[Milsurplus] WWII Navy RAL-8 Receiver Project

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

Hello, Mike:

I am not the one who posted all the details on fixing the problems with the RAL. That was 
Richard Arland. He has done some really superb work on his RAL, and much of what he 
found was never obvious at first.

As far as the capacitors in the RAL/RAK are concerned, a large proportion of the filter and 
bypass caps are an oil-filled paper type in a squarish metal can, mounted upright with the 
terminals, usually ceramic, at the top.

Although those have proven to be unusually reliable....for paper caps....those are beginning 
to fail now at an alarming rate.

I have not yet begun to refurbish any of my largeish collection of RAKs and RALs, but when 
I do, I am NOT sure how I am going to deal with those. 

One could, I suppose, empty the cans and re-stuff them with modern film-type caps which 
are much smaller and would fit inside the cans easily, but each can would have to be either 
unsoldered, or cut open, all the oil drained, the guts removed, the new cap installed, and the 
can reclosed some way.

I hardly think that is worth the effort.

I propose to mount terminal strips where necessary, and to replace those caps with modern 
film-types. And, although Orange Drops are good capacitors, I really hate their look and the 
fact that the leads from them are radial and not axial.

There are many enough bolts holding the up-right can-caps so there is absolutely no need 
to ever drill another hole either.

I want to, eventually, have one each working, refurbished, RAK and RAL. 

As I have mentioned, an RAL-7 was my first good receiver, which I used for at least 12 
years, and I used a new RAK-7 to build my code speed up by copying the VLF Navy 
stations. I really like both receivers.

I am not sure what I will do with the others. Some of what I have are only good for parts, 
having been badly hacked up by the previous employer who left them all to me, and I will 
gladly provide any part I have to anyone who needs one for free, although you all must keep 
in mind that I am very slow to mail the stuff out I have promised, and will need a good nudge 
once in a while.

In fact, I have at least two packages here I have not yet mailed out, which need to go out 
asap. One is the RF-625 Long Wire Adapter I was given, and I still have a pair of NIB 
12SF7s I promised to (I believe) Dennis Monticelli, or to someone else on the ARC5 list, 
some time ago.

I AM going to mail the knobs that Dave needs out next week.

And if you will give me your mailing address and a short list of which knobs you need, I'll get 
one off to you asap too.

vy 73,

Ken W7EKB

On 7 Jul 2019 at 8:34, mike christie via Milsurplus wrote:

> 
>     Good Morning
>     I´ve tried a couple times to reply to Dave´s post on the RAL 8 so I hope this goes through this 
>     time.
>     I´ve enjoyed reading all the comments to Dave´s project and the most recent one from Ken.  I have 
>     an RAL 8 Serial number 101,which I restored although it was working when I got it.  The front 
>     plate and case needws some paint restoral which I did by removing the front plate and lightly 
>     sanded it and the case along with the power supply plate and case. I primed all the pieces and 
>     spray painted them with black wrinkle paint I found at Lowes. All the pieces came out pretty well 
>     and the best part was when I got it back together and the receiver came alive!   I did have two 
>     problems with the receiver which were the headphone jack with intermitting audio and 
>     microphonics when tapping the chassis.  Opening the box that houses the audio jack and in doing 
>     so a screw fell out. A closer inspecting revealed the screw came from the jack its self.  I removed 
>     the jack and found the second screw was also broken and separators fell out. I was able to 
>     remove one screw and had to drill out the second screw. I put it all back together and added 
>     washers and nuts to the assembly.  I think what happened over time the jack broke because of 
>     use.  I narrowed down the microphonics to the audio transformer also moving one of the wires on 
>     terminal strip caused some intermit audio so I re-soldered both wires from the transformer.  This 
>     seem to fix the microphonics and the wires seem to be good now.
>     I wanted to ask Ken what he used for replacement capacitors, were they the original type or the 
>     more modern type? I´m trying to keep mine original by using original parts but I´m not so hard 
>     over if I can´t find the original.  This receiver has a special meaning to me as I had one when I was 
>     kid. A Ham (now deceased) loaned me an RAL so I could learn code to get my Ticket. I returned 
>     the Receiver after learning the code and borrow it again years later after returning home from 
>     Vietnam to practice to get my General ticket.  I was given the receiver and it rests in my childhood 
>     home to this day. Due to some family differences I´m not able to retrieve it so I got one from Fair 
>     radio with the help from Phil from Fair Radio and Robert Downs.
>     I am looking for a knob with the metal pointer to replace one that I could not remove one of the 
>     set screws. The other part is the audio transformer just inside the audio jack box. I would also 
>     like to do the mods that Ken did to his RAL to improve the audio response if I can find some 
>     original caps.
>     Thanks
>     Mike
>     W1ZFB
>