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Old 10th Oct 2021, 8:30 pm   #1
Lloyd 1985
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Default Another R1155 thread!

I've been after one of these since I was back at college in 2001, they were having a clear out of a store room and one emerged, complete with it's T1154! I asked if I could have it, but was told no, as one of the lecturers was taking it. When I got back after the summer break I was told that the whole lot had been chucked in the skip as the lecturer that had put his name on it changed his mind! I was not pleased...

Anyway, last year I finally managed to get one off ebay, cost a small fortune, but was pretty much complete, bar the DF valves, but all the circuitry was still intact! The front of the set looked terrible, like it had been in the sea, then baked in the desert! It actually came up really nicely with a good scrub with an old toothbrush and some cheap hand soap, then polished up with a bit of furniture wax. The dial surround was treated to a re-spray and a new pencil scale made up with off-white card, it actually looks really nice now, like a completely different radio! There were a few bits missing, so I decided to look for some bits at this year's RetroTech event.

I spotted another R1155, it looked like it had already been pillaged for parts, but it had the bits I wanted for mine, and priced at £20, I couldn't turn it down! Once home I opened it up, and to my surprise, and delight, it was actually fairly complete internally, and still had the DF bits mostly intact! So I decided to throw caution to the wind and shove some volts up it to see what it would do, it tried to work, but nothing was tuneable, the IF was working though! I traced the problem down to R35, should be 22K, but was reading over 200K and rising, this was stopping the oscillator running, and with a new one the radio was up and running, tuning in across the MW band with good sensitivity! I also tacked in a few 0.1uF caps that had gone missing too.

So I've decided to restore this set too! It's cosmetically challenged, the front is bubbling with white crusty corrosion under the paint, and the control label plates have all suffered from damp storage.

So I have a couple of questions, were the brass plates with the control labels painted black, or chemically blackened originally? and as to serial numbers, were they printed on the chassis? I'm missing the serial number plate off the first set. I'll probably have more questions as I work through the sets!

Cheers,
Lloyd

Pics: 1&2: the first set, before and after (yes, it really is the same set!!)
3: the control labels
4: the second set as found.
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Old 10th Oct 2021, 9:40 pm   #2
cnpope20
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

Nice looking restoration! Are you planning to restore the DF too? I have done that with a couple of R1155s that I acquired, and it is very satisfying to get the DF operational. The twin-pointer "drunken man" meter can be found on E-bay occasionally.
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Old 10th Oct 2021, 10:02 pm   #3
turretslug
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

Lovely job there Lloyd, it's great to see such classic old stalwarts being brought back from basket-case status and revitalised. I saw a comment, likely on Antique Radios Forum, that the BC348 was probably the most hacked-about set ever, the R1155 is maybe the British contender for that crown! I suppose that both were unloaded onto the market in vast numbers and both needed home PSU arrangements that varied from "death-trap" to "enviable" in competence.

I know what you mean about buying an apparent "scrapper", then finding that it's better than expected and not having the heart to plunder it- I wouldn't be surprised if that's a near-universal syndrome here. Trouble is, it's a route to acquiring (n + 1) where n tends to infinity of whatever you only meant to have the one of....

Colin
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Old 10th Oct 2021, 10:35 pm   #4
Lloyd 1985
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

Cheers for the comment’s

I do hope to get the DF working on at least one of them, I’ve already got 2 of the 3 missing valves, but the 3rd is proving tricky to get hold of thanks to the audiophools! I’ve got my eye on a couple of DF meters!

I must admit I was really surprised the first one was really just dirty, the only thing that suffered during cleaning was the print for the frequency ranges, which on that set is actually printed directly onto the front panel, I’ll have a go at touching it in at some point.

Oh, I forgot to say the first set actually has a built in audio output stage! It’s been neatly hidden under the chassis, just behind the panel under the tuning knob. When I first got it I was wondering what the valve under the chassis was for, as I’d not seen it on any others, it’s even in its own screening can that matches the ones above chassis! I’ve decided to keep it, the only modification I’ve made is to hide the screws for the output transformer, which were drilled straight through the front panel, I’ve put countersunk ones behind the panel and filled the holes that were left before painting It. I’ll see if I can find a picture!

Regards
Lloyd
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Old 11th Oct 2021, 3:01 am   #5
cnpope20
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lloyd 1985 View Post
Cheers for the comment’s

I do hope to get the DF working on at least one of them, I’ve already got 2 of the 3 missing valves, but the 3rd is proving tricky to get hold of thanks to the audiophools! I’ve got my eye on a couple of DF meters!
I'm guessing that that's the VR102 double triode? I used a 6SN7 instead, with a homemade octal adapter to avoid needing to change the wiring in the radio itself. Seems to work fine.
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Old 11th Oct 2021, 9:16 am   #6
vinrads
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

What a transformation Lloyd, well done ,Mick.
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Old 11th Oct 2021, 5:36 pm   #7
G1RAO keith
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

Whoever threw the 1155/54 in the skip should be shot!
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Old 11th Oct 2021, 6:38 pm   #8
vinrads
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

I will second that or should it be third , Mick.
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Old 11th Oct 2021, 7:50 pm   #9
AC/HL
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

Just tell them how much it was worth
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Old 12th Oct 2021, 12:36 am   #10
Graham G3ZVT
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lloyd 1985 View Post
back at college in 2001, they were having a clear out of a store room and one emerged, complete with it's T1154!
When I was doing my radio & TV servicing course at Salford Tech there was a complete looking 1154 in a cupboard under a bench in one of the labs. Maybe I could have acquired it if I had asked, but this was back in 1969/70 so ones perspective about such an item was very different.

What was more interesting to me was the Eddystone 830/7 that lived in a locked cupboard in the same room, a few of us who were licenced or SWLs set up a lunchtime radio club centred around that excellent receiver, and our homebrew TXs, helped by the fact it was on the 6th floor, so a wire lowered out of the window got out fb on Topband.
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Old 12th Oct 2021, 3:17 am   #11
Radio1950
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

Practical Wireless Aug 2021 magazine has another article on the R1155.
Not especially exhaustive, just more words; not a lot of details or tests.
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Old 13th Oct 2021, 12:31 am   #12
bill knox
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

Hi Lloyd

Your question regarding the the brass plate under the tuning control, the figures look like they are pressed from the back and then painted then the plate is rubbed down to expose the figures, if you gently rub a fingernail over the words they should feel slightly raised, the modification plate on my R1155 sets are made of plastic so they can be made quite easily.

That set after cleaning etc. looks fantastic, its also museum class, well done

Regards

Bill
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Old 13th Oct 2021, 10:39 pm   #13
Lloyd 1985
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

Thanks for all the replies!

The serial number plate on the second set is as you say, Bill, with the raised lettering, but I've noticed that the lettering on it is plated, either chrome or something else silver and shiny! So I'm leaving that bit well alone at the moment, just gave it a wash with soap and water to get the muck off, but the corrosion is still there.

I must admit I was very pleased with the results when cleaning up the first set, the control labels are printed directly on the front, and they survived the cleaning (mostly), I wouldn't have known what to do if they were damaged! The one round the frequency range switch were damaged, but I'll have a go with some paint under a microscope to try and put that right.

Despite the outside looking good on the first set, I haven't done much inside it yet! I've re-stuffed one of the multi-section cans, and a couple of the individual bolt on cans in the coil box, but then I ran out of nice silicone covered wire, and I still haven't managed to get any more. It was like 2 different radio's when I first saw it, the outside was a mess, but inside looked strangely clean and tidy, probably because the previous owner had covered over the Jones connectors with a metal plate, which stopped all the muck getting inside.

I did promise some more photo's of it, so here they are!

1= the set as it arrived

2= picture of under the chassis (original auction photo) spot the audio output stage!

3= the dial surround, after de-rust, clean and prep for spraying, you might just be able to see the holes from where the output transformer was mounted

4= top chassis view (auction photo again) you can see where the top cap connectors for the DF valves have been neatly taped up out of the way, making it easy to reinstate them, whoever modded this set in the past was very thoughtful!

5= case all cleaned up, I didn't want to re-spray it because it has the mounting instructions printed onto it, so I opted to just clean it and rub down the rusty bits, then used Briwax on it, which is good at sealing up rust, stopping it going everywhere, and it doesn't look too bad!

Regards,
Lloyd
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Old 13th Oct 2021, 10:57 pm   #14
Lloyd 1985
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

A few more

1= one of the control labels after rubbing down

2= dial surround re-sprayed and ready to re-fit the window

3= one of the bolt on caps oozing it's juice out! It got re-stuffed after this

4= test fitting the dial surround

5= the magic eye trying to glow! The one in the second set is better, so I may swap them.

Notice I sprayed the handles black, they were very badly rusted, the plating was mostly gone, but what was left was peeling off. I also left one of the holes in the dial surround that had been drilled for the output transformer, as it'll be covered by the serial number plate, when I get one!

I did see another set on eBay a while ago, which was also made by Ekco (this one's got Ekco stamps all over it!) and there was a good shot of the serial number plate, which was good enough to make up a replica from, once I find out what serial number this set was.

Regards,
Lloyd
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Old 16th Oct 2021, 5:31 pm   #15
Lloyd 1985
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Default Re: Another R1155 thread!

I stripped down the tuning control on the ‘spares’ set the other night, as it was a bit crunchy and needed a clean and polish, thought I’d share a photo of all the bits spread out! They are not in any particular order. It’s all back together and feels a lot smoother to operate now.

Regards
Lloyd
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