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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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8th Mar 2023, 2:57 pm | #1 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Bishop Auckland, County Durham, UK.
Posts: 398
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Mystery radio identification.
Good afternoon,
I have just bought this on Ebay and was hoping someone could actually recognise any of it. It was listed as a voltmeter but looked more like a radio to me but I could be and often am wrong but at worst there are some nice metal knobs and a good case and miscellaneous parts. Well that was my excuse for buying it. It looks to be a mixture of professionally built and re-purposed. The meter is calibrated in S units and the tuning dial has no markings. The original power supply was through a Bulgin socket on the back and what looks to be overkill red and black wires are connected on the back of the socket. The aerial ? socket on the back is via a bayonet socket rather like one for a scope probe. Hopefully someone will be able to spread some light on this. Kind regards, David |
8th Mar 2023, 3:03 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
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Re: Mystery radio identification.
Definitely a radio; almost certainly intended to cover the amateur bands.
There were a load of such kits around in the 70s and 80s and 90s , almost certainly one of them. Some had you put the components on the PCBs yourself, others came with the PCBs ready-populated and you just had to wire them together and mount them in a case with suitable controls.
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I'm the Operator of my Pocket Calculator. -Kraftwerk. |
8th Mar 2023, 3:16 pm | #3 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Surrey, UK.
Posts: 4,385
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Re: Mystery radio identification.
The crystal bank certainly hints at amateur bands coverage with 3.5-4.0MHz first IF (and direct 80m) with vari-cap tuned 2nd conversion to 455khz on the reverse side PCB. I wonder if this is anything to do with the 80m receiver modular system that Ambit offered in the late `70s- though no doubt there were shedloads of similar offerings in this timeframe.
It might actually work pretty well- don't be too hasty about breaking it up! |
8th Mar 2023, 3:18 pm | #4 |
Hexode
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Chippenham, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 319
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Re: Mystery radio identification.
The crystal frequencies look like they belong to a converter for the 160, 40, 20 and 15 metre bands with three bites at 10 metres - all feeding a tunable IF of 3.5-4.0 MHz. Reception on 80 is achieved by feeding straight into the tunable IF, which appears to include a ceramic filter (what sort, I wonder?). The two other boards next to the crystal board are likely to be switchable RF amp and mixer.
However, this is not the Cirkit offering from the 1980s, which featured a tunable IF 3.0-3.5 MHz (if I remember correctly) with mechanical filter and separate self-contained converters for each band. You could have a nice little amateur bands receiver there. Peter |
9th Mar 2023, 5:40 pm | #5 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Bishop Auckland, County Durham, UK.
Posts: 398
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Re: Mystery radio identification.
Many thanks for the replies, I have a starter for 10 to look for more info.
The ceramic filter is marked CLF-D2 if that means anything. Looking closer, it all seems to be complete so I will gingerly power it up and see what happens. As an aside, this was powered from elsewhere, is there a specific reason why it would not have an onboard power supply other than one was just not fitted ? Anyway, it has a reprieve for the time being. Thanks again and kind regards, David |
9th Mar 2023, 8:35 pm | #6 |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 1,648
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Re: Mystery radio identification.
As an aside, this was powered from elsewhere, is there a specific reason why it would not have an onboard power supply other than one was just not fitted ?
If this project was a kit, then it probably comes down to health and safety. Providers of such products are generally highly risk averse, and so if they can avoid encouraging their customers to fiddle with mains voltages, then that is the route they will follow. Richard |
12th Mar 2023, 3:08 pm | #7 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Bishop Auckland, County Durham, UK.
Posts: 398
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Re: Mystery radio identification.
Good afternoon,
Just a quick update on this. I have powered it up via a Farnell supply and 12v seems to be the comfortable minimum that the radio will function so I will leave it at that for the moment. It does seem to work although I do need to arrange a better aerial rather than the short length of wire pushed in the back. As yet, the S meter has been untroubled. That said, I was able to receive what sounded like morse and speech which I could not quite resolve. I will report back when I have some sort of aerial in situ, probably just a long wire. Kind regards, David |