Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[rob love]

New rule for the MLU express: No CPP-2s. F-n things are heavy.

Otherwise, happy to have helped out.

[David Dunlop]

Cloudy with showers this morning in the ‘Peg, so no polishing getting done today. I do have a few errands to take care of, however, one of which is picking up another tube of polish to see me through the rest of this project. I will probably also get a chance to do some work on the new CPP-2 a little sooner than I expected.

Thank you for your kind words, Wayne. Very much appreciated. Once all the discoloured varnish has been polished back, I will be leaving the front panel alone, other than the required touching up of missing paint. I know there are a number of modern clear coats available for protecting and relaxing the decals available for modeling etc., and they work very well. The big unknown for me, however, is I have no clue what these 75+ year old water transfer decals are made of, as compared to today’s products. I am just not prepared to risk them. It will be a different matter when I get to the Supply Unit restoration. I will be taking it right back to the metal and essentially starting over because the 1966 rebuild decals are the wrong colour, font size and poorly applied. This is in addition to the lower inch of the panel having been bent inwards just enough to pop the paint off along that section, which puts the quality of the rebuild priming into question. Since those decals will be modern materials, I will use a modern flattener/top coat on them.

I am a bit of an odd duck when it comes to this restoration I fear. Whenever I am looking at this wireless set, or handling it for that matter, I cannot help to wonder about all the hands it passed through at the Canadian Marconi Company plant in Montreal. From the people punching out all the raw metal parts, shaping, welding, riveting, painting and all the many assembly points until it was tested and packed for shipping.

Probably mostly women with some older men sprinkled into the mix, but all brought together to build something as their contribution towards the war effort. Did they ever wonder who would end up using these sets they were making? Would a particular set they were working on be one to handle special, or important communications? My mind just doesn’t stop with this really. The decals on this Sender really get to me sometimes. They are the originals. Somebody was actually handling and looking at them the moment they were applied. Checking everything was just right and moving the panel on to the next station. And now, here I am doing exactly the same thing. In their wildest dreams, I am sure none of the CMC workers who moved this particular wireless set down the assembly line ever dreamed that in 2020 it would still be around.

I cannot wait to finally get this set up and running on the air again. I really want to hear what it sounds like. Warts and all. We read all the time about the problems and limitations of wartime signals equipment. Just another factor that impresses the hell out me regarding the determination of the wartime generation. They worked through all of that and got the job done! So if reading about what they achieved is impressive, I most certainly want to experience the same conditions of operation of this equipment as they experienced. That enables me to more fully appreciate their accomplishments. For me, that experience is an important link to our past generations and would be completely lost if I were to gussy this set up with all sorts of modern improvements that turned it into a ‘much better set’. If I want a much better set, I can buy one at any of a dozen shops in town. But I will miss the experience.

Sorry, That was a borderline rant, I think.

David

[David Dunlop]

With a little free time available today, I removed the top cover of the newly acquired CPP-2 and gave it an inspection and cleaning. I also removed the wooden tray assembly that had been fitted to it. It was probably that extra five pounds that did Rob in.

Just the usual decades of dust accumulations and when it was all said and done, I fired it up and it works perfectly.

I forgot to take note of the two serial numbers on these CPP-2's and will do that eventually. As Bruce mentioned a couple of posts back, these are both late production items with the small hatch on the left front of the cover that makes changing the output voltage so much easier.

One difference I noticed straight away was in the power cords. Both are the same long length with the same plug, but the first one I bought has a flexible rubber sheathed 16/3 conductor fitted. The new CPP-2 has a flat PVC sleeved 16/3 conductor which has three age cracks in it that have been taped over. I will eventually switch this one over to the flexible rubber cable and use the time for that conversion to take a closer look underneath the chassis at the rest of the wiring.

The photo shows the two supplies together on the lower shelf of my wireless table. Just the one supply is actually connected to my DC Voltage Distribution System for the wireless equipment on the top shelf.

David

[David Dunlop]

Another bright sunny morning so another good polishing day.

The last little fiddly bit has now been cleaned around so pretty much straight forward polishing around decals remaining.

At some point in the history of this Sender, somebody grabbed the central HANDLES of the I.P.A. 7-16 MC Dial, with the palm of the hand pressed hard against the dial plate and gave it a hard turn. The result was the Stop Pin on the back side of the innermost Tuning Plate was dug into the panel paint, leaving a noticable semicircle gouge in the paint. this was hidden until the disassembly process, but can be seen in any of the earlier Sender panel photos in this thread.I was able to successfully polish out about 75% of that gouge.

We may be in for another rain day tomorrow, but if that is the case, there is always something else with this project that can be worked on. We will see how it goes.

David

[James D Teel II]

The color difference between the clean/unclean section is amazing! Keep it up. Like I’ve told you before, I enjoy following this restoration.

[David Dunlop]

Thank you for your comments, James.

As predicted, today has been a major rain and thunderstorm day, so no polishing, to which my fingers are eternally grateful!

Before the rains arrived, however, I did accomplish some good errands. I picked up another 75 ml tube of polish and found it is now pushing $18.00 Cdn a tube now, but still well worth it.

I also dropped into the local RONA and bought an 11 foot length of rubber sheathed 16/3 power cord to replace the one on the new CPP-2. when I feel up to moving it again.

The other thing I did was take a look at some modern electrical components I thought would be suitable replacements for fittings needed to eventually replicate the AERIALS, Horizontal, 4-Section used with the Wireless Set No. 52.

The 14 gauge 7/22 Hard Drawn stranded copper aerial wire is still readily available in the United States, but seems to have disappeared out of the usual Amateur Radio markets here in Canada. I am not about to order any at the moment though. I realized I now have 13 parcels sitting at my local US Border Mail Depot I cannot retrieve because the border is still closed. No need to be adding to that right now.

Geoff Turcott sent me a couple of detail photos of his 52-Set aerial and it looked like some modern items would be good fits.

The two attached photos from Geoff show the Section quick connect/disconnect fittings, and the splice fitting between the end of the aerial and the Feeder Cable to the Set.

The third photo shows the modern substitutes I found, They are all MARR 14 gauge crimp connectors. The photo shows the packaging, the fitting with blue insulation attached and with the insulation peeled off. The Male/Female Bullets will work nicely for the Section Connections and the Butt Splice Connector for the Aerial to Feeder Splice. I will crimp them all as well as solder the fittings, when I get to that part of the project.

One other fitting to look into locally and that part of the project should be good to go.

David

[David Dunlop]

Beautiful and sunny this morning so another bit of polishing has been accomplished. Nice to be this close to the finish of this portion of the project. Just over 75% done now and 21 of the decals are 'popping' like they used to on the panel.

My brain is telling me to get some more polishing done today since rain is supposed to return for the rest of the week. We shall see how that idea goes and if I get more done, I will update the progress later today.

David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

...

The other thing I did was take a look at some modern electrical components I thought would be suitable replacements for fittings needed to eventually replicate the AERIALS, Horizontal, 4-Section used with the Wireless Set No. 52.

The 14 gauge 7/22 Hard Drawn stranded copper aerial wire is still readily available in the United States, but seems to have disappeared out of the usual Amateur Radio markets here in Canada. I am not about to order any at the moment though. I realized I now have 13 parcels sitting at my local US Border Mail Depot I cannot retrieve because the border is still closed. No need to be adding to that right now.

Geoff Turcott sent me a couple of detail photos of his 52-Set aerial and it looked like some modern items would be good fits.

The two attached photos from Geoff show the Section quick connect/disconnect fittings, and the splice fitting between the end of the aerial and the Feeder Cable to the Set.

The third photo shows the modern substitutes I found, They are all MARR 14 gauge crimp connectors. The photo shows the packaging, the fitting with blue insulation attached and with the insulation peeled off. The Male/Female Bullets will work nicely for the Section Connections and the Butt Splice Connector for the Aerial to Feeder Splice. I will crimp them all as well as solder the fittings, when I get to that part of the project.

One other fitting to look into locally and that part of the project should be good to go.

David

Do you need the wire clips for the chain-link insulators? I think I have some insulators with them fitted in the "bits box"...

I'll also see if I can get decent photographs (and measurements) of the multi-section WS19 aerial I've got (6 sections + two insulator strings) which I think was an early attempt at replacing the Truck & Ground station set of 6 wire aerials. (Except that the manufacturer Got It Wrong and the first section is 10 feet too long....)

Best regards,
Chris.