[Boatanchors] RAK / RAL Receivers: Couple of tips.

[Rodger Singley]

David,

Good reminder about the headphone jack, I remember discovering that “feature” when I went through my RAK over a decade ago.

Remember for fixed station use that the hot running current regulator/ballast tube isn’t needed in the mating power supply and even when it is switched out of the circuit, it is still lit and producing a huge amount of heat.  So switch it out and remove the ballast tube and store it in a safe location where it won’t be broken or lost.

I got lured into this set of receivers when I bought a sealed in box (with the receiver still sealed in foil) RAK at a hamfest.  The RAL doesn’t sound horrible on AM but as you noted it is definitely at its best for CW.  It does have enough pre and post-detection gain that you can run it further from critical regen in order to avoid further increasing selectivity in the detector.  After getting the RAK, I later added a RAL and have used it for CW contacts with a homebrew transmitter.

The RAK is a bit more commonly found than the RAL, probably because of less demand due to its frequency coverage.  But if used with a converter, it would make an excellent CW receiver for the ham bands.  I suspect most of the common mobile converters like those from Gonset and Morrow are designed for an output frequency near the high end of the AM BCB but it would be fairly simple to homebrew or modify a commercial converter for use with the RAK.

Anyone who hasn’t been inside one of these beautiful regen sets will be impressed by the component and build quality.

The first kit I ever built was a Radio Shack Science Fair Globe Patrol three transistor shortwave regen.  I still have it and I had a lot of fun with it as a kid listening to the many shortwave stations when I built it in 1969 but going from it to a RAK/RAL is like going from a Hallicrafters S-38 to a R-390 😊

Rodger WQ9E

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From: David Stinson<mailto:arc5 at ix.netcom.com>
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2019 7:18 AM
To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net<mailto:boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>; milsurplus at mailman.qth.net<mailto:milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Boatanchors] RAK / RAL Receivers: Couple of tips.