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A Knight Space
Spanner. This was built by James Kasper in 1957 or 1958. At
the time, James lived in Philadelphia, PA (later in life he
retired to Florida). It is a regen
radio and was sold as a kit by Allied Radio. |
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Rear view. On the
left is a speaker/headphones switch. Next to it are
headphone jacks. The antenna connector is on the right. |
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This was purchased
on March 24, 2019 on ebay. It was auctioned by James' nephew
after James had passed away. Since the builder's name was
known, the intention was to leave it in as close to original
condition as possible. In most cases, when an old kit shows
up on ebay the name of the person who built it has been lost
to history. |
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James Kasper's fingerprints couldn't be cleaned off.
They reacted with the coating on the chassis. |
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Dating the radio was relatively
easy due to the fact that the Allied Radio catalogs
are online. All one needs to do is spend hours
looking through the catalogs! Man, they sure sold a
lot of neat stuff.
The Space Spanner first appeared in 1956. It was
dark gray and didn't have a cabinet. In 1957 a
cabinet was included. Same in 1958. In 1959 the gray
front panel was changed to a two tone panel of light
gray and dark gray. The only years a solid gray
Space Spanner was sold with a cabinet were 1957 and
1958. |
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Crop of the rear cover of the 1957 Allied catalog. |
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REASON JAMES KASPER PURCHASED AND BUILT THE KIT (semi-fictional
account) |
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On October 4, 1957 the U.S.S.R
launched Sputnik I, an event which shocked the
population of the USA. A Russian satellite was
passing over the country every 96 minutes, and there
was nothing anyone could do about it. It could just
as easily have been an Atomic Bomb.
Not only could you see the booster rocket passing
overhead at night, the satellite transmitted beeping
tones on the shortwave bands at 20.005 and 40.002
MHz.
Now let's make up a story about James Kasper.
Judging by the quality of the assembled kit, James
had reached an age where he had developed some skill
and patience. He wasn't of job age, because if he
had a job he wouldn't have bought an entry level
regen radio kit. So let's put his age at 15, and
he's still in high school.
The Russians have launched Sputnik and you can hear
it on the radio, but only on a SHORTWAVE radio. With
a desire to learn everything he can about the Soviet
menace, he sends to Allied Radio for a Space Spanner
kit.
Well, it sounds plausible. |
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From "Radio-Electronics" March
1957. Note the model number is S-243. The catalog number was 83 Y
243.
In 1959 when they changed the colors of the front panel, the catalog
number was 83 Y 249. |
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From the 1956 Allied catalog, before it had a
cabinet. |
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Very funny! How it is presented in the catalog versus
how it should have looked. |
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INITIAL INSPECTION |
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Photo from the ebay auction. |
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When the cabinet was removed,
the first thing I noticed was that the tubes are all Mullard brand!
COOL!! |
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The front looked like somebody had been
blowing cigarette smoke at the radio.
The vacuum tubes tested at 75% of what new tubes test, so
this radio was used a lot. |
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The
underside looked good. Well soldered. All that was needed was to
re-stuff the yellow filter capacitor. |
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Wait a minute... those shafts sticking out look a
little odd.
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Is this the way they're supposed to be? I
didn't have a manual but I did have the guys on the
Antique Radio Forum. I popped off a quick question.
Within minutes I had the answer, and the answer
was... |
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