[Boatanchors] Has anyone encountered "sabotage" while restoring/aligning R-388/51J-3's

[Ray V.]

Larry,

Yes, the "sabotage" could very well have been intentional. The purpose 
was for training. When I was at Ft Sill as a comm officer in the Army 
(back in the good old days) we deliberately modified radios that would 
be used for technician training by going to the trouble of actually 
making fake resistors and capacitors as well as "bad or false 
connections" such as yours and installing them in otherwise perfectly 
good radios. These radios were then used in the classroom to teach new 
radio techs how to troubleshoot problems. Each test bench position had a 
radio with a different defect and the class would work its way around 
the benches until everyone had a chance to debug the radios and 
determine what component had failed. You may have gotten a hold of one 
or more of these "test mules" we modified for classroom instruction. 
They were still in use long after I moved on so I have no idea what 
would have happened to them when they were phased out. This was standard 
military procedure and not limited to just Ft Sill. My dad was Navy and 
he mentioned they used the same technique in Radioman School prior to 
WW-II so it's been going on a long time.

73, Ray  W2EC


Lawrence Mayhew wrote:

> I am trying to finish up the last of my project Collins 51J-3 and R-388/URR
> receivers, and of course I saved the ones that had not been "easy the first
> time I worked on them" till last.
> I have a couple that had very subtle disabling modifications done to them,
> and I'm curious if any of you have experienced the same kind of thing.
> One, a R-388/URR, had the filament lead to the 6AQ5 (audio amp.) carefully
> severed and recovered with shrink fit tubing, and then hidden beneath the
> power transformer. No chance this was anything other than intentional.
> The other unit, a 51J-3, and a very nice "engraved" front panel in great
> shape, had the slave coupler to the crystal switch loosened, the band switch
> moved several steps, and then tightened again. Again, no way it just
> slipped. I don't need to explain what a bitch this kind of devilishness
> creates for the technician, especially when he is 70 years old.
> 
> The only thing I can imagine as a possible motive would be to get the unit
> "surveyed" so that the saboteur could capture it in the subsequent surplus
> sale.
> Am I the only one who has seen this, or am I just the only one ornery enough
> to keep at it till I found the problem?
> Regards,..........Larry in Seattle
> 
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