Racal Engineering Ltd., Bracknell, UK
The British company Racal Engineering Ltd. became after the development of the legendary RA-17L receiver a well-known provider of military and commercial communications technology.
Company History
Two former Plessey employees Ray Brown and George Calder Cunningham founded Racal Engineering Ltd. respectively Racal Electronics Plc in 1950. The most famous development was the legendary all-wave receiver RA-17L, which was developed by Dr. Ing. Trevor Wadley. The Wadley Loop technology, using tuned 1 MHz quartz harmonics as oscillator signals for the MHz ranges and a linear VFO for tuning within the MHz band, was the core technology in ths receiver of superior linearity and frequency dial accuracy. The RA-17L was manufactured well into the seventies, it's successor models were solid state.
The next success was the contract for tactical radios of the British Army, the whole group of Larkspur and later Clansman equipment was developed by Racal. With the acquisition of Decca, radar technology became part of the groups developments. Racal could enter the telecommunications market with contracts with the British Rail Telecommunications Network, the telecommunications group Vodafone came out of this branch.
The division of military communications was sold to Thomson-CSF in 2000 and few months later became Thales Plc.