[stevehertz]

The restoration of the rotten aerial coil is now complete. Basically it involved placing one of the new side cheeks on top of the old aerial and applying pressure so that the threaded rods marked their positions on the new one. Of course, the method wasn't a perfect science, and a lot of the hole centres had to be marked 'as best as I was able' by guile and careful estimation. The two new cheeks were then strapped together and holes drilled as appropriate, different sizes needed for different things. I then removed one side of the old aerial, replacing it with a new one and bolting it in place. It was then turned over and the process repeated, replacing old with new. That's the simple explanation, there being lots of snags, hiccups and reversals on the way. The photos show the process, the last one showing the aerial temporarily fitted in place. Still to be applied is the cloth tape that covers the outer coil of copper foil that can be seen avec surface corrosion. The adhesive being 'dead', the original tape came away easy, so to keep both sides looking the same I'll apply spray adhesive and refit it. Both aerial coils (one each side of the set) need to be rewired to their connecting wires.

I will now spray the metal dial arc, otherwise I'm kinda stuck until I get a replacement 250K log pot with mains switch with a flat (shallow) back and switch. All the valves have been tested or sourced. The original speaker cloth is in excellent condition albeit for some mould in the area that was touching the wooden speaker mount.

One of the knobs has a stuck mounting screw, but after over a month of applying penetrating oil it has at last moved (with eye watering force) a couple of degrees. At this rate I should have it removed in time for Christmas.