RACAL RA-237B Gerry O’Hara
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under this secondary cover (photo, below).
Operation
With the RA-237B installed, I found its operation was very straightforward, and the switching
between the normal RA-117 operation above 980kHz and with the RA-237B from 10kHz
through 980kHz worked well (just remember to connect antennas to both the RA-117 and RA-
237B antenna sockets and to use the red scale on the RA-117). The noise level was found to be
good, however, sensitivity is a little lacking compared with the RA-117 in the segment of the
spectrum covered by both (750khz to 1MHz), though seems to be to specification. Unfortunately
I do not have a real LF antenna set-up here, so no real-world on-air LF checking below around
500kHz was possible (though it picks up my signal generator ok right down to 10kHz).
Conclusion
So, was it worth spending $110 on the RA-237B plus $20 on replacement parts? – I think it
certainly was, if only for the entertainment value of getting it working, however, being able to
cover the entire Broadcast band is useful and one day I may even string-up a real LF antenna…
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