I thought you radio nerds would appreciate this one. This is my Knight Kit Ocean Hopper receiver that my father built it from a kit in 1967. He's had it boxed up for years so sometime last year I went over to his house and stole it. (Don't worry, he knows I have it and is cool with that.)











































 

If it's doing nothing at all, I'd check the tube(s) first.

After that, there's a good chance it's just the caps. That's the reason most radio restoration starts with just that,
and then progresses. You could go insane troubleshooting if there's more than one bad one.

A radio like that is very simple, and you probably have the schematic in that manual, so I would
have high confidence you'll get it back running.

BAD ASSED RETRO RIG!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice radio!

Check and make sure the B+ voltage is up to spec. The filter capacitor may need replacing.

Remember that the regen control has to be advanced just to the point where it kicks into oscillation for the set to operate.

Many of us old farts started off with regen receivers, usually a triode or pentode oscillator stage followed by one or two stages of audio.

ETA: Here's a website about the receiver:  http://www.ohio.edu/people/postr/bapix/oHopper.htm. There's link on it for the schematic.
It's an AC/DC set, so the B+ should be somewhere around 125 volts. Be careful as the chassis can be "hot" to ground depending on how the plug is put into the receptacle and how bad leakage is in some of the components, particularly the filter choke, output transformer, and the .05 uF capacitor at the "cold" end of the plug-in coil. The two .1 capacitors in the headphone connection can also be a problem. High impedance (~2k Ohms) headphones will be required.

The tube filaments are wired in series, so if one is bad, none will light up. The filaments should glow a dull orange when operating properly. The 35W4 and 50C5 filaments will be brighter than the one in the 12AT6. Tubes are relatively easy to come by if one or more is bad.

Thanks, Frank. The manual I have covers construction, has a schematic and parts list, and operating tips. I'm going to have to revive this thing.

If you need any tubes, PM me. I have a well-stocked junk box.

Did the old headphones come with it?

Thanks for the offer, Frank, I'll let you know.

First place to start when restoring a boat anchor rig is to replace the electrolytic capacitors. Yeah sure you can chance that they may be good and bringing the rig up with a variac may bring them back to life. Maybe. 20 years is the rule of thumb for the life limit of electrolytic capacitors especially if the unit has sat unused for a decade or more.

Another place to look is at the resistors. Carbon composition resistors such as used in Heathkits have a nasty habit of going out of tolerance. Rebuilt a Heathkit tube tester and fully half of the resistors had to be replaced. The wirewound resistor that serves as the voltage drop for the filaments should be OK. Do check though.

Not to stray too far off topic, but the transistor Globe Patrol kit was my first radio.
I used it for years after I built it. I suspect more than a few people in the forum did the same.

Given the age of the thing, I'm thinking that it might just be best to buy all new electronic components, disassemble it, and rebuild it from scratch.

My first shortwave set.

Yes I really am that old.

All about tubes:

http://www.w8ji.com/vacuum_tubes_and_vaccum_tube_failures.htm

and buy new tubes and other parts here:

http://stores.ebay.com/K5SVC

He's a good, reputable seller of tubes and tube related parts.  Packs very well and ships quickly.

Cool, thanks.

No cushion on the ear phones.... that's back when men were men.

Big +1 to K5SVC. I've used him on several occasions.

No no no. Not at all necessary nor recommended. Besides if you wholesale replace parts you may introduce new problems to troubleshoot.

Start with the electrolytic capacitors. Part numbers from Mouser.
75-TVA1412 30uf 125v $3.47
75-TVA1204.5 20uf 25v $2.94
About $11 total for what you need.

Get yourself a cheap digital multimeter. A Harbor Freight one will work just fine in this application. While waiting for those caps to show up check the resistance of the five resistors. Anything more than 5% off the stated tolerance should be replaced. Make darn sure the 200 ohm resistor is at 200 ohm or more. Too little resistance here will up the voltage to the filaments burning them out.

The mica and tubular capacitors are probably still good. Confidence is high on everything else save the tubes. If necessary I have a tube tester and can check those out for you. My Junque Box is runneth over so hollar if you need something.

This is a great first restoration project. Not a whole lot of parts and the troubleshooting shouldn't take an engineering degree.

OK, thanks. I'll start off with that.

Man, radios had cool names back then!

Looking "down the hatch" that thing does seem to be mint inside.  Hank covered it pretty well.  Replace the electrolytic caps, measure the carbon resistors since they tend to go up in value with age, and check the voltages.  I had several regen receivers as my first ones as a youngster.  I also remember making sure the power cord was plugged in the right way so the chassis wasn't hot too!  ETA:  And make sure the tubes glow, I just saw Frank's comment on the filaments being wired in series.

Bump.

Any progress? New problems? Need parts?

The heck with the radio, I'm digging the Dymo tape!

 

 

I just looked--cool! Very retro!

As long as we're showing off our early receivers, here's mine:



It was built in '53 as I was studying for my Novice. The tube is a 6C8 dual triode, and regeneration is controlled by a capacitor between the tickler coil and ground. I alternated between it and an ARC-5 once I got my license. It was more selective than the ARC-5, but was touchy to tune and tended to drift a bit. The tuning could affected by moving your hand near the coil. It was a real trick in coordination to write with one hand and use the other to keep the signal tuned in.

The transmitter was a single 6AG7 that ran about 10 Watts input, which would give about 5 out.

The chart on the upper right is the settings for my Differential-T antenna tuner.

When it became apparent that I was going to get my license, Dad (under the guidance of my uncle who was in the Signal Corps) bought me a Hallicrafters S-38B for Christmas. Unfortunately, it combined the instability of the 'ginny with the barn-door-wide selectivity of the ARC-5. Luckily, my shack was in the attic and with all three radios on the table, he couldn't tell which one I was actually using. The Hallicrafters was great for listening to shortwave broadcast and was later pressed into service as a CONELRAD monitor.

Cool!

Frank B... WOW!!!