[David Dunlop]

Actual, physical work on the 52-Set has been limited recently. I have spent most of my 52-Set time planning what needs to be done when I start work on the Supply Unit, making sure I have all the tools I need on hand before I start.

I am normally quite comfortable with disassembling a piece of wireless equipment on the bench and hunting down faults for repair, but I have come to realize with this 52-set Project that a huge portion of that comfort comes from knowing in the back of my mind that replacement parts for what I am working on are relatively common and easy to find. That concept held very true right up to working on the restoration of the two Receivers for the 52-set. With patience, original parts for the Receiver are easy to track down. the receivers are common. My level of concern shot up dramatically when I was working on the Sender, which also carried over to the Supply Unit. The Vibrator Supply Section of the Supply Unit that feeds the receiver is pretty basic electronics and quite similar to the remote Supply in design. The Sender Supply section, with its two big Robbins & Myers Rotary Transformers, drives the whole concern level back up to new heights. I am fortunate that testing to date indicated both sections of the Supply Unit are in pretty good working order and current indications suggest some careful inspection and cleaning of the Sender Supply Section will be enough to keep it happy for another 80 years, The Vibrator Supply for the receiver has a faulty component bleeding off 1.7 Volts DC somewhere, with a resulting proportional drop in the HT1 and HT2 Outputs for the Sender, so should not be too difficult to isolate and repair. The rest will just be physical repairs and replacements, but the shorter I can make the bench time, the happier I will be.

I recently obtained a new grease gun and mechanics stethoscope. I tossed my old grease gun some years after I stepped away from MV restorations. It was last loaded with Sodium grease that had badly broken down to a leaky oil and tossing was easier than cleaning at the time, as I had no real use for it.

The stethoscope was an odd purchase case years ago, but proved itself several times in finding the locations of sticky valves, tappets and blown cylinder head gaskets. I have no idea what happened to my original, but it likely got lost in one of several moves in my life. I have another high tech tool on order and currently in transit and have my eye on one more to get, when the price is right. With them all in hand, and with a couple of cartridges of grease yet to purchase, I should be good to go with restoring the 52-Set Supply Unit finally.


David