Restoration Services

I offer a Repair and Refurbishment service to owners of the following Racal receivers. These being, all variants of the RA17 and RA117 and various ancillary units. The equipment in question will be restored electrically to ex-works specification. That is, with an operational performance equal to or better than when it originally left the factory. This will incur the replacement of ALL carbon resistors and ALL tubular paper capacitors throughout. This includes the smoothing pack which will be ‘re-stuffed’. Various official performance and safety related modifications will be carried out in line with the appropriate EMERs. During the process, the receiver will be stripped down and thoroughly cleaned and all valves checked on an AVO VCM-163.

There will be a flat-rate charge (see below) for the service provided which will be dependent on the receiver model. If it is found necessary to replace components other than the above mentioned Rs & Cs, like valves, switches, panel meters, loudspeaker etc., then the cost of replacing these extra parts will be added to the flat-rate charge.

If you are interested in this service please contact me.

I now offer a service for restoring and refurbishing the iconic R1155. If you haven’t already seen my R1155 pages you can access them via the menu on the left. The level of restoration offered would probably be influenced by what is present and what is available. The R1155 contained many custom components, some of which are becoming increasingly difficult to source and often command a premium price. With this in mind, and the level of work required (the set will require to be totally re-wired).

The starting price for this service will be £650.00, as of Jan. 28th 2024.

Without exception, every R1155 that I restore is carefully stripped right down to a bare chassis. The chassis is cleaned and all the iconic tall capacitors are re-stuffed. The receiver is then reassembled with all the old resistors being replaced with modern 1W carbon types. It is then fully realigned and tested.

It might be said that it is only in the last decade that there has been a resurgence in interest in the type. Most R.1155s in circulation these days have been modified. This is largely due to the fact that post WW2 a great many appeared on the surplus market. However there being no requirement for direction finding, the associated DF circuitry was more often than not removed. It is the latter that poses the greatest difficulty in resurrecting if missing. Study this photograph for what to look for.

With the exception of the Jones-Panel, it is possible to produce a working receiver even if some or all of the high-lighted parts are missing since they are associated with direction finding and not with general reception.

As with my RA17 restoration service, the aim is to restore your R1155 back to original or near to, operational status. That is to say that any non-service-sanctioned modifications such as internal power supplies and audio amplifiers WILL be removed. Anyone with an R1155 should also be aware that even though I may be able to get the DF circuitry operational, I cannot supply accessories such as the J-Switch, DF-Aerial, Twin-Meter-Indicator. However I do have a small stock of 4-pin Jones plugs and sockets and 8-pin Jones sockets (not the C-shell type).

Also, the R1155 is NOT mains-powered. An external ‘floating’ 220V/100mA DC and 6.3V/4.5A supply is necessary. For legal reasons, this is something that I cannot supply. However if you were to supply me with a suitable PSU for your RA1155, working or not, I can 'render' it safe ... If you know what I mean.

If you are interested in my R1155 Restoration Service please contact me.