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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment.

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Old 6th Jun 2020, 10:10 am   #21
AdrianH
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Default Re: AR77 radio, a possible project.

Hello Allan;

The article is one I also found on the internet together with a couple of Youtube clips for the AR77.

I am awaiting the arrival of a batch of wafers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, I am hoping that the outer ring is the same and I can remake the contacts from old to new? So The chassis is sat in the garage for the time being, I had hoped my attempt at a valve tester would work so I could check the valves out while waiting. One thing I may do is try and check continuity of the mains transformer as that would be a show stopper.

Fingers crossed!

Adrian
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Old 6th Jun 2020, 11:11 am   #22
allan
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Default Re: AR77 radio, a possible project.

Hi Adrian
The AR77 brings back lots of memories as it was the receiver we used in our shack at G3OUL, Liverpool University back in the early 60s. I suppose it was relatively quite new back then and not only worked perfectly from our huge very high long wire but no interference from switching power supplies etc. just nice clean bands where you could hear a pin drop.
Unfortunately our transmitter was my all-band home brew rig with an 807 whose RF used to result in a lot of hammering on our front door. We could mostly ignore this because we had our shack in a derelict (but secure) building known as the Liverpool Fever Hospital. Many rooms were full of ancient matresses, but thankfully most of us have survived to the present day. Don't ask about our electricity supply!
My recently acquired AR77 was rather tatty but brushed up quite well. It's still waiting for a set of original knobs which are a bit plain but I was pleased to find an S-meter that fitted.
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Old 6th Jun 2020, 12:08 pm   #23
AdrianH
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Default Re: AR77 radio, a possible project.

I recently picked up a batch of 10 'Chicken head knobs' off Ebay, see item code 360819903922, you can even get coloured ones now!

I will be using the black ones for the outer knobs on the 77 when finished the inner main knobs seem to be original bar one.

It may still be a waste of time I do not know.

The base panel and back panel I could probably fabricate myself, it is just knowing if there should be vent holes etc, louvres are a bit out my tool range but simple holes can be done.

Adrian
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Old 6th Jun 2020, 4:30 pm   #24
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Default Re: AR77 radio, a possible project.

Let's hope you're lucky Adrian. If there isn't a burnt smell from the mains transformer and you can sort out the switches you should manage.
Superglue can work miracles.
I bought a sheet of perforated steel for a job a few years back. I also have loads of old computer cases from which I make missing cases. I made one for my R209 and another for a look-alike DST100 power supply.
Which reminds me.. I must salvage the side panels from our defunct dishwasher before it goes to the tip..
http://www.radiomuseum.co.uk/dst100psu.html
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Old 28th Jun 2020, 12:03 pm   #25
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Default Re: AR77 radio, a possible project.

A bit of an update on this. Still not tested the mains transformer but did receive the ceramic wafer switches from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the physical outside dims looks to be the same as the originals but the insides were different.
But I decided with nothing to loose I would progress a bit further, so stripped down the wafers, I managed to drill the tops from the rivets, but when it came to knocking out the rivets I broke one of the wafers, so three out of four, ain't bad I guess.

The inside disc is 15.9 mm and I had to take it out to 17mm to match the original centre, that was fun with emery cloth and a home made spindle in a drill.

Next steps will be to remove the smashed wafers, documenting carefully as I go, drill out the rivets on the pieces and clean up the old contacts and try to fabricate on the new ceramics, unfortunately due to the internal size difference the new contacts would foul the old centre disc.

This is a long term project with plenty of gaps in the middle.


Adrian
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