Wayne Parham Messages: 18787 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
When working on old tube radios, I always swap capacitors before doing anything else. After 50 years, often times half that time or more with no power applied, sitting in an attic somewhere, the capacitors are usually worthless. It doesn't cost much to replace them all so it's worth doing. Then I check the active components with a tester. For tubes, I use a dedicated tube tester, for transistors, an ohmmeter is usually all that's required.