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This receiver is comparatively rare and my example
needs a lot of restoration to make it presentable |
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The Eddystone Model 680X was much sought after back
in the 1960s. The other receiver in the Eddystone line-up in
favour at much the same time was the "888" which covered
only the amateur bands. |
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T1154 RF Power Meter
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I spotted this thermocouple
meter that was designed for use with the T1154 Transmitter in
October 2024 and was a bit surprised that no-one else made a
bid for it because they're usually sold for up to ten times the
price of the £10 that I paid for it. Not that they're actually
worth pots of money, but because of peculiarities in aerial matching
they record power output from the T1154 transmitter better than
any alternative. Maybe all T1154 owners already have one, or
more likely didn't see it for sale? Odd, because it was fully
described by the seller.
Continuity looked OK so it should
work. On the right is the meter removed from its case so I could
superglue the front glass back in place.
Read
about commissioning one of my T1154 transmitters. |
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This equipment, made in
Palo Alto California, arrived here in October 2024 and is pretty
rare. I need to discover more about it... although, at least
at first sight I believe it to be a very posh wobbulator.
Ideally, to make use of it you
need a display of some kind although at a pinch one could use
a meter to manually plot the response of say an RF filter. This
example incorporates a plug-in unit covering the frequency range
100KHz to 110MHz, which for general purpose use is ideal as it
covers standard IF frequencies and wavebands up to the FM broadcast
band. There are umpteen front panel settings and, at the back,
lots and lots of connectors and tag-strip connections. Valves
or transistors inside? Opening the lid I found it was all solid-state
and with a fair wind should be serviceable.
Construction is very obviously
USA standard, looking just like HP equipments of similar vintage.
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Here's another rare item.
This was advertised as covering the frequency range 10Hz to 200MHz
and seems to be a standard type of RF measuring equipment. I've
not heard of the manufacturer before so I'll need to investigate
further.
***
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R1224 Receiver
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This was an impulse buy
when I offered about a third of the asking price. June 2024.
Click
to see more
The receiver is an early RAF
shortwave type using battery valves and looks eminently restorable
with little effort. |
IFF Receiver, W4790B
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I spotted this WW2 radar
receiver on Ebay quite by accident and I recognised it immediately
because it looked like one of the only things I could afford
as a teenager back in the 1950s. My example was marked "RDF1"
but looks pretty similar to this one I bought a few days ago
(in June 2024). I think, back in the 50s it was being sold as
a handy receiver for ITV sound which operated on Band III.
What is it exactly? Back in
the days of Chain Home UK radar operated on VHF ranges and used
a simple horizontal display which showed a blip for an aircraft.
The blip represented an echo from a pulse. Not long afterwards
an improvement was made which showed not only a blip for the
echo but a second blip for a response transmitted by an aircraft
hearing the radar pulse and fitted with an IFF unit. IFF stands
for Identification Friend or Foe. As you can see here the Royal
Navy used a similar VHF radar in 1944. My RDF1 was an RAF equipment
and if one peers inside the (RN) case below the parts have RAF
codes (for example its VR65 valves). This version will have been
designed for use on ships and probably has a few minor changes.
More details to follow...
click on
the picture(s) to read more. |
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Another Rohde & Schwarz Signal Generator
SMS 2
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This is a second signal generator
from Rohde & Schwarz and has the maker's code SMS 372.2019.28
and as you can see also covers 100KHz to 1040MHz just like its
predecessor the SMS.
Auctioned at a low price but
with £25 delivery it ended up at £45.03, suggesting
the lower unsuccessful bid was exactly £45 so I was lucky
to get it!
Unlike many of my bargain buys,
looking only fit for a skip, this example looks to be in fair
shape and hopefully only requires a handful of capacitors. It's
due here in a few days so we'll see what attention it needs then.
The seller reported that it passed its self test but ignored
button presses and lacked RF output.
Unlike the SMS this example
has a readable display and because of this might help in diagnosing
the former's faults.
See below... |
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A local auction purchase
Eddystone 358X Receiver
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I had a query email last week (end of Jan 2024)
from a chap who'd seen my website asking if I could identify
his receiver. I told him it was an Eddystone 358X but without
its plug-in coils it wasn't worth much and therefore it was a
strange coincidence that on looking at our local on-line auction
I spotted the above Eddystone complete with all its coils. It
cost me £60 but but as it was my first go at an on-line
auction I'd made a trial bid on an earlier item. More than 60
"Train Books"; so I guess the 358X now owes me an extra
£20, although I reckon the books could be worth more than
I paid (the paperback version of one hardback is selling on Amazon
for £397.99 !).
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Another rather distressed Type 88 Receiver (R1475)
This one in a large box was kindly bid for on my
behalf and delivered by Alf, G3WSD. "Distressed", because
it had been dismantled.
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I had intended to use this one for parts but
it looks to be better than my first example below, so I may use
it as a guide to make missing parts for the latter and hopefully
I'll end up with two in fair condition. |
A rather distressed
Type 88 Receiver (R1475)
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Not only missing a guard receiver but also missing
the associated controls as well as the metal protective bits. |
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McMichael Model 364
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This old radio arrived here with a number of
other items but got overlooked at the back of the museum. The
design dates to 1936 and is typical of sets made around this
time, when lots of virtually identical radios in terms of performance
vied for attractiveness in the eye of the public. This example
uses octagons to catch the eye. No shortwaves, just medium and
long waves but it would have provided excellent service with
its valve line-up.
These were AC/VP1, AC/TP, AC/VP1, V914, AC2/PEN and
either a UU3 or UU4 depending on its date of manufacture. It
uses an RF stage, mixer, IF amplifier running at 128.5KHz, audio
amplifier and output valve. |
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Although the cabinet looks pretty tatty and
the chassis looks to be loose in the case it looks eminently
restorable.
Looking at the picture on the right it appears to
have had an escutcheon, but other pictures of this model show
no such thing so either this falls off easily and all the pictures
show restored sets minus the escutcheon, I don't know.
Fortunately all the knobs are present as their design,
like those used by many other set makers, are unique.
I plan to take a few more pictures of the radio showing
the interior views once the weather warms up (it's currently
mid March 2023) and I can work comfortably in my workshop. |
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Rohde & Schwarz SMS
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This is a signal generator
from 1980 and has the maker's code SMS 302.4012.26 and as you
can see covers 100KHz to 1040MHz
Advertised at £290 for
repair I offered £95 and this was accepted (much to my
surprise as this price included the postage)
Unlike many of my bargain buys,
looking only fit for a skip, this example looks to be in excellent
shape and hopefully only requires a handful of capacitors. It's
due here in a few days so we'll see what attention it needs then.
It arrived
three days early so I started to take it apart... |
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WS19 Variometer (Sept 2022)
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This cylindrical object
was used in tanks for matching a whip aerial to the WS19 aerial
terminal. By rotating the black knob one could optimise the RF
output of the set and improve reception. |
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As you can see this example
dates from 1962 and if you look carefully the right hand end
which was designed to mate with the base of a whip aerial has
been fitted with a PL259 connector. The drawing below shows how
it was connected to an installation, |
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Left, what the mechanism
inside the case looks like and above the circuit diagram. Note
the Westector rectifier (W1A) which is the "missing part"
needed to produce a deflection on the WS19 meter. |
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Pye Radio
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This fine old Pye radio, dating
from 1930, was kindly donated to the Radio Museum by Mortimer
Rhind-Tutt, G4BSK, who came over with his XYL Janet, from Bridgwater
to deliver it. The label on the back (below) proclaims its rather
elevated status.
The model is the AC4D Twin Triple
(= twin HF tetrodes.. state-of-art in 1930 with a 3-gang tuning
condenser .. clearly a meaningful thing back then), which claims
to be "transportable" but, because it's a mains set
and weighing in at 41.4 pounds (or over 18kgm), the term puzzles
me slightly. Admittedly it has a pair of handles built into the
woodwork, but moving it around nowadays would require a health
and safety label demanding a "two-woman" lift because
the legal defintion of a maximum weight lift per person is set
at 16kgm for a woman but 25kgm for a man. Obviously mankind has
become weaker over the last 92 years
Click
it to see more |
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Click
to see another radio supplied by Harrods |
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Hewlett Packard HP8640A
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Due to be delivered in a couple of days is this
example of the 8640 signal generator. It looks infinitely better
than the very distressed 8640B barn find I worked on a few years
back and as you can see above the mains lamp is litand the RF
lewvel looks to be nominal. Said to include Option 2 (extended
frequency coverage to over 1GHz) it is better in that respect
to my refurbished 8640B below.
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Saba Meersburg Automatic 6-D
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Tim Norman from
Ampthill very kindly dropped off this rather fine radio which
he'd found in his loft. From the label it's certainly a German
import.. maybe brought back to the UK in the late 1950s or early
1960s by a National Service conscript? I hadn't realised it had
a motor tuning feature which must have made it an expensive proposition.
Our Murphy family radio from the late
1930s had an auto-tune feature but it wasn't fitted in our example.
click
the radio above to see its circuit diagram |
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Canadian 52 Set ZE12
Power Supply
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Purchased March 2022,
this is the matching power supply for my 52 Set
Click to
see more |
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CJD ELF/VLF Receiver
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R1355
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I bought this because
it looks reasonably complete (except missing the outer case and
painted in an odd blue and yellow colours).
When these receivers came onto
the government surplus market in the 1950s they were advertised
as being admirably suited for modification to serve as IF amplifiers
for home brew TV sets. They are rarely seen in an unmodified
state. This example has a mains power supply and strangely, a
new set of components.
The chassis is fitted with an
RF24 marked with numbers 1-5 which could relate to Band I Channels
1 to 5 except the RF unit tuned to lower frequencies as shown
below. For TV use an RF25 would be better but I can see through
ventilation holes the RF24 has also been fitted with new components..
so has it also been modified for Band I reception?
What confuses me though.. the
components are really new.. too new for Band I TV.. so what's
its purpose?
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Channel |
Vision MHz |
Sound MHz |
RF24 MHz |
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1 |
45.00 |
41.50 |
22.0 |
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2 |
51.75 |
48.25 |
22.9 |
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3 |
56.75 |
53.25 |
25.3 |
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4 |
61.75 |
58.25 |
27.3 |
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5 |
66.75 |
63.25 |
29.7 |
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Click the picture to read more
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Mystery RAF Radio
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I couldn't resist
buying this WW2-vintage receiver as I've never seen one before.
It turned out to be quite interesting as it's actually a Bendix
MN26-C Radio Compass. From what little information I've found
these cover 100KHz to 1500KHz in three wavebands so would make
a very good domestic radio, which is how the government surplus
market handled them. This example has been modified for use as
a domestic radio, rather than the alternative advertised use
as a car radio, but still maintaining its remote tuning gearbox
but with lots of extra knobs and switches dating from the same
era as the set. On the top of the case it carries an RAF crown
and what looks like the code 10D/401**.
When I have time, I'll open
it up and see why it's so incredibly heavy. Originally it was
packed full of IO based valves and a dynamotor for 28 volts DC.
That dial carries only 0-100 and could do with a good clean.
Click the
radio to see more |
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**Below, the only external
markings, slightly indistict which Alf, G3WSD has decoded as
"110D/401".
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Teac AG-D200
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Not an ancient collectable
radio, but a replacement for my ageing Teac
Receiver/Amplifier which has started to give me a headache.
Things started to go wrong when electrolytic capacitors in its
low voltage power supply circuits began to fail. Then dry joints
started to make their presence felt, and then something inside
started to get very hot causing it to cut out. Hours with a soldering
iron, then the addition of a computer fan running from the amplifier's
internal 12 volt supply (via a resistor to limit the voltage
and hence fan speed an acoustic noise) fixed the problems, but
not long afterwards the thing would fail to deliver any sound
unless thumped very hard on its top. Time to replace the whole
thing... and I spotted this much newer Teac being sold with a
"staticky" fault. Hopefully I can fix this and then
perhaps spend time to correct failings on my AG-15D? The new-looking
remote control only responded to a few of its buttons so I took
it apart and found lots of syrupy deposits on the circuit board.
Considering the circuit board is covered by a rubber layer carrying
moulded buttons it's puzzling as to how liquid got under the
layer of rubber, but careful cleaning restored 100% of its commands. |
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The equipment seems
to work OK but I looked on the Net for a repair manualand had
no luck. I can find an operators' manual but not that for repair.
Interestingly, I must have triggered a response because I now
get advertising blurb for a new example of the AG-D200... at
a whopping £349.99 plus £6.99 postage (opposite).
My outlay of £35 for a crackly version seems pretty good!
I plugged it in and sure enough I could hear faint crackling
on radio reception. The front feet slipped off the front of the
bench and the thing bumped down half an inch. I slid it back
into place on the bench and the crackles had completely stopped
so it looks like an embrionic dry joint or could it just have
been poor radio reception?.... I'll lift off its covers and try
and spot it. Let's hope it's more repairman friendly than the
difficult- to-dismantle AG-10D...
PS. It's just as awkward to
take apart as the old model and waggling everything in sight
wouldn't make it crackle, although one of the side speaker outputs
was quieter than the other and the display is a bit dim.
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Hello Allan Isaacs,
Based on your recent activity, we thought you might
be interested in this.
TEAC-AG-D200-7.1-Channel Home Cinema Receiver.PROFESSIONAL.4X
HDMI INPUTS
by Teac
Price: £349.99
Dispatched from and sold by D**** (UK). |
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A magic meter that can seemingly
test anything.
Click it to read more. |
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