The Jacky's writes:
>A good old trick to prevent
>oxidation is a light coat of WD-40 or equivalent.

        When I used to work as a service technician for the Audio Visual
Department, here, we used to call WD-40 "Technician in a can.":-)
I agree with most of what has been said, but there are a couple of angles
on the contact-cleaning front that you might want not to learn about the hard
way.

        The WD-40 works best when the surfaces being protected are already
very clean.  It is good to use a De greaser such as Blue Shower which leaves
almost nothing behind to get the original grime off.  It is also very good
if there isn't a high degree of dirt around because the WD-40 will catch it
and eventually make more trouble.

        Also, tuner cleaner does a superb job on scouring dirt and oxide
off contacts because that silicon grease is abrasive.  It also does an equally
good job of removing the carbon from the resistance element of
potentiometers.  They work great for a while and then, when they go bad
again, it is because the element is scraped off and the pot is shot.

        The other caveat is to be sure the WD-40 doesn't get on to
frequency-sensitive components.  It may cause drifting of oscillators or
decreased performance of tank circuits.  I hate to say it, but I have
personally been responsible for creating at least one of each of the
situations I am warning about.  My boss, at the time, had been in the
television repair business for several years and he showed me the error of
my ways.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 36.7N97.4W
OSU Center for Computing and Information Services Data Communications Group