MAK's Old Radio Pages
Atwater Kent
*** Thanks to those collectors who made sets available for photos ***
2004 All rights reserved; updated Apr 29, 2004


Welcome to MAK's Atwater Kent page. A few representative AK sets are shown below. Click on any picture to view larger picture, use browser's "Back" button to return here.

AK 3975    AK 3975 Top
  AK 3975 "breadboard", i.e., open or uncased receiver, inductively tuned. These earlier Atwater Kent breadboard sets were inductively tuned; later models were capacitively tuned. The leftmost component is a "variocoupler" originally supplied with the set. The second component is a variometer as was commonly added by set owners to make the set regenerative. Atwater Kent had not licensed the Armstrong regenerative patent, so could not supply receivers with this capability from the factory.

AK 10C    AK 10C Top
  AK 10C "breadboard", capacitively tuned. This receiver includes 2 tuned RF amplifier stages, followed by tuned input to detector, which is in turn followed by 2 AF amplifier stages. The 10C represents the final model in the model 10 line, which began with the "radiodyne". This name had been just recently registered, so AK changed the set's name to model 10. Minor refinements led to the 10A and 10B, followed by the 10C shown here.

AK 20C    AK 20C Inside
  AK 20C, also capacitively tuned. The 10C breadboard set circuitry was re-packaged in a wooden case as the model 20. The model 20 was then "miniaturized" to become the model 20C, shown here.

AK 30    AK 30 Inside
  The AK 30 represents a transition from 3-dial tuning to single dial tuning. The 3 variable capacitors are mechanically coupled by belts. Note that an additional tube has been added vs. the model 20C. This tube represents an untuned RF buffer stage, which facilitates tracking of the following 3 tuned circuits.

AK 82
  AK 82 receiver, a "modern" (1932) AC-operated superheterodyne.


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