AB Standard Receiver

[kc4umo]

Ok I am at it again. You guys gonna get tired of me.......

While spending the morning cleaning the shop I ran accross a receiver that I picked up 5 or 6 years ago.
On the front panel tag:
AB Standard Radiofabrik
ULVSUNDA SWEDEN
TYPE SU2152A
No 73466

I spent quite a bit of time looking for any info on this old receiver.
Would be a fun restore but with out any documentation it would be a lot of trial and error.
Just wondering if anyone has ever seen one of these in the past. Or have one.

This is the front panel. As you can see the cosmetic appearance is real bad. But the dial is is great shape.
This would be a snap to refinish and could look like new. All the function writing is on removable panels and is raised letter.  So remove, clean, repaint, remove paint from rasied letter.










This is a top view of the receiver.


And yes, that is a piece of hardwood for a coupling between the VFO shaft and the capacitor



This is why I want a schematic. Need to know the wiring of the power jack and see if I can locate one of these. This receiver has a switch on the front for mains or battery power connection. Someone tried to wire a power cord straight into the rig.  But looking at the circuit I see this will not work because there are other pins that would have to be jumped to complete the circuit.



I do plan on trying to bring this back to life.  From what I can see it appears to be Swedish maid… 
Always wanted one of them!
But will be a ways down the road before I get to it. Got to get the other projects done first.
Just thought I share.

[Ralph W3GL]

I do plan on trying to bring this back to life.  From what I can see it appears to be Swedish maid… 

Swedish "maid"...  Really, what gave you that impression?

[KA0HCP]

Standard Radiofabrik, was a subsidiary of ITT, founded in 1938 which manufactured tubes, radios, commercial, military, shipboard and aviation equipment.  In 1961 it changed  names to Standard Radio & Telefon.

This dates your radio to before 1961.  I searched the Swedish ARL site and others and found nothing.

I think your best bet is to contact Swedish amateurs for assistance.

Looks likes a worthwhile project, and a handsome radio!  bill

[WQ9E]

Buddy,

That should look very nice when you are finished with it.  It does have a cool dial.

I have its much younger brother, a CR-91 which is an excellent performer.

[kc4umo]

Swedish "maid"...  Really, what gave you that impression?

Sorry, just could not resist that one

Standard Radiofabrik, was a subsidiary of ITT, founded in 1938 which manufactured tubes, radios, commercial, military, shipboard and aviation equipment.  In 1961 it changed  names to Standard Radio & Telefon.

This dates your radio to before 1961.  I searched the Swedish ARL site and others and found nothing.

I think your best bet is to contact Swedish amateurs for assistance.

Looks likes a worthwhile project, and a handsome radio!  bill

Thanks Bill,
That gives me a starting point! Appreciate that info.
I agree, this old radio is beautiful to me. I really like the way it looks and layout.

No dents in the cabinet and the paint scheme is simple.  Plus all the knobs are there.

Buddy,

That should look very nice when you are finished with it.  It does have a cool dial.

I have its much younger brother, a CR-91 which is an excellent performer.

Yeah I like the dial.  Can not wait to see how it looks lit up.
Thanks for posting that pic. Looks real nice.
Maybe I need to get back cleaning the shop, no telling what else I may find in here.

[Opcom]

Those knobs are the best! I like the round ones best! What a great looking old set. I see a lot of potential for a unique, retro-industrial beauty there. The newer one is very nice and I'd be proud o put one in my rack, but why is it I am sometimes afraid of such new-ish stuff? Maybe it gets hard to work on. Not all are like that but some.

[kc4umo]

Those knobs are the best! I like the round ones best! What a great looking old set. I see a lot of potential for a unique, retro-industrial beauty there. The newer one is very nice and I'd be proud o put one in my rack, but why is it I am sometimes afraid of such new-ish stuff? Maybe it gets hard to work on. Not all are like that but some.

I agree, those knobs are turn me on.
They look like they are made of maybe Bakelite. Not sure. But they clean up well.



Only one knob is broken. Second from the left. I did not break it was already like that. But I bet I know how it was.  Someone probably loosen the screw and tried forcing it off.  Not realizing that the screw had a tip that goes through the control shaft.

I removed the front panel to find out why the VFO knob did nothing when turned.. What I found was there are two cardboard like washers that are tired. There is a brass spring washer that is a little out of shape also.


Here is a shot of the front panel removed. Very easy to take off, no soldering! Plus I wanted to check out the VFO mechanism and the band switching. Sort of reminds me on the TX-1





They sure made use of secondary switch controls on this. All the controls have lever action added.




I know I said I was not going to start on this until other projects were finished but it was eating at me.
Specially after looking at this beautiful dial without the faded scratched up glass over it.

[SM6OID]

Hi!

I can ask around to see what can be done to assist with tech info.
I've got some SRT equipment, but more modern, such as the CR91 etc.
Check my qrz.com page to see a SRT transmitter.   

[kc4umo]

Hi!

I can ask around to see what can be done to assist with tech info.
I've got some SRT equipment, but more modern, such as the CR91 etc.
Check my qrz.com page to see a SRT transmitter.   

Thanks Morgan, really appreciate that.
Love your qrz page. really nice. I see you like big engines also
Cool.



I turn this receiver over and something caught my eye.
I RCA tube box?





Not just a box, this is a special capacitor cover!
Seems someone added a second cap to the main cap.

Got to fix that!

[KA0HCP]

Oh, that tuning dial is gorgeous!!  You've got to fix this radio up.  b.

[W9ZSL]

So Olaf sends a text message to Lena that says, "I'm over at Sven's having a couple of beers and working on his antenna.  If I'm not home in 2 hours, read this message again."

[kc4umo]

Oh, that tuning dial is gorgeous!!  You've got to fix this radio up.  b.

Agreed, it is a beauty.

So Olaf sends a text message to Lena that says, "I'm over at Sven's having a couple of beers and working on his antenna.  If I'm not home in 2 hours, read this message again."

Umm, huh?
ROFL
I loved that one.
Having a frosty one now with some homemade spaghetti sauce yum.

[N2DTS]

Nice looking RX.
Europe had some good looking radio stuff back in the day.

[WBear2GCR]

Referring to the top of the chassis jpeg.
Right side in the image.

Any sign that IF cans were ever installed there??

                _-_-

[kc4umo]

Nice looking RX.
Europe had some good looking radio stuff back in the day.

Agree

Referring to the top of the chassis jpeg.
Right side in the image.

Any sign that IF cans were ever installed there??

                _-_-

Nothing that I can see.

[W3RSW]

Something was there, bottom right same pix. Replaced with hanging box just above yellow rectangular spot on chassis with corner mounting holes.  Some sort of BFO box?

Looks like a classic receiver with decent build quality. Love those gears.

[kc4umo]

Something was there, bottom right same pix. Replaced with hanging box just above yellow rectangular spot on chassis with corner mounting holes.  Some sort of BFO box?

Looks like a classic receiver with decent build quality. Love those gears.

Ok, I think I am lost a bit.
Are we talking about this area?



Here are a couple of close up's of that area:

[w4bfs]

yes worthy of re-sto .... I didn't see any power transformer on the chassis px .... Is there an audio output xfmr ?... tubes look like locktals so output tube likely to be a 7b5/7c5 ... start tracing around this and soon you will find main B+ line ... the 'Jones' style power connector should have a connection to this .... then a ground .... then 1 or 2 for filament .... 2 more for power switch ... maybe 2 more for speaker out ...it shouldn't take too long to figure out ....this 'rev engrng' builds your electro skill more than about anything else you can do and separates the 'men from the boys' ... good luck and ask questions 73 John

ps  I like the Sweedish meatballs

[kc4umo]

yes worthy of re-sto .... I didn't see any power transformer on the chassis px .... Is there an audio output xfmr ?... tubes look like locktals so output tube likely to be a 7b5/7c5 ... start tracing around this and soon you will find main B+ line ... the 'Jones' style power connector should have a connection to this .... then a ground .... then 1 or 2 for filament .... 2 more for power switch ... maybe 2 more for speaker out ...it shouldn't take too long to figure out ....this 'rev engrng' builds your electro skill more than about anything else you can do and separates the 'men from the boys' ... good luck and ask questions 73 John

ps  I like the Sweedish meatballs

Hi John,
There is only one transformer in the receiver.  It is pretty small so I know this uses an out board supply.
The transformer has 6 taps on it. And by looking at it I pretty sure it is an audio transformer.  The internal speaker has been removed and tracing the wires go back to this transformer.


There are a few wires just hanging around where the speaker mounts. A schematic would really come in handy for those but will just have to do it the old fashion way.

There are 6 tubes, one 25L6GT behind the transformer and the other 5 are ECH21

Swedish meatballs? Yum!
Man I love projects...

[WU2D]

Nice radio! A fun restoration is in the works.

Well, Ulla wake up every morning at five AM. From five to seven, Ulla exercise. From seven to eight Ulla take long shower. From eight to nine Ulla eat big Swedish breakfast. Many different herrings. From nine to eleven, Ulla practice her singing und her dancing. And at eleven, Ulla like to have sex. So, what time should Ulla get here?

Leo Bloom, Max Bialystock: ...Eleven.

[kc4umo]

Yes, Lots of fun.

It continues.....

While I was sitting here in the shop thinking about a dream I had where I owned a real Johnson Viking Valiant I started working on the chassis today. Got it all cleaned up, cleaned and lubed switches and controls


The next worry was to tackle this VFO control.  The fine or coarse control does not move the needle at all.



And why? All these old hard dried out grease. Almost need a hammer and chisel to remove it.



Next was to tear apart the main control.
It was also full of this old grease.



Control all cleaned and lubed up




The VFO spins like a charm now.  It is not a weighted control so it stops when you stop. Got all the gears cleaned and lubed. Also did not have to replace those cardboard type washers. it was the grease causing all the trouble.

[kc4umo]

I removed the 3 covers from the band select boards to clean switched and contacts.
And behold, I think I found the “Smoking Gun” and is probably why this unit went out of service.


As you can see in this pic there appears to be a coil that has gotten pretty hot.


The first and second boards look fine. But I had to go ahead and remove the 3rd board for further inspection.



That one is not the only issue. Looks like a small coil has been fried also. And the adjusters do not look good.



Now this is when the average tech throws it in the corner, turns the lights out, and goes in the house and calls it a day.

But I am not average.  Tomorrow I will pull the coils off, check the good ones and see what they read and look for a way to rebuild them. The one coils former is practically toast. But us rednecks here in the Carolinas don’t let this stop us.
Someone pass me the duct tape and bailing wire please…….

[W3RSW]

I sure admire your tenacity.
Suppose lightning hit the burned coils?  Adjacent to ant. Inputs?
Oh, and the yellow area I saw earlier turned out to be a yellowish cover plate in one of your later close ups, not an uncovered area where a transformer used to be.

[kc4umo]

I sure admire your tenacity.
Suppose lightning hit the burned coils?  Adjacent to ant. Inputs?
Oh, and the yellow area I saw earlier turned out to be a yellowish cover plate in one of your later close ups, not an uncovered area where a transformer used to be.

Why thank you Rick. I seldom give up on things.

Thinking it was lightning. Untill I saw something else. On the back of the unit right behind the wave form selector is 2 binding post, red and black. These are the antenna connection. The adjustment would not turn. So I opened it up and found a lot of wax in the varible capacitor. It is possible that someone thought these were to connect a battery or power supply to. And would had sent all that power straight to the band board. There are a few coupling  caps so will check them also.

Oh, and they had a power cord soldered into the inside of the radio. Can not find any damage from that since the circuit did not close anything.

[kc4umo]

After further inspection this morning I am surprised to see that the crispy coil is still intact. You just can not adjust the slug since the former is distorted. I am going to pull it and check it on the meter.

The small coil on top is perfectly fine. This some type of variable capacitor.  Not sure why the top is covered in black goo. But it cleans up.
Perhaps this board is not as bad as I thought. The coil windings got to a wafer switch. No signs of arcing or burning on it. Defiantly was not lightning.