Egon van Kampen restored a vintage RACAL RA17 receiver for me, testing all components, replacing a bunch of them, and recalibrating sections in the receiver. Egon van Kampen can be emailed at egonvk@hotmail.com - also thanks to Arno Wies for referring me to Egon!
In his email about finishing the restoration Egon van Kampen wrote:
In his email about finishing the restoration Egon van Kampen wrote:
The RACAL has been at work here all evening and all is well. Just now an American Ham Radio enthustiast came through from Georgetown USA.
It was quite a job but I'm happy with the results.
This spcecific build variety was probably used by the navy, judging from the connectors. I recently restored a similar specimen for MARAC to be used in their setup of a radio hut on a minespweeper.
Someone has been heavily tinkering with your RA17 so it took a lot of time to recalibrate.
Electronically this is one of the most beautiful and original RACALs that I've had the pleasure to work on.
Be very gentle with yours because in this condition they are becoming very rare.
I cleaned up the looks as well and I have put a RACAL badge on the front where there was some damage to hide.
Hope you like it ;-)
All tubes were tested and only two needed to be replaced. Plus a lot of parts which were now out of specs.
I will include some instructions for use so you will be able to optimally use this beautiful, special receiver.