开云体育

Hi, Guys,

I've just found another reference to early Racal
history in "Radio Bygones" for Oct/Nov 1993, in an
article called "Racal and the RA.17 HF Communications
Receiver", by Keith R. Thrower, who I believe worked
for the company (I stand to be corrected on that!).


"... Ray, Raymond Brown, and Cal, George Calder (Jock)
Cunningham established Racal Ltd. in 1950. This led
to the formation of Racal Engineering Ltd. in 1951 and
a move to a 5000 square-foot building in Isleworth,
near the London Airport.

Early in 1953, Racal hoped to acquire the rights to
manufacture in Britain the new Collins 51-J HF
communications receiver. On the basis of this, Racal
was awarded a contract with the Royal Navy for the
supply of 200 of these receivers. For the manufacture
of the Collins receiver, Racal proposed to use a
substantial portion of British components.
Unfortunately, Collins insisted that only US
components be used, and after a visit to Racal's
primitive facilities at Isleworth, Collins decided
that Racal was too small to undertake manufacture of
the radio, which was probably true at that time.

The problem facing Racal was to produce a receiver
with the same general characteristics as the Collins
sets to fulfill their Royal Navy contract.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, Dr. Trevor Wadley, who had
worked for the Telecommunications Research
Establishment in England during the war, was
developing a communications receiver based on an
extremely accurate and elegant frequency control
scheme that he had developed for use in test
equipment. Racal and Wadley eventually got together.
The result was one of the world's great communications
receivers. The design work on the RA.17 was started in
late 1954, and production continued at least until
1967 ..."



best regards, Bob









__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers!

Tom I don't really know.
I know that RACAL was initially a South African company and a RACAL
is a South African Lynx type cat. Due to Sanctions in the 60's and
70's Racal went international to bypass sanctions.
It maybe that "TR48s" was the original SA designation. My set came
from South Africa and was sold to the Portuguese in Mozambique.
TR48s may be their designation. I came by it by capture and it
was "issued" to me.
It has some interesting antenna accessories one of which is a large
bobbin type spool that has a cord wound on it. The cord has a
multiple wire woven into it. You just spool out the cord, throw its
washer type weight over a tree limb and plug the pin on the end of
the spool into the antenna whip hole.
Maybe I have some rare rendition. :-) The serial number under the
plastic front face is 00024 so it appears to be an early issue of
the TR48s designation.
I have a set of manuals on the way from a friend in South Africa.
Jim

John,
Thanks for that info. I am away at the moment but as soon as I get back
I will try a few things now that I know from a couple of users how
flexible the ATU is.
Howard, VK3DLH

I don't know the technical details of how the BCC565 works, but I

have been loading up the rain gutter on my house on all amateur
bands from 80M-10M with the BCC565 attached to my BCC39B and it
tunes up just fine, the rain gutter is most definitely longer than
1/4 wave on 17M which is the band I use most for contacts with
friends in teh hfpack group.The ATU is putting full
power to the rain gutter and seems to work about as well as my
dipole.Interestingly the rain gutter with a 31' wire counterpoise
attached to the ATU ground works very well on 75M as a NVIS antenna.
My BCC39B came with the centerloaded whip, I would like to find the
other non- loaded whip to try with it or another Racal gooseneck to
modify for use with homebrew whips, hams sticks,buddistick ect..Very
much like the ATU in my VX-1210 the BCC565 seems to be able to match
just about any unbalanced antenna or piece of metal that I try to
load up with it.
I have found that the packframe makes a better ground plane on 20-
10M than using a wire counterpoise.

Mike at CR told me he had the manual for the BCC565,I will try to
get him to make me a copy when they return to work this week.If I
can get a copy I'll scan it and post it to the group files both here
and in the BCC-39 group.

I don't have a difinitive answer about what the BCC565 is meant to
be able to do, but experimentally it has been doing a fine job of
loading longer than a 1/4 wave antenna. I am cafefull not to try to
tune multiples of 1/2wave with it,I would expect the impedance of a
half wave end fed wire to be much to high for the ATU,

cheers,
John
K6ERO

--- In Racal-manpacks@..., "Howard Small"

<howard@s...>

wrote:

Can anyone tell me authoritatively if the BCC565 ATU that comes

with

the BCC39B HF set can tune longer than standard whips or a

random

length of wire?

Hi Jim,

I own a TRA 931 also known as a TR48s with working battery and
various spare parts.

Where is this called a TR48? I have never heard of that designation.

Tom Bryan

Anyone out there in Racal-Land have manuals for the BCC39D?


Thanks,

--Ira

--
Ira J. Moser, Owner, MECO
Tel: (425) 788-0208
Fax: (360) 794-8754
Email: ira@...
Web: www.meco.org

Orwell was an OPTIMIST!

Hello All,
I own a TRA 931 also known as a TR48s with working battery and
various spare parts.
Currently the set is only partially working and seems as if there is
no BFO. Any help would be appreciated.
Jim VE3DDY (Ontario Canada)

I have used a random length of wire on 40mtrs when I first got the
rig. It tunes well and signals were better than the standard whip.
Both the loaded and the straight whips gave similar reports as well.
I'll connect the swr meter in-line next tests and let you know how
that goes.
From memory the swr was 1:1 on both whips but I didn't check with the
random wire.
I'll hopefully get a chance this weekend to conduct some tests.
Theo
VK3AP




--- In Racal-manpacks@..., "Howard Small" <howard@s...>
wrote:

Can anyone tell me authoritatively if the BCC565 ATU that comes

with

the BCC39B HF set can tune longer than standard whips or a random
length of wire?

Also some sets have come with centre loaded whips and others with
standard whips. Which is the normal accessory for this set?

Howard, VK3DLH

There may be many versions of those bases but the one I have on my
Ferret contains only a small matching transformer - looks like a balun.
There are no components that could react to a voltage. This base was
used for the ATU connected to a VRC353 VHF transciever.

Howard, VK3DLH

Hi, All,

Are any of you geniuses with MS Excel, or know anyone who is?

I'm trying to set up a spreadsheet to hold details of Racal
equipment, which is added to each time one of you mentions a number I
haven't come across before. Eventually, I want to either place it as
a file on here, or make it available via a dedicated Web site.

The sheet has the sort of columns you can imagine, and I've found it
better to break a model number such as MA 4025 B into three columns
formatted as text, number, and text. Obviously, the main column
is "Description", formatted as text. I'm entering some text into this
directly, and in other cases am inserting it from a text file, if I
find anything in list format on the Internet which lends itself to
doing this. All stuff I've done lots of times before. So far so good.

The problem that arises is that some of the cells display as a single
row of ### hash characters. Double-clicking on this cell then
displays the text correctly, both in the cell and at the top of the
screen. Excel's Help files describe this as an error message which
occurs if a calculation in that cell produces an invalid result, such
as a negative date, but the cells are quite specifically formatted as
Text.

In all cases where this has occurred, its been when inserting data
from a text file, and in each case, about 60% displays perfectly and
the remainder as hash symbols. The problem bears no relationship to
the length of the text in the cell, in one case a cell of just over
2000 characters displays correctly (even though my Excel manual says
the package conceals data after the 255th character), whereas one of
70 characters produces the problem.

Any ideas, anyone?


best regards,


Bob

--- Alan Tasker <atasker@...> wrote:

This is a very interesting question. Someone on this
list, I think, told me
that the BCC-39 puts out a voltage that the ATU uses
to set up correct
tuning. This reminded me of the fact that the
TRA-967, a VHF unit from
Racal, put out a voltage on its antenna port, and I
always thought that to
be very strange. So I measured the voltage on the
TRA-967, and found it was
either 0, Vcc/2, or Vcc, depending on frequency. In
fact, this voltage is
maintained through the PA unit, and clicks relays in
the ATU, obviously
setting up the proper matching network. What a neat
idea. So we know this
was done before.

That control voltage also appears to be used to change
some sort of matching network in one of the VHF
antenna bases, Alan (I forget the number now, it's the
one which has an additional circular die cast alloy
section about 30mm deep, under the standard antenna
mount).

I'm not sure if the base can be used without the PA or
ATU. I wonder if there is a DC path through either or
both of them?

best regards,


Bob



__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish.

At 06:24 PM 6/16/2004, you wrote:

Can anyone tell me authoritatively if the BCC565 ATU that comes with
the BCC39B HF set can tune longer than standard whips or a random
length of wire?

Also some sets have come with centre loaded whips and others with
standard whips. Which is the normal accessory for this set?

Howard, VK3DLH

This is a very interesting question. Someone on this list, I think, told me that the BCC-39 puts out a voltage that the ATU uses to set up correct tuning. This reminded me of the fact that the TRA-967, a VHF unit from Racal, put out a voltage on its antenna port, and I always thought that to be very strange. So I measured the voltage on the TRA-967, and found it was either 0, Vcc/2, or Vcc, depending on frequency. In fact, this voltage is maintained through the PA unit, and clicks relays in the ATU, obviously setting up the proper matching network. What a neat idea. So we know this was done before. However, this brings up a few questions.

-If this is indeed the scheme used, one would think it would apply to just one type and length of antenna. Unless the center fed has, for instance, a DC short, and the standard whip has an open, and the ATU has the smarts to tell the difference. So, all of you BCC-39B owners out there, what does your Ohmmeter say about the resistance between the center conductor and the ground connection (is there a ground connection?)(Is there a difference between the plug of each type of antenna?)

-Is there in fact a DC Voltage on the output of the BCC-39B with the ATU disconnected? If so, how does it vary with frequency?

-If a VSWR meter with DC pass through is inserted between the BCC-39B and the ATU, what is the VSWR at various frequencies with a center fed and with a standard antenna?

Does the ATU get power from a separate cable? I do not have one, so I know not.

Alan WA1NYR

Can anyone tell me authoritatively if the BCC565 ATU that comes with
the BCC39B HF set can tune longer than standard whips or a random
length of wire?

Also some sets have come with centre loaded whips and others with
standard whips. Which is the normal accessory for this set?

Howard, VK3DLH

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the Racal-manpacks
group.

File : /Jaguar V info - Russia.doc
Uploaded by : spectreman51 <spectreman51@...>
Description : Jaguar V Info from Russian site

You can access this file at the URL



To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit



Regards,

spectreman51 <spectreman51@...>

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the Racal-manpacks
group.

File : /Racal-manpacks flier.doc
Uploaded by : bobsayers2000 <bobsayers2000@...>
Description : A one-page, A4 flyer in MS Word format, promoting the Group, and explaing how to join. Please take every opportunity to forward copies to friends, colleagues, or customers with Racal tactical related interests.

You can access this file at the URL



To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit



Regards,

bobsayers2000 <bobsayers2000@...>

Hi, All,

I now only require one item to complete my PRM.4041A manpack in it's
basic form - the data/power cable between the transceiver and the
AATU.

This actually uses standard 7-pin connectors, and is very short,
probably no more than four inches of cable. I can obviously
substitute a longer cable, but it would be nice to have the genuine
article which uses right-angled connectors.

Could I ask that you scour your parts boxes, and let me know if you
should have anything like this?


best regards,




Bob

Thanks, Michael! I've just got around to printing my CD out, and
discovered that, although of course I've got an XH.

Strange, really, that they should have the manual for that model,
rather than the generic 931 which I would have thought must be much
more common.

best regards,


Bob



--- In Racal-manpacks@..., "Michael Wills (G0TNF)"
<michaeldani@c...> wrote:

Hi Bob,

just a word of warning about the Mauritron collection. I have
purchased a copy on the strength of this list but found that all
references to the TRA931 linked to the same PDF which was for the
TRA931XH.

Rather disappointed as I needed the info for the basic model (I

have

a set of synth/transceiver boards but no info)

Was able to make use of the CD anyway to repair a 9301A rf

voltmeter

so all was not lost.

regards,
Michael

Hi Bob,

just a word of warning about the Mauritron collection. I have
purchased a copy on the strength of this list but found that all
references to the TRA931 linked to the same PDF which was for the
TRA931XH.

Rather disappointed as I needed the info for the basic model (I have
a set of synth/transceiver boards but no info)

Was able to make use of the CD anyway to repair a 9301A rf voltmeter
so all was not lost.

regards,
Michael

sorry its AN/PRC-139

MA 6941 PC programming cable - allows a laptop to program the
frequencies and other variables such as Receive Frequency, Transmit
Frequency, CTCSS Squelch Tones, Data, was needing this software
cannt seem to find it at all. its about 1.5 mb in size