UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Powered By Google Custom Search Vintage Radio and TV Service Data

Go Back   UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum > General Vintage Technology > Success Stories

Notices

Success Stories If you have successfully repaired or restored a piece of equipment, why not write up what you did and post details here. Particularly if it was interesting, unusual or challenging. PLEASE DO NOT POST REQUESTS FOR HELP HERE!

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 24th Oct 2005, 2:40 am   #1
Paul_RK
Dekatron
 
Paul_RK's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Fakenham, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 4,246
Default Heathkit GR-151A

Mostly I scan eBay in order to make up the occasional gap in the ranks of Hacker and Roberts sets here, but I'm looking out too for any curiosities, preferably going unappreciated This one, then, caught my eye:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...B:EOIBSA:UK:31

Coverage of medium wave only, plus the dial calibration in kc/s, indicated a US design which may not have been much seen over here, and an online search produced the date of 1957. A very early transistor set by our standards, then, albeit such things had been established a tad longer in America. Buying it for £6.50 seemed a success in itself.

The eBay photo with open back had intrigued me, with an aluminium plate evidently concealing almost everything and offering no obvious opportunity for inserting batteries. My puzzlement on this score wasn't immediately solved when the set arrived either, as undoing a couple of random screws apparently securing that plate wasn't getting me anywhere. The required procedure for battery replacement turns out to involve removal of a couple of screws securing the mock leather case to the chassis and, uniquely in my experience, removal of the on/off-volume and tuning knobs: the chassis then lifts out entire, with 'speaker attached, and the battery carrier, holding six "C" cells, can slide out from its resting place at the base of the assembly.

Something else I think I've met for the first time here, is a transistor radio with hopelessly decayed wiring insulation, as one of the photos shows. All inside was nicely clean but for some battery compartment corrosion: a little filing sufficed to clean the contacts, the springs aren't disintegrating at all, and the battery tubes were soon given a wash. With the wires replaced, the little set sprang into life directly. Sound quality is agreeable if a little bright, sensitivity and AGC action both very good, and as regards performance I can't think the set can have lost much in the course of its possibly 48 years.

Fitting a 7"x4" loudspeaker into a set that only measures 8"x6.5"x3.2" is quite an achievement in itself. The loudspeaker certainly seems a good and efficient design, with plenty of volume available despite the low power 2N408 being used for driver and output stages. Really the only regrettable part is that the case is of the faux-leather I've mainly met before on the old Radio Exchange range of "Roamer" home constructor portables: thin vinyl on cardboard, which after a while is prone both to splitting at hinges and to peeling away from its backing at the edges, so the scope for restoration to anything like the set's full original condition is limited. It's a shame what must have been an expensive little receiver didn't get a real leather case such as was used for the later and larger Heathkit models. Also, the legend "Heathkit - 6 Transistor", with a border, should be at the bottom front

http://www.ronmansfield.com/new_page_4.htm

The outline of it all is just visible, but I suspect any attempt to reinstate it would leave the set looking more of a mess than it already does. Still, I'm glad it's here.

Paul
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	DSCI0003X.jpg
Views:	230
Size:	70.5 KB
ID:	1777   Click image for larger version

Name:	DSCI0004X.jpg
Views:	200
Size:	78.7 KB
ID:	1778   Click image for larger version

Name:	DSCI0005X.jpg
Views:	265
Size:	70.2 KB
ID:	1779  

Last edited by Paul_RK; 24th Oct 2005 at 2:45 am.
Paul_RK is online now  
Old 24th Oct 2005, 7:05 pm   #2
Andrew c
Tetrode
 
Andrew c's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 72
Default Re: Heathkit GR-151A

Hi paul nice little radio but replacing the batteries looks too much like hard work a removeble panal would have been better then having to take the set apart to change them

Andy
Andrew c is offline  
Old 25th Oct 2005, 12:16 am   #3
Paul_RK
Dekatron
 
Paul_RK's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Fakenham, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 4,246
Default Re: Heathkit GR-151A

Hi Andy.

It's actually very little trouble once you know what's needed - two screws (a common enough requirement, I can readily enough think of sets where there are four or more), plus the two knobs which are pulled off in seconds. The worst of it is, the back's likely to split a little more at the hinge every time

Paul
Paul_RK is online now  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 7:33 pm.


All information and advice on this forum is subject to the WARNING AND DISCLAIMER located at https://www.vintage-radio.net/rules.html.
Failure to heed this warning may result in death or serious injury to yourself and/or others.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2002 - 2023, Paul Stenning.