Even more radios!

A few weeks ago I decided to pick up a few more sets as 'winter projects'.  I now have a couple more than I originally intended, and the workshop is now overflowing.

National HRO HF receivers

The latest acquisition (the black one in the picture above)  is a National HRO MX, a classic HF receiver that was used extensively in World War Two. The design originates from the 1930s; I haven't had chance to do much research on this particular one, but I think it was probably built around 1942 onwards.

There were tens of thousands of these in use by British forces during the war and for some time afterwards. As a result they are not particularly rare, but finding one that is complete and unmodified can be difficult. This one is complete apart from its power supply, which was a separate unit.

The blue radio is also an HRO that I bought in 2013, but so far I've not been able to find out much about it. The person who restored it assured me that the colour was the same as the original, or as close as he could get.  It might be a variant known as the RAS which was used by the navy, but that tale will have to wait for another day.

I'm looking forward to starting work on the HRO-MX after Christmas, by which time there should be sufficient space in the workshop again.

Keep listening!

BC5645 Chassis

I spent a couple of hours working on the chassis tonight. I still haven't applied power yet, but all suspect components including Hunts capacitors have now been replaced.

Someone had obviously done some work in the past, as several of the capacitors had already been replaced. I think the ones left were those that were difficult to get to!

Three capacitors

It wasn't particularly easy, as most components that connect to ground have been soldered directly to the chassis, instead of a solder tag bolted to it. These connections take a lot of heat, and getting a big soldering iron in without overheating adjacent components was a bit of a challenge. Where possible I left a bit of the old component leg in place and soldered the new component to it; it's not as neat as I would like, but it does guarantee a good connection.

Fortunately none of the components in the VHF section required replacing, as longer leads here might cause problems.

Finally all three sections of the reservoir and smoothing capacitors reformed without problems. The next stage will be to apply power, and I'll update the blog then.

Keep listening!

Work in progress

A bit more work today has made the BC 5645's cabinet look pretty good.

The baffle is back in place, and properly secured with the repaired mountings. The grille fabric isn't the same colour as the original, but it's in keeping with the age of the set. I think it looks OK, certainly better than the fabric it had when it arrived.

The inside looks much better too. The red blobs are paint, intended to secure the screws. They were originally painted white; I'm wondering if this was just a cost saving measure, as paint was probably cheaper than shake proof washers?

The final job was to touch up the odd scratches and chips that were letting light  through the glass tuning scale. A quick dab of Matt black acrylic paint on each damaged area does the job well, and can't be seen from the front.

Apart from a good polish, that's the cabinet done. The next job is the electronic restoration of the chassis.

That's all for now.

Keep Listening!

GEC BC5645

After many months of distractions, I finally got round to starting the BC 5645 today!

It's not in bad condition, although the Bakelite cabinet is going to need a lot of polishing to reduce the visibility of some scratches.

The chassis came out first so that I could give the inside of the cabinet a good clean. Two of the baffle board mounts had broken off; one was in the bottom of the cabinet but unfortunately the other has been lost.

Next to come out was the baffle and speaker, and then, after a good clean and vacuum, I glued the broken mount back in place. A 2BA bolt with the head set in Araldite replaced the missing mount on the other side.

The speaker cloth has seen better days, so this also came off and will be replaced with some new fabric.

The chassis had a light coat of rust in places, but a bit of effort with a brass brush removed most of it.

The only mechanical part of the chassis that will need replacement is the curious paper diffuser for the tuning scale. This is held under tension with spring adjusters. Most strange!

It looks like some restoration work was done on the chassis some time in the past, as several of the infamous Hunts capacitors have been replaced. There are still four or five left and these will have to go, along with the one remaining wax paper capacitor.

More updates will follow soon, so....

Keep listening!

New Arrivals

With the arrival of cold weather and dark nights my thoughts have turned to getting some radio projects organised for the winter months. Two more sets have now joined the the GEC BC5645 in the 'to do' list.

This Bush VHF81 arrived last week. It dates from the latter half of the 1960s, which makes it one of the last valve sets to be made in Great Britain. As the name suggest, this one includes VHF FM in addition to the usual MW and LW bands.

I haven't got round to taking any photos yet, so this picture is from the listing on the auction site.

Bush VHF81

I hadn't planned to acquire any more radios at the moment, but I couldn't resist going for an Ivory coloured DAC90A that nobody else was bidding on. I've fancied one of these for a while now, but being less common than the brown ones (which aren't rare at all!) they usually fetch a much higher price.

I was delighted to win it for the starting bid of £30, which is less than the profit I made in selling a brown one recently. It's supposed to be working, but will still need the usual electronic restoration and safety modifications.

It hasn't arrived yet, so this picture is also from the listing on the auction site.

DAC90a

Three sets in the workshop should provide enough work to keep my evenings busy for a few weeks.  I just need to buy in some components before starting with the GEC set.

More updates will follow soon so...

Keep listening!