Thanks for the warning about the coils. I had no plans of touching them and nothing has been squirted inside of them either. The boards were restored, cleaned, and put back in their boxes.
SeanB, the wire is M22759/11. I believe it's silver-plated copper. I buy it from an Ebay seller going by the name of EmpireDon. He claims to have over 40 years of experience in aerospace assembly. He sells some nice cable
I've installed one of the variable capacitors on the front panel and I'm using RG-316 shielded cable. The original stuff was going bad (sheath was stiff) and the conductors and shielding is bare copper. My magnet stuck to the center conductor so it was steel based and I thought RG-316 would be a good substitute. I slipped some fiberglass/silicone sleeving over it too since the metal edges were sharp. As for solder, I'm using Kester 62/36/2 leaded silver solder (24-7150-0018):
As for the "improvements" that I do, well, I like doing them. I have between 9pm and 1am to fiddle with electronics and since it took 50 years for someone to open this box, I'm going to take my good, sweet time putting it together
I like using these NOS Sprague tie strips. They sit higher above the chassis than most other strips and it allows me to use the holes below the eyelets. I populate the tie-strip as much as I can before it's installed. As for this one, there are still four components and four transformer wires yet to be attached to it! I've done this several times before in other projects and it saved me from some frustrating soldering inside of the chassis, especially if it's deep:
On another strip, I drilled a small .04" hole in the ground post for a jumper. The "open" eyelets can now be used for the big caps all by themselves:
The signal meter, lamps, and the tuning capacitors were next:
The radio is starting to take on some form too. Lots of work has been done so far. Still, the band switch has yet to be wired. I'm on page 12 of the instructions where the IF and RF boards are pre-wired and installed:
This is the current state of the underside of the chassis. The panel light wiring and the transformer/rectifier circuit is complete and the audio board is installed. I'm on page 14 where the factory modifications are to be inserted. It appears that the modifications are adjustments to the grounding points:
So, with the band switch mounted, it's time to solder 50 wires to it!
One thing is for sure, if one had to use an old-fashioned soldering iron to assemble this, it could easily become a mess. Plus, they didn't have Teflon sheathed wire back then either!
The first two wafers are done:
The third wafer was easier. The small blue cap is C-33 (.047uf NP0):
The last wafer is almost finished. The small blue cap is C-32 (.0022uf NP0). Ten more wires to go:
And now the band switch is D-U-N!
Up next is the tuning shaft, the flywheel, and the mode switch...
*I pulled the trigger on an older HP spectrum analyzer on Ebay. It was being sold for parts but I feel some good "vibes" about it. Hopefully it works and can be used for radio repair projects
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/hp-3588a-spectrum-analyzer-gamble/