Codar Radio - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Ian gardiner · 20th Nov 2020, 1:32 am

I stumbled onto this site today when a picture of Portslade showed up on my phone? My first job In '63 out of Lancing High school ( Boundstone not the College) was at Codar Radio in Southwick 3d on the bus from Lancing, as you did in those days I answered an ad in the Evening Argus I was hired on the spot as I knew the difference between a resistor and a capacitor 5 quid a week twice what my buds we getting at Metal Box on an apprenticeship.

The founder of the company was a Reg Ireland and his wife Connie both very nice people, I believe Reg was an ex Mullard guy. There was only 5-6 of us working above a bank in Southwick I spent a little while in front of a soldering iron or screwdriver attaching B9A bases to aluminium chassis. We pressed and bent our chassis and cabinets in a little shop down across town, we also spun our own Coils on a death dealing lathes with 220 volts on the wire to bed it into the acrylic rods, we had a guy in Selsy or Chichester who painted our cabinets and screened and anodized our front panels and transparent screens for the CR 70A.

The owner's son in law Brian Ellis joined us a year or so later, he was an ex Kaiser Bonder (sp) time and motion guy so he straitened is up. My job evolved into purchasing and coordinating with the Assemblers we now had working at home due to the government adding a payroll tax or some such thing.

When we first started selling the CR 70 we received multiple comments, why make a Radio for pensioners? As the company expanded John Wullie a former radio operater from the merchant marine came to work with us.

I went to the States in 68 for a year or so, then came and worked for Codar again by this time Brian had left and John became a Partner as I think the Ireland’s were retiring, I went back to the US in 70 and lost track of the group. Ian Gardiner.

We relocated the company to

Radio Wrangler · 20th Nov 2020, 5:00 am

Hello and welcome to the forum.

There was a post entered only a few days ago about a CR70A with a cracked front panel. Y

You'll fit right in!

David

Mr 1936 · 20th Nov 2020, 3:08 pm

Hello Ian

In the early 1970's I saved up for nearly a year to afford the £19 10s for a new CR70A receiver, equivalent to about £300 in today's money. I was about 16 at the time so hardly a pensioner ! The sets were often advertised in "Practical Wireless".

I had considered getting a surplus ex WD receiver for around the same money, but these were a bit big and heavy for the bedroom and many didn't cover beyond about 20 MHz. As it was around the time of the sunspot peak I wanted coverage of the 10 metre amateur band so the Codar it had to be.

The receiver gave me a lot of enjoyment for shortwave listening, with a longwire aerial strung down the garden. I remember the low-loss RF tuned circuit inductor with air spaced windings supported only by polystyrene rods, intriguing to know how they were made !

Ian - G4JQT · 20th Nov 2020, 3:44 pm

The best bit of radio kit Codar made I think was the AT5. Just a pull-together of all the good ideas (plus some others) at the time.

I read somewhere that there was the idea of Codar producing a more substantial transmitter, but that never came to anything.

G6Tanuki · 20th Nov 2020, 4:06 pm

A followon-to-the-AT5 would have been a hard-sell for a small manufacturer in the late-60s/early-70s because by then SSB had become the norm on HF and the Japanese were starting to produce good-enough, low-cost SSB radios.

A "Codar version of the KW2000" could have been interesting though. Maybe as a single-bander for 3.5MHz?

I have fond memories of the Codar T28 transistor receiver [which IIRC used Mullard modules for the IF/AF stages] which I borrowed to take on holiday when the family toured Europe in a caravan back around 1969/1970: being battery-powered I had no worries about connecting to 'foreign electricity' with its profusion of plugs/sockets.

bobatbay · 30th Dec 2020, 11:02 pm

Oh the memories. Fascinating info from Ian Gardiner.
Like Mr 1936 I saved my pennies as a teenager to buy a brand new CR70A in about 1972. This was a major step up from the multi band domestic radio section stripped out from my parents' old Decca "radio gram". I was delighted with the CR70A and spent many hours listening to club nets on top band as well as the SW broadcast bands. My "shack" was in the loft space and the antenna was a long wire fixed to my Mother's clothes line support post at the end of our 40 foot long back yard. I remember the novel bandspread tuning by back rotation of the main tuning knob. I later added the PR40 preselector which was battery powered.
To my lasting regret the CR70 was sold on for a very nice looking Trio receiver bought from a second hand shop. Looks can be deceiving. Even after complete realignment , it never was as pleasant to use as the CR70A.

Bob G4DBW

See_Mos · 31st Dec 2020, 4:07 pm

My first Codar was similar to the CR45 but it had large cream coloured knobs and no outer cabinet. It was given to me at school back in 65 or 66 by my physics teacher G3RZX.

I haven't seen one with the same knobs since. I lost it a long time ago, probably swapped it for something else.

20th Nov 2020, 1:32 am	#1
Ian gardiner Diode Join Date: Nov 2020 Location: San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California, USA. Posts: 1	Codar Radio I stumbled onto this site today when a picture of Portslade showed up on my phone? My first job In '63 out of Lancing High school ( Boundstone not the College) was at Codar Radio in Southwick 3d on the bus from Lancing, as you did in those days I answered an ad in the Evening Argus I was hired on the spot as I knew the difference between a resistor and a capacitor 5 quid a week twice what my buds we getting at Metal Box on an apprenticeship. The founder of the company was a Reg Ireland and his wife Connie both very nice people, I believe Reg was an ex Mullard guy. There was only 5-6 of us working above a bank in Southwick I spent a little while in front of a soldering iron or screwdriver attaching B9A bases to aluminium chassis. We pressed and bent our chassis and cabinets in a little shop down across town, we also spun our own Coils on a death dealing lathes with 220 volts on the wire to bed it into the acrylic rods, we had a guy in Selsy or Chichester who painted our cabinets and screened and anodized our front panels and transparent screens for the CR 70A. The owner's son in law Brian Ellis joined us a year or so later, he was an ex Kaiser Bonder (sp) time and motion guy so he straitened is up. My job evolved into purchasing and coordinating with the Assemblers we now had working at home due to the government adding a payroll tax or some such thing. When we first started selling the CR 70 we received multiple comments, why make a Radio for pensioners? As the company expanded John Wullie a former radio operater from the merchant marine came to work with us. I went to the States in 68 for a year or so, then came and worked for Codar again by this time Brian had left and John became a Partner as I think the Ireland’s were retiring, I went back to the US in 70 and lost track of the group. Ian Gardiner. We relocated the company to

20th Nov 2020, 5:00 am	#2
Radio Wrangler Moderator Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Fife, Scotland, UK. Posts: 22,877	Re: Codar Radio Hello and welcome to the forum. There was a post entered only a few days ago about a CR70A with a cracked front panel. Y You'll fit right in! David __________________ Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done

20th Nov 2020, 3:08 pm	#3
Mr 1936 Heptode Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Romsey, Hampshire, UK. Posts: 521	Re: Codar Radio Hello Ian In the early 1970's I saved up for nearly a year to afford the £19 10s for a new CR70A receiver, equivalent to about £300 in today's money. I was about 16 at the time so hardly a pensioner ! The sets were often advertised in "Practical Wireless". I had considered getting a surplus ex WD receiver for around the same money, but these were a bit big and heavy for the bedroom and many didn't cover beyond about 20 MHz. As it was around the time of the sunspot peak I wanted coverage of the 10 metre amateur band so the Codar it had to be. The receiver gave me a lot of enjoyment for shortwave listening, with a longwire aerial strung down the garden. I remember the low-loss RF tuned circuit inductor with air spaced windings supported only by polystyrene rods, intriguing to know how they were made !

20th Nov 2020, 3:44 pm	#4
Ian - G4JQT Octode Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Reading/Fakenham, UK. Posts: 1,323	Re: Codar Radio The best bit of radio kit Codar made I think was the AT5. Just a pull-together of all the good ideas (plus some others) at the time. I read somewhere that there was the idea of Codar producing a more substantial transmitter, but that never came to anything.

20th Nov 2020, 4:06 pm	#5
G6Tanuki Dekatron Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Wiltshire, UK. Posts: 13,998	Re: Codar Radio A followon-to-the-AT5 would have been a hard-sell for a small manufacturer in the late-60s/early-70s because by then SSB had become the norm on HF and the Japanese were starting to produce good-enough, low-cost SSB radios. A "Codar version of the KW2000" could have been interesting though. Maybe as a single-bander for 3.5MHz? I have fond memories of the Codar T28 transistor receiver [which IIRC used Mullard modules for the IF/AF stages] which I borrowed to take on holiday when the family toured Europe in a caravan back around 1969/1970: being battery-powered I had no worries about connecting to 'foreign electricity' with its profusion of plugs/sockets.

30th Dec 2020, 11:02 pm	#6
bobatbay Diode Join Date: Dec 2020 Location: Herne Bay, Kent, UK Posts: 1	Re: Codar Radio Oh the memories. Fascinating info from Ian Gardiner. Like Mr 1936 I saved my pennies as a teenager to buy a brand new CR70A in about 1972. This was a major step up from the multi band domestic radio section stripped out from my parents' old Decca "radio gram". I was delighted with the CR70A and spent many hours listening to club nets on top band as well as the SW broadcast bands. My "shack" was in the loft space and the antenna was a long wire fixed to my Mother's clothes line support post at the end of our 40 foot long back yard. I remember the novel bandspread tuning by back rotation of the main tuning knob. I later added the PR40 preselector which was battery powered. To my lasting regret the CR70 was sold on for a very nice looking Trio receiver bought from a second hand shop. Looks can be deceiving. Even after complete realignment , it never was as pleasant to use as the CR70A. Bob G4DBW

31st Dec 2020, 4:07 pm	#7
See_Mos Hexode Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Ossett, West Yorkshire, UK. Posts: 482	Re: Codar Radio My first Codar was similar to the CR45 but it had large cream coloured knobs and no outer cabinet. It was given to me at school back in 65 or 66 by my physics teacher G3RZX. I haven't seen one with the same knobs since. I lost it a long time ago, probably swapped it for something else.