[Boatanchors] Racal RA6217A Manual?

[Robert Nickels]

On 12/5/2014 9:13 AM, Michael D. Harmon wrote:
> Does anyone on the Boatanchor board have a manual for a Racal RA6217A 
> HF receiver?  I acquired one of these units yesterday, and I'd like to 
> get it going.
>
Michael,

Congrats - all Wadley Loop receivers are interesting and well worth the 
care to restore.    The RA-6217 was a purpose-built version of the 
RA-1217 solid-state receiver and sold in the late 60s-early 70's 
timeframe to the US Government for suveillance/sigint purposes.

A little Google searching will turn up more on it's history, including 
the problems associated with many receivers of that era - difficulty in 
servicing due to tightly packed construction and lack of extenders and 
service aids, the Mallory Inductatuner, and obsolete solid-state 
components as well as the challenges involved in troubleshooting and 
aligning  the drift-cancelling loop.

You can find the manual for the British equivalent RA-1217 online here:  
http://mikea.ath.cx/6217/

Note that the standard receiver had a 455 Khz IF but a variant 
substituted a 100Khz IF board instead.   Mine is anything but deaf, and 
aside from a few rough spots on the Inductatuner, is a very hot 
receiver.       I've always liked it - but even moreso after coming 
across this photo showing one of the honorable purposes they were put to:

http://i.imgur.com/zqsqgwD.jpg

They were used in the fixed FCC monitoring stations too, and growing up 
just 50 miles from Grand Islant, NE - that was one QSL card I did not 
want to receive!

73, Bob W9RAN