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Updated: 10 May 2004 -- 30S-1 page added

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THE 32S-3 - A COMPLETE RENOVATION

 

I purchased a 32S-3 and a 75S-3 from the States.  Neither were functional, but the 75S-3 was in good condition and easily repairable, whilst the 32S-3 was very dirty, and had been wrecked electrically.  Here are some pictures of the transmitter in it's original condition.

Click on a picture to enlarge, click "Back" at the top of screen to return

32S-3dirt1.JPG (122834 bytes)         32S-3Dirtbottom.JPG (133677 bytes)         32S-3Dirtpanel2.JPG (104654 bytes)        Dirty Cabinet2.JPG (138642 bytes)

On picture 1 you can see that I attempted to clean a small area of the chassis.  Every square inch required a deal of work.  When I  attempted to clean the component side beneath (picture 2), I soon realised that the deeply ingrained dirt and nicotine stains on the metal and components were going to present an impossible task.  So, I stripped the transmitter completely, removing the tubes, knobs, dial assembly, inductor tuning mechanism, meter, PA cage and anything else I could detach. 

Components.JPG (104302 bytes)      Components2.JPG (128282 bytes)      Dial Components.JPG (78380 bytes)      cagedtubes.JPG (96314 bytes)

Then, with some trepidation, I put the chassis, cabinet and PA cage into my dish washer for a complete cycle using the normal powder!  Following that, I dried the transmitter out for 7 days in my airing cupboard, right above the hot tank.  The results were phenomenal ...........

Top-reassembled.JPG (132272 bytes)      Toprebuilt.JPG (193890 bytes)    PA Sectiontopclean.JPG (122331 bytes)     PAsectionbottomclean.JPG (138067 bytes)     Panelclean.JPG (88228 bytes)

 

The vertical paper capacitor visible at the left of picture 1 above was removed and replaced by an original component, obtained of course from SSN!

Cleanbottom.JPG (155892 bytes)      cleantop.JPG (205081 bytes)       Bottomcornerdirty.JPG (152945 bytes)      Bottomcornerclean.JPG (90127 bytes)

The last two pictures above are of the same corner of the chassis before and after, and provide an interesting comparison.

After the rebuild was complete, I started to bring the transmitter back to life stage by stage.  To my horror, someone had "redesigned" the circuitry, even to the extent of rerouting the LO drive to a different mixer.  All became clear then, when this had failed to work, the unit had been placed up on a shelf for a couple of decades in a smoky atmosphere!

I followed the circuitry out and replaced chunks of it that had been removed.  The end result was a transmitter that works, and from which I have received good audio reports.  Not everything is quite right yet, the dial still slips a little and I have to wriggle the wave change switch to make proper wafer contacts on some bands.  This follows the difficult job of removing the spindle of the wave change switch in order to remove the screening cans.  This spindle is plastic(?) and it has been difficult to make its position concur exactly with the detents on the wave change switch mechanism.  Yes - I am going to make it perfect - sometime!

 

Nearly finished, I restored the white lines on the knobs by scraping a little of the original paint away and then covering this with white art enamel.  A quick wipe with a dry cloth, and the sharp edges were back again.  The dishwasher removed the red paint in the emblem, and I restored it the same way.    See ......