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Old 24th Oct 2019, 9:08 pm   #1
dave walsh
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Default Listeners With Their Radios

After the article [re GCHQ Scarborough] in this weeks Radio Times, next weeks edition has a photo of an R1155 Receiver Set on the letters page! The owner [also from North Yorkshire] sent it in without her image as she's just moved and it's still packed away. She's aware that they are from, or at least associated with, a Lancaster Bomber and says it's been converted to DAB by a chap "who will only do this if they can't be restored" "All the lighting works and the tuning indicator flashes in response to sound." [This will be the two modern square meters that have been mounted on the bottom right of the panel [the magic eye is in place]. Overall, it seems to be in good condition but it's definitely more steam punk up-cycling than any kind of restoration. I've been careful with my description so no over the top remarks please. I don't intend any overt criticism of anyone. It's the owners choice after all. It's a bit copyist re what happens on here though. Perhaps the Forum could start a "Restorers With Their Radios" Thread-instead of just the equipment Or maybe there are some really obscure items the magazine might appreciate?

Dave W
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 12:18 am   #2
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Default Re: Listeners With Their Radios

I suppose that there were very large numbers of R1155s around post-war, many would have been left for years or decades in the proverbial damp shed as owner circumstances changed and they genuinely do end up as beyond salvation with heavily corroded or missing major components. By that point, at least doing something like the above saves it from being just scrap metal and it may even end up in frequent use. It's certainly a highly evocative item- to someone of my age and background, it's a somewhat sombre, even haunting emblem from a dark time in history- and if the general appearance is still largely there, and kept around for the future, then well and good,

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Old 25th Oct 2019, 10:41 am   #3
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Default Re: Listeners With Their Radios

Well,I have to agree that conversion is better than scrapping if the set is past a normal restoration.
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 10:50 am   #4
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Default Re: Listeners With Their Radios

Different people, different backgrounds. In my formative years, the R1155 was seen as a not terribly good HF receiver needing a lot of messing around to get one powered up and driving a speaker. They were seen as the best you could do if your funds didn't run to a CR100, HRO or AR88. Better than the semi-domestic Hallicrafters cheapies, cheaper than the Layayette shiny rubbish apperaing on Lisle street and Tot court road, and at least you hadn't sunk as low as a 19 set!

Of course, as soon as you saved up the money for that CR100, HRO etc, the 1155 was seen as a source of parts for your transmitter building forays.

THings change.

Lots of people want R1155/T1154 and are building bomber radio desk setups with maximum originality. Where do they stop? Do they build a full Lanc? What's driving them so hard? Just who do they want to bomb?

Maybe the people upcycling them as net streamers are the safe people?

I'm not too bothered. There seem enough 1155/1154 setups that anyone who wants to see one can find one in a museum or collection. They're probably safe from extinction.

The one lanc in flying condition I did have a wander through sported a BC348. Ironically, there's a lanc flying with a radio I designed. What goes around, comes around, they say.

David
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 11:19 am   #5
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Default Re: Listeners With Their Radios

My problem with these 'non-sets' is the deception. Owners are all too ready to claim that they have an actual such-and-such set, just 'converted' to whatever is popular at the moment.
I went to see a favourite TV of mine, the PYE CTM 17, described a 'fully working', and found it was not only 'fully working', but had been 'converted' to both BBC2 AND colour!
Needless to add, it was no more than a colour TV set into a PYE cabinet.
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 11:45 am   #6
dave walsh
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Default Re: Listeners With Their Radios

Indeed David and I suppose "what goes around" applies to our collections in general I may write in and point out a couple of things though. As Colin said, there is a somewhat sombre aspect to these sets [given the losses in action] particularly as Remembrance Sunday approaches! Quite a few years ago there was an apparent sudden price hike re R1155's and a number of threads appeared. In one of those it was pointed out that they weren't easy to service but the average survival rate on the missions was six weeks!

At that time, I advised one chap that he could get a higher price than he was asking but he came back to me eventually saying "Do you want it or not?" and sold the set for his relatively low price [money wasn't his main priority] . It was his uncle's who had worked on them during the war. It was largely intact but the 50's PSU.... a real Health and Safety nightmare
My own uncle died recently and I only found out subsequently that he had worked on Flying Boats still operating in the Far East after WW2. These contained 1155's with an extra band to facilitate Marine Communication. I'd never heard of or seen one of those sets prior to the discussions period when R1155's were being sought after.

Dave W

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Old 25th Oct 2019, 11:53 am   #7
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Default Re: Listeners With Their Radios

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Originally Posted by dave walsh View Post
My own uncle died recently and I only found out subsequently that he had worked on Flying Boats still operating in the Far East after WW2. These contained 1155's with an extra band to facilitate Marine Communication. I'd never heard of or seen one of those sets prior to the discussions period when R1155's were being sought after
Yes, there was a R1155N with 'marine band' coverage - there were also some 1155s fitted in naval vessels around the end of WWII - these have a lot more steel used in the construction in places where the aircraft-versions used aluminium alloy.

As to 'converting' and updating these sorts of radios, I guess it's all a matter of personal taste. There are some people who think fitting electric light, central-heating and indoor sanitation to a 150-year-old terraced house is screaming heresy too.
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 11:55 am   #8
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Default Re: Listeners With Their Radios

I've seen some rebuilds that are quite well executed, retaining the aura of an 1155 but presentable and practical, if a bit bulky. They could never be described as restored though, merely re-purposed.
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 4:49 pm   #9
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Default Re: Listeners With Their Radios

In my early teens I found an old radio on some waste land at the side the local corner shop. (Much later I found out it was the chassis from an 1155)
I dragged it home and commenced dismantling it. I was particularly intrigued by the boxes that contained long rolls of paper and foil soaked in oil
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Old 27th Oct 2019, 1:59 pm   #10
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Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
I was particularly intrigued by the boxes that contained long rolls of paper and foil soaked in oil
Lol, yes, I recall overhauling a CR100 bought as a largely original but neglected cheapie as a teenager and dissecting one of the leaky stud-mounting 100nF decouplers out of curiosity- the oily sandwich of aluminium foil and paper seemed as if it would reach to Timbuktu and back. I thought, this seems a bit like the "Window" strip I'd read about, and I subsequently found that the capacitor manufacturers were indeed approached to make the stuff when the idea was first mooted.
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Old 4th Dec 2019, 4:40 pm   #11
dave walsh
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Default Re: Listeners With Their Radios

Further to "Listeners With Their Radios", I've just bought next weeks Radio Times and nearly missed page 119 which has four examples [with the Listener included this time]. One is a set bought and located in war time France, by the senders parents, to pick up broadcasts from London. They lived just near the German Military HQ and would have been shot if discovered. I think that's called "hiding in plain sight!" There's a great cartoon by Thompson as well. A woman is looking at her Philips Radio and says to her husband "We've had this for forty years-don't you think we should give it back to Philip?"

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Old 4th Dec 2019, 8:33 pm   #12
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Default Re: Listeners With Their Radios

I thought this thread was referring to Paddy O'Connell's request to Radio Times readers to send in pictures of themselves with their old radios.
I've sent in mine but it hasn't been used yet......I think it might be some time, apparently they were inundated with pictures.
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Old 16th Dec 2019, 5:59 pm   #13
dave walsh
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I should complain bitterly Clive [using the tongue in cheek style Paddy's lifted from Eddie Mair]. It is indeed Mr Mair's former page on which Paddy featured those sets. If you get mentioned in the RT letters page... well it's a place in history! There haven't been any more radios or readers featured in subsequent editions [so far] including the "Christmas Special" although Paddy came up with a provocative Eddie type notion ie "My Plan To Remove TV Listings from the Radio Times". A good brand is priceless even if it doesn't make sense

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