MARCONI R1475 RECEIVER, 1951

The Receiver Type R1475 consists of the Receiver Type 88 and the Power Unit Type 360 ( Not in the Museum ).
It is a general purpose ground station Receiver covering a nominal Frequency Band from 2-20 Mc/s in four ranges.

Donated by J D Knowles

Your comments:

• I have one of these sets a 44 model, i believe it was my fathers not sure how he obtained it. it has a large power supply not working now but he worked all over the world, Kenya , West indies, first for the post office and then Cable and Wireless. I used to listen all sorts, when I was a kid at the time and listened to all sorts of transmit ions from Cuban propaganda to ships etc. I was about 8 years old in the mid sixties living in Monserrat while my father was a project manager for C and B .The manual with it is dated 1947.
  .......... Duncan Forbes, Surrey, 14th of March 2024
  
  
• I had one of these sets during my Student-Apprentice days , but always knew it as an Rg44. My colleagues and I were in shared digs, and one evening in Oct. 1957, using a few feet of aerial chucked over a wardrobe, we picked-up the signal from the first "Sputnik". I recall that it was almost bang-on 20 Mc/s.
  Sadly, all that I have now is a "Double-Elephant" size print,dated 1945,of the cct.diag.and component list of Receiver Type 88.
  .......... Laurence Philpott, Little Totham , Essex ., 11th of September 2022
  
  
• I trained as a Wireless Op at RAF Compton Bassett in 1951 using R1155 but on posting to RAF. Abingdon I was delighted to use the R1475. We were on a French Air Force network because No1 OFU had a staging post at Istres near Marseilles.We also had AR88s but I preferred the 1475.I have a 1475
  .......... Brian Dodds, Haddenham Bucks UK, 3rd of October 2018
  
  
• I used this receiver extensively during 1957 while with a mobile bombing control radar unit in Malaya, in conjunction with the 1154 Marconi TX. It was highly reliable, as also was the TX. On reaching a new control location I would test the SW system by going onto the 14 MHz amateur band, getting some odd reports regarding my MCW transmission, most ops urging me to look at the ripple from my power TX supply. Interesting that the RX was used on Xmas Is, in the Pacific, as being telecomms Eng at Kiribati, during 1970, I visited Xmas Is as we shipped all of the comms equipment from there to Tarawa atoll, the only SW RX found being AR88s. Yes, the R1475 was frequency stable for a manual tuning RX, as it would be, designed by the Marconi Co at that period.
  David Appleton. ZL2DA.
  .......... David Appleton, 19 Franklin Terrace, Havelock North, New Zealand., 10th of August 2017
  
  
• I was also an RAF Wop(a), and trained on the R1475 at Compton Basset. I used this receiver until late 1959. It was replaced with the AR88, and later by the much superior Racal Ps. The winter I spent at Compton was the coldest I have ever known !
  .......... Brian Chopping, London, 8th of March 2016
  
  
• WE used to have one of these at our school as both our physics teacher and our headmaster Roy Lewis were hams, I used to play around with the reciever at lunch times great fun.We even built a cubicle quad which sat in the school roof, there were regular contacts into the states. The school was The Lancastrian in chichester west sussex.
  .......... Dave Barton, Bognor Regis west sussex, 1st of September 2015
  
  
• I used one in the 1960s for amateur radio, it was the only stable ex govt radio that had slow AGC and worked well with SSB reception.
  .......... Clifford Malcolm. G3UYN, St Keverne, Cornwall, 16th of March 2014
  
  
• I used these receivers at RAF Eastern ave Gloucester. In 1953 , one of our lads converted the pull out drawer to listen to radio Luxembourg over top of the listening frequency. This drawer , on front of the rx was officially there to enable the operator to monitor two frequency at the same time. All traffic was CW
  .......... Ian Denney, Harleston norfolk uk, 29th of December 2013
  
  
• In the early 1950s I was an RAF Wireless Operator(A)and operated the R1475 also AR 88s and HROs. I too found and used the Guard Channel to send Morse between other operators on "watch" I am surprised Joe Smith is not still on "Jankers" after his disruptive exploits.I remember a severe winter whilst training at Compton Basset hope he keeps warmer than we all were.
  73s Bill
  .......... William Rogerson, Silsden, Keighley England, 19th of July 2013
  
  
• This was our standard set. We were listening station in the Middle East. Our set room had over 100 workstations each with a set and an aerial box which gave us about 20 aerial configurations to chose from and we could perm them pretty much infinitely to get the best reception. In the middle of the set room was the console from which the duty guy could switch your set into someone else's if you wanted to go to the loo or something to keep continuity on the signal you were covering. Messing about one day I discovered that if I earthed myself to the steel desk and tapped on the guard channel with a piece of metal I could make a signal - just like a Morse key. The guy next to me was called Black Taff and was an OTT Welshman who got the piss taken out of him a lot. One day, my mate was at the console and I got him to switch me into Taff's set. When Taff went to the loo I loosened all the jacks in his aerial box so they were disconnected but still in the slots so all he could get was static. When he came back I started sending (with a little piece of razor blade hidden in my hand) what sounded like a very important QSL - a contact - from a Long-Range Russian Bomber Group. We were under orders to drop everything else if we heard from this group. I knew the call signs and the procedure off by heart so I could make a very plausible fake QSL. I began sending and watched Taff sit up and start logging. I put in some four letter groups which was how they sent co-ordinates etc. And soon the guys from Traffic Analysis were running backwards and forwards with Taff's logs trying to decode them. I had just made them up of course, so they were getting all antsy thinking the Russians had changed codes. I kept this up for about an hour. Then I sent, very slowly... F*** OFF BLACK TAFF. WE KNOW YOU ARE THERE. He didn't get it all so I sent it again - slower. I Watched his head change shape as he wrote it down. To make sure I sent it again. He just could not believe his eyes and ears. He was in no doubt at all that he was listening to a Russian bomber (I had kept the guard channel thing to myself. In a daze he got up and took his log to the supervisor's desk which gave me a chance to put his aerials back and my mate to unhook us. The commotion was unbelievable. So we said nothing and Taff and the rest of them were left completely perplexed and probably still are. I hope he reads this and sets his mind at rest.
  .......... Joe Smith, Compton Basset Wiltshire, 28th of June 2012
  
  
• These were used for CW communications when I was at RAF Masirah in 1960. I particularly remember the accuracy of the spiral dial markings. The internals were modularised with the band change switch passing through several of these modules. The guard channel was crystal controlled on an HF distress frequency.
  .......... Robin Cole ( Chief engineer KGPX- TV), Spokane WA. USA, 3rd of December 2010
  
  
• These receivers were the main stay of HF comms on Christmas island during Operation Grapple Z (H-bomb tests) in the late 1950's The slightly different grey coloured box (Centre right) was another receiver used as a "Guard" channel which would be preset to a frequency and any received signal would be heard along with the main signal.They were also used at the Maralinga Range in Australia......
  .......... David F Adair, SALTCOATS Ayrshire Scotland, 29th of April 2010
  
  

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