#precision instruments

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Agony. Machines. Buzzing. A voice in its head (did it even have a head?). It is being made. It is coming alive. It is... remembering. And it is becoming something new. Precision Instruments is a queer Frankenstein story. Body horror, cathartic release, and loving embrace of the monstrousness of life. First in the Trans Terror Trilogy. These horror-themed stories about transfeminine protagonists center bodily autonomy, anxiety at existing in public, and cathartic release in a world that hates and controls us.

So, in keeping with the traditions of my lab, one of my pieces of test gear was doing something weird yesterday.

I’d hooked up my restored RF generator to the Philco 39-45 radio that I’ve been working on forever, and even with the radio off, the speaker would buzz when I attached the RF generator to the antenna jack.

Not sure what’s going on there... I’ll troubleshoot the RF generator more later, but this gave me an excuse to restore my OTHER RF generator. It’s a Precision Instruments E-200. 

As you can see, the front is in pretty good shape, but this came from the same collection as some other gear I have, so... like that gear... the wires were moldy. Spent some time with a respirator and some rubbing alcohol, cleaning off the wires and de-moldifying it. 

Then I gathered some parts and started to restore the power supply section. 5th picture shows the power supply section as it was. The line cord was soldered directly to the 2 RF chokes (cylinders toward the top of the picture). There’s another version of this instrument E-200-C that uses a terminal strip to attach the line cord. I like this modification, so I drilled a hole in the chassis and added terminal strips.

The RF chokes prevent radio frequencies from getting back into the AC line.

I also replaced the two line-to-ground capacitors with actual ‘Y’ style safety caps. Then replaced the other paper capacitors with modern equivalents.

Next I’ll go through and get rid of the rest of the wax/paper caps, then I should be able to power it on and test it.