Thanksgiving Day Radio Project - Collins 32V3
| History Interesting history on this one, unit serial number of 1426. When cleaning the radio I found a hand written note inside showing a purchase in 1990 from Bob K8HZP in Conneaut, Ohio by a ham from Maryland. The total price paid was $300 and the transmitter was noted to be working. The transmitter then made its way from Maryland to Bud McCabe in Albany, NY. It was purchased in 2004 from Mr. McCabe by Jeff WV2N in Schenectady, NY. I purchased the unit from Jeff in November of 2005 and it now resides at my station in coastal Maine. The Fix Aside from the cracked front dial glass (which seems to be a common 32V malady), a discolored KC dial, temperamental band light bulbs and a cosmetic clean up the unit did not need a great deal of work. Removed the knobs, chrome "style strips" and switch hardware to drop the front panel and access the dial glass. I then removed the band selection linkage, a bit of a process, to replace the KC dial. Reassembly was a snap, but on power up I discovered I had no grid drive. A bit discoloring at 2AM in the morning and I was about to call it a night but thought to take one last look under the chassis. I found that the coupler for the multiplier cam rack had fallen off during the removal of the front panel. It was a simple matter to reinstall the coupler once I discovered the problem. A few tweaks and the KC wheel was dialed in the big 3885. This was not a bad project, fortified with some strong coffee I managed to start at 8PM and worked until 3AM to get it functional and on air. The Discovery  During service I noted that it seems that someone, possibly Bill K8BAR, had carried out some work in the RF section. The stock choke has been replaced with what appears to be a National 175 unit. The work looks factory quality, with a properly fabricated metal mounting plate and insulated standoffs. My other 32V3s have the choke on the right back of the RF section bracket, so I assume that this is a modification from stock. The unit seems to work just fine on the bands, so it would seem that this is an acceptable repair. Final Steps Finishing up the next day I carried out the simple audio mod of replacing the gird input resister in the first speech amp to a higher value to better match the D-104 microphone. Typically a 4.7 meg ohm resistor is used here, but my junk box only yielded a 5.6 meg ohm unit, works just fine. I also fabricated a dedicated T/R switching system using a 110VAC Dow-Key and wiring harness to interface the transmitter with the HRO Sr. receiver. The cabinet, which was in remarkably good condition, was lightly washed and has been treated with Wurth Cockpit Cleaner to bring up the paint's shine. Success |
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