I just spotted an ad for this in a 1947 ARRL handbook.
I remember also seeing them listed in an Allied catalogue or
maybe it was a Radio Master. Has anyone here actually seen
one? There must not have been many of them made, assuming
they were made at all. The illustration looks more like "an
artists rendering" than an actual photograph. They were
evidently intended to be a super-deluxe receiver. Anyone
know anything about these?


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Hello Richard:

Osterman's 3rd Edition has a little information. Apparently it was made
between 1945 and 1947 by the Allen d. Cardwell Manufacturing Corporation, a
family held corporation. It shows that it is 18 tubes with a rurret type
display.

A Google Search came up empty. Usually, you will find rare radios in
personal collections. The fact that I find none in personal websites is a
bad sign.

Never have seen one.

I think you need one for your collection.

73, Colin K7FM

"COLIN LAMB" wrote in message
...
Hello Richard:

Osterman's 3rd Edition has a little information.
Apparently it was made between 1945 and 1947 by the Allen
d. Cardwell Manufacturing Corporation, a family held
corporation. It shows that it is 18 tubes with a rurret
type display.

A Google Search came up empty. Usually, you will find
rare radios in personal collections. The fact that I find
none in personal websites is a bad sign.

Never have seen one.

I think you need one for your collection.

73, Colin K7FM
I know a little about the Cardwell company. Long ago
their main competition seems to have been Hammarlund and
National for capacitors. I don't think they made any other
receivers but don't know for certain. They can't have made
many of these guys. Shortly after the Model 54 was announced
Hammarlund began advertising the SP-600 and Collins the 51J
and 75A models. Hammarlund's first ads for the SP-600 shows
a drawing of a receiver which is recognizable but is very
different in detail for the receiver that made it to
production. The concept was a RX with calibrated band spread
and push-pull audio. It evidently got seriously redesigned
between the first ad (see the 1948 ARRL Radio Amateur's
Handbook) and the production model. I suspect the virtues of
the double-conversion competitors would have made it
difficult for the Cardwell RX. It sure would be interesting
to know some more history of both the Cardwell and SP-600
receivers.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Hello Richard:

I think the Cardwell company was owned by another company, which was owned
by the Cardwell family. At some point, during the demise of Hammarlund,
that company purchased the Hammarlund assets.

The specified audio output of the Cardwell receivers is high enough that it
was probably push-pull. So, if you ever find one, the audio will probably
be good.

I just had a thought about searching for this elusive receiver. Check the
various manual sources. If there were a few radios made, there must have
been a manual floating around. Fun to see one.

73, Colin K7FM

"COLIN LAMB" wrote in message
m...
Hello Richard:

I think the Cardwell company was owned by another company,
which was owned by the Cardwell family. At some point,
during the demise of Hammarlund, that company purchased
the Hammarlund assets.

The specified audio output of the Cardwell receivers is
high enough that it was probably push-pull. So, if you
ever find one, the audio will probably be good.

I just had a thought about searching for this elusive
receiver. Check the various manual sources. If there
were a few radios made, there must have been a manual
floating around. Fun to see one.

73, Colin K7FM
I think so too. I'm not quite sure what happened to
either Hammarlund or Cardwell. There is some Hammarlund
history on the web. At the time the Cardwell RX went on the
market a number of receivers had relatively high quality
push-pull output stages. The Hammarlund Super-Pro for one
and a couple of National receivers, I think the SX-28 and
SX-32 had push-pull amps. I can testify as the owner of a
BC-779 that the low distortion helps even with CW since
distortion magnifies noise. Those having receivers with an
external connection to the detector may get surprize if this
is connected to a high quality audio system. Most of these
connections have DC on them so a series capacitor and a
resistor are necessary. An SP-600, for instance, will let
you hear all the clipping from the processing on AM
broadcast stations. There WAS, dear children, high-quality
AM in the dear, dead, long ago before being the loudest kid
on the block became the objective.
(I have created an alternative signature, here it is)

--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL

Found data. From September 1946 QST, page 117, full page ad for the
Cardwell Fifty-Four.

1. Full turret R.F. Section
2. Wide coverage with coil strips to 40 mc - extra strip goes to 54 mc.
3. 100 and 1000 kc calibrator.
4. 5 degrees of selcetivity.
5. New noise limiter.
6. Band spread dial calibrated directly.
7. 10.5 inch direct reading dial.
8. Temperature compensated oscillator.
9. (This is an interesting one). Mechanical control shafts are brought out
back of set for linkage to other units, such as excited or transmitter. Can
you imagine the tracking nightmare for the homecuilder?
10. All aluminum construction (still weighs 78 lbs).
11. Push-pull class A-B output (8 watts).
12. 18 tubes - all miniature.
13. Panoramic adapter jack.
14. Threshold squelch.

They claimed they had a technical bulletin.

In the October 1946 issue, there is a full page ad with a drawing of the
receiver. The technical article was signed by Mack C. Jones. Said a
technical bulletin was available.

Cardwell ad for November and December 1946 was for other products.

Will research 1947 next.

Colin K7FM

And, as we move on to 1947, there is no ad in QST by the Cardwell Company.

I would take a wild guess, based upon my experience over the years, that the
company spent so much money on development of the CR-54 that they finally
threw in the towel and that none got out the door. I have seen what appears
to be photos, though, so there may be one that was made. But, the technical
bulletin should be around, so you can drool a bit.

73, Colin K7FM

I can add some information, based on research done back in 1980 by H.
L. Chadbourne of La Jolla, CA. Quoting from a letter of his to me:

"...I saw the name Ray Morehouse with call letters attached to one of
these ads [the QST ads] , so I looked him up in a recent callbook and
wrote him. Had a very nice letter back. He'd worked for Cardwell from
1924-1947. He had a little on the receiver, but referred me to Moe
Joffe in Los Angeles for more. Moe was directly in on the project.

....Allen D. Cardwell...toward the war's end...wanted to broaden the
product line. He talked with Grenby Mfg. Co. of Plainview, CT about
some sort of joint venture, with Cardwell doing R&D and Grenby as the
manufacturing arm. Grenby had started in 1940 and during WWII made
mainly parts for Pratt & Whitney. It was a sort of machine shop
operation. However at one point Lockheed gave them an electronic
assembly to make, and they liked the work, so decided on it for
postwar. Hence the Cardwell discussions. But the two firms could not
reach agreement and the talks ended by Grenby buying out Cardwell and
moving the firm to Plainville. Mack C. Jones, who had been an
engineer with Raytheon during WWII, was hired by Grenby as Ch.
Engineer, and he suggested the 54 receiver project. Moe Joffe was
under him.

"I had a fine phone conversation with Joffe and hope some time to
interview him in person. He said the 54 was a very advanced set, but
was not put into production because of its extremely high cost, $700 -
$800 a unit. The market did not seem to be there at the
time--possibly again, the huge supply of surplus put a damper on new
sales. Joffe eventually went on to Squires-Sanders and their
communications receiver projects."

I have Morehouse's letter here also; he said he didn't know what
became of the 54 prototype.

Alan

"Alan Douglas" adouglasatgis.net wrote in message
...
I can add some information, based on research done back in
1980 by H.
L. Chadbourne of La Jolla, CA. Quoting from a letter of
his to me:

"...I saw the name Ray Morehouse with call letters
attached to one of
these ads [the QST ads] , so I looked him up in a recent
callbook and
wrote him. Had a very nice letter back. He'd worked for
Cardwell from
1924-1947. He had a little on the receiver, but referred
me to Moe
Joffe in Los Angeles for more. Moe was directly in on the
project.

...Allen D. Cardwell...toward the war's end...wanted to
broaden the
product line. He talked with Grenby Mfg. Co. of Plainview,
CT about
some sort of joint venture, with Cardwell doing R&D and
Grenby as the
manufacturing arm. Grenby had started in 1940 and during
WWII made
mainly parts for Pratt & Whitney. It was a sort of
machine shop
operation. However at one point Lockheed gave them an
electronic
assembly to make, and they liked the work, so decided on
it for
postwar. Hence the Cardwell discussions. But the two
firms could not
reach agreement and the talks ended by Grenby buying out
Cardwell and
moving the firm to Plainville. Mack C. Jones, who had
been an
engineer with Raytheon during WWII, was hired by Grenby as
Ch.
Engineer, and he suggested the 54 receiver project. Moe
Joffe was
under him.

"I had a fine phone conversation with Joffe and hope some
time to
interview him in person. He said the 54 was a very
advanced set, but
was not put into production because of its extremely high
cost, $700 -
$800 a unit. The market did not seem to be there at the
time--possibly again, the huge supply of surplus put a
damper on new
sales. Joffe eventually went on to Squires-Sanders and
their
communications receiver projects."

I have Morehouse's letter here also; he said he didn't
know what
became of the 54 prototype.

Alan

Very interesting and more than is known about some
other projects. Note that the cost of the SP-600 and 51J
receivers was up in the this range. The 51J is advertized in
the 1950 edition of the ARRL Handbook at $875, a veritable
fortune at the time and the SP-600-JX was also up around
$900. However, I think both had a market base in military
sales and civilian sales were just extra. It would be
interesting to know more about the Cardwell receiver.
Evidently it was single conversion which would have put it
at a disadvantage in comparison to the Collins and
Hammarlund products. There is an ad featuring the Cardwell
54 in the 1947 edition of the ARRL Handbook with a fairly
large illustration but I can't tell for certain if its a
drawing or a retouched photo. It might be a photo of a
prototype or possibly a mock-up. If anyone has a Radio's
Master or Allied or other large catalogue of the time please
see if you can find this rx advertised there. I know such an
ad existed but don't know what year. The question, of
course, is whether the receivers were actually available,
the above post, and lack of any actual receivers, suggests
they were not.


--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL

"Richard Knoppow" wrote in message
...

"Alan Douglas" adouglasatgis.net wrote in message
...
I can add some information, based on research done back in 1980 by H.
L. Chadbourne of La Jolla, CA. Quoting from a letter of his to me:

"...I saw the name Ray Morehouse with call letters attached to one of
these ads [the QST ads] , so I looked him up in a recent callbook and
wrote him. Had a very nice letter back. He'd worked for Cardwell from
1924-1947. He had a little on the receiver, but referred me to Moe
Joffe in Los Angeles for more. Moe was directly in on the project.

...Allen D. Cardwell...toward the war's end...wanted to broaden the
product line. He talked with Grenby Mfg. Co. of Plainview, CT about
some sort of joint venture, with Cardwell doing R&D and Grenby as the
manufacturing arm. Grenby had started in 1940 and during WWII made
mainly parts for Pratt & Whitney. It was a sort of machine shop
operation. However at one point Lockheed gave them an electronic
assembly to make, and they liked the work, so decided on it for
postwar. Hence the Cardwell discussions. But the two firms could not
reach agreement and the talks ended by Grenby buying out Cardwell and
moving the firm to Plainville. Mack C. Jones, who had been an
engineer with Raytheon during WWII, was hired by Grenby as Ch.
Engineer, and he suggested the 54 receiver project. Moe Joffe was
under him.

"I had a fine phone conversation with Joffe and hope some time to
interview him in person. He said the 54 was a very advanced set, but
was not put into production because of its extremely high cost, $700 -
$800 a unit. The market did not seem to be there at the
time--possibly again, the huge supply of surplus put a damper on new
sales. Joffe eventually went on to Squires-Sanders and their
communications receiver projects."

I have Morehouse's letter here also; he said he didn't know what
became of the 54 prototype.

Alan

Very interesting and more than is known about some other projects.
Note that the cost of the SP-600 and 51J receivers was up in the this
range. The 51J is advertized in the 1950 edition of the ARRL Handbook at
$875, a veritable fortune at the time and the SP-600-JX was also up around
$900. However, I think both had a market base in military sales and
civilian sales were just extra. It would be interesting to know more about
the Cardwell receiver. Evidently it was single conversion which would have
put it at a disadvantage in comparison to the Collins and Hammarlund
products. There is an ad featuring the Cardwell 54 in the 1947 edition of
the ARRL Handbook with a fairly large illustration but I can't tell for
certain if its a drawing or a retouched photo. It might be a photo of a
prototype or possibly a mock-up. If anyone has a Radio's Master or Allied
or other large catalogue of the time please see if you can find this rx
advertised there. I know such an ad existed but don't know what year. The
question, of course, is whether the receivers were actually available, the
above post, and lack of any actual receivers, suggests they were not.


--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL

Do any of you guys know the SP400? I had one in the sixties. Nice glow to
the meter!