[Milsurplus] TBY restoration dilemma

[Barry Hauser]

Just my 2 cents, but I would restore both of them.

The TBY's had two or more different antenna mounts, one of which looked like 
an L-bracket.  Maybe it was switched over or removed.

If not, one way to finish off extra holes is to put some screws in them --  
preferably slotted pan-head screws painted OD.  This restores the original 
look and minimizes the annoyance of the extra holes.

Of course, you can patch the holes with epoxy and touch up with OD paint. 
The case aluminum is thin, so you would first need to epoxy in some small 
backing pieces (on the inside surface) from scrap aluminum -- even cuttings 
from a soda can.

Probably difficult to find another calibration chart, but you could probably 
make one up using the one you have as a guide.  It probably isn't all that 
important to you if the calibration goes with that particular radio - and 
the calibration is probably not "on" any more.  (If I'm not mistaken, the 
callibration charts were made up for each unit -- similar to the BC-221 
frequency meters.)

You could photocopy the pages of the one you have.  The lid is generally 
aluminum with the small holes along one end and spiral bound together with 
the pages.  The tricky part is to fabricate that aluminum cover -- depends 
on how authentic-looking you want it to be.  You could use the existing one 
as a template and drill all the holes on a drill press.  A cheapo solution 
is to buy a spiral notebook of the right size or larger and cut it down. Do 
something to simulate an OD cover using the cover the notebook comes with.

You can paste the photocopies to the bound pages, and remove the extra ones. 
If you fabricate from scratch, I would still "borrow" the spring from a 
spriral notebook.  You just clip one end where the spring is bent and rotate 
it out, then the reverse to assemble.  If you or someone nearby has a GBC 
spiral binding machine, that could help -- but it won't punch aluminum.

I am not advocating falsifying collectibles, but I think it's OK to dress up 
and simulate certain parts.  When the archeologists restore ancient 
buildings and pottery, they often patch things up to aid in reassembly and 
preservation.  Usually, however, they intentionally use a contrasting color, 
so it's clear to the observer what was original and let them visualize the 
whole thing as close to original as possible.  So, maybe a totally paper 
calibration book in a different color would be consistent with that -- just 
to aid in tuning and act as a "placeholder" for the original, which was lost 
to antiquity.

In this way, you would be preserving two TBY's as best as possible.

Later on, you might find a real chart -- but it will never be the one that 
was originally calibrated for that radio anyway.  Of course, you could 
replicate the layout of the pages and do your own calibration with a signal 
generator and frequency counter.

Well, that's what I'd do -- if and when I could get a round tuit. ;-)

Barry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "jedifox" <jedifox at optusnet.com.au>
To: "Milsurplus" <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2005 10:49 AM
Subject: [Milsurplus] TBY restoration dilemma


> hi group,
>           i have both a TBY and a TBY-2 , the TBY has extra holes drilled 
> in the antenna mounting side whereas the TBY-2's case is orginal
> but it doesn't have its calibration chart at all, but the TBY still has 
> its orginal one rivited to the lid.which one should i restore , i'm asking 
> this because i trust what the collecyive wisdom of this esteemed group 
> would have to recommend to me .thanks in advance for the good advice.
>
> highest regards
> leigh
>
>
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