[Milsurplus] [RCA] SRR-13 Article, more

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

Jim:

I too am at least as interested in the SRR-11/12/13 as you, and am eagerly looking forward to 
seeing those missing 6 pages.

However, I also agree with you that Hutchins' article leaves me wondering exactly what was 
going on with his receivers. I have never experienced the HFO issues he ran into, the dial 
being off, MAYBE, a couple of kHz, two hash-marks, at either end and right on in the center 
of the spread.

I do know that there definitely is something simple one can do in the RF amp stages to 
increase sensitivity and lower noise, but I don't know, at this point, what that was. I have or 
had one receiver here which had been so modified, but at present don't know where that one 
is in my pile.

I have run into two common issues with these receivers: 1) some of the crank-arms were 
made of some softer material which eventually fractures and fails, necessitating complete 
replacement and realignment, and 2) some of the coils in the RF stages, mixer, and HFO 
stages tend to open due to ingress of moisture and eventual corrosion of the small wires in 
those. But the manual includes all the coil data one could possibly need in order to wind new 
ones.

I have one of those old "coil-winders" with all the cams, but the job of rewinding those coils is 
tedious at best. Still, it can be done if necessary.

To my way of thinking, that receiver-series, somewhat midway between the RBB/RBC series 
and the R-390 series, is an excellent example of what could be done in those days, 
ALTHOUGH there definitely were a couple of what I would consider serious design errors, 
none of which cannot be fixed fairly easily today, and some of which were fixed by RCA 
before the end of the series.

My understanding of their use in service was that they were not particularly reliable, at least 
at first, and many Navy radio ops didn't like them at all.

But I find them fascinating and very much fun, and effective, to use in a ham or MARS 
station. I like the projection dial, the fact that the receiver includes a real product detector, 
and the stability and seletivity are quite adequate for my uses.

Ken W7EKB