[Boatanchors] Chippewa

[Paul Monroe]

I want to thank everyone on the list who took the time and trouble to help 
me out with some hints on removing the nicotine "varnish" from the front 
panel of my Chippewa. Here's a summary of what was said:

Russ and Greg correctly pointed out that the nicotine actually does a good 
job of protecting the surface of the panel. The lettering is perfectly 
legible underneath that brownish stuff.

The basic idea seems to be to use either a commercial cleaner or a mild 
solution of detergent or house hold ammonia, test an inconspicuous area of 
the panel and from there go slow. Once done, rinse thoroughly to make sure 
that no ionic residue from the cleaner remains and then dry.

The chippewa has a large plastic estucheon that is an integral part of the 
panel so I will have to be careful not to use anything that might attack the 
plastic.

I plan to remove the front panel in it's entirety and then get the goo off. 
As suggested, a little bit of Naptha might be useful in getting the 
"permanent" marker off. I have found that 90% isopropyl alcohol also does a 
good job with permanent marker.

I will just have to check out the meter myself. I do have a precision, 
current limited power supply that can put out up to 6KV. I use it for hipot 
testing so, once the panel is off and I can isolate the meter, I will test 
it to see if the zero adjuster is insulated or not.

A note of historical interest. I actually got the rig from K9RIJ. Bob in 
turn bought it a number of years ago from the original builder, N9KV who, at 
85 is still very much alive and kicking... heavy smoking or not.  I believe 
that Ray is originally from the Janesville area and after returning from WW2 
and going to college to get an EE degree, worked for a few years in industry 
and decided that he wanted to work for himself.

Ray started Blackhawk Networks, and designed and manufactured crystal 
filters well into the 80's. (In 1987, Ray designed and built some bandpass 
xtal filters for me when I was doing a test equipment project for a local 
manufacturer). For those of you that have a Heath SSB filter rig, take a 
look inside. The chances are very high that the filters were made at 
Blackhawk. Hallicrafters  and NASA were some of Ray's other customers.

The power supply for the rig is home brew and had some interesting features. 
To limit current inrush at turn on, Ray took an electric flat iron heating 
element, bolted it to the PS chassis and wired it in series with the plate 
TX. The heating element had a 115V relay accross it's terminals. When the 
primary switch was closed, the 15 ohm resistance of the flatiron limited the 
charging current to the 100uF 4KV filter capacitor (GE Pyranol, PCB's, the 
whole lot) to 1 amp. Once the capacitor was charged up the current quickly 
fell off and the voltage accross the flatiron dropped below the holding 
voltage of the relay. The relay turned off, shorting the flatiron out (and 
latching the relay in the off position) and the PS was ready to go to work.

I intend to interview Ray and maybe get his story written up in ER or the 
Old Radio section of QST.

I'll keep the list posted as things move along. Meanwhile, here's wishing 
everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and peaceful New Year.

73,

Paul, W9MEH