RCA Master Voltohmyst WV-87B

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by polyphase

To clarify my comment, I meant that soldering a battery into a product, especially a carbon type, didn't seem, well, 'factory' to me.

Yup! I thought so too, when I changed my first failed battery in the Senior Voltohmyst back in 1950's, but it is the RCA way!

The WWII era versions, such as the 195A had to use two batteries, which were inside a metal cage. Two insulated slugs, with copper contacts, were inserted in there with the batteries and the whole mess was tightened with a screw held by a locking nut. As the metal case expanded with temperature and the unit got moved, the contacts would work loose and started giving erroneous resistance readings.

Some of the early post war Juniors had their batteries in a holder, but the later ones soldered them.

I've never used a Master, but both the Junior and Senior ones that I've owned have used C batteries. Most modern batteries do not have a breathing hole on the top connector, but instead vent by the fiber washer at its base. On the 1950-60's batteries, if one accidentally closed the breathing hole with solder, the battery would have a short -and usually messy- life.


Bandersen, I started to congratulate you on getting one of the older probes that can be opened and repaired, but just noticed that the writing on the probe was the wrong color. A closer look shows that is a VIZ WG-299E, and not an RCA. Did VIZ continue the horrid RCA practice of cementing the probes together so they would be unrepairable, or can they be opened to clean the switch and replace the resistor?

This is the reason why Voltohmyst probes often sell for more than the meter itself. The probe on my Senior that I've used since the 1960's finally gave up the ghost and I bought a Senior on ePray that had a cracked meter case and no other bids. It had an original WG-299C, which I think was the last probe that came apart. When I asked the seller to quote a price for just shipping the probe, he thought I was crazy. He sent me the probe and relisted the meter at a lower price without the probe and sold it to some unsuspecting sole.

The 195A came with Burgess (sp?) batteries and the Senoior came with an RCA battery.

James.