Steve
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Post by Steve on Apr 22, 2022 1:03:30 GMT 12
After a brief discussion on this gear in another thread I was prompted to pull mine out of storage... so, show and tell - what do you have? I have the set of standard test equipment as used in the Columbus Radio Centres, and most of the operating instructions for each item as well. I'll do a video on this gear at some point and get it all working.  I also have a VO-5 Volt-Ohm Meter. Interestingly this also has the 5-pin harness connector on the front... at some point I'll see if its wired to take the same harness as the VO-12 as part of the standard set up.   |
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Post by DHockey on Apr 22, 2022 9:50:15 GMT 12
The only piece I have is this VO12A.  |
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Steve
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Post by Steve on Apr 22, 2022 10:47:32 GMT 12
Hi Daniel, the 'instructions' for the VO-12A, such as they are, can be downloaded here. Your one looks nice and tidy - I don't think I've seen one with square meters in it either - what serial number is yours? At some point I'll try to create schematics for enough of it where you could create your own copy of the speaker test set and harnesses (the harness wiring is part of the instruction set for the VO-12A). The only factory schematic I have is for the SG2 - which Bruce found for me in the library a few years ago when I first got it. Interestingly, the harness wiring includes leads to break in sets - check the wiring for all that on the Speaker Plug Adapter unit. I assume these allow you to monitor the voltages on a valve by plugging it into the harness plug, then plugging that into the radio, but I haven't looked too hard at that side of it yet. There might be more to it. |
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Steve
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Post by Steve on Apr 22, 2022 11:13:47 GMT 12
Oh - I also discovered this picture of a small part of Radio Corp's trade show display (they used to run this around the A&P Shows mainly - the whole display took up an entire railcar and took several days to set up). I've cropped and artificially recoloured it, it was a high quality black and white from the archives of V. C. Browne, a well known (mainly) aerial photographer in Christchurch.  Attribution: V.C. Browne & Son (www.vcbrowne.com)There is one item here I would love to find - the valve tester. It makes sense they would have made them - but I've never seen one and until I saw this picture I had no idea they existed. If anyone has one, or knows the whereabouts of one, I would love to at least see and document it - if not provide it a new home  |
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Post by DHockey on Apr 22, 2022 12:34:20 GMT 12
The serial number on mine is L5402. I don't think RCNZ made the meters, they just printed their own scales for them. Thanks for the link to the manual, I'd like to get mine working one day. I've checked the meters are functional, so it shouldn't be too hard to get it going.
Yes, a schematic of the TS2 would be much appreciated!
Love the photo of the display! I never knew about the valve tester. It looks a bit more sophisticated than an simple emission tester too. The portable meter to the left of the upturned chassis is also intriguing.
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Steve
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Post by Steve on Apr 22, 2022 18:20:23 GMT 12
I was looking for something completely unrelated today and tripped over a box - turns out I also have a VO-12 with the tapered panel at the top, the same as the one in the old photo of the test equipment. Perhaps I have too much stuff...  The meters Radio Corp used right back into the early 30's were predominantly Weston I think - if you look at early service booklets from Courtenay they listed test equipment you could buy from the factory which I believe might have been either Weston models or used Weston meters - I'll see if I can find that and post it later. The meters in my VO-5 and VO-12A are Weston models.  Serial numbers
L8515 - TS2 Speaker Test Set L7304 - VO-12A Volt Ohm Meter L7152 - DA-1 Dummy Aerial L7125 - SF4 Frequency Standard (Auckland collector) L7001 - SA-1 Speaker Adapter Switch Box L5402 - VO-12A Volt Ohm Meter(Daniel) L5202 - SG2 Signal Generator L4970 - SF1 Frequency Standard L4876 - VO-12 Volt Ohm Meter 225 - VO5 Volt Ohm Meter 230 - VO5 Volt Ohm Meter |
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Post by DHockey on Apr 22, 2022 20:10:35 GMT 12
The meters in mine are also Weston ones. The scales are labelled "Ref No1" on the volts / ohms meter and "Ref No2" on the output meter. Looking more closely at them (and seeing your ones), I'm now more inclined to think that Weston made the scales for RCNZ as a custom run.
My serial number is very close to the SG2 Signal Generator, I wonder if they are both from the same production run?
Do you know how many Radio Centres there were? That would give a fair idea of how many of these items were made. In the larger Radio Centres they likely had more than one bench set up I imagine.
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