OT:New radio project...

What people are working on at the moment
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jack
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#1 OT:New radio project...

Post by jack »

An artist friend is 60 in September, so I've found him a Roberts R66 radio in dark blue and immaculate condition considering that it too is 60 years old. This particular model dates from 1957 according to the serial number, the year of my friend's birth. R66s are my favourite Roberts radios...

A few hours this weekend restoring it and it'll be perfect...
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#2 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by Mike H »

Image

Watching.
 
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#3 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by Michael L »

That's my birth year too and I want one! Are the valves hard to get?
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#4 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by jack »

R66s were only made in '56 and '57 - you need to check the serial number to be sure.

The valve lineup is standard for the time - DK96/DF96/DAF96/DL96 - the valves are cheap and plentiful.
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#5 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by Michael L »

It's a pity there's no FM. I imagine it was introduced some years later
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#6 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by jack »

Michael L wrote: Tue Aug 29, 2017 10:49 pm It's a pity there's no FM. I imagine it was introduced some years later
Not a problem. Use a pantry transmitter.
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Ray P
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#7 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by Ray P »

jack wrote: Mon Aug 28, 2017 9:27 pm An artist friend is 60 in September, so I've found him a Roberts R66 radio...
I'm 60 in September too, can I be your friend as well?

I keep thinking about a vintage radio project; just waiting for the right one to come along. As we've discussed before, I want a unit that has an input for a ceramic cartridge so I can feed it a signal from something like a RPi based DAC.
Sorry, I couldn't resist!
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#8 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by jack »

I'm everyone's friend!

However, you're thinking about this the wrong way (IMHO).

Keep the radio original and get a pantry transmitter like a Spitfire or AMT-3000 (I have one of each).

Feed that with the DAC, Then you can have whatever you want on multiple radios in the house and control it with the normal client (OrangeSqueeze or whatever). Our DACs are named mostly by the room they're in, but we also have Pi-Chan-1 and Pi-Chan-2...

This is exactly what I do. I have two transmitters on different channels driven by two DACs. One is normally on R4 and the other on whatever music/internet radio we feel like (normally one of the Arabic or Greek channels - my wife is a linguist).

The transmitters are each tuned to a normally quiet part of the AM spectrum and each radio is tuned to one of those spots. R4 is still on LW but it's better when I retransmit it locally...

Pantry transmitters are good for about 100mtrs typically.

We had a party on Sunday for 50 or so in the garden - I retransmitted YouTube playlists to the radios wherever they were. Kind of fun.
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#9 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by Ray P »

Thanks Nick, food for thought.

Your friend, Ray :D
Sorry, I couldn't resist!
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#10 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by Mike H »

Michael L wrote: Tue Aug 29, 2017 10:49 pm It's a pity there's no FM. I imagine it was introduced some years later
Probably because not many FM transmitters until well into the 1960's.
 
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#11 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by Mike H »

I am reminded that I keep threatening to throw together an AM modulator...
 
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#12 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by jack »

Done. Full writeup later.

Very pleased (smug)...



PS. Kentish cobnuts (actually Gunzleberts) in the basket from the garden - beat the squirrels to them this year!
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#13 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by Cressy Snr »

"This is the BBC Home Service.
And now, a man with three buttocks" :wink:
Sgt. Baker started talkin’ with a Bullhorn in his hand.
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#14 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by jack »

Cressy Snr wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2017 9:15 pm "This is the BBC Home Service.
And now, a man with three buttocks" :wink:
Your wish etc. etc. (Squeezebox->Vortexbox/YouTube->Max2Play/RPi->IQaudIO DAC+->AMT-3000 pantry transmitter on 702kHz)
Last edited by jack on Sun Sep 03, 2017 4:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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#15 Re: OT:New radio project...

Post by Cressy Snr »

:lol: :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:
Sgt. Baker started talkin’ with a Bullhorn in his hand.
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