[Milsurplus] My rescue trip (should I play a dirge?)

[Raymond Cote]

Guys and gals!
	  About 10 years ago, a friend of mine died and left much of his Ham
related equipment in his garage.  His family, mostly his wife wanted it
taken to the dump (this 1 month after his death) His son wanted to 
donate it to a museum. He could not find a museum that would pay for the
shipping. He stored the equipment in an old barn structure with a leaky
roof, sometimes covering the equipment with a tarp, sometimes not.  I
hae asked him at about 6 month intervals for the first 3 years to let me
find homes for it.  "museum was his response"  It has seen better days,
and I had relegated it as lost and not available.  Over the weekend Ed
Houlton's son called me.  He said that he could not find any place to
donate the gear so if I still wanted it I could drive over and pick it
up.  My jaw almost hit the ground when I saw the condition that the
equipment has deteoriated to.  I could have everything that I could haul
away in exchange for helping him to clean out the barn.  What a deal
this was, but it was too late for much of it.  What a waste!!  At least,
the pile going in my truck was bigger than the pile of totally useless
and rusted beyond recognition stuff that I left there like transformers
with the windings completely chewed through.  I am hauling almost
everything, regardless of condition.  Out of respect to Ed Houlton, SK,
I won't leave anything there for the son to toss. I will check
everything out myself and put the skeletons out to pasture after saying
the obligatory BA prayer.  OK, OK!  I'll make one up!!

First, there was an MT-283 ART-13 Transmitter    No Vacuum relays due to
the broken glass and no 837 tube.
Has all other tubes including 2 811's and 2 1625 tubes.

It is complete otherwise, but looks like it needs a power supply of some
kind.  Does this set need a dynamotor power source?   I t might be a
parts unit, but if I knew more about this unit I might be able to rescue
it.

A Hallicrafters SX-42 in sad shape.  It had what was determined to be a
rat's nest inside the variable capacitor area.  It had no cover over the
caps.  It appears that every possible piece of steel is badly rusted
from probably rat urine.   The worst part is that the SX-42 was on top
of an R-390-A and the R390-A front panel bore the brunt of the urine. 
The front panel is now powdered and flaky aluminum oxide.  I tried to
clean it off, but now the panel will most likely need to be replaced.  I
will try and surface grind it in my shop, but I don't think there will
be much of the panel left.  Wish I had an engraving tool!  I would make
4 or 5 in a very short time once it was set up.
	There is also an R389 receiver, but it was not dripped on.  It however
is very dirty with a film of some type of substance that soap has a hard
time to cut.  I know nothing about this radio so will have to get a
manual.  It as well as most of all the equipment I got is totally full
of red volcanic dirt and some type of film.  It almost looks like
tobacco stains, but Ed didn't smoke.  Perhaps it was on the radio before
he got it.  All in all, the heaviest gear was, of course, on the bottom
and that is where standing water was about 2" deep during the rain.

	There was an RAK-6 receiver set. It appears that there are 2 parts of
this RAK, the CRV-46155 Receiver and the CFT 20131 Rectifier power
unit.  It has a Cinch-Jones 8-pin plug on it.  I only found the
CRV-46155 receiver so far. It is black wrinkle painted, some chipping
but intact.  AS before, it needs a very thorough cleaning.  Also I
found:

	1 ea Coupler Transmitter for the SRT-14, 15 and 16 Transmitter.  I
think August Johnson is building the SRT system, but don't know where he
is.  I lost track of him when I was on CompuServe and have never found
him since.

	 1 ea NM-20B Interference and Field Intensity Meter made by the
Stoddard Aircraft Radio Co.

	1 ea HP5110 Synthesizer Driver No idea as to use yet other than just a
synthesizer.

	2 ea HP735A DC Transfer standards with a Standard Reference Bank.  I
will check this out later.  Might be useful, and it is clean.

	1 ea RM 504 HP Scope

	4 ea Rockland remotely programmable freq synthesizers Model 5110

	1 ea Operational Filter Model 1000F also Rockland. It looks to be in
the audio range.

1 ea Marconi AM/FM Signal Generator Model TF-995A/2M

1 ea	real old OS-189A Oscilloscope marked USM-281A Has HP plug-ins
PL1186A (Vert Amp) and PL1187A (Time Base) This is a mess as many of the
other rust buckets.

	The following are in fair to good cosmetic condition.

	1 ea HP 200CD wide Range Oscillator
	2 ea HP 200 AB Audio Oscillators
	1 ea Booton VTVM Mdl 91H with probes
	1 EA Rycom Instruments R1307A/GR  Receiver???  Labeled Railway
Communications Inc. Freq 0-800kc

	1 ea HP 3582A Spectrum Analyzer
	1 ea Krohn-Hite 50 Watt Amplifier, DC to 500 KC
	1 ea Nems Clarke Mdl 1440 Receiver, Telemetry	 FM I think
	1 ea Nems Clarke Mdl 1502A FM receiver

	1 ea Hallicrafters MHS 400 receiver   never heard of this one.  It has
4 bands in the 2-34 MC range.

	1 ea Tek 503 series scope
	1 ea RCA Picoameter mdl WV 511A
	1 ea Tek 475M scope
	1 ea TEK Storage scope mdl 466
	1 ea TEK mdl 464 scope
	1 ea National SW-3 Receiver... This one is very clean, but I know
nothing about it.  Have not looked inside.  There should be plug in
coils but I didn't open it up. Very clean!!  

	The following also clean.

	1 ea National NC-173 Receiver
	1 ea HP 120B oscilloscope
	1 ea Heath Power Supply, IP-20
	1 ea Sprague TO-6 Cap analyzer
	1 ea HP 5248L Freq Counter (nixie type)
	1 ea General Radio mdl 1390B Random Noise Generator
	3 ea HP Micro Voltmeter mdl 3410A
	1 ea Fluke Power Supply Mdl 407
	1 ea VTVM Model 470B, no probes.  I don't remember or know the brand.
	1 ea SBE transmitter mdl 33
	1 ea something.  This is called a Heterodyne Freq Meter and Crystal
Controlled Calibration Unit.  Model LR-1.  No, I don't know what it is
but it's range is 160kc to 30 mc.  It stands 3 feet tall and is wider
than the 19" rack panel on top of it.  It was all the 2 of us could do
to pick it up to place it in my truck.  I will take pictures later.
Somewhat clean (relatively speaking. It has rust in many places, but the
rust appears to be powdery and superficial)

	1 ea  General Radio Twin T Impedance Measuring Circuit.  That is what
it's called.  No case as the wood case was gone.  Model 821A.  
	1 ea HP 200D  signal generator??  The case looks like homebrew, but it
has all the original parts bolted to the front panel (or should I call
it a case) Perhaps it is best described as it looks like a prototype or
first run 200D generator.
	1 ea Bolometer (like the HP vtvm or audio osc case) No other
information.  What is a BOLO meter????
	1 ea TTY to Morse code converter.  It is about the same size as my
CV-591 SSB Converter or about 6" tall and 19" wide.
	That is all for my first truckload.   I am still in a bit of shock,
first due to the sad shape of some of it, but also to the quantity.   I
will go back to help pick through the rest next Saturday.  I did see a
couple of TTY machines in the back, one a small portable with a pull out
keyboard, one ASR-33 I think and a big ASR 35 desk size with a punch,
reader and keyboard.  (I probably have the model numbers wrong, but
there is a small, medium and large unit :o) ))  
I am not sure about the rest as it was under a blue tarp.  The equipment
on the floor was the worst for the rain, and thus most of the heaver
gear was on the floor.  There are still 5 or six larger pieces still on
the deck rusted and crying for help. One looks like another ART-13 but
water logged.
	Feel free to tell me what some of this is if you have particular
insight.  Some I know but many I don't have a clue.   Bolometer? 
Heterodyne meter??  
	Oh yes, I forgot to add that he had a bunch of tubes that goes with
this gear..   Most are the larger types for the transmitters.  He was
also a collector of crystals as I am trying to list the 800 or so that
were in a large plastic milk jug.  They are all the size that fit the
Collins  CR-18/U, but I don't think the CR number is the physical size
as much as to the capacitance the crystal needs to oscillate.  Someone
will tell me what the CR number means I'm sure.  
This is all I could get in my truck to haul to my storage container.  I
stacked them on a pallet and rinsed them off with a hose jet, inside and
out.  It took all of 12 hours to retrieve, clean and store.  What a
Saturday.  Next Saturday I will go and get more...Much more.  Oh and yes
I only have a full bed pickup with sides I made with 4 x 8 sheets of
plywood for this trip. It was FULL and oversteered a bit.


Ray in Hawaii