Robbert keep me in mind if you want repro knobs for your beehive . I may have a few extras.

Robbert a question. Your bee hive, does it have a on/off switch. Mine doesn't. I thought with 4 knobs that was a bit strange. I know why most sets in this era don't but thought I would ask.

Where it is an Electrodynamic ( aka Field coil speaker) you leave the field coil alone and just disconnect the VC from the secondary and tack in a pemanent magnet one.

The Kriesler data sheet I have shows no switch, However the AutoCAD drawing I drew of one of them, has a DPST shown.

I pulled the beehive apart today just to install a new 3 core lead. I am glad I did because I spotted some flakey wiring of which I lifted one end and slipped some heat shrink around and that fixed that. But the monkey that recapped it didn't believe in using tag strips and left long bare leads swinging in the breeze about 2 mill from some metalwork. Anyway I fixed that and installed a cable gland which worked well in the bee hive and wired in a nice 3 core cotton covered lead with moulded plugs on the end which I bought off eBay from a seller. It performs nicely now and isnt likely to burn the house down.

Robbert a question. Your bee hive, does it have a on/off switch.

I'm not sure. It's kept in storage, and I just came back from there. I'll have to look next week on my next visit.

I will not power an unknown (to me) radio without inspection.

The Breville (as noted in several places) was spotted with shorted wire going to the dial lights and that was the tip of the iceberg; Philips 132L had floating wires from the speaker, which turned out to be damaged (fatal) by a drill & the wires floated as the Monkey did not know where they went, or had put them on backwards which in those is guaranteed to make an oscillator... many other horror stories

Never unusual to get a set that some Monkey has been in & created a nightmare.

I noticed on the schematic that STC830 sent me that the elctrolytics had a 40% tolerance noted. I have not seen that before.

The tolerance for electrolitycs is very wide - probably due to the way they work and liability to change value in service or storage.

By the way, I didn't send the schematic, I just remembered that it was on the forum somewhere and did a search for the link.

For people interested the Astor BPJ I have the knobs for them a new production run of them was completed just recently, however i'm not making them available just yet.

These knobs will be available soon, if people have needs they know where we are .

Wow had to be part panel beater to get this together. Must have been a monkey working on it. The chassis was bent as if someone had dropped it from a great height. The back panel was not fitting properly and on closer inspection the back and front of the chassis were bent in and out at a unnatural looking angle. I took to them with a shifter and large set of pliers and it's all hunky dorey.

What a awesome hobby this is. There is no end of different problems and solutions .

For reference: I have sent Kriesler sheet and the AutoCAD drawing of the variant I had.

We had three turn up at a radio Club "Fix it session" the internals of all three were different.

If you ever get a 16 or 18 tube Midwest of the thirties, you will learn about "scanting": Their chasses will twist in your hand.

Those Bakelite panels did warp & were warped in many cases when made. You will note that many have be ground to get them parallel. I have in a couple of cases considered putting the louvres through a "cylinder head grinder" & planing them.

Do be careful: If the rods are not set evenly (adjusting nuts above the chassis) Get it wrong and that will apply a twist the chassis and put enormous & possibly catastrophic stress on the case.

These sets said to be sealed and dust proof made just after the war in,, 46 . 47 ,, a 4 tube set AC or DC maybe as a kick start for those with little money after the war

Marcc I forgot to say I was referring to the Astor Chassis being bent.

Carl, I looked at my Beehive today - there's no power switch.

Left to right - tone switch (3 position), volume, band switch, tuning.

The short wave works pretty well, although I noticed a drop-off at each end (16m and 50m bands).

The Kriesler one will bend twist, albeit slightly and apply stresses if any of the nuts & steel washers are missing especially those on the louvers.

In reality, a single nut will work loose especially with the combined effects of vibration and it having soft washers. The end with the nut on the bottom louver in my book should have perhaps a soft washer but definitely a flat metal one, to stop the nut chewing the soft washer. Provision should be made to loctite, or lock nut that lot to stop it coming undone.

It is then a case of ensuring that when the case is offered to the chassis that separate nuts, from those clamping the louvers, are set so they are all sitting on the chassis: If not things will twist. One can always add another washer, or two, to compensate for gaps in twisted louvers.


Whilst Pentagrids with low voltage, or dodgy resistors will fail at high frequency and loose modulation at high frequency: They also die hat high frequency when worn out. I do get the feeling that there may be an adjustment issue, as it affects two bands? The same thing applies to SW as BC and I set with antenna fitted. Frequencies can be confirmed by WWV & WWVH on SW. However, the aerial trimmer is still set at the highest frequency like 1500kHz is done on BC band. Some sets actually switched in different cathode resistors for the Pentagrid at different frequencies.

Some sets, like the Philips 123L I have, also had the tone switch as the on / off. Be guided by the Kriesler Service sheets & their parts list.

Some dials had calibration marks along the bottom or top, which were invisible with the cabinet fitted.