14-01-2016, 10:21 AM
Nice work 
The dry joint on that trimmer cap is a beautiful example of how they can go. Though I don't think I've seen one quite that impressive on a Hacker before. Over the years, I've noted a lot of variation in the quality of soldering on Hacker PCBs - I guess it depends on who they paid to do the "stuffing", as I'm sure it wasn't done in their factory. Certainly not by this time. Though, if anyone knows differently...
Some earlier boards were hand-soldered, but most were wave-soldered, like yours. Often, the flux wasn't cleaned off, and it ends up looking pretty grotty after all this time.
I don't recall seeing that tuner fault before, but it's definitely worth bearing in mind for future repairs. It has reminded me of a similar fault on an FM tuner, where a resistor lead had been cropped too short before soldering, and it had broken away from the solder. From above, it looked fine. From below, it looked OK - not "dry" - but the lack of excess wire poking out of the solder joint was a strong clue
The dry joint on that trimmer cap is a beautiful example of how they can go. Though I don't think I've seen one quite that impressive on a Hacker before. Over the years, I've noted a lot of variation in the quality of soldering on Hacker PCBs - I guess it depends on who they paid to do the "stuffing", as I'm sure it wasn't done in their factory. Certainly not by this time. Though, if anyone knows differently...
Some earlier boards were hand-soldered, but most were wave-soldered, like yours. Often, the flux wasn't cleaned off, and it ends up looking pretty grotty after all this time.
I don't recall seeing that tuner fault before, but it's definitely worth bearing in mind for future repairs. It has reminded me of a similar fault on an FM tuner, where a resistor lead had been cropped too short before soldering, and it had broken away from the solder. From above, it looked fine. From below, it looked OK - not "dry" - but the lack of excess wire poking out of the solder joint was a strong clue
