A rather eclectic weekend of 52-Set work has just passed.
First and foremost, with the help of a lot of colourful muttering to myself, I was able to tune all the Trimmer Capacitors in the IF Coil and RF Coil Assemblies of the Remote Receiver. It helped a little bit, but not enough to get rid of the chopped Zero Beat Tuning phenomenon. I am going to have to bite the bullet and retune all the related coils. That will be a real challenge as two of them carry a HUGE amount of electrical potential and a proper insulated adjustment screwdriver is essential for that work. So I will have to schedule humping the Remote Receiver to my friend’s place down the road to finalize the adjustments this receiver needs.
With that out of the way, I decided to revisit the Sender to see why the aerial feed between it and the Receiver lacked continuity, so out that brute came from the Carriers No. 4 for a closer look.
A close inspection of the suspect Relay Switch proved it was in perfect working order and so was the Band Switch. That brought me back to the Aerial Output Socket on the Sender. I discovered two things there. First, the screw holding the Plug on the end of the Aerial Feed Cable was loose. Turned out an internal toothed lock washer was missing and the Plug was loose enough on the terminal fitting of the cable to produce intermittent isolation. Second, the Plug itself was a very loose fit in the Aerial Socket. Every other similar socket on hand produced a very snug fit for the Plug. By gently sliding a small slotted screwdriver between the four Socket Tabs and the Sockets large Bakelite housing, I was able to close up the gap for a much better Plug fit.
When getting ready to put the Sender back into the Carriers No. 4, I found the lower Shakeproof Cowl Pin on the Blower Door would not unlock. I have found it very helpful to have this door open when reinstalling the Sender in the Carriers No. 4. It provides easy access to the Sender chassis to nudge the Sender fully home. The two Knobs on the lower part of the Sender do not provide enough leverage to move the mass of the Sender in its upper portion where the two 8-Pin Connector Plugs need to link up. A careful look behind the Sender Panel revealed the Locking Pin in the Shaft of the Lower Shakeproof Fastener was falling out. I then remembered it was a much looser fit when installing it than the upper one. I was able to get it out and replace it, but this time let a little clear nail polish wick into the pin hole to hold it in place. Those two Shakeproof Cowl Fasteners on the Sender Blower Door still are a mystery. The upper one I have is shorter than the lower one and does not engage the Receptacle on the Sender Chassis at all. The lower one works just fine. Two more exist on the Receiver Section of the Supply Unit. The Parts List gives three Shakeproof Cowl Fasteners in use on the 52-Set but no reference at all to which ones go where. I am going to have to resort to a survey of all owners of surviving 52-Sets to determine what they have in their sets and see if some consistency turns up for working fasteners in both locations.
Once the Sender was back in the Carriers No. 4, I reconnected everything and fired it up once more. Happy Dance! I had full continuity from the Receiver all the way through to the dipole aerial outside. Even nicer to hear for the first time, were the changes in audio output in the Receiver when the Sender Band Switch was changed to and from the same Band at the Receiver was set to, and the three Tank Coils used in the Sender to tune it and the Receiver to the aerial in use, were finally working. Now I just have to get the Coils, Aerial Tuning No. 2A linked into the system.
David
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