Bob
Congrates on being a 19-Set owner, but be warned, once bitten by these things you will discover the amazing list of bits to add to it! I got my first one in 1976 and have gone through about 2 dozen since. Still have a Mk II Cdn and Mk III Cdn.
I have heard the caps can be tricky on this and similar older sets but have personally never run across a bad one in all the sets I have fired up. I have heard of more problems from sets that have been tinkered with and sometimes that is obvious to spot. A couple of things I would suggest:
Clean the inside of the set and P/S of all dust before applying power. Take this opportunity to pull all valves and inspect them for loose fitting glass. Find somebody with a tube tester to check all valves.
When you fire it up for the first time, do so with the chassis of the set out of the case and remove the bottom cover if still present. Prop the front edge of the set up on a couple of small blocks so you can monitor what goes on underneath and on top of the set and be prepared to pull the power if you have to in a hurry.
I would not recommend ever using the B-Set. In todays radio spectrum, the frequency it was designed to operate in lies in the middle of modern aviation frequencies and the signal is not a clean one. In fact, a friend of mine just recently discovered there is an FM component to the B-Set signal, which is interesting in it's own right, but can complicate things even more today.
Lastly, you mention you have a 110V Supply. Do you mean the RCA 19-Set A/C Supply? If so, you have a real gem there. There were not many made and even fewer spare parts. If you know it works, be VERY happy with that knowledge, but don't use it to drive your 19-Set. It should run with a rather quiet hum. The older it gets and the wonkier the components, the more noise it will start to make, and then it will just quit. There are just not enough surviving to get original replacement parts to fix one to original status.
Your best power supply bet is to find the A/C Supply that was used with the C42 Set Ground Stations (CPP-2). It will give you the choice of 12 or 24 V DC at 22 or 11 amps, and they do throw enough heat to keep a mug of coffee warm on top of it.
The 19-Set will take about 20 minutes or so to stabilize temperature wise when fired up, depending on outside ambient temperature. During this time, they are prone to drifting off frequency a bit, but once they settle in they're fine.
Enjoy and keep us posted.
David
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