2 Boxes And A Microphone!

2 Boxes and a Microphone

Another ‘New Toy’ arrived today, in the form of 2 boxes and a microphone, and this will be cherished just like the Collins 30L-1 RF Linear Amplifier, and it is another sweet piece of kit.

So, let’s see what I have to play with.

Astatic Silver Eagle Microphone

The Originals Silver Eagle which this is, was one of the most sort after Microphone back when I last played CB Radio back in the 70’s and 80’s, I never had the chance to even look at one back then, they were stupidly expensive and something that as a kid we just dreamed about.

A big problem with these old Transmitters and Transceivers is that finding a good microphone now is a real challenge and can be quite costly, this example is really nice and comes with a couple of extras that I cannot find any details on.

This example of the Classic USA built Astatic D104 Microphone comes with a possible bonus, two extra switches which as yet are unknown as to what they do, they are ‘push to make’ switches and do not lock when pushed – intriguing.

The label is a little warn as expected on something this old but after a quick rub of a cloth the eagle on the back of the head comes up really nice.

The only thing I forgot to take a photo of at this stage was the volume pot under the bottom of the stand, but it was there, so besides the 2 push switches it looks to be a stock example.

Collins 516F-2 Power Supply

All good things come wrapped up in a Vacuum Bag!

This looks like another clean example of an old bit of Collins Radio equipment, this time though it is going to be a very useful 516F-2 Power Supply, but it is still well worth a look.

Again, I have another very clean example, and this has a UK Plug attached to it, but do I trust it? I am not too sure, as this is Collins, I think that I should take this apart and check the taps to see what it has been setup as.

God, it looks good, and I am just the kid in a toyshop at this stage but this looks to be a very clean Power Supply, I wish that all the Drake ones that I have had to rebuild looked this good as this one did, I am just so happy that I have been honoured with the next stage of looking after this gear.

Now for the only problem that I can see at the moment that is with this Power Supply. Turning it over I can see why it wobbles on its feet, and that is because it is missing a foot, overall a bad deign used by Collins but I bet that it was dragged across a desk which pulled the foot off its screw, replacing this should be easy and I am sure that if I cannot find a suitable replacement I should be able to find something the same size so as to not raise or lower it which would just make it look wrong.

So, I need to source a foot looking as close to this as possible.

And then I have 2 holes to investigate.

I know that at the moment someone will be screaming at me to “Read the F$£king Manual”, but I am just loose thinking here at present, I have not looked at the manuals, I have not then looked for what is missing and therefore not looked to find out what these two holes in the bottom of the Power Supply are for, at a guess it will be to do with Rack Mounting, but at this stage it is just a guess.

Collins 32S-3 HF Transceiver

I felt myself very lucky to be given the Collins 30L-1 HF Linear Amplifier, I was happy with that and as we are talking about Collins equipment here in the UK (ok, the Isle of Man, and yes I know the Isle of Man is officially not a part of the UK, but hay, its near enough) is not rare, but it is also not too common, especially being this clean, now with this gear my S-Line is nearly complete.

I really wish that all old equipment that was manufactured in and around 1965 looked this good, and while I am hoping I will also hope that there is no or very little restoration required, with the equipment looking this good I will be taking things very slowly, I have a good variac and if needed I have a few filtered 120v Insulated Power Supplies, everything on this page is going to be stripped down first so that I can check everything that needs checking.

The rear panel is on first inspection very clean, but annoyingly there is a small issue, someone has lightly scratched some letters into this panel, at first look I do not see what they refer to. VOC85327, thankfully it is on the back but if I do get annoyed with it I will have to sand, fill and respray the rear panel, I do not mind rewiring or replacing components ot tubes when required, what I really do not like doing (at the moment) is respraying anything, matching colours can get a tad frustrating, I have the ability to match a colours by scanning the panel and the applying this toa database, but this only gets it to about 98% of the way, getting from this point to 100% is a skill that I have not used in a long while, I used to do quite a bit of spraying but back then I also had a large catalogue of paint to mix to every shade you can imagine, sadly the large catalogue of paint I am now missing.

Anyway, back to the inspection, looking at the rear of the transceiver we have all the connections that the transceiver needs and there is not a sign of wear and tear, it looks as though this radio has never been used.

Even the underside of this transceiver does not show any signs of wear, even the screw at the rear of the unit looks to be original and not showing any signs of being used.

Now I should check out the inside and especially the RF Deck, although at this stage I am just doing a visual look over, but I am trying to just check out the transceiver before I do anything stupid like start applying power.

And the inside of this box is just as pretty, not a sign of dust or anything untoward, I will need to check out the crystals as there seems to be a few missing but this might be normal, a good read of the manual should be able to help me out with this, I just hope that the underside is as good as this.

The RF Deck is hidden away under the shielding which is not just to save the operator from putting his fingers anywhere that they shouldn’t when this transceiver is live.

Even the screws that hold the shield in place are not even tight, they are just tight enough to hold it in place and not allow it to be loose, it just feels like it would be from the factory, usually when these units change hands they will often be over tightened and then you will normally see that the screws show signs of wear, these do not know that a screwdriver has ever touched them.

After loosening off each screw a few turns I can simply. Slide the protective plate out so that I can give the RF Deck a good look over, and this at this stage it is looking sweet.

This is all for now, I will start by checking out the Power Supply first and making sure that it is alright. I am so grateful to be allowed to take over the care of equipment like this, but it leaves me with a bigger headache in that one day soon it will need to be left to someone that will also care for it as I would, in the meantime I intend to use this gear as it was basically made to be used and I am going to bloody enjoying it – soon.