[Milsurplus] Restoration dilemma

[Hue Miller]

----- Original Message -----

> Having just received a quite rare bit of WW2 kit I have a dilemma.
>
> It was obviously recovered from a wreck site, not even the hands of a radio amateur bogger (save
one I know) could have done this damage.
>
> But, do I restore it or leave it as it is? Its highly doubtful I could ever find all the correct
parts to fully restore it though substitutes could probably be used to make a working set.

Ben, that's not the front panel of a Nippon AAF type 99/3 receiver, the one on Ebay
with not much bidding, the one with the devastated innards?  That can't be it, i
suppose, because there's no restoring that one.

It all depends how much "restoration" is required. Would you basically be building
a mostly new set? Or supporting what's already there?
I have a Nippon NAF receiver that sat on top of the transmitter. I haven't a prayer of
finding the tx, and in this case, i've been thinking of building a "replica transmitter",
which would try to look original but wouldn't fool anyone except if viewed thru glazed
glass. I suppose i reckon that the receiver is the major (most complex) part of the duo,
thus building a replica transmitter is more like an accessory. Otherwise i would never
build a standalone replica, altho i have read of some displays and reenactors who have.

If you can manage the restoration, i think there would be massive good karma from
actually getting it to "fly again". I once saw in an aviation magazine a photo of a
BC-348 from a mountain slope in Niu Guinea. One of the investigation team had
pried the nameplate off. I think they should have brought it back instead of letting
it rust away.  Oh also BTW, only generally on this same topic, i was the other nite
reading a comment by "Uncle Tom" Kneitel ( Kneitel's wanna-be persona ) in E.I.
magazine ( may it be in peace ) where he said he found a US Command Set receiver
in the forest 20 in the Philippines, 20 years after the war, in a wrecked bomber, and
he just cleaned it up, applied power, and it played. Plug and play surplus, that's
quality. -Hue Miller
-Hue Miller