The AK 559N is a 9 tube radio with an RF amp and a signal meter. Push pull 2A5s provide audio power to a single 10.5" field coil speaker. The cabinet is small by 1930s standards.

Earlier I had said that I had reached the bottom of the radio pile given to my by Jerry. Well, that was true. Of the 40 or so radios several were in such bad shape that restoration was either going to be nearly impossible or very time consuming. Several of the early AC powered "bread box" radios had both poor cabinets and failing pot-metal parts. There are some models where failure of the pot-metal castings is so common that it is unlikely that a good replacement could ever be found. These radios may still be desirable for display but if the cabinets are shot then there is no really good reason to work on them.

Some of Jerry's radios had the unfortunate luck of being exposed to moisture when a fir tree limb punctured the roof of his two-story shop. I believe that this AK 559N was among them.

As you can see from the BEFORE picture (above left) there was significant damage to the cabinet. This added to the fact that restoration of most 1934 Atwater Kent chassis is always a big job pushed this project towards the parts pile. But I also knew how nice it could be.

Anyone visiting the shop/museum has seen the "wood shed". Not used for fire wood (mostly), rather for wood and veneers used in cabinet repair and for parts chassis. The shed keeps the clutter down in the shop. There is room in the shed to keep a couple of cabinets. I usually decide right away if there is a future for most radios but sometimes a radio like the 559 gets disassembled, the speaker/chassis stored and the cabinet placed in this area. If it gets in the way, well, at least the veneer is salvaged. But sometimes (seldom) there will be a break in the demands of shop/house/tree farm and the project will be revived.

These AK chassis are outstanding for a mid-rage radio manufacture of the mid 1930s. I think that they attempted to use very good parts in the assemblies. I doubt that any consideration was given to the ability to survive a century. We are lucky that some have survived - more or less.

I really was not looking forward to working on the delaminated cabinet so I started on the chassis restoration, a good project for the cold winter months.

Above is the before and after shot of the underside of the 559 chassis. As always the objective was to repair damage/deterioration and find/replace missing original parts. The result should look like the chassis did a year or two after manufacture. (to look new most of these chassis would need to be replated, something that is done for high-end radios)

Unfortunately nearly every part and wire needed some restoration or replacement.

I usually move through a chassis like this servicing or replacing all of the parts hooked to a lug at one time. Often this will result in a lot of parts being pulled out at once. I have a good memory and schematics help a lot but it is highly advisable to take a lot of pictures before and during the process. Most radios work upon completion. Once in a while there will be a miss-wired connection but this is so seldom that upon completion I just plug the radio in and begin alignment.

This radio has a modular RF/IF section. Since all of the wire and most of the components needed to be serviced or replaced this sub-chassis must be removed.

Above is the before and after of the rf/if chassis. At this point someone should ask if I know where all of those wires go.

In addition to the point to point wiring all of the RF, IF, Power and audio transformers need to be rewired. This also includes the filter chokes in the power supply. AK liked to put tar all over most coils and windings (potted). The connections need to be located inside of the cans and housings so that all new "rubber" wire can be added.

Above is the original wire. Some techs look at this and say that this wire is serviceable. Well some of it isn't. and one day soon, none of it will be. I have never had an AK power transformer fail after it has been rewired. I believe that the general consensus that they are "weak" is derived from the likelihood that shorted rubber wire is involved in the failures.

Above is a "restuffed" AK paper capacitor. It is tough to preserve the rather flimsy paper label and barrel along with the leads that exit through the side, rather than the ends. AK did not make it any easier for the restorer/tech having used a part number rather than a value on the label. For this a schematic/parts list is necessary to assure the proper replacement.

Resistors in the chassis are a real problem. For the most part, they are all bad. To make things worse for the restoration, the construction does not lend it's self to easy reproduction/replacement.

The styles of resistors used are either an early "dog-bone" or various wire wound types. In many radios the wire wound resistors, built on some form of substrate, have survived. AK built their WW resistors in the form of a flexible attachment that looks like a heavy gauge wire (right above). Many of these have not survived or have become intermittent. Unlike the types built with visible wire these corrode badly.

The dog-bone style types rely on a carbon rod inside of a ceramic holder with lead ends that make a mechanical contact with the carbon rod. This connection becomes intermittent over time.

The two examples above have been rebuilt. In the case of the WW resistor 4 or 5W modern resistors are hidden in the ends - usually in both ends - and the original cloth cover is slipped over a new wire connected to the new components. The old dog bones need to be drilled. A hole in the center of both ends allows the carbon rod and the ceramic to be driven out of the end. Care must be exercised so as to not damage the soft metal ends. A new 2 or 3 W resistor is covered with high temp spaghetti and soldered to the ends.

The AK all wave is what most collectors call a robot dial or shutter dial (as with Zenith). The dial displays slide up and down allowing only the selected band to be displayed. There is also a shadow meter used to display signal strength. These shadow meters often become less sensitive due to  depolarization of the needle (movement).

Well, with the chassis completed I needed to roundup my glue and brushes. While the grill cloth is intact, the baffle board it is mounted on is just a pile of delaminated plywood.

Most of the veneers is still present though much of it is loose.

Here we have a piece of elm burl that can be used for replacement (not bird's eye maple).

Above is the brother of the 559, the 7 tube 447 table model. It's construction is very similar as are is the veneers used in the cabinet.

I'm glad the 559 did not become spare parts.

This is the last of the radios given to me by Jerry: See posts below.

In 1928 Sparton (Sparks Withington) was still at odds with RCA over radio pattents. Without rehashing information that can be found elsewhere: http://spartonequasonne.webs.com/models.htm
I will give you some breif highlights of this Equasonne version.

First, I consider it a true Equasonne and by that I mean that it does not incorporate the RF stage added to later units - which really was an attempt to improve on the shortcommings of the Equasonne design and really was consideration for the possible infringement of the TRF design that Sparks was trying to skirt. And it also lacked the first AF stage that was added to some models, like my 930 (mentioned on the web page above). This modification basicly added a 484 or 485 triode to boost input to the audio final(s).

On this note it is important to consider the tubes that were used in these radios. Again, trying to dodge RCAs pattents, Sparks used their own tubes which were really only slightly different than RCA's with the significant difference being filament voltages.

So the 69 is an AC powered table-top radio, very similar or exactly like the chassis used in consoles. This makes the chassis a tight fit. Especially when you consider how the modules are connected.

There are 3 basic modules in all Equasonnes with the rare addition of the audio stage mentioned above. In the back is the power supply/audio amp, front left, the passive tuner (no RF amplification) and then, on the front right, the RF/detector module.

As mentioned, and a serious consideration prior to undertaking any sparton Equasonne restoration is the fact that the cost of the radio is little compaired to the cost of the stock, Sparton/Cordon tubes. This version uses a Sparton 585 as the only audio stage following the detector. Now, for all practical pourposes a 585 is the same as a 250 which only slightly improves on the chances/cost of finding one if yours is missing. The other triodes are 485 (or 484s) which were easy to find and cheap but that is changing too. For practical pourposes a 56 can be used, NOT a 27, though this can affect the tuning of the already finicky RF stage. Read more on the site above on Sparton's suggestion for strong or weak tube placement.

The most significant issure with this radio, other than the fact that all of the tubes were missing or wrong (27s), was the failure of the power transformer. At some time three of the 484s were replaced with 27s. This could have lead to, or at least contributed to the failure. Anyway one half of the HV winding was shorted.

I found a replacement on E-Blah. It had the same problem. The nice fellow refunded it;s cost. Having two inspired me to attempt a rewind. Replacements are few since the wierd filament voltages, 5, 7.5 and 3 are not standard on any other manufacture's radios.

The transformer I got off of the auction site had been heated so much that the windings has seperated since the tar and bee's wax had all melted out. It was easy to remove the HV from the center of the stack, inspect the primary and filament windings and then replace the HV with one I made. Well I measured the wire size and ohmed out the good side of the center tapped HV winding and got 324 ohms. A little consultation of the magnet wire chart got me going on a new one. This worked BUT I must have misjudged the wire size by one gague and ended up with a 450-0-450 volt B+ winding.

It would have worked. It needed about a 16k resistor but at about 50W - really big! So I moved on to the original transformer, knowing now what I did wrong. To make it a short story, I was sucessfull, though this one required some time in the oven to take apart. It was now at 325-0-325 volts for the HV prior to loading.

I could now move on to recaping the unit.

The biggest challenge in recaping the RF section is the odd construction of the original capicators and as usual, I wanted to keep the factory look. In the photo - 2 above - you see the tubular like things on the RF board. All but one of them is a 1uf cap. On the Equasonne page listed above he has a process that can be used. It was adapted for restuffing because a single replacement cap would not fit inside of the original.

I found that it was much easier to use two .47uf caps allowing me to leave the support rod intact. This also made the part much sturdier.

Fortunatly all of the other "iron" was still good.

There is one other thing I should mention for all Equasonnes, especially this model. That is the grounding of the modules which most might assume is accomplished by the multiconductor cable - but no!

Above is sparton's ground system for later Equasonne models which was not used on the 69.

On this radio the most convenient way to ground all three modules togeather (required) is to strap them togeather at the mounting bolts.

Though there were reminents of this type of connection prior to disassembly, I can't be sure that this is what the factory did - but I think that it is correct.

The design of the cabinet keeps these bolts and wire off of the table top. So unless something is dragged across the bottom the ground is rather safe. Opperation of the unit whithout this ground results in motorboating and other undesireable noises.

In conclusion, I find this radio to be an average/acceptable performer. Considering the design it is acctually superior to what you might expect and better than most of the 5 tube screen-grid models that drive a 245 by resistance coupling to the 224 detector.

This is the last console from the collection of radios given to me  by Jerry. It is a 12 tube super with AFC and the popular Teledial.

The cabinet design makes it a perfect fit for the corner of a room. It is large, nearly as big as the GE M-125 pictured several posts below.

The main attraction for most people is the "Teledial" or push button tuning. This function works much like the similar configurations on other brands such as the Philco 37-116. The most notable difference is that the Grunow uses a discriminator/detector and AFC which works very well when using the push-and-turn tuning unlike the "Magnetic Tuning" on the Philco that works - sometimes - and is relatively hard to calibrate.

The Grunow's tone control has 6 positions, or 2 sets of low, medium and high tone. The difference between the normal and "Dial" settings is the activation of the AFC allowing aproximate tuning using the Teledial which then is automaticly adjusted to a medium to strong pre-set station. Again, as a compairison to the Philco which works for strong stations.

The Grunow 1291B cabinet has rounded sides making it a great fit in corners of a room. The veneers used are quite striking and the gold-toned accent above the black band at the base, is a novel and nice touch. From reasearch I have done, I believe  that the black base which has the same veneer beneith the paint, was not always painted when it left the factory. This one was definatly black so it was restored that way.

I would say that this cabinet design was lacking in some aspects. Support and alignment of the curved sides seemed to be a problem. As found, very few of the blocks used to secure the sides to the base and radio shelf were still attached and even when they are there are large gaps making the glue joints less than ideal.

The curved veneers and backing have no trim on the front edges which exposes the veneer edge to likely damage/pealing. Also this design places a lot of stress on the curved wood its self and without better attachment the edge that meets the front pannel (where the teledial/knobs are) tends to open up allowing for a visable crack. I took a lot of time to squar-up the cabinet to reduce the impact of these deficiancies.

I was able to reuse the original grill cloth.

I would reccomend removing the chassis prior to moving this radio unless care in handling can be assured.

One of the major issues with the restoration of this chassis was damage to the 3 position Band switch which is delt with in detail several posts below.

This 12 tube chassis uses push-pull 6F6s for strong audio with good bass with the 12 inch field coil speaker.There is a 5Z3 rectifier which was also a good choice for stable B+. There is no Eye tube or other signal strength indicator. A 6J7 is used as the AFC control. All but the rectifier are metal tubes.

Unfortunatly some of the paper caps had already been changed out in a previous service. So I will be looking for original replacements to re-stuff. I also had to replace the output transformer since one-half of the primary was open.

The tuning knob moves the entire dial assembly with ease as long as the chassis is positioned in the cabinet correctly. A strip of brown felt is attached to the edge if the dial cut-out to improve appearance and allow for slight contact off the rotating assembly though up/down, in/out and right left adjustment of the chassis is particulary important for this dial to function properly.

As I tuned the presets I orientated the buttons with stations assigned to appear level when at the 180 deg position. Unasigned buttons are at random positions relative to the dial. They can be manipulated but only after removing the dial cover (6 screws). The station labels are not accurate, rather the ones that came with the set.

A few of the Emersons:

Philco 37-116

And a couple of Zenith Chair-sides:

I have finally reached the bottom of the "radio pile". See the story and other radio below. So I have some time to catch up on a few things. One of those has been the promis to update the pictures of the display. The pictures on the home page are several years old. Many of the new additions have been posted here on the blog but now you can see how they are displayed.

This is only the upper level display. I will add a few more of the lower level soon and there are still 3 more radios not yet posted from the "pile".

I'll move some of these to the home page soon but for the moment you can go there and see the "before" pictures as well.

So you've started work on a radio project. You have a plan for the radio and the cabinet. Not much rust and the cabinet is only falling apart - a little. So what's the worst that can happen? Burn out an expensive tube?

How about a power transformer failure? These things happen, even if it seemed to be OK. Still the HV winding just goes up in smoke. No that's not it either. You can find a transformer and they're not that hard to replace.

No, the worst thing that could happen almost always sneaks up on you, since you seldom spot a defect until all the work is done (you think!?) Because, even if you've been nice, you haven't pulled on it's wires or twisted it's shaft - with a pair of pliers, a broken band switch is the worst thing that can happen. Or at least most people think so.

If you look and see a broken contact at least you know what is wrong. You know finding another one is unlikely. Though not absolutely true, it seems that the one in every radio is different. And if you were to find one, aren't there about a hundred wires and components hooked to one of those? Even then,  the replacement has to survive the operation.

These things are tougher than they look. I'll bet that you have super glued one of these back together? If the wafer is broken, it is tough to fix. Like I said these are tough, cause they have to be. All those connections put a load on the structure. Then somebody gives it a twist, end to end like they were trying to start a fire, and it will survive. But super glue and epoxy often won't stick or be strong enough to hold a repair.

Just the idea of taking a band switch apart is enough to put a radio into the "parts" category. But it's not really that hard ;-)  Well, OK, it is hard, but I got a lot of experience while rebuilding the band switch on the 1000Z. I had thought that the wafers on that assembly exhibited bilateral-symmetry (meaning the left is the same as the right or in other words, you can't put it in upside down). I learned the hard way that both of the wafers in the center of the switch could be installed wrong.

So having learned the hard way, it is my conclusion that prior to disassembly a careful study of the switch and the schematic should be undertaken. This will take a while. It is time well spent since you have to identify the problem in the first place.

Most band switches are similar. Basically these allow an operator to switch coils needed for each band all at once. Before these switches a multi band radio had sets of coils that needed to be installed in plug-in sockets. This was OK for a Amateur (ham) operator but a bit much for the general public.

The fixed contacts around the perimeter usually go to the coils and associated components. Below, the 2 contacts circled in yellow are also fixed. BUT there is a hidden contact that slides along under the circular center wafer.

The little sliding contact, above, was the problem in my switch. It had been pulled loose, probably by twisting the whole assembly beyond it's stops. I had noticed that the oscillator coils were not being switched. Fortunately, the little piece had been trapped under the center wafer or I would have had to borrow one from another switch. Unfortunately there was a similar failure on a second segment of the switch.

The 12 tube Grunow is now working as it should. I will add pictures of the radio when the cabinet is finished.

Notes about band switch failure:

When de-soldering never overheat the joint or pull hard on a component. The wafer can burn or char resulting in a carbon path (short) or worse a broken wafer or contact. It is often best to cut the component lead and then clean up the eyelet which will help avoid both of these issues.

As mentioned, these switches are designed to travel in a portion of 360 degrees. A five band switch will have more travel than a two band switch. If the switch is forced to move beyond the stops, contacts may be damaged. Look to see that the switch is moving as designed.

Contacts can become oxidized. I use De-oxit (black label) to clean and lubricate. Sometimes a bit of oil on the shaft where it passes through the chassis is needed.

Contacts can become bent. Watch to make sure that the contacts move - just a little - as the switch engages. This will indicate proper contact.

Switches that use flexible wire connections (rare) need to be inspected for broken wire.

Switch position is indicated and maintained by a ball/spring or just a spring/detent. This gives you the click, click as you turn the switch. These can be broken or, in the case of the small ball bearing, it can be lost.

Pressure or twist can put a load on the wafer causing it to warp over time. This may make the switch hard to move or even damage a contact.

Take pictures prior to disassembly and mark parts so that they can be reassembled properly.

Save band switches from "parts sets".

Watch contacts for arcing. Arcing is generally unacceptable in this type of switch and can cause a great deal of damage in a short time. Arcing generally indicates a problem either in the switch or the associated circuit.

A signal "sniffer" can help identify connection problems assuming that the radio is in good enough condition to be operated safely.

Most of all - have patience and good luck..

Good news! The project pile is becoming much smaller.

Since restoring a similar model for a customer, years ago, I have always wanted one of these 12 tube consoles. It was the top of the line for GE. It seems to have been offered in 1934 as well as 35 maybe into 1936.

The finish had turned very dark but the cabinet was otherwise in good shape.

Under all of that yellowed finish were some very nice veneers. There was no delamination and very few dings and scrapes.

They used what looks like "West Indian Laurel" at the base of the cabinet but did not carry  through from the sides to the front. Instead using a piece of mahogany that must be tinted to match.

eThe 12 tube chassis has a tuning range that includes X Band, 140 kHz - 400 kHz,  and four more bands up to about 37mhz. It does not use an eye-tube. Push pull 42s are the audio output and a 6D6 is used as an RF amp. A search for the schematic will be more productive if it includes the RCA 281 which used the same chassis.

With a 20 ft. long wire antenna, this radio is sensitive and selective and compares well with more expensive, higher tube count, radios in everything except audio output. Thought it does have separate bass and treble controls, the lack of a tweeter is noticeable.

All of the electrolytic and paper caps were restuffed as well as most of the resistors. The dog-bone resistors were replace with replica units at a higher wattage.

The most significant problem was the failure of the interstage transformer that drives the pair of 42s. Fortunately I had an exact replacement on a parts chassis. I wish that they had used nuts and bolts, Instead these used bent tabs. It is easier to unbend them than rebending when putting them back.

The output transformer had also failed. I had several to choose from so that wasn't a problem either.

I have yet to see one  of these that did not have some damage to the repwood trim especially in the grill area. The center piece of trim over the speaker is unsupported at it's thickest point and subject to the vibration from the speaker. This lower portion is often missing. Thankfully not so on this unit. (See bottom picture)

Reassembled just in front of it's new home. This is a heavy sucker so moving it in pieces is a good plan.

I find it a bit odd that GE used such a small dial. Though this was the style for this model year, It is still considerably larger than on it's smaller siblings such as the M-51 or M-61.

All of the 7 control knobs actually have significant functions - sensitivity - bass - on/off - tuning (large knob) - band - treble - volume. Though they could have combined the on/off volume.

Here is another VERY UNIQUE radio from the collection that Jerry gave me and very special history.

This one, possibly more so than the other rare radios already discussed, is a possible one-of-a kind.

Northland  was a radio company in  Minneapolis MN .that was in business from the mid/late 1920s to the early 1930s. All of the radios that exist seem to be rare, especially on the west coast. So it is rather unusual that we have two models on display, the latest being this high-boy console.

Even the design of this console is a bit unusual for 1929 since it incorporates a shortwave receiver. Shortwave listening in the US did not really catch on until later in the mid 1930s. Further indications of the rarity of this model are the complete lack of any pictures/info or even a schematic anywhere. For that mater, I don't even know if it had a model number. It has a nice brass plate stating the manufactures name and a ser. number but that is  all.

The main chassis is a TRF receiver that will tune most of the modern broadcast band. It has three 224 tubes used as TRF amps, a 227 detector, a 227 first audio and two 245s arranged as a push-pull pair. What is interesting about this receiver is it is seemingly over-built.

Have you ever wondered why a manufacture did not add a little more gain - say one more stage of RF or audio amplification? Cost, is probably the answer, but I assure you that this chassis needs no more gain. The first 224 is directly coupled to the antenna - no antenna coil. By the time you get to the detector the signal is SO STRONG- well just let me say that one foot of wire antenna is more than adequate and that a local distance switch would have been nice. Then there one two stages of audio amplification ending in the 245s, PP through an output transformer that is just used as a choke - meaning that B+ is on the center tap of the primary and each plate is hooked to the ends as well as a high-impedance speaker. Interestingly enough, the transformer/choke does have a secondary that could drive a dynamic speaker, which had become more common by the time this radio was built.

That big resistor (above) had two open segments and though I first thought it was a replacement part, I now believe that it was original equipment.

At some point repairs had been made. In the process the cable to the shortwave receiver was completely removed. OH GREAT, and no schematic exists!

The first step was to rebuild the power supply which was potted in cans and then, just to make it harder to rebuild ;-) was enclosed in another enclosed section of the chassis with just the black, yes ALL black, wiring emerging.

OK, moving on to the shortwave receiver chassis. Now, I have already noted that the cable was missing, removed in a prior repair. Later I realized why the owner probably did not miss this loss of functionality - much. What I have not mentioned is the failure of both tuning mechanisms in both chassis. As was often the case in radios from this period, there were pot metal castings. Not the tuning caps, thankfully. These were high-quality. It was the dial indicator which is a hub and axil affair. It was built from two pot metal parts that fit into each other with the shaft from the tuning cap passing through the whole assembly.

SO, not only could the outer part (hub) swell up and freeze the assembly but the axil passing through it could also swell. GREAT. Had there not been some wear on the parts used in the main chassis I would have never gotten them apart. But after some lube and careful twisting - I did free this assembly. NOT SO LUCKY on the shortwave section.

NOW, a lot of old pot metal swells, splits, explodes (flings off pieces) and generally has the strength of hard mud. So, as much as I wanted to pry, heat it up or hit it with a hammer, I knew this was not going to help.

To make a long story short, I ended up cutting the dial wheel free from the hub and using the shaft of the nice tuning cap as the axil. Why could they not have built it this way to start with? It certainly moves smoother than the original design.

Now I needed to figure out how the missing cable was hooked up. There were several manufactures at the time offering SW adaptors but I could not find an example of a similar, factory installed, 1 tube receiver of this vintage. Many of the adaptors allowed the user to remove the first RF amp tube and insert a plug that would power the adaptor and provide a signal into the main chassis. That is not what we have here.

I analyzed the function of the on/off switch. It had the ability to switch off the filament of the single 227 tube used in this section and a lead out that was switched on when this section was off. Well it became apparent that this simple regen receiver was to be inserted after to the broadcast detector and the first 4 tubes on the main chassis were switched off while it was in use. So there goes all of that RF gain used for broadcast reception.  Yep, that is the way it worked and the reason that the original owner probably did not miss it much.

At first I thought that I would combine the antenna connections into one. That was not going to work. Loss was not a problem. the problem was that the main chassis got by swell on a foot or two of antenna wire while the SW section needed a LOOONG wire. Hooking the two together resulted in audio levels from the broadcast receiver that could not be attenuated below VERY LOUD!

So, the shortwave section worked - works, just not up to the performance of the broadcast receiver.

Tuning, as with most receivers of this type is a two fisted affair requiring back an forth between the tuning control and the regen control.  it does use plug in coils, of which I have three. The testing I have done seems to indicate a tuning range inside of the "police band" or about 1.4mhz to 3 MHz, possibly higher.

The only concrete information I have about this radio came from the guy that built it.

"Walter" signed both chassis with his full name and the date. I am not sure of the spelling of his last name but I think I will try an internet search with a few possibilities.

Thanks, Walter.

I moved this quote from Bob out of the comments so that nobody would miss it. VERY COOL thanks Bob!

11/9/2016 01:30:40 pmRuss,
Walter Albert Spivak was born 12 Aug 1909 in Minneapolis, Hennepin Co., Minnesota and died 29 June 2001 in Littlerock, Los Angeles Co., California. He was a white, male whose father was Jerome Spivak and mother was Ida Miller. His Social Security number was 548-09-7971. [Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.] [Ancestry.com. Web: Minnesota, Birth Index, 1900-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015] [Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2011]
In the 1920 Census, he was living at 2022, 2 ½ Street, Minneapolis City, Minnesota and was 10 years old. He was living with his:
father, A. Jerome Spivak, age 39, born in Minnesota. (Jermome’s father & mother were born in Bohemia), his occupation was a packer in a flour mill.
mother, A. Ida Spivak, age 40, born in New York, (Ida’s father was born in Germany and mother in New York)
brother, W. Edmund Spivak, age 14, born in Minnesota
sister, M. Edith Spivak, age 12, born in Minnesota
brother, L. Jermone Spivak, age 6, born in Minnesota
brother, W. Frank, age 3 and 9/12, born in Minnesota
sister, A. Liberty Spivak, age 1 and 2/12, born in Minnesota
[1920; Census Place: Minneapolis Ward 6, Hennepin, Minnesota; Roll: T625_834; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 110; Image: 964]
In the 1930 Census, the family was at 2111 ½, 2 ½ Street South, Minneapolis City although it appears Edith had moved out, probably married. The father, Jerome was now a baker and there was no occupation listed for Walter. [1930; Census Place: Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota; Roll: 1091; Page: 19A; Enumeration District: 0108; Image: 997.0; FHL microfilm: 2340826]
In 1930, Walter was a member of the Minnesota Society of Aeraunatical[sic] Engineers at the University of Minnesota. [Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.]
He appears in a city record in Bonner Springs, Kansas on 1 March 1945 with a household of 2 people. [Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; Collection Name: Population Schedules and Statistical Rolls: Cities (1919-1961); Reel Number: 16-664]
In 1952, Walter A. and Anna B. Spivak are living Santa Monica, California. [Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.]
He and his wife appear to stay in California for the remainder of their lives.
(genealogy is my ‘other’ hobby)..
Cheers Bob

It turns out he became the Chief Engineer for North American and was involved with production of the XB-70 bomber (and probably quite a few other things.) In 1928-29 he was at the University of Minnesota and in August was probably working a summer job at the Northland radio plant in Minneapolis.

This URL takes you to an article about the plane and Spivak:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/capturing-a-generation-of-aviation-geniuses-and-their-incredible-flying-machines/

OK, back to the radio pile - see posts below.

Among the other radios were two AK 57s often referred to as "Little Stove" radios because of the metal cabinets and the resemblance to an old wood or gas stove.

One was in good shape with the Victorian style legs (like ;-)). The other had been painted a festive red and green and had strait legs. As attractive as the red/green one was, I decided to stick with the stock color example for restoration. From the two, I could come up with most of the parts needed.

Between the two there was only one good speaker cone, both had open primaries on the second audio interstage transformer and both magnetic/reed speakers had open coils. The rest of the restoration was pretty much standard for an AK 40 which uses the same chassis, though the ser. plate is marked 57. The tube complement being RCA 226, 226, 226, 226, 227, 171, 280.

Interstage transformers are no problem. It seems that every AK metal-box radio that I have worked on need one or both replaced/rebuilt. The speakers, which are the same or similar to an E2 were going to be a problem lacking a good coil.

These coils are high impedance and similar to those found in Crosley Musicone speakers of the time. Winding a new coil is usually not a problem but these use a small rectangular form that won't fit my coil winder. So I had to first make a jig on which I could both build a coil form and wind a new coil.

The original coil was layer wound using #42 or smaller magnet wire. Since I was going to have to bulk wind these using a drill #39 was about as small a wire as I could expect to use with out a lot of breakage/splices. The original coils were at least 1K ohms, probably closer to 2K ohms. So the challenge is to get as much wire on the form as possible.

After a few modifications I was able to wind three of these, one for the project, one for the second/spare driver and an extra for future use. I have found that making an extra is better than having to get the process down again at a later time.

Having the biggest obstacle out of the way - in my mind, anyway - I moved on to the power supply. Not that melting the tar out of one of these supplies is easy, but, I have done it about 40 times or more on various models and the AK 40/42/57 supply is the easiest.

The difficult part of de-potting the original supply is removing the power transformer and the 3 chokes (one is 2 windings on one core) without pulling the wires/connections off of the coils. Temperature/time is critical. Too much heat for too long is bad for the coils not to mention the paint on the metal box, which I wanted to save.

Besides needing new filter capacitors ALL of these need new wire as well. The old wire is just not safe. Even on later AK models like the 145, 206, 447 I pull out the power transformers (not potted) and remove the bells to replace the original wire, AND I have never had an AK power transformer fail in service.

The filter capacitors are replaced with 630 volt Mylar or metalized film caps, much like the originals and likely to last a long time as compared to 450V electrolytics.

The audio is in no way high-fidelity and it is easy to overdrive the speaker on strong stations, but, it does sound much better in person as compared to the video above.

Norman, his shop, and to his right, an early Scott console from 1929. Note the original, unrestored artwork on the doors. Sailing ships seemed to be a natural ornamentation for radio cabinets back then.

HEY LOOK! The top opens!

A crowd gathers quickly.

At this point I should mention that Norman has not only preserved these exceedingly rare radios but has also gathered the history of each one in great (astounding) detail. I am hoping that Norman will come along and add some descriptions in the comments section but, for now, you can find so much more about E. H. Scott, more pictures from his collection and others and even some of the history of these radios, here:

http://ehscott.ning.com/photo?test-locale=&exposeKeys=&xg_pw=&xgsi=&groupId=&groupUrl=&xgi=&page=1

"I've never seen one of those before", a phrase most often heard at Norman's house.

Did I mention cool test equipment?

Below: About the most elaborate, over-built, volt meter I have ever seen. I WANT ONE!