what happens if you string an extention cord and put the radio on a different circuit for temporary testing purposes?  yes, if you have a silly ground situation, this may make metal surfaces "hot" with RF in the shack, it may not.

W6EM knows what he's talking about, and now that it's apparently isolated to the shack circuit, time to nail that one down for sure.  it could be a backstab connection downstream, or even a breaker that has "chattered" contacts, but it's sounding like a crummy contact someplace in that circuit.  if true, first step for me would be to replace every outlet and switch on that circuit with screw-down back-wired devices, and check the wire nuts to make sure the wires were twisted before being inserted into the wire nuts.  those two steps could get the high resistance piece out of your way forever.

and indicate a continuing improvement project in the house.

Useful Life Trick:  accept advice, ignore shrill-toned prosletyzers.

have fun on the air, EYE

I think a lot of folks are going for WAMS (Worked All Monitoring Stations.)

@W2WDX: if the purpose of this exercise is to reform the B+ filter caps, and there is no rectifier tube in socket, how do you get DC to the filter caps to reform them?

a known alternate is to take one of the 40s/50s capacitor checkers from the cap makers, which were kitted in the 60s by Heathkit as well, that have a neon bulb in series with the cap load as well as a pot to sneak up the voltage.  creep up the volts knob, and if the neon bulb lights, the cap is at breakdown, back off and leave it there for a while.

the modern trick of taking a couple silicon diodes in place of the rectifier tube and creeping up the Variac lacks detection of the current knuckle of a capacitor that is starting to conduct. putting a neon bulb in series with the diodes on an octal (or 7-pin or whatever) plug might be the safest way to go.  if you rigged a jig to slowly ramp up the voltage automatically, use a photodetector at the neon for a safety cutout.

have her dig out her pacemaker card (medical device installers aka surgeons generally hand the patient their device maker's alert card on discharge) and check their RF recommendations on the website.  do the quick calculation on your radiation at the site.  if under the barrier, don't sweat it.

however... the lead length from the pacemaker to the affected section of heart muscle is an antenna.  if it's resonant, all bets are off.

ideally, if the pacemaker has a remote diagnosis feature, you could arrange a remote session with the cardiologist.  if it looks clean at the time, key up and call CQ.  if the pacemaker whines during the remote session, you need a stub tower to get the RF level down.

boot off the windows disk and do system restore.

old RCA broadcast manuals advised the engineers at stations to clip the leads as close to the part as you could, solder on the new part to those leads, and minimize downtime.  sounds like a starting point on these rigs.

it is also theoretically possible that if there is a neutral fail someplace, line current will look for a path to ground wherever it finds one.  if there is 0.21 ohm in the direct neutral, and the next lowest resistance to ground is 0.24 ohm through the S-38 neutral to chassis to ground, you put whatever power that other device draws through the wiring of the line cord to the Halli.

this can be double-plus ungood.

that's why the only junction of neutral and ground occurs at the entrance panel, which by code should also have two paths to earth ground on opposite sides of the building.  typically in a home, one is the ground rod, the other is the cold water pipe if you have metallic plumbing.

unless you're out in the middle of a desert, it's against the law to fire in a residential area.  call the cops every time.  take some video if you can.  these guys need some professional help, even if they end up getting it in 10-year periods with substandard neighbors in very special public housing.

there is a danger the guy will get drunked up one night and aim.  he needs to be dealt with before that.

shotgunning parts... I'm an old broadcast brat.  lose a second of airtime, start counting at $140 lost income a minute.  if it was a commercial you lost, you have to make it good, that is a minute you can't sell.  at the time, on our ratebook, that was a double loss at $280 a minute.  screw the parts, fix everything that looks like the bad part now, or everything in that stage, let's not drop air again.  I still think my time is worth something, even if nobody else does   and it's harder to get into the equipment than it used to be.

-0-

sticking magnetic tape:  there were a number of "advanced" formulations, premium product, that slapped on a ton of silicone.

somebody should have thought to do some chemical checks to see if the silicone reacted with the oxide binder, alias plastic as glue, that held the rust dust on.

the professionals have settled on baking old tapes at 160 degrees on the reel for a half hour or so and letting them cool back down before playing those tapes.  some give you that one playback, some don't.  you may need a pressure washer to clean the heads afterwards.

your "standard" tapes like 3M 111 and 150 don't seem to show the ill effects (Irish 1xx series and Audiotape red label for the non-mining fans of the era.)  check a less-valuable reel of other premium tapes first before threading up the critical reel.

I liked back-coated tape in the day, but for sheer mess on my computer half-inchers, there was no comparison... they were the worst even when new for gunking the decks.

the ARRL summary also indicated labelling and barriers are part of the review.  so if your next HT is wrapped with razor wire and has a diathermy warning sticker on it, it can both make you bleed and cure it.

probably add $500 to the cost of the radio.  but if you rig a plug to the antenna jack connecting that razor wire, should be good for another 3 dB.

a little amplifier isolated from the power line, and a signal source, and chase the signal from A to Zed through the circuit, after cleaning the switches and controls to see if it's just gunk.  use a x100 range on the ohmmeter to see if there is continuity from the switch to the tape head (very low current protects the winding and won't magnetize the head.)

I would expect from the age that the suspects on each amplifier stage are cold solder joints from vibration, the electrolytics, and then the transistors.  all of these are sub-dollar parts.  so when you find a bad stage, frankly, I'd shotgun those parts.  the board is dense for the time, so use solder suckers and work carefully and quickly.

you don't want the finals powered for neutralization.  you want to see how it works with the driver only.  see here for the usual process

http://www.w8ji.com/neutralizing__amplifier.htm

bottom of the web page first explains the physics of the 6146 or similar tetrode stage, and then process.

the old Bud Metal meter cabinets are no longer made.

you could perhaps pick something suitable from these

http://www.budind.com/small_metal_enclosures.php

any of the three SC-series cabinets would work.

or you can custom-bend your own aluminum cabinet

if the cord is cracked, I would replace it with as close to the original as you can find.  get some X-safety capacitors to replace the ones across the power line to chassis.

and yes, I would use an isolation transformer.  unless you very carefully chase the circuitry down and get a polarized line cord "in right" don't play with that setup.

back in the day, there were no grounds running up to user areas, it was just connecting the antenna and ground that would get you in trouble.  or putting electrical stuff by the sink or in the bathroom.