[Milsurplus] Restoration Ramblings (was Rethinking Re-Capping)

[Al Klase]

On 12/2/2017 8:57 PM, Jim Whartenby wrote:
> ........The only technical museum that has operating displays, that I 
> am aware of, is at InfoAge in New Jersey, see: 
> http://infoage.org/index/radio-technology-museum/
> I am sure that there are others but I don't know of them.  Pretty sure 
> that even with modern components replacing the originals, it is a 
> constant effort to keep the displays operating.   Al Klase and Ray 
> Chase would know much more about this then I do since they have the 
> "hands on" experience of the day-to-day operation.
>
> The only answer I can see to this problem is to have two items, one 
> "shelf queen" to display that is pristine and one to operate which is 
> up to date component wise.  Pretty sure that 99.99% of the visitors to 
> the museum could not see the difference between the two pieces of 
> equipment.
> Jim
Gang,

First off, I want to thank Jim for the shout out re: The Radio 
Technology Museum.  Our web presents is a bit schizophrenic, the link 
above shows some nice pix with little else.  Here's our other website:  
http://www.rtm.ar88.net/ which includes some dated pix of the WWII 
Tactical Communications Display:
  http://www.rtm.ar88.net/Tac_Comm/Tac_Comm.html  There's twice as much 
stuff on display now.  Do come and visit us if you find yourself at the 
Jersey Shore.  Lots of other interesting stuff at InfoAge beside radios.

Our attitude, from the jump, has been that cold dead radios are not very 
interesting.  So, we try to have working examples on display. We have a 
broadband LF-MF-HF antenna over the building that feed a TMC 
distribution amplifier that feed the display radios, via coax. We also 
have a low-power transmitter feeding old-time music on 1080 KHz into the 
distribution amp.   So while most of the sets sit on our local sig., and 
any of them can be tuned to actual stations off the air.

Two of my restored sets, a slightly ham-hacked BC-348 and a 1936 GE A-82 
tombstone, have been playing without incident, three das a week for 
about 10 years.

Restoration:  See the video: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OYw2wfdSCs&t=3s  That's me as a kid 
20-some years ago.

Some specifics on the BC-348:  I replaced the power supply filters, it 
had an AC supply built in.  I replaced ALL the 0.1 uF Micamolds, I left 
the rectangular metal cap in place.  That's it.  It's played well for a 
long time, and I've restored numerous radios with similar techniques, 
getting similar results.

BTW, the GE A-82 is a nice all-wave set, and was one of only a few 
broadcast set advertised in QST, Dec 1935, p87.

Yes, there are some rare and significant radios that probably shouldn't 
be touched.  E.g. the AR-11 "Compact Transceiver for Covert Action," 
i.e., spy radio in our shortwave display.  (One recently sold on Ebay 
for almost 4 grand.)

My two cents,
Al

-- 
Al Klase – N3FRQ
Jersey City, NJ
http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/

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