[Boatanchors] [Milsurplus] RCA AVR-11 Help Needed

[Joe Connor]

Wow, Todd, we have the same receiver. I'm glad to find someone else with one. Here are a few things:

1. If you can come up with the name of the fellow with the manual, I would certainly appreciate it. This one isn't in Rider's or in the RCA redbooks. If it's only the fourth one known to exist, I can see why. 

2. Note that the two filter can caps are 25 mfd at 475V. I'm not sure if 475V is overkill or necessary but I've ordered two 22 mfd/500V caps to wire under the chassis. The originals aren't much smaller than Coca-Cola cans!

3. I removed the bottom cover of the Magic Brain and am glad I did. This gives me the access necessary to clean the bandswitch contacts and there are some paper caps in there that will need to be replaced. It's an interesting design. The bottom cover has four threaded fasteners that go through the chassis. Four nuts hold that bottom cover to the chassis. The top cover then goes on top of those four threaded fasteners and is held in place by four more nuts.

4. I plan to "re-stuff" the paper caps if possible. I've also ordered some old-style cloth covered wire to replace some crumbling rubber-covered wire, most notably around the tube grid caps. The cloth covered wire will be safer than bare wire and will look better than simply covering the old wire with heat-shrink tubing. 

5. I plan to take some pictures (as long as my teen-age son is willing to show me how!). I want to take some "virgin" pictures before I do anything to the receiver. If anyone is interested in seeing them, please let me know and I'll send them to you. 

6. Your control-tower comment makes sense. The fellow who sold this receiver to me said he bought it from a guy who rescued it from an old airport control tower. He lives in a rural area so I'm picturing a very small rural airport that has been there since the early '30s.

7. Mine works pretty well and without any hum. I'm running it through a Variac at about 85V and it plays very well. I can spot only one repair: a replaced 0.1 cap that, from its appearance, was probably installed in the last 25 years or so. There are no hacks that I can see. The bandswitch is stiff but I think that's just linkage covered with dried-up and hardened lubricant (sort of like my knees on most mornings). Interestingly, this receiver can be set up to run on either 110V or 120V. Mine is set up for 120V so I may not need a bucking transformer after I get the new filter caps installed. 



                                                    Joe Connor