Engineering Report #3

The defective radio was still sitting on the corner of my desk in the workshop, staring at me… It has been doing that for a few weeks, probably even months… I could almost feel it judging my procrastination…

With Toy Soldier Day upon us and Toy Soldiers’ love for old equipment; especially if it makes sound, has buttons and flashy lights, I had to make this thing work!

I went into the Digital Bunker’s library to see if I could find any reference materials for this device, there should be user manuals or something, right? After showing the Librarian a picture of the radio, he answered with “Oook!” and ran off in that weird way orangutan’s run. I followed him a bit and looked around the walls filled with books. “Why have they still not digitized all these,” I wondered…

I saw the Librarian shift through a pile of archive boxes and then he returned promptly with a terribly worn down user manual. Most of the text is unreadable, but some of the schematics are still mostly intact. With some measuring and deduction I could get this thing to work.

I thanked the Librarian with a banana, and went back to my workshop.

Back at the workshop I went on the painstaking journey of identifying the components, measuring them if they still work and what values they have, cleaned the circuit board. Most of the components seemed to be intact. I followed the schematics, wrote the missing parts on paper. It should just be able to work. Why didn’t it then?

I reached the last page and saw a familiar component sign, a regular battery…

I facepalmed over the fact that I completely forgot to look for any kind of battery or conventional power supply. I looked around the box and found a compartment for 6 AA batteries.

The plutonium tubes it seemed were just added for the enjoyment of the person who last owned the radio, there was no mention about them in the schematics. I inserted the needed batteries and the radio sprung to life! I will put the radio in the lounge room, so everyone can have a go at it!

Find it here!

I want to thank:
Engineer Airhead, Lucas Usagi and Sari Alwinn. Without them this project would not have existed.