[Milsurplus] polished bare metal panel R 390s on eBay

[Kludge]

-----Original Message-----
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Boeing377
> The TV show Pimp My Ride comes to mind. Too bad there wasn't a wider
public interest in 
> boat anchor restorations and mods. Can you imagine a TV show along the
lines of West 
> Coast Choppers?

Well, there was that rather unique BC-348 a few weeks ago.  :-)

I once had a BC-342 the panel and cab of which were beyond redemption.  The
receiver was in great shape electrically so I wanted to keep it.  After
removing the panel, I used it and the case plus those from a good receiver
as templates to build new ones out of aluminum angle, wood, Plexiglas and
bronze screen (back when it was commonly available in hardware stores) which
served quite admirably until I got an Rx that was a disaster electrically
but had a good panel and cab.  

Now I have a Gonset G-43 (the manual for which I have yet to find in PDF
format) the panel of which has the same cosmetic issues.  The Rx also has
some electrical issues to be resolved but not major ones to they won't be a
major stumbling block.  While I know that it and my SX-24 (which also has
some electrical problems but no major cosmetic ones other than a layer or
two of dirt) could never be considered even mediocre ham receivers, matching
them to (homebrew?) transmitters is one of the goals I have in mind.
Considering some hams started off with things like Heathkit AR-3s and
Hallicrafters S-38s, these would be stepwise improvements over them.

> Having swore off back breakers and wrist wreckers years ago, I find myself
once again in 
> possession of a broken but restorable R 390A and a similarly afflicted
Viking II. Things 
> seem to go in circles.

I've got an R-390A and an HT-32 that need some help.  They'll probably not
need anything major aside from some basic TLC (and the HT-32's VOX/anti-VOX
circuit bypassed with a PTT) so they should be easy to assemble into a
complete station.  

OTOH, I have an SP-200-SX that was pulled out of a tunnel here last year
along with some other forgotten stuff and has a WW II history here with one
or another agency.  I stood between it and a dust bin however it needs major
cosmetic work as well as an electrical going over and I'm not entirely sure
I'm up to handling it on my own, at least not the cosmetics.  It also needs
a power supply but I'm not about to worry about it until I have the Rx back
in condition.  Tracing its history has lead to a number of dead ends and
nothing that was with it offered any clues (It seems to have been a postwar
dumping ground from how it was described.) so it may wind up being a cipher
in that regard.  It would be nice to mate it up to an appropriate Tx that I
can hoist aboard the truck with any hope of success (which leaves the BC-610
out :-D ) to operate more or less as it would have been then.

Oh, the fun we have!

Best regards,
 
Michael, WH7HG ex-K3MXO, ex-KN3MXO, WPE3ARS, BL01xh ex-Mensa A&P PP BGI 
Escapee from the Home for the Terminally Weird
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/NTH/index.aspx
http://wh7hg.blogspot.com/
http://kludges-other-blog.blogspot.com
Hiki Nô!