[Milsurplus] RAK-RAL - the use of...

[Bill Cromwell]

Hi,

The LM and BC221 don't have direct frequency readout either and require looking up frequencies in the code book and then doing interpolation to extrapolation. They do have that xtal to calibrate. For my RAK and my SW3 with no direct readout I have made some scales with a spreadsheet and printing the frequency v readout on a nice curve. We can pretune to a desired frequency from that chart and be right on it when an expected signal is transmitted. We record the dial setting for desired, frequently used frequencies and reliably repeat the setting.

Some people cannot tell time with a real clock, especially one with no numbers on it. Count change? Forget about it.

73,

Bill  KU8H

> On Oct 22, 2023, at 12:54 AM, howard holden <holden7471 at msn.com> wrote:
> 
>  Amen Ken! As far as readout goes that’s why ships carried the LM freq meters. The transmitters often had no direct readout either. The RAL is just a sweet receiver. And built like a tank. 
> 
> Howie WB2AWQ
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>>> On Oct 21, 2023, at 21:43, Kenneth G. Gordon <kgordon2006 at frontier.com> wrote:
>>> 
>> 
>> I have made somewhat extensive use of both the RAL and the RAK receivers and would like to share some of my experiences with both.
>> Both of my receivers were being operated from the original power supplies, which are really too big and too power hungry for ham radio use. They aren't needed where you don't have big turrets being swung around drawing the line voltage down each time.
>> In a normal ham station, a very simple supply, providing 180 VDC at a few miliamps is usually all that is required. A regulated 90 VDC is nice, but not absolutely necessary.
>> In fact, according to the manuals on these receivers, they work just fine with ONLY the 90 VDC source.
>> Anyway, with regard to the RAK, I used mine to copy 5 letter code grounps from the U.S. Navy VLF stations while they were still using CW, and before they switched to RATT. I was intending to work my way up to 30 wpm of steady error-free copy as I wanted to go to sea to be a ship-board radio operator.
>> I eventually got my 2nd Class Radio Telegraph license toward that end, but many things intervened and I never was able to complete that project.
>> The Navy station at Jim Creek in Washington state always came in to my station in Missoula, Montana like gang-busters 24/7/365. I think I could have used a wet-string as an antenna.
>> The first thing I noticed about my RAK was its amazing stability. It was rock steady. Once tuned to a signal, it remained there. One could literally hammer on the radio with a hammer and it never moved frequency.
>> The second, most amazing thing, to find was its "single-signal" selectivity. The "other side" of zero beat simply wasn't there....at all. Not even a hint of it.
>> I am still somewhat in the dark as to how this was done. I believe it was due to the "Q" of the tuned circuits in the radio. I understand that that value was around 1500, which is very unusual for such coils.
>> Maybe someone here can enlighten me how this was done.
>> With regard to my RAL, I traded a BC-348 with BC band ARC-5 "Q-5er" for it while I was a new General (actualy Conditional) class ham so that I could work 15 meters.
>> I used my RAL for some 12 years as my only station receiver, and never turned it off.
>> My ONLY complaint with it was the total lack of a real frequency readout. Using the tuning chart in the manual was difficult, but I got used to it.
>> Again, like the RAK, it was unconditionally stable.
>> I really liked its "quietness" and sensitivity.
>> I used it for every common mode at the time, CW, AM, SSB, RTTY. I could have used it for digital modes (other than CW and RTTY) if they had existed at the time.
>> Ken W7EKB
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