Roberts 'Revival' - reverse polarity burnourt sorted.

[Yorkie]

In the thread about the home-brew ESR meter, I drifted off onto a rant about lack of polarity reversal protection on the Roberts Revival radio to which Roger responded:

Roberts have always had this propensity to do quirky things - the ghaslty Mullard Modules, the TAD100 IC, and now this malarky.

Not those nice little metal boxes that we had so much fun with replacing the AF115 & AF117's David? I did so enjoy unsoldering all those wires connected to the band selector switches. One of those 5 minute jobs!

Most of the quality went out of the window with Robert's when the family sold out to Glen industries (Morphy Richards, Dimplex etc.) The radio's were then all imported. I remember Robert's reps. were always very smart and professional back in the 60's.

Roger.

I thought perhaps I should start another thread under 'restoration stories' so here goes.

Yes, Roberts were a very enterprising little outfit - originally a family firm who I think most of us hold in great affection, but sadly, it seemd to go downhill fast with the untimely death of the founder. I've got the little book about the history of the company which makes fascinating reading.

Having made disparaging remarks about the Revival, perhaps I should attmept to justify those remarks by posting a few pics, which I've appended below.

I'd make the following observations, considering - as I said earlier, that the price tag on these radios is around £150. It serves as a good example of what marketing is all about - charging what the market will stand, and creating an image which exceeds the reality of the product. A radio is supposed to look nice, and sound good, and in fairness to the designers, the Revival achieves that objective despite it's puny speaker. Few customers will look further than that, which is no bad thing where the Revival is concerned.

But I'd make the following observations which will be apparent from the pics:

Note the inaccurately machined ill-fitting MDF panels that make up the cabinet.

The shabby finishing of the letherette covering inside the cabinet.

The paltry volume control mounted on a bit of SRBP PCB with snap-off perforations.

The puny cheap little speaker, notwithstanding the copious space for a much larger one.

I've appended a pic of the bits I had to replace - a cap, a resistor, and an IC, for which I fitted a turned pin IC socket.

I was mistaken when I said earlier that there were no coils - there are in fact the usual Toko style coils in the front end. I've attched a pic of what I thought were two SIL (single in line) ICs which are the front end and IF for the AM and FM functions, but which on closer examination proved to be DIL (dual in line) with 56 pins, very closely spaced. The AM one was jiggered, but rather than try to remove and replace it, which would have been next door to impossible without damaging the horrid SRBP PCB, I left well alone, with the radio just working on FM, where in any event, it's permanently tuned to Radio 4.

I'll leave it to other forum members to decide whether they think the innards live up to the outward appearance of the set. I found it offensive to the eye, and it made me feel angry and sad, but I think what really got to me was the way that they dressed the radio up externally to look like a quality product worthy of its price, yet the innards told a different story, IMHO.

Maybe it's just me being out of step with the times in which we live, when stuff which is perfectly functional gets thrown out - radios, TVs, laptops...so maybe the ethos is 'why make stuff to last for decades when it will be landfill within a couple of years?'

Hope it's not too much of a rant, and is of interest.

David

David

[AlanBeckett]

David, David
I agree entirely. Roberts were the forerunners of the likes of Sugar, Branson and (particularly) Dyson. You charge what the Traffic will bear. An old Salesman said to me many years ago 'Any fool can sell a pound coin for 95 pence, the secret is to get £1.05 for it.
Having said that 'There's nothing new under the sun'. If you look at history without the rose-tinted spectacles such people have always been there, and they've often flourished. Look at Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who was a Cowboy who made almost all of the modern versions look like rank amateurs. Lots of his Projects ran late, over budget, didn't achieve what they were supposed to or were never completed. Nevertheless, we need people, and Companies, who are prepared to take risks, if you like 'give it a go'. However, it's a sad fact that apparently once the original entrepreneurs have sold out, and the Company falls into the hands of 'Professonal Managers, it's not long before the whole lot goes down the pan - think EKCO, Pye, GEC etc.
Alan

[tiv48]

just for comparison here is a picture of the inside of a £24 tesco dab/fm
set
rob t

[Geaney]

I agree and it's sad to see good companies fall away. It seems unavoidable - companies with good design and quality manufacturing get blind sided by cheaper mass produced products. In fairness the cheaper ones allow more people access to these types of product but it would be nice if the high quality ones could continue without becoming the preserve of the very rich. The PYE P53 I'm working on sold for somewhere just over £20 in 1951 which I'm told was about equal to one weeks salary back then for the average factory worker. Compare that to Rob's Tesco radio which costs less than a days pay today. I don't think there's much one could do to repair it though - except maybe the power supply!
The tragedy is that the companies with the quality products seem to peak at a certain time but then can't keep on top and new companies come along who found a way to do something similar but much cheaper. I wonder how long it can go on - the cheap labour in the Far East can't stay like that forever and some companies are now taking their manufacturing back 'onshore'. Anyway I'm glad there are still those lovely old radios around for us to mess with and get them back in action.