RA-17 Restoration Specialist? - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

gadallah · 21st Aug 2007, 1:00 am

Hello all:

I am trying to find out if anyone in the UK has taken the place of Rob Filby with respect to repairing and restoring Racal RA-17/RA-117 radios? Is it time to give up on these machines?

Best regards,
--
Larry Gadallah
VE6VQ/W7
Sammamish, WA, USA

XTC · 21st Aug 2007, 12:26 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by gadallah

Is it time to give up on these machines?

I can't imagine why. Spares are available, there's enough knowledge out there on the WWW. If you come across a difficult problem, you can always solve it if you do some asking around and tackle it methodicallly.

Pete.

Skywave · 26th Aug 2007, 5:47 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by gadallah

Hello all:

. . has taken the place of Rob Filby . . .

Larry Gadallah

Err, "has taken the place"

Please bring me up to date guys: I wasn't aware that Rob had "ceased his RA-17 service operations". Or have I misunderstood something here?

Thank you.

Al / Skywave.

gadallah · 28th Aug 2007, 7:53 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skywave

Err, "has taken the place"

Please bring me up to date guys: I wasn't aware that Rob had "ceased his RA-17 service operations". Or have I misunderstood something here?

Thank you.

Al / Skywave.

Al:

It is my understanding from some comments I've read on the Premium-RX list that Rob Filby is no longer accepting work on RA-17s. If this is wrong, I'd love to find out, along with a way to contact him

.

My remarks about "giving up" were not intended to be provocative, as I know that servicing the RA-17 properly requires some rather esoteric test equipment (and knowledge, I'm sure) that is not readily available. I have no idea of what the situation is with respect to spare parts, particularly mechanical ones, but I'm sure what sources there are are gradually drying up. Of course, the whole theme of the original question refers to the supply of people who are knowledgeable in the repair and restoration of these receivers.

Cheers,

Skywave · 28th Aug 2007, 4:59 pm

Ok Gadallah - thanks for the reply.

If I come upon any relevant updates to this - I'll report here.

The "Premium-RX" reference: is this a Web Site - or something? I've never come across that reference before.

Spare parts and know-how:
I have no way of proving this, but there must be a lot of RA-17s (& thier ilk) out there, since they were supplied in huge quantities to UK Government Agencies (sshh - "you-know-who"

). By now, I would have expected most of these - if not all - have been released to the "public at large". Therefore, not only is there probably a substantial pool of technical knowledge out there, but similarly quite a few spare bits 'n' pieces. You occaisionally see complete receivers - and parts - on E-Bay.

Routine servicing:
For myself, yes, I own a RA-17, and have done various servicing jobs on it. And yes, you do really need fairly decent test kit to do the job properly (apart from routine replacement of Rs and Cs). The main headache in this direction is the accurate alignment of the 40 MHz (+/- 650KHz) band-pass filter. It's not everyone who has a Polyskop or a spectrum analyser!

Cheers.

Al / Skywave.

Nickthedentist · 28th Aug 2007, 6:51 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skywave

The "Premium-RX" reference: is this a Web Site - or something? I've never come across that reference before.

http://www.premium-rx.org/ I presume

Skywave · 29th Aug 2007, 6:08 pm

Thanks Nick - looks interesting - I shall study it in depth later on.

Al / Skywave.

21st Aug 2007, 1:00 am	#1
gadallah Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Sammamish, WA, USA Posts: 2	RA-17 Restoration Specialist? Hello all: I am trying to find out if anyone in the UK has taken the place of Rob Filby with respect to repairing and restoring Racal RA-17/RA-117 radios? Is it time to give up on these machines? Best regards, -- Larry Gadallah VE6VQ/W7 Sammamish, WA, USA

28th Aug 2007, 4:59 pm	#5
Skywave Rest in Peace Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Chard, South Somerset, UK. Posts: 7,457	Re: RA-17 Restoration Specialist? Ok Gadallah - thanks for the reply. If I come upon any relevant updates to this - I'll report here. The "Premium-RX" reference: is this a Web Site - or something? I've never come across that reference before. Spare parts and know-how: I have no way of proving this, but there must be a lot of RA-17s (& thier ilk) out there, since they were supplied in huge quantities to UK Government Agencies (sshh - "you-know-who" ). By now, I would have expected most of these - if not all - have been released to the "public at large". Therefore, not only is there probably a substantial pool of technical knowledge out there, but similarly quite a few spare bits 'n' pieces. You occaisionally see complete receivers - and parts - on E-Bay. Routine servicing: For myself, yes, I own a RA-17, and have done various servicing jobs on it. And yes, you do really need fairly decent test kit to do the job properly (apart from routine replacement of Rs and Cs). The main headache in this direction is the accurate alignment of the 40 MHz (+/- 650KHz) band-pass filter. It's not everyone who has a Polyskop or a spectrum analyser! Cheers. Al / Skywave.

29th Aug 2007, 6:08 pm	#7
Skywave Rest in Peace Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Chard, South Somerset, UK. Posts: 7,457	Re: RA-17 Restoration Specialist? Thanks Nick - looks interesting - I shall study it in depth later on. Al / Skywave.