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Complete Radio Service and Speedy Too. |
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Majestic Radios |
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AW-12 as received and partially disassembled—below, after re-chroming and re-assembly and rewiring. |
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EH Scott Allwave 12 Deluxe Restoration |
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EH Scott ALLWAVE 12 Deluxe Radio Receiver (part one)
In 1932 E. H. Scott hired Ernest R. Pfaff as his chief engineer. Pfaff started his career at Western Electric then moved to Temple Radio and was with Silver Marshall a few years before moving to Scott. He helped design the ALLWAVE 12 Deluxe receiver and developed the turret RF (radio Frequency) coil assembly that was patented. He designed it to eliminated the plug-in coils used for band changes in the early ‘30s all band radios.
During the year after introduction of the ALLWAVE 12 Deluxe Scott’s engineers incorporate the antenna tuning feature found on earlier Scott radios, it increased the sensitivity while reducing the lead-in noise. Although the ALLWAVE 12 Deluxe included a tuning meter whose needle cast a shadow on the back of the tuning dial it was improved. The antenna tuner was made automatic by improving the coupling to the RF amplifier with a fixed input impedance and a fixed antenna impedance matching devise was added to.
At the Century of Progress, 1933 Chicago World's Fair, a Scott ALLWAVE Deluxe in a Napier console was placed in operation in the control room at the top of the elevator of the observation Tower at the Sky Ride. Each day, eight to twelve thousand people visited the control room. They heard music and news coming from the radio without the slightest trace of electrical interference, yet the set was situated in the center of a mass of motors, dynamos, and control contractors. This unusual demonstration "proved the perfection of shielding in the Scott ALLWAVE 12 Deluxe."
As an advertising promotion and demonstration of the performance of the new All-Wave De Luxe, Scott offered an all expenses paid trip around the world. The contest was limited to Scott All-Wave owners and spanned the first six months of 1932. During the first four months, Scott owners sent in verified reception reports covering 231 different foreign stations and 13,280 foreign station programs, which were heard from 41 different countries. In 1932 a Scott All-Wave receiver in the United States established a record for the most consistent foreign station short wave reception very broadcast from station VK2ME in Sidney, Australia for twelve consecutive months - distance 9,500 miles. E. H. Scott installed an All Wave De Luxe receiver aboard the S. S. Manganni on which he sailed to New Zealand in February of 1933. He was able to pick up station WBBM in Chicago all the way to the amazement of passengers and crew alike. He furnished music direct from Chicago for the |
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passengers to dance to each night of the voyage. Scott commented, "There seems to be no other way to definitely establish our right to make the claims we do and to overcome what I know are exaggerations by some of the manufacturers who claim to compete with us to the confusion of some of our prospective customers." "Once more we will have proven beyond fear of contradiction the supremacy of our receiver." Radio station WBBM read cablegrams received daily from E. H. Scott during his voyage and announced his reception reports. The chief Radio Operator of the S. S. Manganni issued this statement, "In all my radio experience, I have never heard such reception of broadcast stations on board ship as that accomplished by the Scott receiver." On this 1933 trip to New Zealand, Scott visited the man who purchased the second World Record 9 receiver from him in 1924. Although this set had been in continuous use on an average of three hours a day, it was still bringing in stations from all parts of the world. It took a great deal of persuasion, but Scott was finally instrumental in trading a new All Wave De Luxe for the World Record 9, which was later placed on exhibit at the E. H. Scott Radio Laboratories in Chicago.
I purchased my Scott ALLWAVE 12 Deluxe a few weeks ago from eBay. The power supply amplifier (PSA) was a separate sale and I missed out. However, the other buyer didn’t pay so I bought after the seller put it back up at a Buy-it-Now and emailed me that he was about to do it. Both the receiver and the PSA are in very poor condition, much corrosion but they are completely original, never been modified. One problem, the Wunderlich tube had been replaced with some dual grid something but the heater was open. No wonder, it had a 1.5V directly heated heater and was on the 2.5VAC filament bus. Wunderlich tubes are going for more than $50.00 so I’ll put in a 55 dual diode-triode.
Here are some pictures of the receiver chassis as received, the disassembly in progress and what the chrome plated pieces look like before re-plating. The steel chassis, the aluminum and brass tube shields are at the plater’s as I write this and I still need to take the PSA parts to the plater’s when I get it and disassemble it. The ALLWAVE 12 Deluxe receiver covers four bands; MW 550-200 Meters (1,510kHz. to 500kHz.), SW-(1) 61-200M (4.2MHz. to 1.4MHz.), SW-(2) 23-61M (9.7MHz. to3.8MHz.) and SW-(3) 15-23M (23MHz. to 9.5MHz.). The receiver chassis tube complement includes a single 58 pentode tube as an RF amplifier. The antenna RF tuned tanks are shielded coils in two chrome cans. The MW band has a separate tuned coil and can with a leaf switch that’s cam driven from the band selector shaft to short out the MW coil when using the SW |
