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Old 11th Nov 2012, 5:43 pm   #4
Radio Wrangler
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
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Default Re: R1556A High imp. phones

Very interesting!

Nice work, Mans.

My R1556 has a label inside, on the outer face of the right-hand front-panel triangular gusset plate stating that it's an R1556 and that it was modified in 1955 mod number 213/1
It differs from yours in that it has a PVC wiring harness, presumably dating from 1955.

I'd always thought that someone later had drilled the extra hole in the front panel where you have the high-Z phones socket. So now I know better. The toggle mains switch I knew was 1955 vintage because it's included in the beautiful wiring harness. The mains switch section on the mode switch must have been a known weakpoint then.

What I've also found, which I hadn't noticed before seeing your photos, are three small tapped holes in the panel, one of which lines up with the left end of your plastic legend plate. It looks like there was anothe mounting screw at the right end and one along the bottom. Mine didn't have a plastic plate when I got it, and someone had added another switch in the high-Z jack hole.

This is a very early AR88 that got converted into R1556. The front panel is engraved and it carries a real RCA S-meter. The tuning scale is all black figures on yellow background.

I'm planning on rebuilding it this winter... and now I don't have to fill in a switch/jack hole I thought shouldn't have been there!

Thanks,
David
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