuckleThen, I also remember the tv having a reset button on the back, which would occasionally do something, but I never was quite sure what…. I remember the whole picture going black, until it narrowed down to a little white dot, then, disappeared.

The “Sullivan Adjustment”, a tribute to the famous boxer.

Ah, brings back the memories. Can’t do that with TVs now.