[ARC5] Can yoiu say...

[Scott Johnson]

Keep in mind, there was little or no technical data released at the time,
and one only has to look at Kenneth Grayson's comments in the "Surplus
Schematics Handbook" (Cowan) to realize he pulled most of the information
straight out of his butt.  In most cases, people didn't even know how much
of the surplus equipment was employed, let alone how it worked.

Scott V. Johnson W7SVJ
5111 E. Sharon Dr.
Scottsdale, AZ 85254-3636
H (602) 953-5779
C (480) 550-2358
scottjohnson1 at cox.net
scott.johnson at ieee.org

-----Original Message-----
From: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of David Stinson
Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2017 4:02 AM
To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Can yoiu say...


----- Original Message -----
From: "WA5CAB--- via ARC5" <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>

>... I don't buy into claims about how much people learned by  
>butchering surplus...most of the workmanship is pretty bad.

Agreed.  I forgive the quality of workmanship in many cases; these were kids
just learning how to do this stuff. 
My beef is with what they were told to do.

Specifically the transmitters; the "standard" receiver mods did make a
certain sense and did work.  Most of the hacked receivers I've seen would
actually "work."
The problem with them was a lack of good guidelines on alignment.  But in
general, mods that went beyond the "standard" of reworking the filament
leads and installing controls ended the same as most of the transmitters:
half-finished, poor or no performance and right into the junk pile.

Like you, I've had many, many Command Set transmitters
pass through my hands.   The overwhelming majority of
those which had been "hammered" never did another lick of work after the
first wire snip.  They couldn't have, because in most cases the intended
"mods" were never finished or resulted in an inoperable state.

The T-16 I just rebuilt for friend is an excellent example.
Some goof decided he'd "improve" the poor thing
and crank it up to 160 meters.   Removed the Antenna
relay and the wires to it.  Removed the PA tank coil and unwound a bunch of
turns.  Put a short across the PA Plate choke (??).  Disconnected the
Neutralizing capacitor (??).  Unscrewed the set-screws for the front
PA-tuning capacitor(???).  Wired the 1625s for 12V, but left the rear tubes
wired for 24V.  
Removed the filament balancing resistor for the 1629, plus others.  Thank
God, no drill work had been done.

At this point, the project was abandoned and that's how it came to me.  It
could never have worked a single "dit" from the beginning of the "project"
until I got it.  And that has been the case with most "modified" Command Set
transmitters I've seen.  Some might say "well the good ones don't get sold
so you only see the junkers." 
Don't buy that;  More and more estates hit the market every day and have for
years now.
If there was this big reserve of "working" modified Command Set
transmitters, we should be seeing a cascade of them hitting Ebay and Eham by
now.
But we don't.  
Because they never existed in the first place.

73 DE Dave AB5S

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