Hacker Hunter RP-38A Restoration Completed

Wanted go get a few detail shots of items inside the radio while I had it apart.

Some of my other Hackers have Celestion speakers, but this one has an ELAC speaker.  All I know is it sounds great.

Final inspection sticker.   This kind of 'historical' aspect always interests me.  I wonder who "W.H." was and if he or she is still alive?

Back to work. I'm using Deoxit to clean the bandswitches.  (See the spray straw on the left).  This is one switch; the other two can be seen to the left. 

I had to get a picture in here of my new find.  This is "NU-TROL" Control Cleaner by MG Chemicals.  I've been using it to clean pots and it seems to work really well.  Not cheap ($10 at Baynesville Electronics), but I use it sparingly.  Made in Canada. 

This is one of the old capacitors I'm going to replace.  Hacker used a couple of these axial lead capacitors and turned them on their side to fit.  Note the orange insulation and the small piece of clear insulation at the bottom.  I'm going to reuse this and mount two of the new ones the same way.

Just a comparison of the old and new caps.  This one is a 22uf/25v.  I was going to use a new axial cap, but this one is a tight squeeze, so I'm just using a radial instead. 

Here's the recapped RF board ready to go back into the radio.  The green arrows show 2 of the 3 caps I replaced reusing the original insulation.  At least I'm preserving something.

I figured I should test it before I put it all back together.  I just sat the chassis back in the cabinet and connected it all up.

It works! 

I polished up the dial glass (dial plastic?), the knobs and cleaned the cabinet.   Looks pretty good now.

Here's a beauty shot of the radio in the garden

And the top.  You gotta love a radio with "Toulouse," "Strasbourg," and "N. Ireland" on the dial!

The recapping not only fixed the hum and brought the tone controls back to life, but it also seems to have improved the sensitivity and selectivity.  And it sounds fantastic with that big speaker...and it's LOUD too!