Marine Receiver – Volna K

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Dear Sparks,

today we look over the old iron curtain to discover one of the receivers used on soviet cargo ships.

The Volna-K is a Russian Navy HF receiver. It was intended as a maritime receiver for the Navy and for commercial shipping.  It is a superheterodyne double conversion HF receiver, using 17 miniature valves, and 2 semi-conductor diodes. The valves have Russian numbers, but are equivalent to common American types. It can run off 110 or 220 volts AC, or 28 volts DC. It is intended to receive AM and CW signals down to  0.5 uV levels. The word “volna” translates to “wave”. The frequency coverage is 12 kHz to 23 mHz in 9 bands, with gaps around the IF frequencies. There are 3 versions of the Volna-K, each with a slightly different frequency coverage. There is also Volna-P which is the version for submarines.

                   VOLNA-K               VOLNA-K1               VOLNA-K3
Band 1       12  –   60 KHz        12   –     60  KHz       12   –    60 KHz
Band 2     100  – 180 KHz      100   –   180  KHz       60   –  100 KHz
Band 3     180  – 330 KHz      180   –   330  KHz     100   –  180 KHz
Band 4     300  – 600 KHz      300   –   600  KHz     180   –  330 KHz
Band 5      1.5  –  2.8 MHz      600   – 1100  KHz     330   –  600 KHz
Band 6      2.8  –  5.0 MHz       1.1   –    1.6  MHz    600   – 1100 KHz
Band 7      5.0  –  9.0 MHz       5.0   –    9.0  MHz     1.1   –   1.6  MHz
Band 8      9.0  – 15.0 MHz       9.0  –  15.0  MHz     1.6   –    2.8 MHz
Band 9    15.0  – 23.0 MHz     15.0 –   23.0  MHz     2.8   –    5.0 MHz

It was made in the Petropavlovsky Radio Factory,  in Kirov, USSR. About 70,000 were made from 1959 to 1985.

In the centre of the front panel, is the large semicircular dial (used for coarse frequency setting), and an optical frequency readout above it (for fine frequency setting). The maritime distress frequencies are marked, 500 khz and 2182 khz. It takes 40 turns of the heavy flywheel knob to go from band end to end, which is about 9 feet of tuning scale on the ground glass screen.

The Volna-K is a double conversion superheterodyne LF and HF receiver. It is single conversion on bands below 600 kHz. The first IF is 915 kHz and the second IF is 85 kHz, and there are gaps in the frequency coverage to allow for this, 60-100 khz and  600-1500 khz.

It has a conventional power transformer and double diode rectifier (5U4). The primary can be set for 110, 127, and 220 volts AC. There is a voltage regulator valve for the oscillator HT voltage and a barreter for current regulation of the oscillator heater. The mains power supply unit could be replaced by an optional 24 VDC supply.

It is a beautiful receiver, very easy to use, and very sensitive. There is so much gain, that when receiving SSB or CW signals

73’s

webmaster