NEAR-Fest RBO Singing for its Supper

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

The ol' girls needs a bit of attention: a little tweaking, a new dial cover(found), and the rack screw cover plates & screws. But boy-oh-boy, does it crank out the audio into the R-42 speaker. The tuning eyes is fairly new, bright and crisp, and the band-in-use lights bring up a different color for each band or phono.

It'll be the perfect garage radio. Total cost for radio and speaker - $90. NEAR-Fest beats ebay again.

[flintstone mop]

WOW
I guess she has a pair,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,of nice output tubes for that extra punch!!

Fred

[W1UJR]

Cool!

Magic eyes are great!

[WQ9E]

Looking great Todd!  Black wrinkle and a magic eye are a winning combo.

[W2PFY]

Being Halloween season I thought it would be great fun to put a couple of those magic eye's in a pumpkin or maybe a skull.   Maybe they could be hooked up to a audio source so when kids spoke to them the eyes would blink open and shut.

[w3jn]

I see the Big H speaker is pressed into service.  Nice!!

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Yessir, sounds mighty good in fact. Ironic that the guy I got it from was unloading it directly across from the RBO.  Need to find out the CZC model number of the matching ship's speaker for it.

Had the old girl out of her case yesterday while I installed new hardware from base plate to shock mounts. Did a bit of cleaning inside. Got it back together this afternoon and listened to some college football with it. She needs a little tinkering, particularly on the SW bands, but for now it's fine to listen to.

Rodger, I seem to recall you picked up one of these at the big fest out your way recently. Sure is heavy!

[AJ1G]

Not sure if there was a matching E. H. Scott loudspeaker for the RBO .  I have a similar Scott Model SLRM ship's entertainment receiver (Navy called it the REE) many of which were sold by Scott out of their showrooms after the war.  The one I have, which originally was purchased by my great-uncle in 1946, came with a Hallicrafters PM-23 speaker, the one  with the horizontal louvered grill usually associated with the SX-28.  It does not have the Hallicrafters "H" logo on it though.  I suspect that the speakers used with the receivers on ships varied from installation to installation, with local speakers in the crew's mess or wardroom, and also a feed to the ship's announcing systems via the included 600 ohm output.  I believe that there is an RBO fitted in the museum ship USS Nautilus SSN571 crew's mess. 

I also have an RBO that followed me home from a Hosstraders a few years back, but it a bit rougher shape than yours Todd.  I t will probably clean up and play well.  The plastic dial  window is very yellowed and warped, not nearly as nice as yours.   I have always been impressed with the build quality of the Scott ship's entertainment receivers and the RCH/SLRF communications receivers used in the Liberty ship radio systems with the Federal and McKay transmitters.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

The plastic dial  window is very yellowed and warped, not nearly as nice as yours.   

HA! That's because there isn't one, Chris!  The good news is, there's a guy in GA who makes new ones and does an EXCELLENT job. $18 + shipping will get you not only a new window, but in the case of the RBO where it's actually riveted to the bezel, they'll install it for you for free, just ship the frame to them.

http://jmpalmquist.home.comcast.net/~jmpalmquist/Scott_RB02.jpg

Got a replacement for my RCA AVR-11 from him, what a difference.

The only drawback to the RBO vs the SLR-H is that the RBO doesn't have a shove-yank audio output stage, though you wouldn't know it to listen. It drives the R-42 bass reflex speaker with excellent fidelity. Was talking with George K1ANX yesterday and he actually has the matching speaker for the RCH-CZC49587. Says it weighs about 25 lbs! No idea if they made one for the RBO or just used the ship's intercom system.

[AJ1G]

Todd, thanks for the info on the dial cover.  Might motivate me to start cleaning up the RBO I have here.  Shipboard installations would typically use some sort of mil-spec large LS-xxx series speaker or multiple speakers on a bulkhead or in the overhead with their own volume controls, probably would have one in the crew's mess and another in the wardroom, perhaps another in the goat locker, CO stateroom, etc.  The SLRM has a phonograph input to play the crew's records, I believe the RBO also has this feature.  The SLRM has a series of taps (60 ohms, 200, 300, 600 ohms on the output transformer for driving multiple speakers.  The SLRM, so it could be also be used on merchant or Navy ships that only had 115 VDC receptacle power, has an AC/DC transformerless power design, and uses a pair of PP 25L6s in the output stage.  With a relatively low B+ there's not many watts but it sounds good through the PM-23.  My grandfather gave mine to me in 1964 when I was 12 and starting to show an interest in radio. It was the receiver in my  JN station as WN2ZPS back in '67 paired with my original DX-40.  The DX-40 was eventually traded for a 35 MM camera to the kid across the street, Glenn, now NY4NC, who sometimes lurks on this list.  You still out there Glenn?

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Glenn is up around Winston-Salem IIRC, I've dropped him a few messages since moving down here with zero replies. Hope he is well and life is just keeping him busy elsewhere.