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Forum 135

Radio Roberts R-827 surprise!

Radio

Last Post by Lloyd 5 months ago

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Lloyd

(@lloyd)

Posts: 1977

Prominent Member Registered

Topic starter

… the surprise is that it actually works!

This is one I picked up from the bring and buy stall at last weekend’s RetroTech, for a measly £3, it looked a bit of a mess, probably why no one else had touched it all day! the poor thing was covered in dust and muck, and the speaker grille is rusty. There were some old batteries left in for the memory (3xAA), and one had begun leaking, but not enough to get on anything and cause damage. 2 of the batteries were still alive, I tried them in something else, 1 was dead. I tried one of the batteries that came with it, and 2 from my Tascam audio recorder, and the clock display came to life! I didn’t have any D cells for the main power, or an adapter suitable, so when we went out today I popped into Poundland and got a set.

I fitted the new batteries not really expecting much to happen, or that if it did come on then at least some part of it not work correctly, but to my surprise it just worked! If I was being really picky then the rotary encoder for tuning can be a bit dodgy, but other than that it all seems ok. Even the display backlight works!

I gave the set a quick wipe down with some damp kitchen roll, which got rid of a lot of dust and dirt, but the speaker grille will need some work to make it look nice again, but that’s for when I get back to the workshop!

I’m guessing these sets were some sort of rebadged import by Roberts, some things about the set seem similar to a Matsui world radio I have, such as the ‘sleep’ symbol. Does anyone know who actually made these? Also when would they have been made?

Regards,

Lloyd

Posted : 14/05/2024 8:48 pm

LSmith reacted

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Roberts R-827 world radio

hamid_1

(@hamid_1)

Posts: 247

Reputable Member Registered

I spotted that set at Retrotech too!

I believe it was made for Roberts by Sangean of Taiwan. They also made some models for Dixons (Matsui, Saisho) and Tandy (Realistic) amongst others. Sangean were quite well regarded - it should be a good performer. I have a Matsui radio which is a rebadged Sangean - it works particularly well on medium wave, bringing in weaker distant stations.

My guess is that your radio is a rebadged Sangean ATS-818 from 1993:

https://mwcircle.org/legacy-receiver-reviews/receiver-review-sangean-ats-818/

In more recent years, Roberts sourced radios from a Chinese manufacturer as well as Sangean, though the Chinese sets were lower quality.

Posted : 14/05/2024 9:07 pm

Lloyd reacted

Lloyd

(@lloyd)

Posts: 1977

Prominent Member Registered

Topic starter

Cheers for finding that, Hamid! I thought it might be one of theirs, I’d not have guessed it was from 1993 though! I see there was even a version with a cassette deck built in.

The Matsui one I have has turned out to be a rebadged Sangean ATS-303, which I bought new from Dixons a very long time ago, probably with Christmas money saved up when I was still at school.

Posted : 15/05/2024 8:31 am