restoring vintage test equip. - Printable Version
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+--- Thread: restoring vintage test equip. (/showthread.php?tid=1737)
restoring vintage test equip. - Texasrocker - 03-02-2009
I had a older- fella local ham-operator & vintage radio tech ( retired) drop off some of his vintage test gear he had accumulated over the yrs here at my shop the other day. I purchased it all for a modest price.Most of the items, he had already replaced necessary caps etc to keep them working thru the yrs. Ive been busy fully-restoring/ calibrating all this vintage test gear, and at last count, I have over 5 spare vintage RF generators here ( various brands). If anyone ( newbies) here need a good vintage-tested, re-capped,etc, and calibrated RF gen, I can help. Most of this old equip was made by Knight, Heathkit, Sencore, EMC,etc. I have been enjoying checking caps with the now fully restored orig 50s EMC caps-resistor checker with eye-tube! It works for "in-circuit" tests also, and is "spot on". I will keep that item. I also have a old orig 40s era Sylvania "audio oscillator" model 145 ( spkr tester) Im restoring. It works well also, but needs a full recap as only the B+ caps had been replaced. I still have a stack of vintage test equip items I havent had a chance to go thru yet. If anyone is looking for "newbie" bench test gear, I may have it?,or some, especially good used RF generators! I also purchased a couple old variacs ( working as stated) from same seller, but havent gone by his house to retrieve those items yet. One vintage variac is a 10 amp model , with ac voltmeter built in. Ive checked calibration on all the vintage restored RF generators with my Fluke digital freq-meter. All were nearly "spot-on" after warmup & re-capping. The only prob with Heath & Knightkits, were the guys that put them together originally didnt know how to follow schemats & solder very well! Luckily, all these "kit" items I recently purchased were originally constructed by the orig owner I purchased from. He made no-mistakes, and knew what he was doing indeed! I also have a few-spare vintage 6-12 DC power-supplies for restoring vintage auto radios in the mix, but havent had time to closely inspect those items yet. Those vintage items include the old type Heathkit BE-4s & BE-5s battery-eliminators for vintage auto radio restorations. I also saw a old Millen grid-dip meter in the bunch, but its missing the coils. Hopefully I can find those on epay for a fair price? I enjoy restoring vintage test gear! Its kinda fun trying to replicate the synthesizer keyboard sounds of ELPs song "Lucky Man" with the vintage Sylvania model ( type 145)audio-oscillator! Its fun watching a spkr coil go from slow-oscillation thru the entire sound spectrum in khz also! The upper freqs can make human ears hurt!... even at very- low volumes indeed! It also does a great-job of replicating the "sci-fi" era vintage movies soundtracks from yesteryears! So far, Ive been very fortunate finding schematics for free online for all these vintage items. Not so with free orig "operators user manuals" but this vintage equip is pretty much "straight ahead" for future uses! I would like to find a copy of orig owners manual for the Sylvania Type 145 audio-oscillator if anyones has a copy somewheres in their vintage test equip "manuals" collections.
Re: restoring vintage test equip. - jayoungs - 05-28-2009
Hey Randal -- I had to take a little time off from the radios but am now back full speed and just saw this post. I wish I'd noticed it earlier! I'm a complete novice at the bench testing, but would love to get set up for the basics and learn how to do it. Do you have any of the items you mentioned left? If so, maybe send me a PM with what you suggest I need and how much you'd want for it. Hope all is well -- keep rocking!
Re: restoring vintage test equip. - Texasrocker - 05-29-2009
Hello Joe. Nice hearing from you again. You bet, will send you a pm.