[Racal] RA 1792 infos & problems

[Carlo Adamo]

Hello,
about one  months ago I bought my second Racal, a RA1792, the first one
being a R17L. The receiver is in good condition and, indeed, it works
fine. Its serial number is 10052 and the accompanying manual is dated
"Feb. 1987".
The option installed are labeled GB/S2/S/D/1/A.  Looking at the details
(inside and outside) of the receiver, there is something which is not
clear to me. First of all, the display has three digits after the dot (8
digits in total), corresponding  to a  tuning step of 1 Hz and not of 10
Hz as reported in the manual or in the Oesterman. I discussed with a
friend of mine (Marco from Naples, another Racal "supporter") and its
1792 (about 700 units "older") has the standard display, i.e. two
digits.  Next, my Racal does not have inside the standard IF card at 455
kHz, but rather
a metallic box with a writing "IF 100 kHz output.  Finally, the BFO
works also in USB and LSB but only between +0 and +8 kHz.  So, do you
have any comments on these  apparently non-standard  features?  Also, I
have to change the battery (it is not leaking, but it is old). Do you
have any suggestion or advice on this point?
This about the general features of the receiver and the good news.  Now
the bad news. Yesterday evening the receiver suddenly stopped to work
correctly. The display just flashed "8888888888" and no signals came out
from the speakers (or some noise). After a while, and several switching
on and off,  it comes back to normal activity. It seems to me that it
was an software problem and so I wanted to run the BITE test.
Unfortunately  in my operator manual the corresponding page is missing.
I have all the pages of the maintenance manual corresponding to the BITE
test with the meaning of the codes, but I did not find any information
on how to run the BITE.  So, do you known the
procedure to start the BITE test?
Thanks to all and ciao
Carlo
Paris - France