A Roberts R200 ..... at long last :)

[howard]

Hello,

I have spent around two weeks on and off restoring a tan Roberts R200. I had been looking for one for months, the ones on eBay seem either to be very scruffy, or 'restored', the rexine cover often restored using boot polish or dyes But I wanted a nice tidy example and as original as possible and now I have one

I swapped this R200 for another later Roberts radio with another collector, he already had some excellent R200s and this one I guess was a reject But in fact its still one of the most original ones I have ever seen, the rexine unworn, unmarked and a consistent colour and the grille was undamaged. He also included three excellent knobs with new brass inserts which he had made himself and these really are first class, I defy anyone to spot that theyre not originals. He had also overhauled the electronics so it was working well too. It needed a new handle and the silver badge had lost some of its chrome but apart from that it just needed as good clean and polish.

I obtained a replacement reproduction handle from East Coast Wireless which Im sorry to say is nowhere near the original colour Still its the only handle available (or is it ? Maybe a Roberts Revival handle would fit ? in which case I shall get one). One of the web adverts for these handles says 'all you need to do is to cut it to the required size, and then swap the brass work over from your set. Simple !' .... err no, it wasn't that simple, not with this early handle with the pins that go through the ends of the handle and one needs the right tools to do the job properly ie: punch pliers and eyelet pliers. Prizing the ends off I did carefully, saving the eyelets cos theyre an usual length. I cut new holes in the ends of the new cut to length handle and then reused the old eyelets, reshaping the ends so that they would go back through the holes in the handle and end pieces. I fitted a new badge, a gold one rather than the original silver one cos Roberts only supply gold ones now.

Here's my R200, its a pretty little thing (I'd rather have a red one but oh well) and it works well too I cant take all the credit for this one BUT it really doesnt have any boot polish on it !!!!

Howard

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by howard

I obtained a replacement reproduction handle from East Coast Wireless which Im sorry to say is nowhere near the original colour Still its the only handle available (or is it ? Maybe a Roberts Revival handle would fit ? in which case I shall get one).

Larry Bond ( http://www.supacontroller.co.uk/4536.html ) offers handles for Roberts sets, another possible source assuming he's not supplying East Coast Wireless. Revival handles lack the outer plastic beading, so would probably change the appearance of the set more than you'd wish even if a close colour match were available.

Paul

[howard]

Thanks Paul,

Gosh I wish I'd known about that supplier earlier. He makes his own handles, theyre cheaper @ £8, but not only that he fits the old ends onto them free of charge !! He also says about fitting the ends on the handle - 'this can be a tricky job' .... how true !

I will contact him and get another handle if its a better match and chuck this other one in the bin cos as you can see from the second pic, its nothing like the colour of the R200.

And hopefully I wont have to chase up the order either !

Howard

[supacontroller]

Hi Howard, have seen your photos now, stiching should match the leather, and looks a bit long, but original piping no longer available, so I use normal piping, welded together. supacontroller

[howard]

Hello,

Ive been using this Roberts R200 on and off for the past year and it's sound quality deteriorated So Ron Bryan very kindly worked his magic on this one. All 12 of the caps in the pic below were replaced, and no, he didnt simply replace the lot as a matter of course, they were all leaky. That's the most number of caps Ive ever had replaced on any transistor radio set
Also a 5.6 ohm resistor was found to be at over 10 ohms so that had another resistor connected to it in parallel .... does anyone know if and where a 5.6 ohm resistor can be obtained ?

Its all been realigned and works well again. Just a couple of 'features' to mention about this R200, when aligned as per the service notes, it failed to pick up County Sound on 192m so a quick adjustment sorted that out. Also, it picks up Capital Gold either side of County Sound

Its nice to have it back working again, features n' all

Howard

[G0PKH - Pete]

Hi Howard.

The set looks very nice, well done.

I have 4 of these R200's In Blue, Red, Tan, and Green. Two of them, the tan and green ones are early examples with OC series transistors.

it picks up Capital Gold either side of County Sound

This is fairly normal for these sets, if you take a look at the design of the tuning capacitor you will see why.

The capacitance actually increases very slightly at the very low capacitance end.
Quite why that design was used I have no idea.

Pete

[howard]

Thanks Pete,

Glad to hear that that feature is fairly common.

Tis a nice one, its original rexine is unmarked. However, as mentionned above, it has a reproduction handle (East Coast Wireless), a new Roberts R250 gold badge and three new handmade brass knob inserts. The only thing it needs to complete it are three new felt rings to go under the knobs.

They're nice cuddly little set the R200s, but the RT1s sound better and seem to be more relaible.

Howard

[batterymaker1]

Beautiful things--

Many years ago, my future wife mentioned that I could get one of the Revival series from somewhere. I mentioned they're a poor substitute for the originals. Few years later I managed to win an R200 from the 'Bay, and I've been happy with it since.

[Superhet Si]

I must say I really love these radio's. I have a green one that was a real mess when I bought it but cleaned up a treat. Now looking out for a red one! I think all R200's should be red