[R-390] Trim Caps on Mechanical Filters

[Tim Shoppa]

Flowertime01 at wmconnect.com wrote:
> I think if we look at decks with and without trimmers on the bottom side, we 
> will see that the decks have a lot of differences to allow the caps to be 
> inserted. There was just not a big blank chassis wall space there waiting for 
> additional caps.

Actually, there was a big blank chassis wall space.  I've got right in 
front of me an early no-trimmer Collins IF deck and a with-trimmer EAC
IF deck. I do see some changes in components (they were built more than
a decade apart after all) and wiring between the
two, and a significant improvement in sheet metal in the EAC (which
has bossed in nut threads on the shield between the last two IF
switch wafers, while the Collins has a nut and a washer). But if the
holes were put in the outer wall and the little trimmer board were
added, there are absolutely no physical constraints to putting them
into the old Collins.

Overall the much later EAC has sheet metal work that looks spiffier
and done with fewer pieces and joints and nuts and bolts. Mounting
of grounding lugs etc. differs in a few ways from the Collins as a
result but I can see that the EAC layout is more highly evolved.

I do feel that the trimmer tree at the top of a trimmer-cap IF filter box
looks ungainly and fragile, but they did it anyway... On one of
my trimmer IF decks it looks like a trimmer cap broke off the tree and
was glyptol'ed back on.

Tim.