R1155 receiver

[domm1kta]

Originally Posted by Radio_Dave

I really struggle with making things from scratch, so I'm pleased with the way my PSU/amp turned out. It's only a MDF box with seperate transformers for HT and LT. HT is bridge rectified with a Si diodes and the amplifier is based on a simple LM386 design.

David,

I have just been given a R1155N over the bank holiday w/e and seems in reasonable condition, not butchered or hacked (although 60+ years obviously not been kind and plenty of dust and spiders) and I will look to restore it and use it, one items missing is a PSU and yours looks like great option.

Do you a photo or more details of the PSU/AF amp box insides?

Did you respray the R1155 metal work with black crackle finish paint?

72

Dom
M1KTA

[Radio_Dave]

Hi Dom,

I recently added the details of my PSU/amp in this thread here https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...862#post334862 I took ages thinking about it and I needed help from the forum (as usual) but I think I came up with the most practical and easiest solution.

The case was stripped and painted satin black, as it was originally. The wrinkle finish, on the front, was cleaned with soapy water and lightly sprayed over with the same satin black. It's worth mentioning that the wrinkle finish on the R1155 is not the same as anything you can buy in a tin, so it's well worth preserving it if you can

HTH
David

[Station X]

One OT post moved to a new thread here:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=62623

[RobinBirch]

Hi,
As everyone else has said, a fantastic job. Would you be willing to share the images you used for the labels as I am stuggling with exactly the same issue as you have had here. There were 4 types of label provided for the 1155. The first was lettering screen printed onto the panel (only on smooth painted finish ones), the second was engraved brass labels with white wax fillins - the easiest to restore, the third was the sort that you describe that are (I think) nickle plated then etched to leave the letters and then chemiblacked and the last are a photo process where black sensitized aluminium is exposed through a negative and then developed, this gives a black background and silver lettering. Not forgetting the silver and black wavechange switch with the colour blobs printed on it to match with the dial and the 1154 knobs.

I've been seriously thinking about making up the artworks to try and make some nickle plated ones but have been putting it off as "too difficult" but if I could use what you have done it may solve my problem.

On another point. The crinkle finish. I have had front panels and the case done professionally by an industrial painter using real stove enamel and they come out as per the original.

Regards

Robin

[Radio_Dave]

Hi Robin,

Thank you for your comments. It's been a while since I finished this receiver and I'll have to have a bit of a search around to find the artwork, but once located I'll PM you.

Since I did this restoration I found out that replica labels can be purchased from this website http://www.g4cvu.co.uk/ He seems to be having website problems, at the moment, but you should be able to contact him via email.

HTH
David

[RobinBirch]

Hi,
Thanks for that. If you can find the artwork that would be brilliant.

Kind regards

Robin

[phasedout]

A brilliant piece of restoration work, well done very impressive......Alan

[vinrads]

Well not much more can be said but absolutely fantastic job well done indeed .

[goodfortune]

That is simply stunning. A beautiful piece of restoration.

I am not a restorer, but can appreciate quality.

Regards

goodfortune

[nardil666]

What a beauty! I have one similar, an early model with brass control plates. I sprayed them black, filled the letters with tippex, then v carefully 'polished' off the excess... looked fine. Later models had printed aluminium plates which were far less attractive. While dismantling the old girl I found some fascinating things - pencilled comments from those who first built it, and some RAF coloured fluff behind the tuning dial.
Like yours, the bungy insulation had perished and turned hard for some reason, like yellow macaroni.I'm afraid I stripped out the DF stuff, which made room for a small mains transformer... and (shock horror) I fitted a TDA 12v audio stage, FET product detector and BFO, FM discriminator, high gain valves in the RF and IF, a complex narrowband IF filter plus other atrocities.... works well though.
The saddest thing was the lovely tuning indicator... lovely and bright when 'new' in the early 70's, but dimming tragically - until I fitted a voltage doubler to the HT (quite safe, can apparently go up to 1kV 'tis said).
Well done, a lovely beast to look at, I much prefer the old fashioned tuning dial you and I have. Shame they only go up to 18.5Mc/s... but I am building a MOSFET converter to get over that...

[dave walsh]

See the "R1155 Variants" thread of 4/9/11, re versions that did go higher!

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=73773

Dave W

[Variometer]

A further improvement can be gained by removing all the screws from the front (one by one), putting them in a handheld electric drill (12V battery type for safety) and polishing up the heads with fine wet & dry paper. Any that can't be got out, paint black. Also, cover up the plug area with a new aluminium box. This is an R1155 that I restored some time ago. Bringing the front panel back to standard actually took longer than the electronics.
Bob

[M0FYA Andy]

"Also, cover up the plug area with a new aluminium box"

Why?

That's modification, NOT restoration!

The correct Jones connectors are not difficult to obtain.

Andy

[Variometer]

That's I what I did, but you don't have to, of course! I put a neater power input socket in it and an aerial socket. I didn't upset anything about it. If the person who has it now wanted to remove my aluminium box, they could do so and would find the original socket or plug underneath (can't remember which it was now). I also added an output 6V6 inside it in one of the old DF valve positions. But I did not remove the DF valveholder and wiring, but carefully bent it back, making sure it didn't touch anything else, and put a new valveholder in its place. My new output valve could easily be removed and the DF valveholder re-instated, so I don't feel too badly about it!
Bob

Is the box is merrily a plug at the back with more useable connectors on the front. If so, I like it.

[Variometer]

This is the receiver as it was when I picked it up on a car boot sale (£15). I did not distub the plug in any way. If my "modification" of the aluminium box is removed, this is what is behind it!

I have always considered the bottom right hand corner of R1155s to be a bit of an ugly mess!

Bob

[M0FYA Andy]

OK, if the box is made simply as an add-on plug-in unit which doesn't involve any mods to the original receiver then I'll go along with it.
But I'll not do it - I much prefer to keep things as they were intended to be 70 years ago when these receivers were made!
Ideally using C-style backshells on the Jones connectors so the retaining strap can fit as intended, but I have to concede that they can be much harder to find and aren't cheap.
Andy

[dave walsh]

With their different solutions to the exposed Jones sockets the 1155 restorations by Dave and Bob are very professional. You would have to be a bit of an afficianado to know that Dave's PSU Unit or Bob's Box are NOT original and happily no radio parts seem to have been hurt in the making! I wish I could put up a photo of the home built PSU that came with my [as yet untouched] set. It's nicely finished in battered unpainted aluminium, studded with an unlikely selection of sockets and switches and has a a wiring style that would make the health and safety regulators weep.
Dave W

[Andrew2]

David, that's the best-looking 1155 I've ever clapped eyes on. Well done indeed. I think you are quite right not to go for the 'super polished' look inside. They wouldn't have been that good even when new.
Once again, well done.

[Herald1360]

Originally Posted by dave walsh

See the "R1155 Variants" thread of 4/9/11, re versions that did go higher!

Interested in this... can't find any references to going higher than 18.5Mc/s, only to the versions with topband coverage instead of the lowest LF range.