[R-390] Cloth wire preservation and Soviet Mil Stuff

[Cecil Acuff]

Hey folks,

        I have a question that I though I would field to the group since I
know many of you not only work on R-390's but many other various makes of
boatanchor receivers.

I have a rough old tube receiver that has great potential.  It has cloth
wiring.  It looks as though the cloth is showing signs of deterioration.
One of the IF cans were removed when I got the receiver because of a problem
in the can...turned out both of the mica caps were leaky and one of the IF
coils open.  I had picked up a spare set of IF cans so I set out to replace
the thing.  The wiring was a mix of cloth and rubber insulated wire.  Why
they used different I don't know.  The rubber insulated wire was crumbling.
The cloth was coming apart where it had been manipulated to unsolder the
connections in the chassis.  I opted to replace all the wires with modern
plastic insulated wire.  It doesn't look original under the chassis but will
function fine.

My question: is there a way to preserve the existing wiring in the chassis
from further deterioration.  The wiring that is original and not pulled
around on much is still intact and the cloth still providing it insulating
properties but I would like to do something to preserve it if it can be
done.  I just don't really know what one might do to minimize further
deterioration.

I keep all my old radios in a humidity and temp controlled environment and
that should help...

For the record it's an SX-28A...In it's original cabinet and with it's
matching speaker.

The previous owner, who is now deceased, was well along in recapping the
receiver.  The job needs to be checked and finished. I am in the process of
removing a 2nd IF can to replace it's wiring and check the internal
components.  The wiring has come apart because I think the previous owner
had removed that can at some point as well.

I think it will make a nice addition to the R-390's and SP-600's when
finished.

On another topic...does any of you fool around with old Soviet Military
stuff.  Do you know someone that does.  I have accumulated some parts that
came out of some old Soviet Comm. vans that might be of use in maintaining
that type stuff.  It's all NOS parts and is in my way and needs to find a
new home.  I also have a couple pieces of test equipment and 2 real nice
Soviet mil. Morse encoding\decoding keyboards that were installed in a
couple of the vans.  They work once I converted the power supplies to
120VAC.

A lot of this stuff is marked with the C.C.C.P. markings...making them
interesting Cold War Relics.

Sorry for the ramblings for those of you not interested in this...just
wanted to make use of the best technical resource I know of on the
web....the folks on the R-390 list!

Cecil....