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Boxing day sales!

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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Well, I went shopping with the money Santa left me (the money my wife didn't spend on gifts ).

I saw a nice Racal receiver (it looked small in the photos). So off I went.

I ended up with a Racal RA17L

PXL_20201230_075523217_compress62.jpg

Oh, and also a Racal RA117

PXL_20201230_075711629_compress3.jpg

And also another RA117 for parts

PXL_20201230_075759475_compress12.jpg

Not to mention a pair of SSB converters

PXL_20201230_080329907_compress80.jpg

A box of assorted parts

PXL_20201230_080238310.NIGHT_compress61.jpg

And also a bag containing an almost complete set of spare valves. Oh, and I shouldn't forget the two power cords with the funny connectors that look like XLR sockets.

A couple of closer looks follow...

PXL_20201230_080340780_compress15.jpg

PXL_20201230_080349902_compress0.jpg

PXL_20201230_080357823_compress9.jpg

PXL_20201230_080415077_compress96.jpg

I have taken a very quick look at the 3 receivers. The first 2 look to be complete, but will need extensive recapping and possibly resistor replacement. The gutted unit is another 117 but it's missing the power transformer and the valves. There may be more missing too.

I have yet to crack open the 2 SSB units, look at the spare parts, or the spare tubes (other that a quick once-over for white getters).

It would be really interesting to get these going again. the scrap unit is pretty complete, and may be a candidate for conversion to solid state.

These will be a long term project!
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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It looks like the box of parts has a large quantity of unobtanium in it.

PXL_20201230_085530754_compress51.jpg

Including even more valves, shields, if transformers, coils, knobs, screws, etc...
 

Martaine2005

May 12, 2015
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Santa and covid looked after you this year.
The 'wife' couldn't spend it all with shops closed and lockdown.

Martin
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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I think i got a "going to a good home" price.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Santa arrived late this year. He left me this

PXL_20201231_021146961_compress32.jpg

This scope has a massive bandwidth of... wait for it... 500kHz! But it makes up for that with a vertical sensitivity of 100μV/div.

Inside it looks like this

PXL_20201231_025250320_compress42.jpg

But the power connection is a little suspect...

PXL_20201231_025601861_compress13.jpg

The mains flex just comes in via a hole. looks like US cable with black/white & green, but has an Aussie plug.

Assuming they wired the plug something like correct, the live and neutral have been connected across the fuse, and earth has been connected to one side of the transformer primary. The plug shows burning on the earth pin. Aaaagh!

This could be fun...
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Well, the good news is that the transformer was connected between neutral and ground (assuming the genius who wired this has their house wiring correct). It also explains the very well blown fuse.

PXL_20201231_031508105_compress99.jpg

Unfortunately the primary seems to be open. Also looks to be a 127V winding :-(

And the power switch is open! That may have happened when the fuse blew I guess. At least the power switch won't be hard to replace.

There's also balls of solder under the fuse holder. Oh the skills of the person who attempted to wire this up.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Woo hoo! after consulting the documentation, the transformer appears OK. And it has both 120V windings connected in series. It must have been a 240V unit. Not sure why someone butchered the power cable and stuff, but it looks like all they may have done was convince themselves the unit didn't work. (and that probably explains the price too)
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Back to the SSB converters. This is the one on the left in the group photo. It is marked "OK"

PXL_20201231_122745136_compress98.jpg Top

PXL_20201231_123136337_compress3.jpg Bottom

Lots of mica caps and film caps. No paper caps at first glance. But quite a few electrolytics to replace.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Second unit. I was told this was not working, but probably just required capacitor replacements.

PXL_20201231_122745136_compress98.jpg Top

PXL_20201231_121851161_compress60.jpg Bottom

Immediately noticable is the lack of a dial lamp on this unit, and also there were marks under pretty much all of the electrolytics. I imagine all have leaked onto the bottom cover at some point.

Nevertheless, looks like not too much work here too.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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And finally for tonight the Racal RA17L

PXL_20201231_125118905_compress42.jpg Top

PXL_20201231_125449237_compress74.jpg Rear

PXL_20201231_125810469_compress35.jpg Bottom (main cover in place)

PXL_20201231_125923106_compress29.jpg Bottom (cover removed)

PXL_20201231_130449371_compress49.jpg Some further shielding removed.

There's a lot of caps that need replacing here. fortunately the layout is really clean and I'm sure it's going to be a lot easier than some point to point chassis I've worked on.

But there's a LOT of caps...
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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The person who serviced the RA17L left them following notes from 19 dec 1985...

PXL_20210101_105610924_compress73.jpg

Should be a useful reference once I get it recapped.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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I went searching deep in the innards of the receiver.

Look what had happened to these wax paper capacitors!

PXL_20210102_054258605_compress43.jpg

One of those stalagmites is almost a cm tall!
 
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