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WB1400 Receiver in Main Operations
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WB1400 Loudspeaker in Main Operations
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Synchronome Master Clock
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Master Clock Control Unit, delivered accurate time pulses to all of the bunkers wall clocks
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Day One:
I am back again to the Scotland Secret Bunker, this time I have brought with me a lot of spares, fuses, batteries, and capacitors.
First thing was the replacement of the old corroded batteries in the WB1400 receivers I had made up 3 from rechargeable cells and placed them in a tube to resemble the original type. The receiver in Nuclear Operations charged quickly and is working fine. In the ROC post however the battery turned out to be open circuit, also the third too. As visitors were due to turn up any minute I placed the old but working battery from Nuclear Ops for the day. I took the 2 open circuit units to the BT room and opened them for repair, I found no bad contacts but did reassemble them anyway, I will leave them out of the tubes for a while to make sure all the cells are ok.
I moved on to the master clock, this time I had downloaded plenty of information on setting these up and had brought with me a set of feeler gauges. I worked meticulously through the set up instructions, this took me a while but finally I swung the pendulum, it worked for a couple of minutes then ran out of steam just as before. After watching and reading carefully I was able to make minor adjustments to get it to run for almost 8 minutes. My thoughts at the moment are that there is not enough weight in the lever that gives the pendulum a gentle shove every 30 seconds. Perhaps something is missing? I did discover that the pawl that pulls the ratchet wheel round should be a ruby; I am assuming that is why it was missing! Perhaps the old maintenance man’s wife has it now? My brass version from my last attempt was now removed and lightened and shaped, this did seem to make a difference although I am at a loss to say why. Why a ruby too, I cannot imagine it makes a difference to what is effectively a ratchet pawl. I have spent a lot of time on this but it will be great when it is done. I replaced the clock on the wall in the BT room with the correct Synchronome device I found in the container last time. I will get some more out tomorrow and go around the other rooms putting them up. I will also get some advice on the jewel and setting up the clock, something here is missing I am sure.
I finally sat down and repaired the Cheetah power units that had smoked out on one of my earlier visits; there is a suppressor across the mains supply that seems to blow in a spectacular way. I changed four and now have four working power units. When I can I will get some more Cheetahs up and running.
The Cheetah in Nuclear Ops now has a memory battery backup fitted, hopefully it will save its time and date and perhaps its options, I will check tomorrow when we start it up, I need to also check that it timestamps printed messages. The 23 was jammed up again, this time it was the paper, I will replace the 2 ply with single and see if that cures the problem. At least the tape punch was clear this time round.
One main reason for the visit is to pick up a spare power unit for the MSX rebuild project, I have identified 2 working units, at the same time I had a go at repairing one of the others but to no avail, and this job needs a scope and preferably a diagram. Just out of interest I checked the MSX hard drive and found it parked same as the one I have at home.
I talked with James and along with the Tape Relay Centre rebuild we will redo the BT room, I think this is a great idea; we will restore everything as it was and them add the SX2000 in its cabinet along with a display stand with reading material and exhibits in the spare centre of the room. This way a visitor can walk around the exhibit rather than simply stand in the middle. I have plans to make the switchboards active suing a home build line simulator so it will look like calls are coming in and being answered. This will use as much of the original equipment as we can to make it authentic.
The WB1400 in ROC lasted all day, I should not I bypassed the “press to test” button on the loudspeaker unit so the tick is sounding all the time. After we closed I replaced the battery again, I will check it tomorrow to make sure it lasts the day. James wants one of the receivers in the café to be activated. When the alert is pressed on the Carrier Control Point in Nuclear Ops these small loud speakers really sound off, the pitch of the alert is quite piercing. There may be some surprises in the Café!
Day Two:
First thing I have checked the WB1400 in the ROC post display, it now has a fully charged new battery and works fine, I have left it turned on to see if it lasts the day.
Next up was the Cheetah in the BT room, every time I have been here it has another fault, this time the screen is not always lighting up and characters are printing incorrectly. I decided to replace the whole machine, I had one on soak test in Nuclear Ops so I swapped them, hopefully the new machine will behave better. I have set the time and date on this machine and the one in Nuclear Ops. With the new batteries the machines will retain their configurations and time/date when they are powered off at night. I watched with interest the Cheetah in the BT room all day, it is the one linked to the 15 in the Comcen. Lots of people leave messages and seem to follow the instructions fine, so the display seems successful.
I had another search in the storage containers, last time I had cleared a path to the Ciphers and Autex gear. I found some floor trunking, the rubber stuff that can hold a couple of cable to stop people tripping over it, this is perfect for hiding the Cheetah cables in the BT room. Amazing these containers, I found unopened new hard disks for the MSX along with some spare cards including 2 supervisors, both have leaking batteries but may be ok, I will take them home to test. I found several Synchronome clocks and a DCX power unit. I have identified enough gear to fully kit out our Comcen and teleprinter room as well as Barnton Quarry, this is 1980’s kit mainly and all in very good condition. There are lots of new MSX cards and leads; I reckon these must have been salvaged from a spares depot at some time.
I popped into the workshop behind the BBC radio room to get some cable, on the floor I noticed a familiar circuit board; on inspection it turned out to be the inside of a WB400 carrier receiver! It looked complete and has to be from the empty case in the ROC post display. The case had the speaker wire cut exactly to fit the one on the board so there is no doubt that they belonged together. I removed the short cut of tail from the circuit board and reconnected the speaker. There were a couple of other wires hanging off the board which I reconnected. The red volume control is missing as is the base and drawer; I looked around but could not find it this time round. I wonder who it was that pulled all this gear apart and effectively destroyed some important artefacts? These sell on e-bay for silly money these days! I applied some power and the speaker crackled a little, I had also attached a cable to the carrier input of the unit, remember this is like a LW radio. On connecting to the carrier control point the tick signal came out of the speaker loud and clear, I am very pleased about this, the receiver is a bit battered but it has some labels taped to the front making it interesting. The unit is in the BT room ticking away for now; I need to find or make a base, the drawer s the same as a Bakelite 300 or 200 type telephones. I have one of these receivers in my own collection, I will see if I can make something to fit for my next visit.
I changed a load of batteries in the other Cheetah plug in modules; I will get some of these going next time round.
Last week I wrote a proposal to update some of the exhibits at QQGU, now I have a good idea of where everything originally was located I think it makes good practice to put it back both for historical accuracy and value and to make a more realistic display for the public, the focus is mainly on the communications equipment but also explains making these exhibits work by using as much original equipment as possible. The good thing about QQGU is that almost everything is here, especially the fully intact BT/PO Equipment and the MDF is still jumpered with all the old circuits which could be made to work by building some simple simulation equipment.
Addendum:
I have started a methodical search of all the cupboards in the bunker, I have found so many special parts while looking for simple stuff like wire and batteries I think it will be worthwhile and may uncover lost exhibits, I will report on this in future news articles. The bypass on the WB1400 in the ROC post display is not perfect, the battery charge gradually run down so I have replaced the bypass with an external switch so that James can power off the receiver when the bunker closes, this will allow the battery to fully charge for the next days use.
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