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VINTAGE RADIO
By RODNEY CHAMPNESS, VK3UG
Elegance from the 1920s : the
1929 AWA C58 Radiogram
In the early days of radio, receivers varied
from simple crystal sets built into packing case
timber cabinets to very elaborate multi-valve
receivers installed in ornate (and expensive)
cabinets. This month, we look at a set from the
upper end of the price range – the AWA C58
radiogram circa 1929.
In the main, crystal sets were built
or purchased by families with little
spare cash. Conversely, receivers at
the other end of the spectrum were
purchased by the wealthy to grace
the lounge or smoking room in their
mansions. In many cases, it was very
much an ego trip to have an expensive
radio, proving that “I’ve got more
money than you”.
Anyone with a very healthy bank
balance back in 1929 could have
bought an AWA C58 radiogram. To
say that it was impressive is an understatement – the cabinet measures an
ample 1270mm high x 813mm wide
and is 458mm deep. And commensurate with its imposing look, it requires
two muscular people to lift it!
Housed beneath the lift-up lid at
the top of the cabinet is a single-speed
78rpm record player. It uses a “one
play” steel needle (stylus) and the usual enormously heavy pick-up head,
with a stylus weight of 125 grams.
The owner of the unit featured here
is restoring both the turntable and the
pickup head.
Below the turntable is a shelf which
carries the radio frequency (RF) stages, along with the detector and first
audio stage of the receiver. The front
part of the chassis is metal and carries
the tuning capacitors and an audio
transformer. A phenolic sheet at the
rear of the metal chassis carries seven
valve sockets, the RF coils and a few
RF bypass capacitors.
The wiring is all point-to-point and
the terminals/sockets for each valve
are riveted directly to the phenolic
sheet, so there are no separate valve
sockets. Instead, they are all part of
an “integrated circuit board”.
The bottom shelf of the unit carries a
large power supply and the push-pull
245 audio output valves which drive
the loudspeaker. This section is built
This view shows the rear of the top chassis which carries
the RF stages and the push-pull audio driver stage.
88 Silicon Chip
This is the RF chassis from the front. The tuning capacitors are all single gang and are coupled together using
brass bands and pulleys.
on a very substantial metal chassis of
the type that became almost universal
from the early 30s onwards.
An unusual feature here is that the
metal chassis is shielded underneath
by a metal plate attached to the wooden shelf. It becomes operational when
the chassis is screwed into the cabinet.
In fact, shielding is common in this
section of the receiver.
One shielded enclosure uses no less
than eight paper block capacitors as
filter and bypass elements. The leads
come out of the block and radiate
around the chassis to do their respective jobs. Another enclosure contains
a 4-section filter choke which feeds
various sections of the set. The field
coil is, of course, separate.
The power transformer that’s now
in the set is not shielded but the original one apparently was, as mounting
holes are evident. It is necessary to
be careful here, as there are exposed
terminals on this transformer. Unfortunately, it is just too wide to slip a
shield over it.
Dismantling the C58
Before applying power to any elderly set that is to be restored, I first
dismantle it and check it thoroughly.
I never apply power to such old sets
until they are checked, as the damage
can be devastating if a serious fault is
lurking in the works.
Dismantling the receiver is an involved task. First, all 15 leads have to
be removed from the terminal block
at the back of the power supply and
audio output chassis (with power off
and disconnected from mains). The
power supply lead and the field coil
The cabinet is big, ornate and impressive. It features two
“bat-wing” doors which swing open at the front to reveal
the controls and loudspeaker grille.
MARCH 2001 89
At last it was all spread out on the
work bench. I do not rush restoration
jobs where such old and obviously
valuable equipment is involved.
Where would I get a replacement
UX245 or UX226 from? This set has
such valves and some of the slightly
later versions (245 and 226).
Tracing the circuit
This is the power supply & audio output chassis. The two audio output valves
(2 x UX245) operate in push-pull configuration.
The electrolytic capacitors in the power supply and audio output chassis were
all replaced with modern equivalents.
leads are then removed, after which
the mounting screws can be removed
and the chassis lifted out.
Next, the record player shield must
be removed, as it prevents access to
the top chassis. The front panel knobs
are then removed, followed by several
screws from under the shelf to free
the chassis.
It was necessary to move the chassis
around so that the large cable from
the main chassis could be drawn back
through a hole in the shelf. Additionally, there is a 6-terminal block on this
chassis and the leads from this block
were released. By then manoeuvring
the chassis around and sliding my
hand in front of the chassis, it was
possible to determine which front
90 Silicon Chip
panel toggle switch was attached to a
group of three leads. The toggle switch
was subsequently removed from the
front panel and this at last allowed
the chassis to be removed.
The cable that was removed from
the 6-terminal block was connected
to several other bits and pieces, namely a capacitor, a choke, a “strange”
tapped switch fitted with resistors
as a volume control, and a switch to
select between radio or gramophone
operation. This latter switch is similar to those used in early telephone
exchanges.
Finally, the leads to the pick-up
head were also removed so that this
assembly could be removed, albeit
with some difficulty.
Receivers of this era did not come
complete with circuit diagrams and
this set is no exception. As a result,
I methodically traced out all the bits
and pieces on the metal chassis and
noted where each component went. In
particular, I noted what went to each
of the lugs on the 15-terminal strip.
Despite the set’s age (70+ years),
very little had been replaced. I counted two high-voltage filter capacitors,
the power transformer, a few valves,
some wiring changes around the big
metal boxes and a few alterations
around the loudspeaker.
There was no evidence of any work
having been done on the RF, detector
and audio chassis, except for some
early valve replacement. The little
subgroup of parts, including the
radio/gram switch, were a bit the
worse for wear and were either re-terminated or replaced. Only a couple of
perished wires needed replacement
on the two major chassis.
I traced out the circuit as best I
could. The large metal boxes had
many unidentified leads coming out
of them. The condition of the internal
components was an unknown quantity and only an educated guess could
initially be made as to what was inside
some of them. However, I was able to
correct the inaccuracies when power
was applied to the set later on.
It was interesting to note that all
the filament to earth bias resistors for
the RF chassis were actually on the
power supply chassis and that some
of the leads were nearly a metre long.
Fortunately, the most critical bypass
capacitors were on the RF chassis
itself.
Power supply checks
I tested the power transformer and
the filter chokes for any breakdown
in the insulation which could cause
short circuits or short the mains to the
chassis. This was to make sure that
there would be no problems for the
set or electrical shocks for me or the
owner. I did this using a high-voltage
MARCH 2001 91
The valve sockets and RF coils in the RF, detector and first audio stages are
mounted on a phenolic sheet attached to the rear of the metal chassis. The metal
(front) part of the chassis carries the tuning capacitors and an audio transformer.
tester that can apply 500V or 1000V to
a component under test. SILICON CHIP
described a more versatile model than
mine in May 1996.
Note that conventional ohmmeters
can give a false sense of security here
since they test at low voltage only,
whereas faults such as insulation
breakdown sometimes only show up
when high-tension (HT) voltages are
applied to the set. Ohmmeters often
use a 1.5V battery to do these tests
but the actual item being tested may
have insulation designed to withstand
1000V (or more) across it. However,
if the insulation has deteriorated, it
could easily break down with perhaps
100V applied across it and a conventional multimeter won’t find this.
Two modern 8µF 500V electrolytics
had been installed in the set previously. I also found that a number of
other capacitors in one of the shielded
boxes needed replacement. An ohmmeter gave the “all-clear” but the high
voltage tester said otherwise. These
were all replaced with the nearest
equivalent values I could find. No
HT to earth shorts were found in the
set, so it was all clear in this respect.
The 2-core mains power lead was
92 Silicon Chip
replaced with a 3-core lead to ensure
safety. Actually, the mains lead had
been replaced at some time in the past
and the earth lead had been cut off!
That all-important earth connection
is now back in place.
The big test
With the valves removed, power
was applied to make sure that the voltages around the chassis were roughly
correct and that the power transformer
was in good order. Nothing heated up,
so this was a good sign.
Next, the rectifier valve was installed and the receiver switched on
with a 1.5kΩ resistor in place of the
field coil. A few quick checks with
a multimeter revealed that all was
well – the various heater voltages
were there and each section of the
high-voltage transformer winding
gave the same voltage. I then ran the
set for a short period but found that
some of the voltages were dropping
off and that one of the metal boxes
was getting warm.
With the power off, I disconnected
some of the wiring between the two
metal boxes and discovered that one
box was full of paper block capac-
itors, all of which were faulty (the
second box was full of filter chokes).
As a result, these capacitors were all
replaced with polyester or electrolytic
capacitors as appropriate.
Finding exact replacements is not
easy these days, so the new capacitors
all have greater capacitance than the
originals (the voltage ratings are the
same). The set’s owner wanted the
set to look as original as possible,
without going to extremes to make
everything absolutely authentic under
the chassis. Once the faulty capacitors
were bypassed (they are still there in
the can), the HT voltage remained
constant at nearly 500V with no load.
At this point, the UX245 audio
output valves were installed and a
test loudspeaker attached. All went
well, with the valves drawing the
expected current. I then connected
an audio oscilla
tor to the primary
of the audio driver transformer and
swept the output frequency across
the audio spectrum. The response
was quite reasonable for such an old
set and I was able to hear signals from
around 100Hz up to about 8kHz – not
bad for 1929.
Front-end overhaul
The next step was to overhaul the
RF, detector and first audio stages.
As before, I traced the circuit out
ELECTRONIC VALVE &
TUBE COMPANY
The Electronic Valve
& Tube Company
(EVATCO) stocks a
large range of valves for
vintage radio, amateur
radio, industrial and
small transmitting use.
Major current brands
such as SOV-TEK and
SVETLANA are always stocked and we
can supply some rare NOS (New - Old
stock) brands such as Mullard, Telefunken, RCA and Philips.
Hard to get high-voltage electrolytic
capacitors and valve sockets are also
available together with a wide range
of books covering valve specifications,
design and/or modification of valve
audio amplifiers.
PO Box 487 Drysdale, Victoria 3222.
Tel: (03) 5257 2297; Fax: (03) 5257 1773
Mob: 0417 143 167;
email: evatco<at>mira.net
New premises at: 76 Bluff Road,
St Leonards, Vic 3223
There’s ample room inside the cabinet for the two large chassis
sections and the big electrodynamic loudspeaker.
and this revealed a conventional TRF
front end.
The volume control consists of a
potentiometer which is across part of
the antenna coil, between the antenna
and earth. It is quite effective. The
output from the coil is then fed to
the receiver which uses four UX226
triodes as RF stages.
As shown in the circuit, the first RF
stage is untuned but all the others are
tuned. A switch between the second
and third stages bypasses the primary
of one RF coil to lower the gain in
high signal strength areas. This switch
is mounted beneath the tuning knob
and has no escutcheon which makes
me suspect that this was an addition
sometime during the life of the set.
An 800Ω resistor is included in
series with the grid of each RF valve
to limit its amplification and maintain
stability, as no neutralisation has been
included. The signal from the RF stages is then fed to a UX227 (V5) wired
as a grid leak detector. The 227 plate
wiring goes to the six terminal strip
and from there to the switch which
does the change over from gram to
radio.
The tuning capacitors in this set
are all single gang and are coupled
together via brass bands and pulleys
– see photo. The coils consist of two
formers in each stage and each former
has half the tuned winding wound on
it. The primary is wound inside one of
the coils. This is a similar style to that
used in some Atwater Kent receivers
of the same vintage.
The radio/gram changeover switch
and the six terminal strip were originally wired in such a manner that the
pickup head was live to a few volts
from the receiver HT supply. However,
if the earth parted company, anyone
touching the pick-up terminals received a nasty shock. Occasionally,
equipment was wired like this in
the early days but not for me thank
you. I made a minor alteration to the
wiring so that no HT (or part thereof)
appeared on the pickup.
The audio from the detector (or
from the pickup) is applied to an
audio transformer, which feeds a pair
of UX226 valves in push pull. An interesting feature here is that a choke
and ca
pacitor (wired in series) are
switched into circuit between the two
plates when the unit is in radio mode.
This is a series-tuned hum-reducing
circuit and it does quite a reasonable
job. However, it isn’t economically
possible to completely rid a set of hum
when directly heated valves are used
MARCH 2001 93
The controls are relatively simple and include a volume control (left), a central
tuning knob and a power switch (right). The local/DX switch below the tuning
knob is probably not an original feature.
on alternating current.
In this case, I believe that some of
the problem relates to poor circuit
layout around the detector stage.
The 226s are connected by the large
multi-conductor cable to a push-pull
to push-pull audio transformer on the
power supply/audio output chassis.
This transformer in turn drives
the push-pull audio output stage
(2 x UX245) which then drives the
loudspeaker.
By the way, this is the first audio
amplifier of this vin
tage in which
I’ve seen a push-pull stage driving a
push-pull stage.
The fixed capacitors in the “frontend” chassis were tested and although
a couple were quite leaky, they were
only RF bypasses from filaments to
earth in the RF stages. As a result,
the voltage on them was quite low
and so the leakage was not of any real
concern. Another RF bypass capacitor
on the HT line was replaced as a precaution, as it has 170V across it when
the set is operating.
The mica capacitors throughout the
set were all found to be in good order.
Finally, the voltages in the RF section of the receiver were checked with
no valves fitted and found to be in the
range expected. The valves were then
94 Silicon Chip
plugged in, the power turned on and
the voltages rechecked. There were
no nasty surprises and the set started
to play music.
How good is it?
I connected an aerial and earth to
the receiver and was greeted with
reasonable performance on quite a
few stations. Certainly, the set has
plenty of go and it doesn’t disgrace
itself when compared to many more
modern sets.
The tracking is reasonably good
and no double-spotting or odd tuning
characteristics were observed. The
volume control works quite well and
the local/distance switch is quite
effective. However, the latter appears
to be unnecessary as no sign of overload was evident and there are a couple of reasonably powerful broadcast
stations within 20km. As mentioned
earlier, I suspect that it was an add-on.
Next, I checked the alignment of the
four tuned stages. There are no iron
dust cores in the RF coils (well before
their time) and there are no trimmer
capacitors either, so I wanted to find
out if the stages tracked each other
reasonably accurately.
To test them, I slid a small ferrite
rod into each coil in turn and noted
whether there was any improvement
or drop-off in performance. In some
cases, there was a slight “lift” in
performance as I approached the coil,
while in the other cases the performance deteriorated. This occurred at
both ends of the dial. The alignment,
despite the lack of adjustments, was
close and it was only possible to lift
the performance slightly at the high
frequency end by connecting two
small trimmers across two of the coils.
However, for some reason, the
set will only tune from 530kHz to
1350kHz. This may have been planned
although I suspect that moisture over
the years has added distributed capacity across the coils and tuning capacitors, causing them to tune a lower
range of frequencies than they did
when the set was new. Normally, the
tuning range should be from 550kHz
to 1500kHz.
The overall sensitivity of the set
was such that a 100-300µV signal
was necessary at the antenna to get
reasonable performance. I received
a dozen stations effectively here in
Mooroopna, northern Victoria.
Directly-heated valves
It’s interesting to note that the sets
of this era almost exclusively used
directly-heated valves. As a result,
several techniques were employed to
overcome the inevitable hum in the
receiver’s output when low-voltage
AC was applied to the filaments.
Low-voltage filaments
One “trick” was to use low-voltage
high-current filaments which had
high thermal inertia. Another was to
centre-tap the filament winding on the
transformer and connect the bias resistor from this point to earth. However,
this was not always practical because
of the number of filament windings
involved (there are five in this set).
There are no centre-tapped filament
windings in this set, so two 11Ω resistors are used across some windings
and the bias resistor connected from
their junction to earth. The exception
is the audio driver stage, where the
resistor across the filament winding
is a variable wirewound pot and the
bias resistor is connected to the wiper.
This pot is adjusted for minimum hum
in the output.
Because the low-voltage filaments
draw such high currents, it is necessary to have heavy filament supply
wires. The four 226 valves in the
RF section draw 4.2A at 1.5V which
means that the cables must be heavy
to minimise the voltage drop. In this
case, the filament transformer is on
the lower chassis and the 226s are on
the upper chassis and are fed via a
lengthy cable. As a result, the voltage
on the valve filaments is around 1.3V
instead of the intended 1.5V.
The final word
I wasn’t around in 1929 to observe
the relative performance of this set
and others of its era in the conditions that prevailed then. However, I
believe that this set would have been
at the top of the pile when it came to
dragging in stations and giving good
quality reproduction on both radio
and records.
Its biggest disadvantage would have
been its enormous cost. As such, not
many would have been produced and
there would now only be a few left in
collections.
In short, the AWA C58 is a magnificent example of a top-of-the-line
Australian receiver from the late 1920s.
It is a worthwhile addition to any colSC
lection if you have the room.
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