Lancaster R1155 receiver restoration

**Danmark** · 08-18-2012, 06:01 AM

HI all,
( Bear with me as I tell the tale of this outfit )

Back in the late 1950's my father haunted auctions. At one surplus one he bought this R1155 radio and repainted a grey Admiralty pattern speaker unit and connected them up to work on mains power to listen to short wave broadcasts. ( the R1155 has quite a few bands available ) As a kid in the 60's ( I'm 52 now ) I remember turning this on and tuning into Eastern block broadcasts and others from far off places - great imagineering adventures for a pre-teen. The unit has a R3/51 painted on it so I guess it was refurbed then - famously known as 'Lancaster radios', these were used in the RAAF Lincolns and Sunderlands I believe that saw service out here until the late 50's.

Anyway, when my parents moved to acreage 35 years ago, this ended up forgotten & dusty in a shed until I paid them a recent visit and discussing my latest military finds was reminded by dad of the old radio ..... still in the shed ....35 years later! I daren't turn it on as the cords were all frayed etc.... but my plan is to get it working again. The insides look fine and with a correctly earthed power connection, the old Marconi should fire up again.

Any suggestions, guidance, comments gratefully received ....... ha, ha, get it? ....received .......oh, never mind.....

Cheers, Dan

**Adrian Stevenson** · 08-18-2012, 11:48 AM

Hi Dan, amazing that your folks still had it. Try this site for help and info:

R1155 & T1154 Radio information page

Cheers, Ade.

**Danmark** · 08-18-2012, 01:17 PM

Thanks Ade, just like me, my father never threw anything out... Lucky for me!

**Battery Command Post** · 08-18-2012, 04:00 PM

It looks like a nice example. These things are pretty tough, and there is no reason it wouldn't fire up again.

The weak point will be the electrolytic capacitors. These degenerate over time unless they are used. They can usually be reformed by applying a small voltage across them. If you are going to fire it up, I would recommend, if you can, to apply low power and slowly increase to full. You can do this with a variac if you are using mains power. Worst case scenario with these is they will 'pop', i.e. explode. I had this happen with a capacitor in a Wireless Set No 19... it's a bit scary when the things goes bang and smoke come out

I ama member of a forum about military radios. They have a lot of the manuals for the R1155 in pdf format. I could request the passwords for the manuals if you want them, or you could join the group too. They are very knowledgeable, but a bit dry and stuffy, to be honest...

Rob

**Danmark** · 08-18-2012, 10:59 PM

Hi Rob, thanks for that - yes please any help would be good, I don't really want to fry the old girl.

I do remember it working fine and the "shed" it was in was a dry storage area with a concrete floor so moisture was minimal ( there was furniture etc... stored there as well and that survived fine ) but yep, the caps would have dried out - I have seen that with old valve guitar amps.

Cheers, Dan