Roamer 7

The photos are similar to my Roamer 7. This one is the Roamer 8, the difference being the tone control which mine didn't have.

My first ever radio was a Christmas present in 1968. This was supplied as a kit, from a place called Radio Exchange that advertised in Practical Wireless. My Dad sent for it quite late for Christmas, the company sent it almost immediately and we received it nicely packed.
The Roamer 7 was a TRF type receiver with unmarked transistors and built on connecting blocks. I remember that the instructions were very clear to follow, but when it was complete it looked like a 'rat's nest' of wires. I also had to wind all the coils for the different bands on paper formers. It was a great project at the time as I was only 14 years old and was still getting hang of soldering. I would have struggled if this was a printed cicuit board.

A bit of a rat's nest inside with the connecting blocks and wiring.

It was this radio that introduced me to 'Topband', one of the bands was called 'Trawler Band' which was in fact 160m. I could listen to G3XCI, G3JJM with just the telescopic aerial. Later I put up a longwire antenna and plugged it into the car aerial socket. The radio was very sensitive with it being a TRF you could turn up the sensitivity.

The Roamer 7 was also good on the Short Wave bands and I used it a lot to listen to pop music on some of the foreign stations.

Although this is the circuit of the Roamer 6, it identical to the Roamer 7 apart from an extra band. The circuit is interesing in that it seems to be upside down. The positive rail is usually at the top.