[BILL]

I saw an ebay a A K 55 console it was only 20 miles from my home so I bid, I got it for $15 ,it had the out put tube close by or I would not have gone for it , at first I thought I bought an old chassie and fire wood ! When I picked it up I was surprised at the condition the cabinet was in ! Instead of parts I've ended up with another project, The people say it was the best of the three radios they where selling the others were a Silvertone about 1940 console and an 8 tube Zenith console 1941,all sold quickly, the A K was on ebay twice I'm the only one who bid! I don't think I got hurt any .

[Sean]

Hi Bill,

You got a pretty good deal on the AK. I used to have one in the metal "coffin" style cabinet with separate speaker. I restored it and sold it but now have a model 60 (model 55 with additional RF amplifier) in the Kiel table cabinet waiting to be restored. I have restored another model 55 for someone and they are fairly easy to restore. I re-coned the speaker on that one and will have to do it on the 60 as well. They are pretty good performing radios.

[BILL]

I've got a metal box 55 working, a Kiel table ,two more Pooler consoles, one I bought today for parts, $10, thrift store find
The one I bought with the nice cabinet is a 55F it's for 25 cycles, what do you know about that? ,My favorite AK is my 558 cathedral , got it when I was in JR high school, the first customer on my paper route gave it to me.

[exray]

You can run a 25 cycle set on 50/60Hz with no problems. The transformer is much larger and will actually run cooler than a 60 cycle one. The only possible issue is needing to increase the filter cap values slightly to get an equivalent reduction in hum.

25 cycle was common in southern Ontario and western NY right up to the 1950s in some spots.

[Steve Davis]

Xray, I think it is the other way around on the filters. A 25 cycle set would have the larger filter capacitors and would be fine on 60 cycle.
Steve

[BILL]

Is there a forum for Atwater Kent as good as the one here for Philco?
I LIKE antique radios Awater Kent and Zenith and what else that falls in aphabetically
This old A K 55 came out of a small town in northern NY I believe they had there own power plant, witch must not have run 60 cycles all the time,another difference is the output ,both chassie have a push/pull, but the 25 cycle uses 71A's and the 60 cycle uses 45's. I originally bought it thinking it had apair of 45! The chassie is not as nice as the cabinet, chassie looks like it had been stored in the basement , some one had removed the shelf the chassie sat on ,must have had "BIG" plans on doing somethink with it, I got another shelf from the parts radio I may restore that chassie or another one I have.

[exray]

Roger on the caps, Steve. As usual I'm bass-ackwards

BILL, there's no A-K forum to my knowledge. This Philco Phorum may be the only brand specific one around. There are a couple of good A-K websites with lots of information.

That's odd about the 71A's. Are all the other tubes the same?

[Jayce]

Sounds like a really good deal on that AK! I have a 60C chassis in a Kiel Radio table and it is the souped up version of the model 55 for longer distance reception and such. One AK I would love to have is one of the consoles known as the "Little Stove" models. Guy near me scrapped one out, thinking it was worthless without the tubes.

[BILL]

The chassie are fairly the same, all thought the power transformer,chokes, condenser packs, and output transformers are shaped differently than the 60 cycles chassie, both use two 24's for RF, a 27 detector, and a 27 first AF, then the two 71A output in the 25 cycle and two 45's in the 60 cycle , why they did this ,I don't know? Chassie are also market for 71A in the 25 cycle and 45 in the 60cycle . 71A is a 5 or 6 volt heater originally used in battery sets , and I think 45 has a 2.5 heater?
The "little Stove" is a model 50-52, I'd like one also , I found one in a hedge row on a friends family farm once,I should have brought home ,I did get the name plate, one with the ship! I have a 20 big box, I restored in 2004, a 33,35,40,42, 47, the mentioned 55' s, and 558, a 145, and a 60 I have some extras of the mentioned sets, plus parts and chassies ,328,"L",and I think a89, several 55+60, two new in the box Atwater Kent rectifier tubes, and maybe something I've forgotten .What am I going to do with all this?

[Jayce]

I think I'm going to post a want ad on Craigslist this week and see what happens. It's a shame you didn't save that one in the hedge row. I've always been amazed at what people will throw out.

[BILL]

Here's another story of the AK that got a way ! Back when I had a paper route , an older gentle man I got to talking about old radios, he told me the first radio he had was an Atwater Kent ,with a horn speaker , witch he still had in storage ,he would ding it out and give it to me , only when he located it he said some one had put something on it and broke all the tubes, he thought I would not want it and through it away !, I beleive now it was a BREAD BOARD! I did how ever back then get a CR8 Grebe given to me ,I still have , back then everyone thought I was a little nuts for picking this stuff up .




D

[Doug Houston]

I'm not a big fan of Hotwater-Kent sets, but have ended up with quite a few of them. Back in the early seventies, I was in the radiator shop where I dealt a lot. The owner had a bunch of old radios he had accumulated. High on a shelf, was a very impressive radio, like I'd never seen. It had controls all over the panel, and I asked the guy wheat it was. Was it a transmitter, I asked? No, just a radio. Battery set, but I was impressed. He said that some day, somebody is gonna make me an offer on that one, and a little AK (The stove) on the floor beneath the battery set. OK, so I offered him 25 bucks for the two. No, I'd have to go 50 bucks to get them, so heck,I gave him the 50 bucks, and lugged the sets home. The battery set is a Federal 61. The AK is a 52, which is the model 40 chassis with the magnetic speaker in the floor model cabinet. Actually, a decent little set. .

I like phono combinations.AK made only one, which was their 75, with the 70 series chassis, with an RCA motor board. They also made a demonstration record, pressed by Columbiia, and having Graham McNamee with an orchestra, telling the wonders of this fine radio on two 12 inch sides. It's fun to play that disc on the AK 75, and have it tell such nice things about itself.

[Ron Ramirez]

The first Atwater Kent radio I ever owned was a 55C in a Kiel table. That was a very nice radio, and a good performer as well. I've had a few other AK sets since then, and now have only one - a 20 "Big Box" with an AK horn.

[Radioroslyn]

You mentioned Graham McNamee I heard a wonderful radio show that he was the host. It's called Behind The Mike. It's all about broadcasting in the 1940's You listen to them here:

http://www.archive.org/details/Behind_The_Mike

Enjoy
Terry