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K3s and P3s Can't Swim

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Patrick Taylor-2

K3s and P3s Can't Swim

I live in Bloomsburg, Pa and we just experienced a record flood on the
Susquehanna River. The sewer backed up to a level of about 4 feet in our
basement while we were under a mandatory evacuaton. The K3 and P3 were under
about 18 inches of muddy water. Has anyone ever experienced this and found a
way to clean and repair the equipment or should it be dispatched to the
dump. It was a very bad day!

73s Pat W3HVG
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k0wa@swbell.net

Re: K3s and P3s Can't Swim

Well, get the insurance for sure.....

But, I've seen electronics cleaned out with a hose with clean water. Then I've
seen them dried with a hair dryer....or baked slowly in an over at 150
degrees..... Then....the worked.

Lee
K0WA

In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply. If you don't
have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it. If you can't find any
Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some Common Sense. Is Common
Sense divine?

Common Sense is the image of the Creator expressing revealed truth in my mind.
- John W. (Kansas)

________________________________
From: patrick taylor <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Wed, September 14, 2011 8:20:17 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] K3s and P3s Can't Swim

I live in Bloomsburg, Pa and we just experienced a record flood on the
Susquehanna River. The sewer backed up to a level of about 4 feet in our
basement while we were under a mandatory evacuaton. The K3 and P3 were under
about 18 inches of muddy water. Has anyone ever experienced this and found a
way to clean and repair the equipment or should it be dispatched to the
dump. It was a very bad day!

73s Pat W3HVG
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Alexey Kats

Re: K3s and P3s Can't Swim

Lee,

Out of sheer curiosity, did you mean 150 degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit? (For
the record - 150 F is approximately 65 C, quite normal for electronics. On
the other hand, 150 C is approximately 300 F - a little bit too high, I am
afraid. Not too high to cause the solder to melt, but still too high,
especially to things like TFT monitors or LCD displays.)

On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 6:24 PM, Lee Buller <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> Well, get the insurance for sure.....
>
> But, I've seen electronics cleaned out with a hose with clean water. Then
> I've
> seen them dried with a hair dryer....or baked slowly in an over at 150
> degrees..... Then....the worked.
>
> Lee
> K0WA
>

--
Alexey Kats (neko)
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riese-k3djc

Re: K3s and P3s Can't Swim

In reply to this post by Patrick Taylor-2

get the mud off with clean water and then lots of alcohol
the issue wit any electronics is getting power off/batteries out
and then dry out,, the alcohol will help get rid of the water
you didnt say if there was mud or just wet,, if it isnt too dirty then
alcohol
and invest in a can of deoxit to spray the switches
make sure it is dry before B + ing it

Bob K3djc

On Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:20:17 -0400 patrick taylor <[hidden email]>
writes:

> I live in Bloomsburg, Pa and we just experienced a record flood on
> the
> Susquehanna River. The sewer backed up to a level of about 4 feet in
> our
> basement while we were under a mandatory evacuaton. The K3 and P3
> were under
> about 18 inches of muddy water. Has anyone ever experienced this and
> found a
> way to clean and repair the equipment or should it be dispatched to
> the
> dump. It was a very bad day!
>
> 73s Pat W3HVG
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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>
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>
>

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daleputnam

Re: K3s and P3s Can't Swim

In reply to this post by Alexey Kats

I've washed a number of radios that have been flooded, the most successful, with the least amount of trouble, was when Iflooded the radios as soon as possible after the mud and water was introduced. Flushed with lots of clean water, under, in, around,and through, every nook and cranny. Then... left to dry. Here the humidity is rather low, 20 - 30% so the radios stayed out in the sun, brought in every night for a week. Then before power would be applied, a vom to check the transformer for dc shorts, and relube the controls. Then each one powered up with a 60 watt bulb in series with the line.Worked rather well, didn't lose a one, and that same tatic, worked on two Model 19 teletype machines... the relube job was fun tho. (drowned them in 10w oil) they dripped for a week. But worked. In a higher humidity area, sitting them near a heat lamp... may work, if extreme care is used to not over heat. And if you err... make it on the length of time... not the shortness of the drying
period. The more if cans, and traps for water, the longer it needs to dry. A certain commercial radio was drowned in sulfuric acid, from a concrete truck, hi power acid, tends to do bad things.... that one took three water baths, ... each one lasting over an hour.all in the same afternoon... had to relocate to move the puddle.... then two weeks of drying time in the sun...and after the pcb traces were repaired it worked too. Good luck, and after you get it all cleaned up... it's nice to have clean equipment.

--... ...--
Dale - WC7S in Wy
> Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:37:06 -0700

> From: [hidden email]
> To: [hidden email]
> CC: [hidden email]; [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3s and P3s Can't Swim
>
> Lee,
>
> Out of sheer curiosity, did you mean 150 degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit? (For
> the record - 150 F is approximately 65 C, quite normal for electronics. On
> the other hand, 150 C is approximately 300 F - a little bit too high, I am
> afraid. Not too high to cause the solder to melt, but still too high,
> especially to things like TFT monitors or LCD displays.)
>
> On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 6:24 PM, Lee Buller <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> >
> > Well, get the insurance for sure.....
> >
> > But, I've seen electronics cleaned out with a hose with clean water. Then
> > I've
> > seen them dried with a hair dryer....or baked slowly in an over at 150
> > degrees..... Then....the worked.
> >
> > Lee
> > K0WA
> >
>
> --
> Alexey Kats (neko)
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

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wb6rse1

Re: K3s and P3s Can't Swim

In reply to this post by Patrick Taylor-2

There was an Strays in QST MANY years ago about a Collins 75A series receiver that had fallen off of a dock at a port in Africa while in it's crate. (Anyone else recall that story?) The recipient retrieved the crate, removed all of the tubes, washed every corner with fresh water and let it bake in the African sun. Once dried and the tubes reinstalled, it worked perfectly. That was a Collins.

The K3 and P3 are different technologies of course, but you could do worse than to try the cleaning suggestions already mentioned since you consider the K3/P3 a total loss anyway.

GL - Steve WB6RSE
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R Thompson

Re: K3s and P3s Can't Swim

In reply to this post by Patrick Taylor-2

Speaking from a 30+ year background in avionics repair, its finished,
period!

Wash and dry it if you'd like, and it may even work or appear to work,
but you cannot clean out components like potentiometers, unsealed
inductors/transformers, variable capacitors, and switches, etc.. If I
bought something like that, working or not, from someone who didn't tell
me upfront about it's history I'd be pretty upset when I found the
evidence of what had happened.

Take the insurance if there is any, to bring it back to the
manufacturer's specifications will be way too costly and not practical.

Being a homebuilder I wouldn't dispatch it to the dump either, the
sealed components would be useable as spares or parts for other
projects.

Ron VE8RT

On Wed, 2011-09-14 at 21:20 -0400, patrick taylor wrote:

> I live in Bloomsburg, Pa and we just experienced a record flood on the
> Susquehanna River. The sewer backed up to a level of about 4 feet in our
> basement while we were under a mandatory evacuaton. The K3 and P3 were under
> about 18 inches of muddy water. Has anyone ever experienced this and found a
> way to clean and repair the equipment or should it be dispatched to the
> dump. It was a very bad day!
>
> 73s Pat W3HVG
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

Dave, W8OV

Re: K3s and P3s Can't Swim

In reply to this post by Patrick Taylor-2

KH6/W3GW tried this with another rig, after removing the speaker:

"The Corsair arrived last year from E-bay. I opened the box and thought
I had bought a bag of cigarette butts. The price was dirt cheap so I put
it in the dishwasher and put it through a few cycles except I did not
let the dishwasher dry it. For that, I put it out in the Maui sun for a
week bringing it in at night. No more cigarette smoke smell. It works
fine though I did have to touch up some of the frequency adjustments."

(From an e-mail on another list.)

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R Thompson

Re: K3s and P3s Can't Swim

"It works fine" would be a matter of opinion, not the result of bench
testing. So, I wonder how the grease in the VFO handled the "grease
cutters" of the dishwasher soap? What did it do to the fine lubricants
in the switches, and potentiometers, or the finish on the rotary
switches?

We use shock indicators on sensitive aircraft instruments to tell if
they've had rough handling, and some equipment is packed with moisture
indicator cards. Cell phones used to have a moisture indicator built
into them, if it indicated that the cell phone had been overly exposed
to moisture then your warranty was void.

If you're satisfied with compromised gear, and its not going into a
critical application then have at it. Hearing these stories gives me
the creeps, I'm not coming back to this thread.

Ron VE8RT

On Wed, 2011-09-14 at 22:40 -0500, Dave, W8OV wrote:

> KH6/W3GW tried this with another rig, after removing the speaker:
>
> "The Corsair arrived last year from E-bay. I opened the box and thought
> I had bought a bag of cigarette butts. The price was dirt cheap so I put
> it in the dishwasher and put it through a few cycles except I did not
> let the dishwasher dry it. For that, I put it out in the Maui sun for a
> week bringing it in at night. No more cigarette smoke smell. It works
> fine though I did have to touch up some of the frequency adjustments."
>
> (From an e-mail on another list.)
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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>
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Dave Johnson

Re: K3s and P3s Can't Swim

In reply to this post by Patrick Taylor-2

I worked for many years in the mobile radio servicing industry, we
occasionally saw waterlogged radios and sometimes were asked to repair
them. Forget it, before the days of surface mount ICs it was hard to
ensure there wasn't corrosion starting under components, now it's
virtually impossible.

As others have said, claim on insurance and get fresh gear.

73 Dave, G4AON
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