[Milsurplus] PP-86E

[W4AWM at aol.com]

This is the power supply for the AN/TXC-1 as Robert Downs mentioned and it 
was a BIG fax machine.  I went through school on those beasts back at Scott AFB 
back in 1956. Ah, I can still smell the odor of burning fax paper as the 
stylus cut through it.

If my memory does not fail me, it had a perferated cover with diamond shaped 
cutouts and was painted wrinkle OD. The interconnecting cable was captive to 
the PS and was about as big around as your thumb.

I recall being called to the WX station at McClellan AFB to repair the 
machine itself. I determined that a tube socket had arced and had a path to ground 
so I replaced the machine and took the dud back to the shop where I promptly 
began to replace the tube socket. Being a ham, this was no big deal and I never 
gave getting into it a thought.  About that time, the NCOIC came in and asked 
what I was doing.  When I told him, he proceeded to hace a fit, saying that 
the repair was something that only the depot could do.  BY that time, the old 
socket was out and I had started installing the new one.  He said it would never 
work and we would both be in big trouble.  I told him to get some coffee and 
come back in a half hour.  He came back in forty five minutes with the OIC and 
I could see through the glass in the door that they were not very happy.  
Imagine their surprise when they entered the room and the fax was smoking merrily 
away with the latest WX map.  They never bothered me again.

73,

John, W4AWM