After a decade and a half of silence, the “Hillsborough Files” van has officially been brought back to life. Following our strict power-up protocol—isolating the electronics and feeding the system through the shore power inverter—we began flipping breakers.

The result? The Vice Van is officially “live,” but like any 35-year-old veteran, it has some battle scars that need attention.

The Electronics Audit: Successes and Snags

• The Radio Stack: Every radio in the rack—from the ICOM R-7000 to the Midland units—powered up successfully. The displays are crisp, though we haven’t yet put them to the test for reception or transmit usability.
• The Evidence Decks: Both Marantz PMD audio decks and both Panasonic VCRs have power. However, “Video 1” has a tape stuck in the transport—a literal piece of history frozen in the machine. We haven’t loaded tapes into the Marantz decks yet, awaiting a full cleaning.
• The Monitoring Station: Both the Panasonic and Hitachi CRT monitors fired right up. No “magic smoke,” no humming—just that classic 80s static.

The “Eye” and the “Ears”

This is where the forensic work begins:

• Video Quality: The PTZ camera is receiving power, but the feed on the monitors is poor. This confirms our suspicion about the signal wiring. Between the periscope-mounted housing and the rack, there is interference or a degraded connection that is “snowing out” the image.
• The Four-Point Array: Testing the Shure mixer revealed that the Front Mic is crystal clear. However, the Back, Left, and Right mics are currently silent. We’ll investigate whether it’s the mics themselves or the wiring leads running through the van’s walls.
• The AutoPage 4242: The alarm light is cycling on and off sporadically. We haven’t quite “cracked the code” on its logic yet, but the brain of the system is definitely alive.

The Mechanical Infrastructure

The Seatron switchboard proved its worth today:

• Life Support: All the fans and pumps for the environmental systems are functional. The “Air Quality” cover story can once again move air.
• The Stabilizers: We have a split result. The Left Stabilizer deployed perfectly, but the Right is loud and doesn’t fully activate. This is likely a seized actuator or a power issue—a mechanical hurdle for a later day.
• Power System: The most important victory? The Inverter and Charger are fully functional, successfully bridging the shore power to the 12V DC bus.