Quartzlock Model 282 Radiotelephone Test Set Restoration Part 1
First off, I am kind of hoping with all fingers and feet that this does not need much doing to it, and as I am due a little bit of luck for a change, I am also hoping that when I apply power, nothing will go ‘Bang’, there will be no smoke from old capacitors, and things that are meant to light up – Will, and it will perform however it should.
This unit is a complete ‘Unknown’ to me and the internet it seems, I managed to come across the Brochure, but nothing else at all. The company ‘Quartzlock’ are still going strong, but they were kind of unhelpful with regards to anything useful in the way of a Manual, Schematics or even any Service Documentation, so I am starting this project from the complete dark.
I have been a total woos and not applied power yet, I thought that I would give irt a good glance externally to see if there are anything shouting out a problem, but at this stage it kind of looks OK, just the normal level of dust and grime for something not touched since at least 2015, and the only semi-worrying signs were the odd cobweb found on the outside, so I suppose the next stage is to take the odd cover off and see what’s living inside!
There are small amounts of quality and thoughtfulness when you look over the unit that kind of lets you know the quality of the unit, and then there are cheap parts that are letting the feeling down a little.
Taking the top cover off was fun and the first challenge, first off, they seemed to use the longest screw in history to hold the cover in place, and there was only a single screw needed, though half it’s size would have been a little nicer.
With the screw removed the next challenge was to remove the top cover, this was looking promising in that it was locked in place by years of grime and oxidation of aluminium on aluminium, but with the help of a heavy-duty flat blade and the odd bit off applied pressure from me it finally managed to shift a little.
With cover removed we can start to guess at the quality of the unit.
It is showing signs of a bit of quality and then again let down in places, it certainly is no HP Built Test Equipment, there are no gold traces on the PCB and although some thought has been put into cable management and layout, the wires curved into right angels are only really done ‘half-heartedly’.
There are boards on separate PCBs in a Module fashion and even a space that may have been for an option that could have been purchased later. There is a fair amount of RF shielding and some thought has been put into the layout of the unit, and then you have what looks like an afterthought with some terminals stuck on the rear panel for what I presume is either powering the unit from a battery or offering the user a way to power equipment under test, the later would be quite nice but we will check out later, again I really could do with locating a manual for this unit.
At this stage I also decided to remove the handle, I think it will get in the way and it was a simple task of just removing the single countersunk machine screw from each side and central to the swivelling bit.
This then allowed the handle to be removed and placed else ware, but it also left a small clear plastic fitting which would help the handle to be locked in certain positions. This would also need to be removed so that if I needed the unit to be placed on its sides then it would at least be safer with a flat surface. Again, this task was straight forward, there are two screws holding each of the units to each side, and again I found another oddity, three of the four screws matched and had washers, and the fourth was definitely wrong – I certainly think someone has been in here before me.
Now the underside of this unit is certainly showing signs of quality and up there with what I was hoping I would find inside this unit.
Nice and neat wire management, along with gold plated SMNA fittings and a lot of shielding, and again I need to locate a manual and soon.
Now for Some Power!
After glancing over the unit and giving it a good look through, I cannot see anything blatantly wrong, no blown capacitors or broken items, but I think it is at least worth a try just to see if anything happens or will we get ‘Smoke’.
OK, no smoke but a complete anti-climax, not a lot happening, I tried the normal press this and that and see what happens but still early days, and at this stage I am not willing to connect up a scope or frequency counter to see what is happening on the sockets, I will have to have a good look for a manual as without a User Manual it is a bit of a non-starter. And anyway, the unit needs a good clean first. So I think I will ask on the Groups.io forum to see is anyone has a manual in their collection and at least give the unit a good clean first with some Isopoll.
