The flea market stuff is now on EPAY with a "radio thing, maybe Collins? or Collins like or like a Collins like" description.  Happy sniping

One can STILL BUILD a radio and it does NOT have to be type accepted.  What's the difference???

Google "Austin Antenna"  K1QIZ made some great half wave designs.

Using an HT with good limiters on FM  to track  noise often doesn't t
show much, an AM radio  or an HT with an AM section for the aircraft band is far better.  There are three motors you have to deal with,  the distribution blower, the condenser cooling fan and the compressor motor itself.  You have to check each of these one at a time.  The condenser fan and the compressor are no doubt tied together.  These units are a lot like oil burners in that most of the parts are standardized for easy repair and often  "improved" parts will fit in an older unit.  You may have gotten a new design  replacement which uses less juice but is noisy. Sure sounds like a motor controller - not a pun.

Just Google "bad caps" and find out all about the "bad cap syndrome- while ICOM always used good quality  components those electro's can dry out and
fail, that's why a lot of them are "vented" so the cap doesn't blow apart all over the innards.  There may not be a lot of volts on a big electro but there is a lot of energy stored in them.

I especially object to "it's easier for YOU to move than for OUR 2000 dollar radios to change frequency" types setting policy...FIRST, they don't care if you NEVER find a slot to continue, SECOND it's an ADMISSION that the hot shot net operators are so helpless thay can't FIND the net a few Khz away.  Bull....   Here's MY policy, nobody has been using this little segment long enough to establish deeded rights to a "net frequency" so YOU be prepared to find another slot yourselves.

Interesting this post is about the little slice of 40 which I have been enjoying since it opened up.  I too have noticed that the usual crowd of "don't you know there is a net here" and "there is 'dx' nearby--MOVE" types have now brought their rude operating practices from under whatever rock they were hiding to 125 through 200.
The thing about the nets is THEY HAVEN'T BEEN THERE ANY LONGER THAN THE REST OF US so the usual "the net is so big and you are so small,  it is easier for YOU to  disrupt YOUR conversation than for US to move up,
we don't care if you NEVER find another open frequency" stuff DOESN'T fly in that slice.  Hold your ground, if you don't it will turn into just another adjunct of 80 meters with longer propagation.  Three Khz is all you need to give them, and EXPECT THEM TO DO THE SAME.

A 10,000 dollar radio connected to a ground mounted trap vertical  will not out perform a mid priced unit with a better  antenna in the actual art of making contacts.  I know many hams worry (with good reason) about the "neighborhood impact" of large antennas so very few people use the kinds of antennas which would stress even a mid priced radio in terms of received signal levels and face it, a transmitter is a transmitter so long as it is clean. Discussions about how transmitters "sound" are just that, if you don't like the sound  track down the reason why. I'd rather listen to TR4 with a properly chosen mike than "Barney Bass Boost who I can't tune in properly on any of my half dozen Collins, Drake and Icom receivers.  Contesters and "work 'em firstest with the mostest" dxers with big arrays may see the quater microvolt or
half a DB third order difference among the high end stuff but most of us won't.  Should the guy with the trap vertical give up ham radio?  NO!  just don't waste a lot of money on technology which won't help much.  You don't need a Cray supercomputer to surf the 'net on a dialup.

The tubes are cut off on receive.  The bias must be set with the rig in transmit.  I would check the contacts on the  TR relay.

   They used to each, even in high school, to beware of statements using lines such as "In every case".  
"Seldom affirm, never deny, and always distinguish"

   I have been using copper pipe in sandy soil for years. I use water pressure and the sand settles around the pipe quickly -- hard to pull it out after
a couple of weeks.  Copper water pipe comes in different wall thickness and the thickest stuff can be driven with percussion into most soils.  Want more than 8 feet-- solder in a union.  

  That is a good high power tuner.  If you are so worried about your QRP power output sell the tuner to someone who can make good use of it and buy a Bird wattmeter with and a 10  watt slug.  

   Your gratuitous insult to US amateurs does little
to enhance my impression of you.  The usefullness of your comments is far exceeded by the snarkeyness of your attitude.  Spare us both in the furure.

  I suggest you google "Industrial Communications Engineers"  (ICE)

    RG8X is about the same size as 59.