Looking much better than it did when I picked it up, although there is still a slight staining of the Light Admiralty Grey paintwork which I am prepared to put up with since I fear that more attempts to further clean the panel will only remove the already fragile (in places) lettering.
Note also that the meter movement has been changed from the original which was open-circuit. Just by shaking it I could tell that one of the hair-springs was off, although I couldn’t tell whether it was the top or bottom one . . and in any case, trying to re-attach it would be too difficult on such a small movement. (I’ve repaired a couple of AVO movements in the past). As luck would have it, I uncovered a 200uA meter in my junk box. Comparing the two movements size-wise, they were almost identical. Only slight cosmetic surgery with a hack-saw and needle file was required inside the original housing to allow it to take the new movement. The meter switch was also broken internally and a couple of spares were obtained via Ebay.
As mentioned earlier, the receiver performance was checked periodically throughout the refurbishment. One thing that was very evident was that as components were replaced, the overall noise figure consistently dropped. At one point I was convinced that something was wrong . . . Only then did I realise that I hadn’t re-connected the antenna, it was so quiet. I have replaced both the CV4025 double diodes and all three of the CV3998s with noticeable improvement. Interestingly, one of the CV3998s that I replaced (V9) was white! . . . indicating a slow leak . . . but at the time of replacement it was still operating . . . Hmmm?
