[Premium-Rx] REGCO RG-5500 Power Supply Modification

[Terry O']

Boris,
You are correct.  Ralph Grimm, the owner and chief engineer of Regco, 
had a massive heart attack while trying to finish the design of the 
RG-5500 in competition for a government contract. Grimm was a talented 
and meticulous engineer but the work on the this radio fell to other 
engineers after he died.    Regco limped on for a few years more, 
secured a few contracts, and then disappeared.

Watkins-Johnson won the competition with the radio that came to market 
as the WJ-8617.  The first version of that radio also had some problems 
and was rejected by the DoD agency.  WJ took back all 50 units of the 
first run, shut down other development work, and had the engineering 
staff focus on getting the WJ-8617 to meet the requirements of the 
agency.  That kind of devotion to the customer was what kept WJ atop 
this branch of the industry for so long.

I wrote about this story for the now defunct hobby magazine Popular 
Communications in their Nov 2010 issue.  They never paid me for the 
story so I have it on my website for free download here: 
http://blackradios.terryo.org/documents/publications/e-Cold-Warriors.pdf

Terry O'
http://Watkins-Johnson.terryo.org
http://BlackRadios.terryo.org


On 4/1/2016 12:51 AM, Борис Никитин wrote:
>   Hello All,
>
> If you dealing with RG-5500 Surveillance VHF/UHF Receiver instead of Watkins-Johnson products it mean not repair or restoration, but modification also...Because destiny of that radio was not so simple it design looks like was not finished properly...
>
> One of simple work to make that is A1 rectifier board A1 type74037.
> U1 MDA-970-2 Bridge rectifier become very hot soon after power-on. It installed very close to few electrolitic capasitor's-not good solution at all...
> Replacement for more stronger bridge and installation not to the PCB, but to the chassis with termo-conductive paste solve the problem...
> If interesting, contact me directly...Good, detailed photos available.
>
> BR
> Boris
>
>