[Premium-Rx] Introduction

[Phil R]

 I just want to introduce myself - I'm Phil VY2PR from PEI Canada and I've just joined the Premium Rx list.  I have a Racal RA6790GM and two Collins-Rockwell HF-2050 receivers [one works].  I also have an R-390A and an R-392.
I'm a big fan of the HF-2050.  I've set up a yahoo group for it recently.  Rather than shamelessly promote it further, if anyone would like to join, contact me offlist.  
Apparently there are two power supplies for the HF-2050: the 115 volt +/- 10% variety and the 100/117/220/230-240 volt supply.  I learned this recently after ordering another purportedly NOS power supply.  The first I obtained truly appeared to be NOS and it was the conventional 115 +/- 10% supply.  The second supply was what I will term the "world" supply, and it looked like it was re-worked rather than NOS.  There are also some switching supplies that may work quite well too.
I run my working 2050 with the conventional supply at 100 volts using a Hammond multitap transformer to lower my household 121 volts. I experimented with the voltage taps - the next lower tap did not give enough juice and my variac said I needed a minimum of 92 volts.  Current consumption appears to be 75 watts, down from 100 which is 25 watts of internal heat avoided.  I use the traditional hockey puck spacers [unfortunately my local Walmart only stocks the Toronto Maple Leafs and I was too lazy to go to Canadian Tire].  But, I don't hate the Leafs, and the 2050 was made in Toronto ... so :)
I also use a couple low rpm 119 mm fans - resting on low profile rubber feet and laying on top of the power supply area, the other over the CPU vents - the latter is important as the CPU gets hot too.  I run the fans off the same 100 volt transformer - makes them even quieter.  On 100 volts, without the fans, the fault light would come on after 2 hours.  With the power supply fan only, and 100 volts, 2.5 hours.  Add in the fan over the CPU - after 8 hours, still no fault light.  Moral of the story - the CPU needs cooling too.  Oh yes, when the fault light would come on there was no error code.  
I had purchased the non-working 2050 first, thinking I could get it working - well, after great effort I was still unsuccessful - so I bought a working one.  I was inspired to buy the working 2050 by working on my R390A on the floor and smashing my knee into 75 lbs of R-390A.  I'm only 52, but the 38 lbs of 2050 is starting to get mighty appealing - plus I never was a clockmaker and the R-390A is fully of gears.  The non-working 2050 may eventually be a parts beast, although possibly someday I might yet get it working.  Yes, I replaced the power supply with NOS, de-oxited all plug ins, tried all possible suggestions reported over the years is the Premium RX archives etc.  Some tantalums were replaced by the previous owner, and I checked some more with my yellow Keysight capacitor wonderbox.
With respect to the Racal, the only problem I faced was an easy one - NiCd battery gave out [but no leaks] replaced it with an AAA battery holder and two Maha AAA Imedions.  Works perfectly now.  Thank you Hakko desoldering gear.
Take care and happy listening!
73
Phil Rafuse, VY2PRStratford PE Canada