RETRO RECEIVER REVIEW #13 - The MARC NR-82 F1

RETRO RECEIVER REVIEW #13

Click on each photo for an enlarged view


MARC NR-82 F1

by Craig Seager VK2HBT
This time we take a close look at a large format portable of yesteryear. With the benefit of 30 years of maturation, many of these sets are becoming collectable now and hark back to an era when a portable receiver didn’t exactly (or even approximately!) fit into one’s shirt pocket. In fact, the subject of this retro review #13, the Marc NR-82 F1, is the size of a benchtop television.

 Standard Radio Corporation was founded in Japan in the Mid 1950s, and initially made its mark selling portable radios. Later it branched into tape recorders and other audio equipment, bringing it to the attention of a U.S. company called Superscope, which had acquired the prestigious Hi-Fi manufacturer Marantz in the early 1960s.   

 Superscope recapitalised SRC, which then began Japanese manufacturing of Marantz components, eventually becoming Marantz Japan in 1975. For a period of a few years after that, the company continued to market portables and communications equipment for both the consumer and amateur market under the Standard trademark. Notable models include the C6500, a Wadley loop design desktop model, similar in many respects to the Drake SSR-1. You can view some of the other Standard Radio equipment range at:  RadioMuseum - Standard Radio Corp.

Interestingly, Standard eventually bought the Marantz brand from Philips in 2001, who had, in turn, acquired it from Superscope 20 years earlier. Hi-Fi enthusiasts will recall the various styling progressions and quality variations of Marantz equipment over the years, a direct result of these ownership changes and European versus Japanese influences. My own mid-1980s Marantz stereo system continued to give reliable service until I Gumtree-ed it a couple of years back, and I only ever changed out one electrolytic capacitor and a cassette tape belt during its 30-year tenure here.

 But we digress....back to Standard Radio Corp., which also as it happens, manufactured the Marc NR-82 F1. Our non-Australian friends may also know this variously as the Pan Crusader-X, Pan International NR82F1, Tokyo Crusader NR82F1, Global NR-82F1 or, would you believe, even the Globephone Space Commander GS-8008 (in maybe some weird paean to the Star Wars franchise?).  

 The badges and sometimes control knobs look different, but these are all essentially the same radio!

 And what a radio it is! Attempting to be all things to all men, the Marc NR-82 F1 covers longwave, mediumwave, shortwave (in four bands), VHF (in five bands) and UHF. According to German radio expert Martin Boesch, this extensive coverage made ownership there a bit naughty and clandestine in the 1980s, as tuning the out-of-band ranges in some European countries was verboten, and liable to result in equipment confiscation.    

 A blue fluorescent digital counter displays frequency on all but UHF, though this needs to be frequently calibrated as ranges from SW2-4 are switched between. Resolution is to 1 kHz AM, or 10 kHz VHF. A rather crude, but colourful and illuminable analogue linear scale substitutes, if that is sufficient for the listener.
   
Typical of the time, the Marc is a double conversion superhet design, with the 1st I.F. for the shortwave range at 2 MHz (and yes, there are annoying double-spots in evidence 4 MHz from fundamental!).  

 Longwave, mediumwave and SW1 (to 3.8 mHz) are only single conversion. The other ranges adopt the tried and proven 455 kHz/10.7 mHz arrangement.  


Two bandwidths are offered in AM, both quite broad, and there is a wide selection of controls that will delight the 1980s radio aficionado/knob twiddler - RF gain, separate bass and treble, antenna adjust, BFO tune, mode, bandwidth, display on/off, counter calibrate – and on the rear, the choice of internal or external antennas.  

 The internal antennas are a mediumwave ferrite core, and three separate telescopic rods for SW, VHF and UHF respectively. A true porcupine! 

 An SO-239 socket and also spring terminals are provided for external sources (VHF/UHF and AM). Audio is superb via a 5W (max) audio stage and 12.5 cm speaker, or ¼“ headphone socket. A 5-pin din connection facilitates audio in/out, common in the day.

 The set is powered by AC 110-120/220-240V or 12V DC (a whopping 8 “D” cells required, which will be consumed voraciously).
Picture of the troublesome area on the circuit board, helpfully identified by the person who sold the author his example,
with the suggestion that “applying heat” there in an unspecified fashion would restore VHF reception!

Under the covers, this receiver is a serviceman’s dream, with virtually all components laid out on a single PCB, well labelled and fairly easy to get at (after one removes 9 million screws).
So, did Marc make any other receivers?
You bet they did – including this unrestored 24F2 from 1976,
still gathering dust on the shelves of VK2HBT.

 So many radios come to this address as wounded birds, and this one was no exception (yes, broken receivers are generally cheaper!). In pristine cosmetic condition, but according to the previous owner, displaying an intermittent fault that presented as a failure to receive on the VHF range.  

 After a bit of fruitless scrutiny under the magnifying loupe, and freezer spray on the solder joints, some judicious prodding revealed a poor connection with one leg of a small coil. A dainty component, and you guessed it, one of very few parts hidden tantalisingly from the iron tip by the plastic tuning mechanism support cage.      

 So, with all this apparent utility, how does the Marc NR-82 F1 perform?  Well, pretty average, one has to say.  

 The provided bandwidths are too broad, dial backlash is excessive, and sensitivity is sub-optimal. The lack of digital display on UHF is also a minor drawback, although I would imagine anyone interested in that range will likely have a more satisfactory digital wideband scanner available.

 So, in 2018 and cognisant of all the inherent limitations, should one of these appear at a Saturday morning garage sale with a nice price tag, would you buy one? Resoundingly, yes! Providing there is plenty of shelf real estate available, and you can appreciate radios that were very much “of their time”.  

 This is a receiver that operates less impressively than it looks, but if one of these appeared under the Christmas tree as a young man, I might have thought I’d died and gone to heaven. What a marvellous toy!

Here is a YouTube clip of the NR82-F1 in action:



Care to check out the Marc NR-82 F1 receiver manual? Click HERE to download the PDF (614 KB).

(This article first appeared in the Jan-Feb 2011 issue of the Australian DX News)
Once again, many thanks to Craig Seager for contributing this retro review to MEDXR, and helping to keep the memories of radio alive!

Missed the other Retro Reviews? Check them all out by clicking below:

Retro Receiver Review # 1 - The DANSK RX4000

 Retro Receiver Review # 2 - The HITACHI KH-3800W
  
Retro Receiver Review # 3 - The SCHAUB LORENZ ITT TOURING T104A RECEIVER

Retro Receiver Review # 4 - The RACAL RA6790/GM

Retro Receiver Review # 5 - The REALISTIC (RADIO SHACK) DX160

Retro Receiver Review # 6 - The KENWOOD QR 666

 Retro Receiver Review # 7 - The RODHE & SCHWARZ EK890

 Retro Receiver Review # 8 - The YAESU FR101S

 Retro Receiver Review # 9 - The SELENA VEGA B206

Retro Receiver Review # 10 - The DRAKE SPR-4

 Retro Receiver Review # 11 - The NATIONAL RF-5000

Retro Receiver Review # 12 - The YAESU FRG-100

Retro Receiver Review # 13 - The MARC NR-82 F1

Retro Receiver Review # 14 - The MURPHY B40

Retro Receiver Review # 15 - The STROMBERG CARLSON AWP-8










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© Rob Wagner, Mount Evelyn DX Report, and contributors 2012-2023

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 10, 2019 at 10:05 AM

    Boa noite tenho um rádio Marc dnr igual a esse acima tive que desmontalo para fazer uma limpeza mas não me lembro da ligação dos fios que ligam a placa ao rádio o azul o laranja e o branco na parte traseira do mesmo saberia me dizer como ligar esses dois das antenas telescópicas a placa dele desde já agradeço PU2 MWG 73 amigo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rob WagnerJuly 10, 2019 at 3:31 PM

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    2. Rob WagnerJuly 10, 2019 at 3:32 PM

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  2. UnknownAugust 23, 2020 at 1:16 AM

    I am looking for AM SEL spare part for MARC NR-82 F1. Could you help me to where I could find such part.

    ReplyDelete

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