I have a Kennedy Cathedral Radio. I thought this would be an easy Id, as the decal on the back indicated a Model 66A. Trouble is, when I brought up the Riders schematic for a 66A, it showed a radio with 12 vacuum bulbs!! The radio I have has only 7.
I checked out Radio Museum and the only radio I could find with this compliment of tubes....80, 47, 55, 56, 58, 57, 58...was the model 1872B. It indicates the year 1932, which is probably about right and describes it as a "Table model without pushbuttons" but there is no picture, so it is hard to tell if this is the right model. I have searched all the Riders schematics and I am unable to find a Model 1872B or any other Kennedy radio with this compliment of tubes. Sams does not even list Kennedy.
Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
George R.
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Whatever the model is that chassis appears not to have been tampered with, it would be a good candidate for restuffing the capacitors both because of that, and because it's probably a rare set. I don't think the Kennedy brand survived past about 1932 or so, and Collin B. had nothing to do with the company by that point, I see to recall that they relocated to the mid West after he sold out. I'm curious as to what used to be on either side of the control panel, it looks like it may have had pilasters, or panels of veneer, that were lost somewhere along the way, it also looks like it was stored in an uncontrolled environment, though the chassis doesn't show it. The model 52A looks close.
Regards
Arran
Arran,
Thank you for your reply. I do intend to refurbish the radio and will re-stuff the capacitors. First time I have seen this type of Sprague capacitor. I was also curious how the original radio was finished. I had seen some photos of Kennedys with pilasters on the sides, but think this one may have had veneer panels instead. An individual had responded to my inquiry on the Antique Radios Forum and sent me a thread back from 2013 about a collector that had the same problem that I did. His radio was in great shape, but he too was having trouble making a proper id as his chassis indicated 66A and it was obvious that this was not correct. He had also concluded, after some research that it may be a model 1872, but was unable to locate a schematic. Since you were curious, I have attached a picture that I will probably use as a guide to refinish the cabinet.
Thank you again for the information. Much appreciated.
George R
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The veneer panel look like they may be Australian walnut, or quarter sawn French walnut, cut on the diagonal, with a shaded finish. Weird how both sets have the wrong model number? According to what I can see this model was not at the end of the line, the later sets have crescent shaped dials. The round dial ones on there were probably like the Freshman sets from the 30s, someone bought the rights to what used to be a well known brand, and badge engineered some generic set made by an independent manufacturer.
Regards
Arran
Just for your own reference Sam's Photofact didn't start until 1946. Any pre war sets wouldn't be listed.
Yup. for the sets before that radio repair men used the Rider Manuals. They were published from 1930 to 1954. The first edition included the schematics and information for most of the commercially made sets up to that time. The subsequent editions had the service information on all the commercially produced sets in the U.S. in the years subsequent. You can get DVDs with good scans of the COMPLETE manuals these days on sites like YouTube. They are not expensive, and I STRONGLY suggest the purchase for anyone serious about the antique radio hobby. When you want to work on a set, you can then print out just the pages you need.
Did not know that about Sam's Photofact. Good information.
Thank you Terry and Mike for your help.
George R
Yup, buy the DVD's. Not that expensive. I use them all the time.
Thank you everyone for the advice. This sounds like a great idea. Found on Ebay "John F. Riders Vintage Radio Servicing Schematics on 4 DVD's" at a very reasonable price.
Does that put me on the right track?
Regards,
George R.
I found one too, in fact it looks like mine was produced just 23 from yours.. serial #96220.
Did you ever get any more info? i am having the same problem.
Thanks
Bill
Bill,
I have not found any additional information on the Kennedy cathedral radio. I had a couple of guys from the radio club searching as well and no luck. I am still suspecting that it was an 1872B, but not sure and have not found a schematic anywhere.
My radio fortunately works. I have recapped it and change the majority of the resistors as they were all at least 25% out of tolerance. I was able to read the values on most of the capacitors and resistors, so it was not too tough of a job.
I have glued up all of the loose veneer and bad joints and hope to start applying the stain and lacquer soon, but that's an outside job and may be a few more months before I can get to that. we have had a very snowy winter in central MN.
I will stay in touch and post to the site if I find anything and plan on posting a picture of the final product when I am finished.
Regards,
George
I dont have the case open now, but if i might ask what were the values of those huge Sprague caps? and that tone control cap by the rheostat on the way to the speaker? ( mine looks replaced)
Any other caps etc that were either hidden or hard to read?
Looking forward to recapping mine. Im glad you're here and have one.
Like you said ...By the looks of the tube count it is a 1872b
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/kennedy_1872b.html
Bill
Bill,
Most of the Capacitors are .06 mfd. There is a .5 and a .1 coming off the volume control, and the capacitor in the bottom right corner is .25 mfd. The two Electrolytics are 8 mfd, 450V. I decided to take the advice of Arran from a previous post, and restuff the capacitors. However, this proved to be very difficult as they did not want to come apart and I ended up destroying a few. So I decided to manufacture my own. They turned out pretty well, so the original look is preserved. I also ended up making my own dog bone resistors as well.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
George. [
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Forgive me and again i dont have mine open, but you said 2 electrolytics...i see 3 similar large cans? or are they something else? the air caps?
And again the cap that is above the case in the cabinet ( at least mine is) from the tone rheostat to the speaker....size?
Thanks
Bill