Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[James D Teel II]

The color difference between the clean/unclean section is amazing! Keep it up. Like I’ve told you before, I enjoy following this restoration.

[David Dunlop]

Thank you for your comments, James.

As predicted, today has been a major rain and thunderstorm day, so no polishing, to which my fingers are eternally grateful!

Before the rains arrived, however, I did accomplish some good errands. I picked up another 75 ml tube of polish and found it is now pushing $18.00 Cdn a tube now, but still well worth it.

I also dropped into the local RONA and bought an 11 foot length of rubber sheathed 16/3 power cord to replace the one on the new CPP-2. when I feel up to moving it again.

The other thing I did was take a look at some modern electrical components I thought would be suitable replacements for fittings needed to eventually replicate the AERIALS, Horizontal, 4-Section used with the Wireless Set No. 52.

The 14 gauge 7/22 Hard Drawn stranded copper aerial wire is still readily available in the United States, but seems to have disappeared out of the usual Amateur Radio markets here in Canada. I am not about to order any at the moment though. I realized I now have 13 parcels sitting at my local US Border Mail Depot I cannot retrieve because the border is still closed. No need to be adding to that right now.

Geoff Turcott sent me a couple of detail photos of his 52-Set aerial and it looked like some modern items would be good fits.

The two attached photos from Geoff show the Section quick connect/disconnect fittings, and the splice fitting between the end of the aerial and the Feeder Cable to the Set.

The third photo shows the modern substitutes I found, They are all MARR 14 gauge crimp connectors. The photo shows the packaging, the fitting with blue insulation attached and with the insulation peeled off. The Male/Female Bullets will work nicely for the Section Connections and the Butt Splice Connector for the Aerial to Feeder Splice. I will crimp them all as well as solder the fittings, when I get to that part of the project.

One other fitting to look into locally and that part of the project should be good to go.

David

[David Dunlop]

Beautiful and sunny this morning so another bit of polishing has been accomplished. Nice to be this close to the finish of this portion of the project. Just over 75% done now and 21 of the decals are 'popping' like they used to on the panel.

My brain is telling me to get some more polishing done today since rain is supposed to return for the rest of the week. We shall see how that idea goes and if I get more done, I will update the progress later today.

David

[David Dunlop]

I ended up taking advantage of the sunshine today and getting a bit more Sender panel polished. I can now finally say the polishing process has reached all four edges of the panel.

David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

...

The other thing I did was take a look at some modern electrical components I thought would be suitable replacements for fittings needed to eventually replicate the AERIALS, Horizontal, 4-Section used with the Wireless Set No. 52.

The 14 gauge 7/22 Hard Drawn stranded copper aerial wire is still readily available in the United States, but seems to have disappeared out of the usual Amateur Radio markets here in Canada. I am not about to order any at the moment though. I realized I now have 13 parcels sitting at my local US Border Mail Depot I cannot retrieve because the border is still closed. No need to be adding to that right now.

Geoff Turcott sent me a couple of detail photos of his 52-Set aerial and it looked like some modern items would be good fits.

The two attached photos from Geoff show the Section quick connect/disconnect fittings, and the splice fitting between the end of the aerial and the Feeder Cable to the Set.

The third photo shows the modern substitutes I found, They are all MARR 14 gauge crimp connectors. The photo shows the packaging, the fitting with blue insulation attached and with the insulation peeled off. The Male/Female Bullets will work nicely for the Section Connections and the Butt Splice Connector for the Aerial to Feeder Splice. I will crimp them all as well as solder the fittings, when I get to that part of the project.

One other fitting to look into locally and that part of the project should be good to go.

David

Do you need the wire clips for the chain-link insulators? I think I have some insulators with them fitted in the "bits box"...

I'll also see if I can get decent photographs (and measurements) of the multi-section WS19 aerial I've got (6 sections + two insulator strings) which I think was an early attempt at replacing the Truck & Ground station set of 6 wire aerials. (Except that the manufacturer Got It Wrong and the first section is 10 feet too long....)

Best regards,
Chris.

[David Dunlop]

Hi Chris.

If you mean the 1/2 to 3/4-inch, copper, double barrel, wire crimp clips securing the aerial wire around the insulator links, they are apparently still in use in Tackle Shops for securing fishing line. Go figure! Will be looking into their availability locally. On line at the moment shows just 100+ bags of them listed, which is a bit of overkill for this project.

If you mean the heavy, chain link fence type wire, oval split ring clips used to secure the ends of the aerial assembly to the top plates of the masts, I can indeed use a pair of those. That looks like a form of clip which has gone completely obsolete these days.

David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Hi Chris.

If you mean the heavy, chain link fence type wire, oval split ring clips used to secure the ends of the aerial assembly to the top plates of the masts, I can indeed use a pair of those. That looks like a form of clip which has gone completely obsolete these days.

David

Yes, the insulator to mast plate split rings.

I'm fairly sure I've got spares (fitted to 3-link insulators).

They have been known to be brittle in the past - I had one shatter when I tried to open it up far enough to fit to a mast plate, and the break was crystalline.

I'll drop a couple into the box.

Cheers,

Chris.
(That WS52 panel is looking wonderful, by the way.)

[David Dunlop]

Thank you Chris for the comments and aerial bits. All are very much appreciated!

I was able to get one more section polished back this morning. Timed it well, as the overcast is just now starting to roll in for the day. I think two more good polishing mornings should do it for this piece of the project. Then I can concentrate on touch up paint needed for the panel.

David

[David Dunlop]

Finally, after 18 days of polishing, the Sender panel of this 52-Set, once again has a consistent, close to original, coat of Gloss Navy Grey visible on it.

Only fitting I compare this to a photo of what I started out with on the first day of this task.

It got a little dicy in the last 45 minutes of todays session when the clouds started rolling in and out, but its done now.

Next step will be to pick up a can of grey oxide primer and get ready for the paint touch up work.

David