[Boatanchors] IDing Hammarlund Super-Pro

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Ron,

If it has four tapped holes in the front panel for a missing nameplate, 
it's a BC-779.  Although which letter model I couldn't say.  If it shows no 
evidence of ever having had a nameplate it's an SP-210-LX.  If it shows 
evidence of having been in military service, like orange QA stamps or MFP 
treatment, it was bought by the Army from Hammarlund from their civilian production 
and probably carried on the books as a BC-779-A but never got a nameplate.

On the capacitors, I haven't worked on Super Pro's in years and don't 
specifically recall where all the capacitors in one are mounted.  But in general 
anything less than 1 or 2 ufd is oil filled paper.  Above that they will 
usually be electrolytics.  There are two groups as far as what to do with 
capacitors in vintage military sets is concerned.  One group will tell you they 
all have to be changed.  The other camp, which I'm in, will say replace or 
rebuild (I lean toward rebuild) if necessary and don't waste time fixing what 
ain't broke.  Electrolytics in a receiver that doesn't include a power 
supply (like the SP-100, 200 and 400 vintage Super Pro's) are usually limited to 
cathode bypass resistors in the audio section.  Statistically, they are more 
likely to be bad than the oil filled paper ones.  So you'll probably end up 
changing or rebuilding them.  But if one checks good, I wouldn't fool with 
it.  At least not until I had run the set for a while.  If one initially 
checks good and then fails after a few hours, you aren't going to hurt some 
irreplacable something.

In a message dated 12/2/2009 5:06:34 PM Central Standard Time, 
TVComlGuy at aol.com writes: 
> Good afternoon to the group,
> 
> I have a military Super-Pro receiver that I would like some help  
> identifying.  It has 16 tubes and the frequencies it covers are;
> 
> 100-200 kc
> 200-400 kc
> 2.5-5.0  mc
> 5.0-10.0 mc
> 10-20 mc
> 
> Also, are the bathtub capacitors along the side paper and should be  
> changed?
> 
> 73//Ron, KB0WAR
> 

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480