Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Dave, they all harden over time and better storage only slows the process. For my operating 19 sets I leave the headsets plugged in rather than risk breaking them. I've also noted that sunlight and warmth softens the snatch plugs as well as No.8 and No.9 aerial bases (this I discovered by accident when displaying vehicles with radios at various shows). A long term make work solution would be to cast new ones. The sculpture supply store I go to has dozens of plastic/resin mold materials one of which I'm sure would duplicate the right WW2 rubber consistency.

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Although I am physically inactive with the 52-Set Project at the moment, my Mind plays by a different set of rules. In this instance, it is firmly entrenched in the next step beyond getting the Main Set Receiver back up and working. It is merrily churning up all sorts of things relative to the Supply Unit.

One of the things on my Mind is the above noted parts, the conical rubber connectors between the various headsets and drop cords found on many wartime Commonwealth Wireless Sets. On the 52-Set, there are two 5-Point Sockets, No. 5 mounted amidships on the Supply Unit, of which one socket looks like it had a blow torch applied to the end of it, it is so badly deformed. So it will end up getting replaced with an NOS spare I have on hand.

Currently, on the “wireless-set-no19 Group” website in England, there is a very interesting topic running about the chronic failure of all sorts of electrical wiring in the Clansman and Larkspur wireless sets. The rubber insulations crumble rather like the wartime synthetic rubber tyres used to on CMP vehicles.

That thread brought me back to these wireless connectors. I have a headset connected to my Wireless Set No. 19 Mk III, which I still fire up from time to time and the plug and socket were last disconnected from one another some 20 years ago. It was a relatively easy thing to do. Gently flex the joint between the two pieces until the metal retaining ring popped out of its groove and then pull the two pieces apart. I tried doing that a couple of years back when I started the 52-Set Project and the first thing I noticed was the two rubber cones felt VERY hard and there was definitely no desire for the area around the joint to flex at all. So I stopped trying.

While looking for Headsets No. 10 for the 52-Set, I found a minty set on which the central rubber plug in the connector had been popped free. Why this was done I do not know, but it looked like a screwdriver had been dug about in the seam between the two parts to accomplish the task. Electrically this headset is perfect, but for the life of me I cannot reinsert the circular plug back into position. The rubber is just too hard.

What my Mind is playing with now is the notion I may very well get the complete 52-Set restored and running perfectly but not be able to connect a headset to it because all these conical rubber 5-Point Plugs and Sockets have hardened up too much over time.

So my questions are if anybody else has noticed these Plugs and Sockets have hardened up, is anyone still able to easily connect and disconnect these pieces on their wireless sets and is there a way to refurbish these pieces…just in case?



David

[Mike K]

A chap here in Adelaide ( VK5WT) had some repro No.8 bases made in a ceramic material . After painting the bases appearance was pretty good.

https://www.sentimentaljourney.co.uk...ase-aerial-No8

[David Dunlop]

Even though the work on the Main Set Receiver is on hold at the moment, things are still getting accomplished.

This morning, I had a lovely drive out to visit with Derk Derin and his lovely wife, Dawn. It is so nice to get out and visit with people once again. It was a good visit; we were able to catch up on a lot of general news and progress on our respective military restoration projects.

Part of that catching up was Derk passing on to me the PINS, Tent, Wood he found at our favourite surplus yard. They will make a very nice tribute and representation of the Kit No. 6 Tent Kit, which formed a part of the overall Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian system.

80 years on, I doubt very much any of these Tent Kits have survived undisturbed anywhere in any condition, never mind complete.

As per the first photo, these PINS were tied together with hemp twine in bundles of six for each tent and. Along with a second style were found inside the Wireless Tent Valise in a cotton bag. There is a small tied off loop in the end of the twine that probably secured a paper ID Tag at one time.

As per the illustrations in the Master Parts List, all these particular PINS have ‘C.M.C. 42' stamped in blue-black ink on one side of the head. That begs an interesting question. If a Wireless Tent existed in 1942 that Canadian Marconi was involved in manufacturing, they must have been doing it for either, or both of, the Wireless Set No. 9 and Wireless Set No. 9 Mk I prior to introduction of what became the Wireless Set No. 52.

The second photo shows this ink stamp on one of the loose PINS Derk found in a building on the verge of collapse.

The other photo is of two more loose PINS, the top one I have cleaned the years of accumulated dust and dirt off of it with Lemon Oil furniture cleaner and the ink stamp is just visible. The lower pin has not been cleaned at all, for comparison. I am not certain what the wood is at the moment, however my top two choices are either Oak or Douglas Fir.


David

[David Dunlop]

Just a ‘heads up’ that I copied the title ID in the previous Post verbatim from the 52-Set Master Parts List and have now discovered it held a typo. The VAOS Section Code should have been the one shown above here, not the ‘1J’ CMC printed in error.

David

[David Dunlop]

I got an email late yesterday afternoon my hook up wire had arrived so scampered up to the electronics shop first thing this morning to pick it up.

Project for the week: add appropriate leads to the replacement Trimmer Capacitor for my Main Set Receiver.

Project for next weekend: stay sane and get the Trimmer Capacitor replacement job done.


David

[David Dunlop]

Based on how nicely the test PINS cleaned up the other day, I took the two scruffy ones and cleaned them as well with Lemon Oil.

After it had dried, I gave the three PINS a very light coat of Boiled Linseed Oil with a small rag. After half an hour, I wiped off any remaining surface oil and left then dry for 24 hours. I then repeated the process.

Quite pleased with the way they turned out. The colour tone of the wood looks very much like what they all would have been when factory new and hopefully they will last another 80 years.


David

[David Dunlop]

If you look back to the first photo in Post #663, you can see the factory binding on the set of six PINS. The twine used to bind them is fine Jute. I was up at a local shop the other day studying their great selection of twines. I suspected the original was Jute as it has the right mix of strength and flexibility.

Two sizes were available, Fine and Heavy. The original bundle over 80 years has seen the jute relax and stretch a bit, letting the twist of the fibres expand a bit.The factory new 'Heavy' Jute I was looking at was thicker than the fine one currently is relaxed, so I could rule that one out straight away.

On the other hand, the 'Fine' was about three quarters of the thickness of the original twine, and when I carefully pulled on an available section of the original Jute, it tightened down to a thickness which was extremely close, so I went with it.

My plan is to leave the original bundle exactly as found. The other six loose PINS I am going to carefully clean and rebind in new Jute Twine to replicate how it was done and originally looked.


David

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Finding jute or any of the hundreds of replacements materials that were commonplace 75 years ago is always a challenge and a great pleasure when you do. We have a fabric store here (Lens Mill store) that has stock dating back decades and I've found great treasure there. Also local to me is Facca Fasteners that still provides me with all manner of slot head screws. My guy there tells me they just scrapped bins full of those screws (to make room and for lack of sales) but kept a bunch on hand for people like me. Somebody is getting a gift card this Christmas.

[David Dunlop]

I know what you mean, Bruce. There used to be two huge fabric stores here in Winnipeg that my Grandmother used to shop at between the Wars. I was able to find the Olive Green Oil Cloth in them that was used on Universal Carrier Seats back in the 1980's. As of 15 years ago, both are gone. Furniture Upholstery Shops that used to fill a page of the phone book are down to a handful today.

I found the Jute twine at a Peavey Mart which opened in our neighbourhood about 3 years ago. Kind of a Canadian Tire for the rural agricultural community but they carry some very useful products you never find in the 'big city stores' any longer.

David

[David Dunlop]

I was able to get new leads installed on the replacement Trimmer Capacitor this morning.

Of course, as carefully as I had thought the process out, I ended up modifying on the fly somewhat. But pre-thinking the steps out still helps overall.

What I found was that the amount of factory applied solder to both terminals I was dealing with on the C7D Capacitor was massive and I had no choice but to VERY carefully melt it away. I ended up with two dime sized blobs on the top of the work bench. Even with that done, there was no way I could get rid of the wire wrap still left on the terminal at the top of the right hand Stator Plate Post. I finally realized the left side post was virtually unused and new and both were part of one and the same circuit in the capacitor. So I ended up cutting a lead long enough to solder to the left terminal and shape over to the right to line up with where it will have to go when installed in the coil assembly.

By comparison, the second lead attached to the Rotator Plate terminal on the extreme left, was a piece of cake.

The two photos show the pair of new leads freshly installed with red lacquer over the soldered connections and with the original insulating sleeve for the Rotator Plate terminal slipped back in place.

So now I can 'relax' until the weekend and start the more serious part of this replacement process, fully aware there are going to be some surprises, regardless of the amount of planning I do.

David

[David Dunlop]

The process of replacing the C7D Trimmer Cap in the Main Set Receiver has now begun. I have lost track of the number of steps I expect this Sub-Project to take, as I keep breaking it down into smaller, more easily accomplished sections.

The first bit of work requires careful removal of the V1D Valve, Grid Cap Clip, avoiding any cockups.

The attached photos show this Clip in place and disconnected from the Grid Cap. The small, black sleeve covering the soldered end of the Clip has been slid out of the way, for purposes of desoldering the lead/clip connection. Interestingly, this particular sleeve was not tied in place. I will have to remember to do that when it is time to slide it back in place.

The clips themselves are quite delicate, and can crush easily. I need to apply a certain amount of tension to the clip lead while desoldering for the clip to slide off the end of the lead. The ID of the clip is not wide enough for a pencil to fit in it, but one of the modified wooden chopsticks I was using for spray painting some of the smaller parts on the Sender will work just fine.

I will post more pictures once the Grid Cap Clip is free. If I don’t post for a while, then I have gone to the Pub for some reason…


David

[David Dunlop]

I am still alive and sober!

The work on removing the V1D Grid Cap went pretty much as planned this morning with just one, improvised on the fly modification to the steps I had in mind.

As per the attached photos today, the Grid Cap pulled free easily when the soldering iron heated up the joint. Interestingly, the Grid Cap had a crimp fixture on the end of it that was not used. The lead was originally just laid on and soldered down.

With the Grid Cap and Sleeve safely out of the way, the next step was to join a 6-inch hook up wire extension to the grid Cap lead to allow for its retrieval from out of the Coil Assembly Shield, after the C7D Trimmer Cap was replaced. It was here the improvising took place. There was no working surface available to provide resistance or stability to the two pieces of wire that had to be soldered together. So I found a small strip of ¼-inch plywood and slipped it across the front section of the chassis under the two wires. I then lined the two wire ends up, one under the other and taped them in place. A touch of the soldering iron and a dab of solder and ‘done’.

My main point of concern with this step overall, was that the temporary extension of the Grid Cap lead was strong, and small enough to pass through the metal sleeve grommet in the hole on the top of the Coil Assembly Shield.

I took one of the spare Shields from the Spare Parts Receiver and tested putting the grid cap lead through it. A very slight resistance and the loom of the main wire passed in and out but all checked out just fine.

Next step will be to unsolder the three Coil Assembly leads needed to free up as much manoeuvring room behind the chassis as possible.

David

[David Dunlop]

For some reason I missed this little detail when dealing with these Grid Cap Clips on the Spare Parts Receiver.

The outer circumference of these clips has the following information stamped into them:

NATIONAL
GRID-CAP
MALDEN, MASS.
PAT. PEND.

David

[David Dunlop]

As noted a couple of Posts back, the next Step in the C7D Trimmer Cap replacement is to free up the three individual leads coming out of the mid point in the relevant Coil Assembly, to maximize the movement of the Coil Assembly, once free of the rear chassis plate of the receiver.

In the attached photo, these three leads are:

- The big long one heading up to the Pin on the V1C Holder. Valve V1C is the Mixer and this Pin is either numbered ‘6’ in the Canadian Numbering System, or ‘7” in the British Numbering System.
- The medium length lead running to the bottom terminal of the front capacitor C3T on Tag Board DR, immediately to the left of the Coil Assembly. This capacitor is the A.V.C. Decoupling cap.
- The short lead running to the lower terminal of the Tag Strip 1-Way mounted to the left side of the Coil Assembly.

Interestingly, all three of these soldering points show earlier, rather sloppy, soldering work, probably done at 202 Workshop when the two Coil Assemblies in this receiver were upgraded from the factory originals.

A closer look at all the connections on the Sharp/Flat Switch shows the same work having been done.

David

[David Dunlop]

The three individual Coil Assembly leads at the back of the receiver have now been disconnected.

When I looked at the V1C Pin the longest lead had been connected to afterwards, it seemed bent back somewhat and it had a large blob of old solder stuck to it that appeared as is it could be a path to ground, so I put the soldering iron on it and pulled a drop of solder off, the size of a BB pellet. I also returned the Pin to a more vertical position. Better to be safe than sorry.

Tomorrow will be an ‘Errands Morning’, but I hope to next get the Sharp/Flat Switch Knob removed from the front of the receiver and the two mounting screws for this switch removed so I can free the switch assembly up and see how much free play I might be able to gain on the Coil Assembly main harness.

I will be thinking ‘happy thoughts’ tonight.

David

[Lynn Eades]

Hi David, going back to post #664. Are you aware that you can edit any post you put up?

[David Dunlop]

Good Evening, Lynn.

Yes I was aware of the feature and have used it on many postings whenever the AI decides to run amuck grammatically.

I chose to leave things as is for the time being as there are more mysteries surrounding the Canadian Wireless Tent, than clear answers. At the moment, the PINS I have on hand, and a wooden mallet used to set the pins, are the only two items to be found in the VAOS and Tentage Listings published through the 1940’s and 1950’s. British and Indian tents show up but not the Canadian one.

I will probably revisit the mystery again , down the road, once I have the 52-Set back up and running.

Cheers,

David

[David Dunlop]

A somewhat stressful but positively productive day today so far.

As per the attached photos, I was able to remove the Sharp/Flat Switch Knob and release the switch from the chassis with no problem. It then hung quite nicely below the Coil Assembly I needed to work on. The six retaining screws for the Coil Assembly came out very easily, probably because they had been loosened up a bit when the two Coil Assemblies were upgraded. By comparison, there was a lot of factory, original varnish on the two mounting screws for the Sharp/Flat Switch and it took a careful increase in turning the screwdriver to pop them free.

The Coil Assembly I had to work on slid out quite easily with the anticipated resistance as the sleeves on the Rotator Terminal strips rubbed the edges of the holes. It was easy enough to give them a gentle squeeze with one hand while guiding the Coil Assembly free with the other.

I stacked some 2 x 4 bits up on the bench and topped them off with a portable bench vice at a height the Coil Assembly could rest against once free of the rear chassis wall. This left it at a nice working angle, leaving both hands free to attend to the necessary details.

You can see how wide open the gaps are between the capacitor plates after the spring tension released when the retaining nut broke, jamming them against each other. I then cut the two connecting leads to the Trimmer Cap free at the upper coil terminal ends. I then removed the two mounting screws holding the dead Trimmer Cap in place and that’s when things got a bit interesting.

I could not remove the old capacitor from the Coil Assembly. It should have simply lifted right off and away, but was getting hung up on something. It took a few worrisome moments to realize that when the rotator plate broke free from its tension spring, so did its related terminal post that normally sat on the left side of the Trimmer Cap. It had now swung back under the coil-mounting frame and was preventing the Trimmer Cap from lifting out. Once I realized what the problem was and sorted out how to get my left pinkie finger on the errant terminal, I was able to move it back to where it needed to be to lift the old Trimmer Cap free.

After that, the replacement Trimmer Cap went in quite easily and I was able to get the two leads I had installed on it earlier soldered in place quickly. It was then simply a case of reversing the disassembly steps to put all back in place.

The last photo shows the Coil Assembly remounted, the three individual wires resoldered and the Sharp/Flat Switch back in place. This evening I will resolder the Grid Cap Clip and Sleeve on the V1D Grid Cap Lead, tie the sleeve in place to protect the lead from the sharp edges of the V1D Shield Cap and fire the receiver back up to see if there are any noticeable improvements in performance so far.

Hopefully next weekend I can then get the receiver back over to my friend’s workshop where we can finish tweaking it back to life,


David

[David Dunlop]

I have now carefully brushed the loose dirt from the six remaining PINS, cleaned them all with Lemon Oil and given them two light coats of Boiled Linseed Oil, drying 48 hours between each coast and wiping any excess off, one half hour after application to prevent any surface sticky residue buildup.

I then took a sufficient length of new Jute Twine to give them the same double wrap and triple knot binding as the factory original set. there is a 1-1/4 inch loop tied off with a double knot on the originals where an ID Tag would have been fitted. I am leaving that open at the moment while I sort out the details of the tag. There are some bits of equipment hiding here somewhere with these tags on them, but no rush for the moment.

Surprising how close to the originals these cleaned up ones are when finished.

David

[David Dunlop]

The Grid Cap Clip has now been resoldered in place for Valve V1D, the protective sleeve slid back over the connection and a new lace tied over it and lacquered down.

With the receiver top panel back in place, I hooked the receiver up to the Remote Supply and turned it on. BIG Happy Dance The built in Crystal Calibrator came booming in all the way from 1.75 MC to 8.0 MC through Bands 1 and 2. I had to really back the volume off. Prior to this, with AF and RF Gain full on I could barely hear the calibrator signal which completely disappeared around 4.5 MC. The receiver is still not detecting the calibrator signal from 7.0 to 16 MC on Band 3, but a 66% improvement in this area so far is a huge improvement.

In RT Mode and connected to my dipole aerial outside, reception conditions were not great tonight, but I picked up the WWV Time Signal at 5.0 MC with no problem and could just find it drifting in and out at 2.5 MC. Quite pleased with where its at so far and hopefully another session in my friends workshop will have the rest sorted soon enough.

David

[David Dunlop]

So far this week, all I have been doing on the Main Set Receiver each evening has been to turn it on and let it warm up for 10 to 15 minutes. Then I turn on the Crystal Calibrator, let it warm up an equivalent amount of time and then randomly tune to several frequencies on all three Bands of the receiver.

Interestingly, at the start of this process, I had difficulty finding the calibrator signals on Band 3 (7.5 to 16 MC). Now, for some reason, I can track the calibrator all the way through Band 3. Granted, both RF and AF GAIN Controls are maxed out and you really have to pay attention, but they are there now. I cannot help but wonder is after so many years of inactivity, and misalignment, sufficient electrons are now flowing through some of the components once again, they can actually start doing what they were intended to do.

I have also cleaned the 9 Trimmer Capacitors in the RF Coil Assembly and have been dabbing their central tuning cores with alcohol each night in an effort to break up any dirt that might prevent them from turning. The plan for the coming weekend is to realign all the 8 Trimmer Capacitors in the IF Coil Assemblies and then do an alignment of the RF Coil Assembly and see how that affects the performance of the receiver.


David

[David Dunlop]

I had the Main Set Receiver over at a friends place this morning to have him mentor me through the alignment process for the RF Coils Assembly. I worked through the process twice and at the end of it the receiver now has signals booming in across all three bands. His part of town seems to have a lot less radio interference than mine does.

With the Main Set Receiver now back in the Carriers No. 4 and no longer deaf, I made an interesting discovery There is an open circuit somewhere in the Sender where the Aerial Feed passes though to the Receiver. When I bypassed the suspected problem area with a jumper cable, the receiver sprang to life with contact to my dipole aerial out back and WWV came booming in loud and clear on Band 3 at 10.0 MC on the dial. All sorts of other signals were to be found as well. Interesting that with the receiver completely deaf before the alignment work was done, I was completely oblivious to this problem.

The plan now is to bring the Remote Receiver up to this level of performance and then go back to the Sender. I have to complete the cleaning of oily soot from the lower chassis surrounding the 813 Valve Socket anyway and can take a closer look at the aerial circuit as well. I suspect it might be a problem in the Band Selector Switch but could also be the relay in there that disconnects the receiver from the aerial circuits when the set goes into transmit mode may be stuck open for some reason. Over all though, it was a great day!

David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

With the Main Set Receiver now back in the Carriers No. 4 and no longer deaf, I made an interesting discovery There is an open circuit somewhere in the Sender where the Aerial Feed passes though to the Receiver. When I bypassed the suspected problem area with a jumper cable, the receiver sprang to life with contact to my dipole aerial out back and WWV came booming in loud and clear on Band 3 at 10.0 MC on the dial.
...
The plan now is to bring the Remote Receiver up to this level of performance and then go back to the Sender. I have to complete the cleaning of oily soot from the lower chassis surrounding the 813 Valve Socket anyway and can take a closer look at the aerial circuit as well. I suspect it might be a problem in the Band Selector Switch but could also be the relay in there that disconnects the receiver from the aerial circuits when the set goes into transmit mode may be stuck open for some reason.
David

The most likely culprit is the transmit/receive relay - either stuck in the transmit position or not making contact (dirty contacts) in receive. Another possibility is a short circuit somewhere in the aerial wiring or the gas protection tube is faulty.

But a great day nevertheless.

Chris.

[David Dunlop]

So this weekend is the time for me to align and calibrate the Remote Receiver for my 52-Set. First step will be doing the two IF Coil Assemblies and see where that leads things.

The RF Input Signal I will be using this time will come from my early 1950’s Stark Signal Generator. I tested it out a few days ago and found it is very well calibrated, compared to my Canadian Model SG-1 Signal Generator. I need an output signal of 420 Cycles with a 400-cycle modulation. 420 Cycles is well below the frequency range of the receivers I have on had, but I realized I should be able to tune in the 5th Harmonic of that signal at 2100 KC on the Remote Receiver. I was indeed able to find it and it was exactly at 2.10 MC on the Receiver Dial, which told me the 420 Cycle setting on the Signal Generator, was spot on.

Getting a test signal into the receiver is the start, but you need a good reference output to adjust to. The recommendation is to bypass the speaker entirely and use one of the Phone Sockets to put a meter across and tune t the optimum deflection on the meter.

As it turned out, one of the other vintage bits of test gear I have had sitting quietly on a shelf over the years is a 1945/46 SOLAR Model CF Exam-eter. Its primary claim to fame all those years ago was it was one of the first pieces of test gear that could accurately test capacitors while they were still fully connected to their circuits. Typically, without such a piece of test gear, one has to remove one end of the capacitor at the very least, or completely remove it to get an accurate reading. As well as testing capacitors, this Meter does all the other things a VTVM can do and more. What caught my eye when reading the manual last week was that this meter can be used for Alignment Work.

Since I am going to have to go though the alignment process with this receiver 2 to 3 times to really fine-tune it (and go back one more time to redo the Main Set Receiver). I thought a more permanent Test Lead would be in order, rather than jury-rigging something temporary.

What I came up with is built around what the Eagle Eye Wireless Owners out there will recognize and the cord from a Morse Key No. 9 that I had parted out some years back and if I ever need it for its original purpose again, it is very easily restored back to original condition.


David

[David Dunlop]

It is getting a little crowded on the work desk now.

From left to right in the attached photo are the Remote Supply, the Stark Signal Generator, the Remote Receiver and the Solar Exam-eter.

It will be interesting to see just how much this receiver has been played with in its past Life.

Although it can tune in stations across all three Bands, it is not as crisp as the Main Set Receiver now is, which is interesting because up until now, this Remote Receiver had been my performance bench mark.

What I have found interesting so far is if you try and tune any signal in to a ‘Zero Beat’ point, the top half of the Zero Beat cycle is chopped off and the bottom half seems much more extended than it should be. I am now somewhat curious if a prior owner was trying to retune this receiver to pick up lower sideband signals, but still have not wrapped my head completely around what is going on.


David

[David Dunlop]

A rather eclectic weekend of 52-Set work has just passed.

First and foremost, with the help of a lot of colourful muttering to myself, I was able to tune all the Trimmer Capacitors in the IF Coil and RF Coil Assemblies of the Remote Receiver. It helped a little bit, but not enough to get rid of the chopped Zero Beat Tuning phenomenon. I am going to have to bite the bullet and retune all the related coils. That will be a real challenge as two of them carry a HUGE amount of electrical potential and a proper insulated adjustment screwdriver is essential for that work. So I will have to schedule humping the Remote Receiver to my friend’s place down the road to finalize the adjustments this receiver needs.

With that out of the way, I decided to revisit the Sender to see why the aerial feed between it and the Receiver lacked continuity, so out that brute came from the Carriers No. 4 for a closer look.

A close inspection of the suspect Relay Switch proved it was in perfect working order and so was the Band Switch. That brought me back to the Aerial Output Socket on the Sender. I discovered two things there. First, the screw holding the Plug on the end of the Aerial Feed Cable was loose. Turned out an internal toothed lock washer was missing and the Plug was loose enough on the terminal fitting of the cable to produce intermittent isolation. Second, the Plug itself was a very loose fit in the Aerial Socket. Every other similar socket on hand produced a very snug fit for the Plug. By gently sliding a small slotted screwdriver between the four Socket Tabs and the Sockets large Bakelite housing, I was able to close up the gap for a much better Plug fit.

When getting ready to put the Sender back into the Carriers No. 4, I found the lower Shakeproof Cowl Pin on the Blower Door would not unlock. I have found it very helpful to have this door open when reinstalling the Sender in the Carriers No. 4. It provides easy access to the Sender chassis to nudge the Sender fully home. The two Knobs on the lower part of the Sender do not provide enough leverage to move the mass of the Sender in its upper portion where the two 8-Pin Connector Plugs need to link up. A careful look behind the Sender Panel revealed the Locking Pin in the Shaft of the Lower Shakeproof Fastener was falling out. I then remembered it was a much looser fit when installing it than the upper one. I was able to get it out and replace it, but this time let a little clear nail polish wick into the pin hole to hold it in place. Those two Shakeproof Cowl Fasteners on the Sender Blower Door still are a mystery. The upper one I have is shorter than the lower one and does not engage the Receptacle on the Sender Chassis at all. The lower one works just fine. Two more exist on the Receiver Section of the Supply Unit. The Parts List gives three Shakeproof Cowl Fasteners in use on the 52-Set but no reference at all to which ones go where. I am going to have to resort to a survey of all owners of surviving 52-Sets to determine what they have in their sets and see if some consistency turns up for working fasteners in both locations.

Once the Sender was back in the Carriers No. 4, I reconnected everything and fired it up once more. Happy Dance! I had full continuity from the Receiver all the way through to the dipole aerial outside. Even nicer to hear for the first time, were the changes in audio output in the Receiver when the Sender Band Switch was changed to and from the same Band at the Receiver was set to, and the three Tank Coils used in the Sender to tune it and the Receiver to the aerial in use, were finally working. Now I just have to get the Coils, Aerial Tuning No. 2A linked into the system.


David

[David Dunlop]

Several years back I had purchased a preassembled 12-foot Aerial Connector Cable Assembly for use with an FRG-7 I owned at the time. It was a run of RG-58A/U Coax with a UHF Plug at each end. The first time I tried it; the Central Conductor of one Plug jammed in its Socket and tore out of the Plug Assembly. A close inspection showed the Plugs used were cheap; using folded central pins, rather than rolled ones. The folding was off, creating one large sized face that stuck. Set the cable aside and forgot about it.

This morning I dug it out of a bin and decided to lop off the duff end and convert the cable to a small ring terminal at that end to allow for the future fitting of a turned brass PLUGS, Aerial. The type that sits at 90 degrees to its cable and has a cheese head BA screw holding it in place. I could then use this coax cable to connect either of my two 19-Sets, or my 52-Set to my external dipole aerial.

I got the job done this afternoon, and decided to see how the Main Set Receiver reacted to officially being connected to the dipole through all its proper fittings. I use ‘proper fittings’ carefully because at the moment, the Connector between the Sender Output Socket to the Coils, Aerial Tuning No. 2A, is about 4 times longer than it should be and that might be putting a bias into the works for a while.

It was so much fun listening to the WWV Time Signal at 5.0 MC slowly improves as the Sender and Coil Tuning came into play. I cannot help but wonder when the last time was, here in Winnipeg, when the Receiver of a complete 52-Set operated this way.

The three photos are of the cable I reworked for the task, the 52-Set up and running with all bits finally interacting and the output feed to the dipole on the wall, with the running CPP-2 Power Supply doing its thing on the lower shelf. If you look carefully in the last photo, you can see the output leads from the CPP-2 connected to the DC Voltage Distribution System I built for the Wireless Bench. On the back wall, just above the bench and between the two 19-Sets, you can also see the Battery Cable for the 52-Set connected to one of the 3 Distribution Boxes in the system.

A big thanks to Bruce Parker at this point once again for sending me the spare Coils, Aerial Tuning No. 2A he had on hand when I started this crazy project. Between it and what I had on hand, I now have a complete and functioning Coils and was even able to send a couple of spare bits to a fellow 52-Set Restorer in Northern Ireland to help with his work.


David

[David Dunlop]

This Project is at a very interesting point right now in that the pieces I have been working on for the last three years are finally interacting with each other to some degree. Kind of like when pieces of a vehicle start coming back together in a meaningful way. The timing for this is very good since I have to step away from the Receivers and Sender for a couple of weeks and I can take the time to review the work done to date to identify details I have missed, or not fully recognized the importance of, in my restoration work to date. For example, the noisy tuning coils in the Sender. I have now discovered these since the Receiver can once more interact with it as it as it was intended.

In addition to the three Aerial Loading Coils located in the Sender, there is also the much larger Coil, Aerial Tuning No, 2A that sits on top of the Carriers No. 4. The latter item is noisy throughout its tuning range, which is not the least bit surprising, since I have done no internal cleaning of that assembly at all so far, It will eventually be carefully disassembled, however, in order to restore the paintwork inside and outside of the wooden case, to return it to original Marconi Semi Flat Olive Green. At that time the Coil Assembly and its related WHEELS, “V” Contacts, will be fully cleaned.

As for the coils in the Sender, I did clean all of them of the sooty residue covering them, but did not pay as much attention as I should have to their related WHEELS, “V” Contacts. The result is intermittent scratchy spots on them as they tune throughout their ranges. The same effect as you hear on an old radio or television volume control that needs cleaning. What I think I will do in the interim is set the two sets of coils back to their start points of ‘0000’ on their Counters and then run them both full range, recording the Counter Values at every noisy section. Then, once I can get back to working on the Sender again, I will be able to find each spot on the coils that needs attention, as well as giving the WHEELS “V” a good cleaning.

The other thing I will be focusing on for a while will be a careful study of the actual Operating Procedures for the 52-Set. I need to be far more comfortable with the process than I currently am, and that only comes with reading, learning and practise. The Working Instructions Manual has good information for this but it does tend to be spread out through the manual a bit, which makes the flow of the information a bit choppy. On the bright side however, I discovered that some time ago, I had obtained a copy of the TELECOMMUNICATIONS FZ 523 1st Echelon Work for the Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian. Issue 1 dated February 1945.

This is an excellent training source, covering all the operating steps in a very nicely arranged sequence. It also has a wealth of useful Operators Reference material, troubleshooting information and Maintenance Data. One thing I did notice is you have to pay attention to what piece of the 52-Set they are discussing when it comes to working with the Meter, which is mounted in the Receiver, but services the Sender as well.

On the Receiver, the switch for the Meter is called the ‘METER SW.’, but on the Sender the switch is identified as ‘METER SWITCH’. In order to activate the METER SWITCH on the Sender, the METER SW on the Receiver has to be turned to ‘SENDER’.

See what I mean?


David

[David Dunlop]

Two weeks past cataract surgery on my right eye and so far so good. One good eye and one blurry eye definitely wreaks havoc on one’s ability to perform detail work, however. Even trying to read up on operating procedures has its challenges. Sigh! Two more weeks and the other eye should be done, so fingers crossed.

In the meantime, while looking for things I can actually accomplish, I stumbled across my old A and B Lists of things to find for the 52-Set Project. A surprisingly large number of things could be crossed off both lists now, which was encouraging.

Close to the top of the list overall now is the CURTAINS, Waterproof to install across the top front of the Carriers No.4. Be interesting to learn how these were originally packed from the factory; tagged and packed in sets in boxes, or individually rolled and wrapped in brown paper? Could have gone either way I suppose. Also be interesting to learn who made them.

David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Two weeks past cataract surgery on my right eye and so far so good. One good eye and one blurry eye definitely wreaks havoc on one’s ability to perform detail work, however. Even trying to read up on operating procedures has its challenges. Sigh! Two more weeks and the other eye should be done, so fingers crossed.
David

For reading (assuming the un-blurred eye is the fixed one and you chose "distance vision") I'd suggest a pair of cheap reading glasses and tape over the lens for the blurry eye. (If the eyes are too far apart in terms of focus distance you won't be able to correct with a lens and get stereoscopic vision because of the difference in perceived image size - which is why they do both eyes.)

Best regards,
Chris. (Who has been "fixed focus" for a number of years now.)