[R-390] antenna trim repair

[Roger Ruszkowski]

Dave Kirk,
 
Thank you Dave for this segue way opportunity to stay on topic.
Sorry to see you moving away.

Dave, you are not the problem and the Fellows know they have let you down.
 

With over 20 years of wisdom on line as background resources, none of the reflector responses have answered your question yet.
Much creative thought in many different minds has occurred over the time span of this thread. This was a very good thing to happen. 
 

Dave, you asked the Fellows here on the R390 reflector what is the step by step procedure to open can A.
The gear atop can A was problematic prior to ever getting into production.
Some contract builds have parts that are obvious and these antenna cans disassemble nicely.
Rumor was that on some contracts the pin was set under sudden hydraulic force that effectively produced a forge weld between gear, shaft, and rivet.
The minimum repairable part in the parts manual was the entire can assembly with a gear on top and a bottom end that looks like one of Ripley's aliens.
 
Back when if an antenna trim can got soaked in the teletype degreaser big parts washer and failed then a can was replaced. What in a green pickle suit do you imagine can follow directions carefully enough to undo the damage with a pin extractor tool and one end only cotton swabs.
 
Things are different today and the kids are serving pizza across what was the parts room counter in Okinawa. Now we do need to open the can and remediate the effects of age that is catching up with many of the receivers today. Extra science and notes not found in the original manual are collected and readable. Ask Ray Kurzweil for a reader and it sound just like mp3 in your ears. Audio books from NPR.
 
Dave, you still are asking and I have not yet seen the clean explanation of what is and how to get on with the repair now knowing what is real metal.
The warm up responses were all good, relevant, on topic and contributing with imagination.  
 

Three days later and we all still do not know how to get the can open and parts inside fixed.
Not one thought, "let me go browsing and come back awesome".
And the good answer is shared with every one here on the reflector once again as a refresher on the topic.
 
I, Roger have no raw nerves. I poisoned them all back at age 20. Not necessarily the best physical behavior or solution. But I have empirical evidence to support my assertions that one does not need to live life with raw nerves about the body. I am not permitted to practice medicine without a license. I am no longer allowed to service equipment while it has power applied. The list of things Mother will not let me do here in her home has just gotten longer over the years.  The current out of the compound privileges (yard) to the PX are on Mon, Wed, Fri from 1 - 4 PM. While I have lived life like this before and suffered many weed killer overspray events while doing so this is not my life style preference. This restricted employment opportunity will pass and I will then really be off the deep end and on the road again. A jobs a job and when you ask God, that his will in heaven be made so here on earth and you let his son Jesus provide some error correction, then truly, the moment of some of the daily tasks do suck. The independent memory of the job can still be joy for eternity. It is not easy, but if you have the chance step up and receive some soul transforming love as you care for another human.
 
The R390 Fellows, humor a number of humans with special needs. I am one of the special needs cases and the Fellows have been very gracious to me as I have grown up some in the last 25 years while I was re-introduced to an item of history I never though I could afford to ever own before 1985. The R390 's were ferrite tuned not capacitor tuned. The band pass skirts of the ferrite tuned filter is better than capacitor tuned filter skirts. The VFO and the RF deck filters are still best of HF receiver design. Some are as good but none are noteworthy of being a better receiver. For the dollar investment and expected enjoyment the R-390 and R-390A while long out of production are still winning on the RF decks selective performance. The 455 IF output can be interfaced to the new modes of communication. Still best ever DX CW receiver in many books. I do not teach this receiver in school anymore. We have no need to know from who ever may still be working. There are over 475 pages of notes on just the RF deck mechanical bolts, nuts, clamps, gears, springs, pins, planetary gears, and the OMG all important antenna trim can, no one has gone to read the solution. Real time writing skills to assigned questions. The topic and question pool is copy right free and what ever you drop in the mail here is by extension of the topic also military surplus and free of copy right. Bring the text back, plagiarize the best of it into a coherent narrative and share it with us. My library and toys have been rotting in storage for the last two years, I just can not respond with reference to any question with out my paper copy memory. The Anal retentive want to be sociopath under studying with Brain every night and doing correspondence classes from Natasha had a PTSD overload on the college professor compartment and applied productive system repair time. I hope my over modulation distortion is not way out of band.
 
Dave's original question needs an exact procedure to satisfy the request. We Fellow's have not honored his request. And demonstrated our ability to actually guide a Fellow Amature and like mined hardware owner by looking into our archives and bringing a few pages back. More skill to those who trim the redundancy from the thread narrative. Twas a time 20 years go before the big Y2K crippled the planets Internet services when Barry, Nolan, Barry, Tish, Perry, Cecil, Barry, Wei Li, and many more humorist lead a reflector readership of over 300 active readers. Humor won and some social behaviors were adopted. Aspiring writers with an interest in the R-390 receivers have a forum here. We are not alone mailman.qth.net offers reflectors from a directory of topics. The mode is text only size did matter. 
 
Some times some one drops in long enough to get help with a problem. A minimum of six responses is expected on the reflector. Hello, welcome, I see your question or needs. You are indeed swapping mail with a group of like minded fellows who profess to know it all by virtue of done it our selves. And the answers you seek are as follows. Rest assured 200 plus readers are following this thread. This is not a vacuum environment.  Some real smart people look at the written responses that appear in public. No mercy shown fulfills some needs and humor is the only solvent of any use when a tar baby goes stick wicket.

Aspiring writers, can you lay down a 100 words in under an hour. Read the questions presented to us want to bees, look up the topic in the on line Pearls of Wisdom. Copy out 25 -30 pages of raw mail Wei Li was sorting into the oyster shells and building a pearl of knowledge around a point of irritation. The Y2K team produced the Y2K manual for the receiver. Still the best reading theory sections and some new art images that are still best available on the planet today. 

 All great stuff so let us remember it is there and go look at it our self now and then to make another fellows day brighter and produce a better work of business correspondence. Stake holder to stake holder we need all of us on each others radar. 
 
Respectfully,
 
Roger