06-20-2016, 05:19 PM
(06-20-2016, 03:06 AM)Arran Wrote: With regard to the 40-180 dial and the two reproductions, did you check the part number on the corner of the dial? If they are all the same part number I am very surprised that Radio Daze would put out a reproduction dial that is as far off as that. I bought a reproduction dial for a 42-327 a few years ago, probably close to 10 years ago by now, and the graphic details were spot on. The 42-327 dials back then were screen printed by an outside firm at the time, which meant that screens had to be made for each colour applied to the dial, so if there were any errors the contracting company would have to correct them and make a new screen.
Part numbers are the same on the 40-180 dial. In fact, I took pictures of them Specifically because the font on the part number was very "round" compared to the original "square" font. Now granted, you never see this part, unless you have the chassis out or the bezel off. But still, just one other area where the accuracy was low.
Here is a comparison of RD on the left, and Mark's on the right, of the lower right hand corner with the part number.
And for comparison, here is the same corner on the original. Mark's font is almost identical here.
I bought this, probably some time in Aug - Oct of 2013. Not sure if that aligns with when they were printing in house our outsourcing. But if you look at the picture on their website currently, it's still got the thicker lines, wrong font in the corner, and in general, everything still looks too thick. I also noticed now looking at my pictures again, the RD brown background is quite a bit lighter than the original too. Mark's isn't perfect, its maybe a touch darker. But still closer to the original color. Although that could just be lighting or what not. I would have to pull out the RD and original and compare (I currently have Mark's in the radio).
(06-20-2016, 03:06 AM)Arran Wrote: From what I understand Radio Daze now makes the dials in house and on demand, with some sort of new printing process directly on the glass, which is why they could repro almost one off things like that Motorolla dial. Also they can correct any errors much more easily now, and are usually pretty good about doing so once they are pointed out to them. I have no explanation about that model 60 dial, but again it may be a matter or the part numbers, maybe there was an earlier version without the wave motifs?
Regards
Arran
I know the 60B went through like 3 versions of dials, and they are not all interchangeable (early vs late changed the size of the window on the cabinet). Mine specifically has the part number 27-5102, and based on my chassis circuit, I know it's one from the last runs based on Ron's write up of all the 60 changes. Mark only offered the earlier version, he didn't reproduce the later one I needed.
If you go to the RD site and pull up DS-A145, you see that one is for 27-5102 and also apparently 5181. Now I don't know if the 5181 maybe dropped the wavy lines and changed Amateur to Air on the dial. And they reproduced that one, knowing it fit both versions of the 60B instead of doing a separate proper 5102 reproduction. I bought this and the 38-10 dial somewhere probably around Apr-Jun 2014. Again, not sure how that lines up with their outsourcing vs. in house productions.
But either way, its not a good reproduction of the 5102. However, its the only one available at this time. So it's better than a broken one.