Stereos and Supras

 Been keeping pretty busy with my never-ending list of projects. BUT....it's good to keep busy in retirement, or your brain and body turn to Jell-O. 

And I don't like Jell-O.

One of the main reasons I've been "running slower" than usual is my vision is deteriorating due to cataracts. I'm going in on Wednesday to have my right eye taken care of, and they'll do the left eye a month later. SLW had this done last year, and sailed right through it. She (and the Doctors) tell me I'll be amazed at how much better I'll be able to see. Right now I'm about 20/100 in the right eye, and 20/40 in the left. I can still do most things, but reading, typing, and detail work have taken a hit the last month. So I figured I owed my "readers" a bigger post than my usual dribblings.

Anywhoo.....

The repair/cleaning of the Fisher RS-2010 is coming along nicely. It took a while to source the incandescent panel and indicator lights, and now I can replace them. This radio was introduced in the Fisher 1978 catalog, and while I don't know the exact year this one was made, most of the indicator lamps look original; Very dark, silvered inside the bulb, and they were all dim. It's been repaired at least once in the past, and some of the repair work wasn't up to (my) standards. It's also a bit different that the Service Manual shows.

Ancient, darkened panel lamp. Not even in a socket! The leads are individually soldered to a wire terminal coming out of the glass envelope. Very time consuming to hunt down proper replacements and put the new ones in.

The other lamps used or the "Function" indication were equally bizarre. They were bigger than "Grain-O-Wheat" lamps, and had wire leads.

 And there's a whole flock of them living behind the front panel. Almost looks like they're nesting.....

The different colored lead wires are from previous repairs. Fisher held the bulbs in the holders using something like rubber cement. The previous repair apparently didn't have any, as some of the bulbs had little strips of electrical tape wrapped around them to wedge them into the holder........duuuuhhhh.....I can't let this out of my shop with these "issues".

And since the Service Manual differs from the "As-Built", I had to make a new diagram of how the dial cord is strung on this unit, and not Go By The Book. And the problem with the tuning being all wonky was that this little bit dropped out of place,

Which caused the shaft on the Main Tuning Capacitor to wobble, and fall out of place as I was checking it.

This pretty much made restringing the dial cord mandatory, along with all the little pulleys and things being gritty, stuck, loose, and other ailments.

 Oh. and then there's this:

What is it? Dunno. Not on the views of the chassis or board pictorials, and if it's on the schematic, it's not designated as being off the main board. I'm going to have to see what it's connected to. I had to pull it loose, as this capacitor is one of the ones running at ~95% of it's rated voltage. 

I'll take my "eye patch" time to do easy stuff on this like finish cleaning some items on it, and then I'll get back on it full-bore. Chasing down the parts on this unit has taken about double the amount of time it usually takes. The capacitors are easy-peasy, and it took some time to find the current replacements for the previous replacements for the obsolete transistors, but tracking down suitable replacements for the lamps was a bit frustrating, as these all run on 8 VAC, a bit unusual for indicator lamps.

Annnnnd.... Work continues on the Supra. I finally got the Intake Runners off the engine, and that makes getting to the starter, fuel filter, fuel hoses, water hoses. and wiring harnesses on that side of the engine much easier. Took a good hour of cleaning greasy mud off that side of the engine before I pulled the starter because the bolts were buried!

The two main battery cables are out , so I can document them and send the info to the place that makes new ones. 

The remaining cable I'm updating in the harness is the one that runs from the alternator output stud to the new junction box I fabbed up to replace the disintegrating original one. I'll get a larger gauge cable with ring lugs from the people doing the others. It's the main junction point between the high-current battery lead to the rest of the car. It's where the two main Fusible Links are located, and was really nasty looking. It's also where the high-current lead to the new fan controller will go. And I'm experimenting a bit to build a "Soft Start" control, rather than slamming a relay closed and whacking my electrical system with a 40 Amp surge as the fans speed up. More on that to follow.

Hope y'all have a good, safe week!

Happy Father's Day!

 To all the Dad's out there. May you have a peaceful, quiet day.

With coffee!

Still working on my "Mega Post", but it's a bit hard to do with the vision problem. I'm having my right eye operated on this Tuesday, and the the left eye next month.

Been Busy....Follow-Up Post Coming Soon To A Browser Near YOU!

 Been a week since last post. Been busy herding grandkids, playing with the dog, yard work, house items, and working on all manner of stuff.

More to come, with pix.....

Massive Storm East of Colorado

 The Spring/Summer weather is always interesting to watch here. Here in the foothills we're more sheltered than folks living East of here. My son's place in Greeley, about 30 miles Southeast of here, got absolutely hammered a couple of days ago. His backyard flooded, and the water ran into the basement via the back door. He was lucky, other than some trees stripped by hail, he sustained no damage. People in other parts of town got flooded, and there was a fatality.

When I was checking the weather earlier, this storm showed up:

It extends North into South Dakota, and South into Kansas. Sure glad we don't live in the storm's path!

Are We Down To One Box Now?

 This "case" set some unpleasant precedents. Does this mean we get to see Barry's birth cert? Marriage license? Why not?

Memorial Day

 

WWVB Antenna Damage

 When we first moved here, I was a bit concerned about ice and snow bringing down my antennas. The first few Hams I met laughed and said the WIND would kill my antennas long before I had to worry about ice and snow getting them.

In early April, we had a severe storm system that went through with rain, hail, and very high winds. Wind speeds were excess of 90MPH out on the plains, like where WWV is located. One of the "Triatic Cables" holding the Capacitive Loading Assembly, aka the "Top Hat", failed, and the other eight wires it supports came down

Full article, with lots of pictures, is here at the WWV Amateur Radio Club website.

Supras and Stereos.....

 The repairs on the Fisher RS-2010 are proceeding, but a bit slower than I expected. The failed transistor is an obsolete part number, so I had to search around and find a proper substitute. Found a replacement, but it turns out those are obsolete, too, so more searching took place. Finally found a suitable, modern transistor, and it's compliment, and ordered 10 of each. I also found numerous electrolytic capacitors that were used AT, or slightly under, their maximum rated voltage. Running a capacitor rated 63 Volts in a 60 Volt circuit is a huge mistake. I'm surprised they haven't failed already. So, parts are (finally) on order, and I'll continue to clean it up as I wait for the parts to arrive. Parts installation and reassembly isn't difficult, and then I can do the alignment of the receiver, and finish it up.

And work continues on the Supra. The front Main Seal was starting to leak, and between the oil, and rubber dust from belt wear, it was real grease pit under the timing cover.

Took a lot of scrubbing, but things are clean now, and I can start putting this section back together.

Next up is to get the intake runners off so I can clean up this side of the engine.

 

Should be pretty nice looking after it's finished.

Sixty Years In Amateur Radio

 I just realized that it was 60 years ago this month that I received my first Amateur Radio License.

I'd always been given old electrical things by my neighbors, and was given a few "Old Radios" that would be worth a nice chunk of change these days. Some of them had "other" frequency bands on them labeled as "Short Wave", and by connecting a long piece of wire to the antenna terminal, I was able to hear stations from all over the world. I was hooked!

A grade school friend who I still keep in touch with helped me build my first "Real Radio", a Knight-Kit "Star Roamer" shortwave receiver.

In the Summer of 1964, he and I attended the Novice Class License classes that the local radio club put on, and we both passed our code and theory tests, and were duly licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. In those days, it could take 8~10 weeks to receive your license, and after about six weeks, watching the mailbox became an obsession. My Dad was so proud that he drove me up to Allied Radio Corporation on 100 S. Western Ave in Chicago to get my first Amateur Radio receiver.

It was a Hallicrafters SX-146, and was a 'dream receiver' to a 13 year old kid.

My first transmitter was a "Home Brew" affair built from salvaged radios and TV sets. It had a 6L6 power amplifier, driven by a 6AG7 crystal oscillator, and put about 10 Watts output to the antenna. It was very similar to this circuit, but I was running more voltage to the tubes.

8~10 Watts isn't much power, and my Dad got tired of my whining about it, so he made me a deal. He'd match what I had saved, and when it was enough, we'd go to the Heathkit store and buy a DX-60 transmitter.

My antenna was a simple 40 Meter "Inverted Vee" antenna, one of the many flavors of the ever popular dipole antenna.

At that time, the Novice Class license was good for ONE year, and it was NON renewable. You either upgraded your license, or got out of the hobby. Upgrading to General Class was a Big Deal, as you had to demonstrate your proficiency with Morse Code at 13 words-per-minute and take a comprehensive written test covering the FCC rules, Operating Procedures, and a very Technical section.

But that's a story for another day.

Have a good week, and keep your head on a swivel!

Carolina In the Pines

 

She came to me, said she knew me
Said she'd known me a long time
And she spoke of being in love
With every mountain she had climbed
And she talked of trails she'd walked up
Far above the timberline
From that night on I knew I'd write songs
With Carolina in the pines

There's a new moon on the fourteenth
First Quarter the 21st
And the full moon in the last week
Brings a fullness to this earth
There's no guesswork in the clockwork
On the worlds part or mine
There are nights I only feel right
With Carolina in the pines

When the frost shows on the windows
And the wood stove smokes and glows
As the fire grows we can warm our souls
Watching rainbows in the cove
And well talk of trails we've walked up
Far above the timberline
There are nights I only feel right
With Carolina in the pines 

 

 I first heard this song shortly after we moved here. I thought it was John Denver, but it wasn't. I looked and looked and looked, and finally caught enough of the lyrics to Google it, and found out it's by Michael Martin Murphy. You probably heard him do "Wildfire", which was popular.

It's called "Carolina In The Pines", and is now on my playlist.

Enjoy!

Meanwhile, Back On The Workbench......

 My next patient on the table is a Fisher SR-2010 receiver with no output.

 Basic examination revealed a burned 100 Ohm, 1/4 Watt resistor, labeled as "R60", caused by a shorted transistor. The bad transistor is the slightly-out-of-focus grey device with the tab at the top.

Since the transistors originally used are obsolete, I have to locate substitutes. I have the data sheet for the OEM transistors, so I know the parameters. Several members over at the AudioKarma forum have gone through the process of selecting replacements with modern parts, so that's how I'll go after I read a hundred posts or so....Since the substitute will have somewhat different characteristics, and it's in a "balanced" configuration, I'll replace both of them. And I'll do the same for the other channels. I also noticed half-a-dozen electrolytic capacitors that should be changed. Their maximum working voltage is 63 Volts, and they're on a 60 Volt supply. They're loud, messy accidents just waiting to happen.

Before I started on this, I checked all the controls for smooth operation. All of the switches need cleaning, their mounting hardware was loose, and several of the push buttons are sticky. Simple job cleaning them, but it takes time.

One thing that really bugged me was that the tuning knob had a scratchy, notchy feel to it. It also made a "tic tic tic" noise as you rotated the knob. Further investigation revealed the operating shaft for the tuning capacitor was a tad loose....

So since the dial calibration is now completely borked, and I have to disassemble the capacitor to find out what happened, it looks like I'll be restringing the dial cord with a new one. Which means off with the front panel.

Which revealed a cracked light diffuser under the panel.

A drop of thin acrylic cement, acetone, or toluene will hold it together once I get it realigned.

I'll do my usual "Clean-and-Shine" and replace all the dial lamps, which are quite darkened with age. Should be quite pretty when she's finished.

 

Annnnnd out in the garage, work proceeds on the Supra. I needed to know the current draw of my new fans so I can size the new wiring and fusing, so I made a little lash-up to power the fans while I measured the current.

 I used some 10 gauge red/black cable, and a fully charged Optima Yellow Top battery. The clamp-on ammeter is one that also reads DC Amperage, and it showed a running current draw of about 5 Amps, with a brief surge to 20 Amps when the fan is powered on.

Total Rain for April.....

 Have a good, safe week, and don't forget to check your six.