Regentone Handygram. Model please.

[kirstyd]

Picked this up today. On opening it u,p apart from a new BSR cart [still some 40 years old] it appears to be unmolested. Although it's a Regentone Handygram there is no model number. Once opened up I was suprised to find a nice big speaker and a beefy looking little amp with three valves UL84/ UF89/ UY85. Its previous owners told me they had plugged it in but it was dead. A little investigation revealed that the ON/OFF switch was stuck in the off position. A quick clean soon put that right. It came to life when powered up but it's clearly not very well with just a faint buzz when touching the pickup lead.

Anyone know what model it is and if the circuit diagram is available?

Thanks.

[Restoration73]

its on the site

https://www.service-data.com/product...22/7017/m15522

The transformer is only for the valve heaters, so check the chassis goes to mains neutral.

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by Restoration73

its on the site

https://www.service-data.com/product...22/7017/m15522

That's not it. The name Handygram was used by Regentone for several models, and the one in the link is a single-valve player more typical of them, in a semi-firm casing resembling a little suitcase.

I used to have the player featured in the photos, indeed it was my main record player for two or three years until a Hacker Cavalier came my way, and a nice old thing it was too with pretty good performance. Haven't often seen one since.

Paul

[Restoration73]

Indeed you're correct, I remember doing one some years back, unusual valve lineup but
had the treble and bass controls. That one had a BSR UA8 changer, and 2 core mains lead.

[Boater Sam]

I can only find 2 valve Regentone r/players on Radiomuseum, UY85 & UL84.
Its an odd 3 valve lineup. I would have thought UF86.

[ms660]

Same valve line up as the Argosy version so far as I can make out, UY85, UL84, UF89.

Lawrence.

[kirstyd]

Yes that's right UF89, UL84 and a UY85. Dismantled the thing a little more today and cleaned years of dirt and fluff away, writing down cap values as I went. The two dirty brown ones just under the valves appear to be 0.1uF. There's also a large brown cap with a red label on it buried in there. 0.5uF 150 Volts. Then there's the yellow one with the red and black ends. There is a grey wire wound resistor in there with some of its outer casing flaking off, that also looks a bit dodgy.

[Edward Huggins]

Originally Posted by Boater Sam

I can only find 2 valve Regentone r/players on Radiomuseum, UY85 & UL84.
Its an odd 3 valve lineup. I would have thought UF86.

Both Regentone and EMI used the readily available UF89 as AF stage amplifying valves in their portable record players.
Being such large manufacturers, they would have have ample stocks of these valves used for their more familiar Radio IF role.
They gave adequate stage gain for the purpose when loaded with a medium output crystal cartridge.

[crackle]

I have added 4 more Handygram models to the Radio Museum. They are based on some fuzzy photos of a Regentone sales brochure seen for sale. Unfortunately the example in this thread is not one of them so we are still guessing at the model number.
I reckon there must have been in excess of 9 different models of Handygrams.
There are 7 now in the Radio Museum, in addition there are this one and another unidentified one on an auction site.

Mike

[af024]

I've had loads of issues (elsewhere) with those brown caps as shown in photo 2. I don't know what the make of them is.

[Herald1360]

And the red/tellow/black Plessey electrolytics are not renowned for longevity, either.

A flaky W/W is likely to be fine. W/W have only one likely failure mode- open circuit. If they're not O/C and the resistance is within tolerance, they're OK.

[kirstyd]

Hi All
Well today i have changed all the caps [except the three in one can.[waiting for replacements to arrive] On powering it up there was a nice health buzz from the speaker and an even louder buzz when i touched the pickup leads .I then connected a CD player to the pickup and it played well with a nice sound both the bass and treble controls work as they should the only problem is the volume .Its not as loud as i would have expected .I then noticed that the three in one can was getting warm so i switched off also grey WW resistor is only getting warm now instead of hot

[Edward Huggins]

There maybe a mismatch between the output from the CD player and the sensitivity of the amplifier. Best to check with the pick up cartridge as that is how you will be using it. I can't see what type of cartridge is fitted. When working as it should, the player should give a healthy 4 watts output.

[kirstyd]

it has a replacement BSR X5M fitted at some point. although the sound quality is quite good its definitely not putting out 4 watts

[crackle]

That style of triple electrolytic don't seem to reform that well. I have had to replace/restuf most of the ones I have come across.

mike