[Milsurplus] More Gripping Torn.E.b. Tales

[Hubert Miller]

Last summer i looked at a Torn.E.b. receiver that i had worked on when i lived in Seattle before 1988.
I found inside a tiny weensy little output transformer, a transistor equipment sized component. I don't
remember at all replacing the output, but it must have been bad, or else i wouldn't have monkeyed 
with a replacement. It works, but it doesn't look good, taking up a tenth of the component space.
Last summer my brother and i tried to remove a severely pot metaled E.b. from its cabinet. Previous
attempts by me had no success, nor did my brother have any success on his own, and he's good at
all the techniques. So i held the receiver cabinet firmly while he smacked on the back of it with a piece
of wood driven by a mallet, kind of a last desperation technique. The receiver was a 1944, a sure zinc
alloy model. The change year for this was '43; the zinc alloy seems to have been introduced variably
in that year, AFAIK. The front panel had expanded enough that there was no obvious way to remove 
the receiver from the cabinet. My brother was tapping away when all of a sudden the front panel cracked,
a big piece cracked out. "GAME OVER" was the message. This E.b. became a "parts source" and presto,
i had a replacement original output transformer. Some '43 thru '45 pot metal models actually are intact
and work mechanically; maybe their storage conditions were more stable, who knows. The pot metal 
receivers weigh twice as much, tho - when you lift one, you will know it; it's dense like a BC-312, like 
kryptonite. I cannot, absolutely cannot imagine lugging the pot metal one with its heavy enough power 
supply unit below it. Maybe the pot metal ones were reserved for vehicle use, i hope. Anyway these 
wondrous machines were meant to last, what, one week to somewhat over a year, max, despite being 
crazily overengineered for that envisioned short life.
Max Kaplan of Gig Harbor WA years back showed me a Torn.E.b. with tube adapters. He had sacrificed 4
of the RV2P800 tubes for their bases. Then somehow ( it's been a long time ) he mounted 7 pin USA standard
tube sockets onto the RV2P800 tube bases. Then 1T4 tubes ( i think, makes more sense than 1L4, and 1U4 is
too late ) were plugged into the sockets. The new filament voltage of course is 1.5 not 1.8 - 2.0 volts, and 
current is 200 mA instead of 800 mA. Works fine, but with the differing filament voltage you cannot mix and
match, of course. 
From looking the European literature i see some hams modified coil sections to tune higher than 7100 kHz.
The several low freq bands are today useless, of course. 
OH one more thing. The Torn.E.b. evolution was toward simplification. I should have taken better notes when
i sold some of mine off, but the extensive shielding was simplified, decreased, and maybe - - eventually dispensed
with. When replacing a knob on a good with a knob from a junker - it was the regen knob or the audio knob - we
found that the controls had different diameter shafts - the replacement knob had to be drilled out a bit to fit the 
shaft on the to be repaired receiver. How's that for the German wartime "Gleichschaltung" program ( simplify and
make uniform) ?
-Hue Miller