SX 101A Restore

Well, Martin AC0OM offered me another ride to Sioux City.  He was going to pick up some gear from the estate of Tom, WB0YNX and thought I'd like to tag along.  Of course!  I began to really keep my eyes & ears open for the SX 101A to match my HT 32A and had a few leads so far, but nothing really close or in my price range.  So when I went to Sioux City, I hoped maybe to stumble across a good Hallicrafters speaker cabinet for the station.  I didn't have much hope as Tom was a big Collins fan but he seemed to have a few odds & ends about the shop.

As we worked with Jim, the man undertaking the task of selling Tom's equipment, he mentioned a custom built desk with gear installed into it.  I've seen the desk before but couldn't remember what was in it.  It had the HT 32 Hallicrafters transmitter and, you guessed it, the SX 101A!  What are the odds??  Because it was mounted in the desk as a rack-mount, we had to find the cover.  It wasn't long before we found it & the rig was now complete.  After finding a few other needed items & agreeing on a price, we loaded up Martin's car, again becoming much heavier than when we began the journey.



So here we are, a good look promises cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and I'll find other things as I go.
First, the knobs get removed, and the face.  I should have some of those bristol wrench sets by now but still get by with some old modified screwdrivers and some bits found at a local hardware store that work real well too. 

The face looked OK but I was worried about the area on the right side that looks like some kind of a chemical overspray.  We'll have to see if it comes out without damage...

 

The knobs get a soaking bath in detergent & the face gets a soft brush scrub-you don't want to loose any lettering and paint here.  As the face dries, the knobs get the treatment along with toothpicks & cotton swabs.
Amazing how much junk comes out of the knobs, even when they look clean.  Just running the swab around the front picks up a bunch of unseen grime after a good brushing.

 

This model has a front glass with no printing so it's carefully removed & cleaned.  I just hate having to go through a radio & put it back together only to find a big fingerprint, hair, or some lint on the rear of the glass that I can't get to without tearing it apart again.  Then I'm stuck looking right at it every time I power up, so I'm real careful at this point.  The rear glass is another story, read about the printed glass on page two of the SX 101A restore.

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