Latest Purchase, an Admiral 7P35N Portable Radio

About the Admiral 7P35N Portable Radio

Admiral 7P35N was a "portable" AM radio, designed an built by the Continental Radio & Television Co. of Chicago, Illinois. This radio qualifies as portable as it can be powered both from Household Current or by battery power. 

The Admiral 7P35N is a post WW II radio that was first released to the consumer market in 1947. This radio is of Superheterodyne design and covers the standard AM Broadcast Band (540 - 1600 kHz).

The Admiral 7P35N is of "transformerless" design, feeding the Household Current though a Selenium rectifier, filter capacitors, and a resistor network in order to provide the 90 Volts DC to the electron tubes. Electron tube filaments are connected in series and are supplied 9 Volts DC. This design makes this radio very dangerous to work on when powered from AC Household Current as the chassis could be connected to "Hot" depending on how the non-polarized plug is connected to a wall outlet.

A switch allows you to use an internal battery to power the radio. An internal label specifies the battery of choice is an ENSIGN AB50 which supplied the required 90 and 9 Volts DC needed for operation. 

Below is the complement of electron tubes installed in the Admiral 7P35N and their purpose:

1U4 = RF Amplifier
1R5 = Mixer/Oscillator
1U4 = IF Amplifier
1S5 = Detector/Preamp
3V4 = Audio Amplifier

The Admiral 7P35N comes in a smart looking leather case with a Bakelite handle. A protective flap covers the tuning and volume knobs, speaker grill, and tuning dial when not in use. 

Access to electron tubes and battery compartment is achieved through a hinged back cover. 

A label on the inside of the hinged back cover indicates chassis layout with electron tube positions, suitable household currents, and a chart of compatible replacement batteries. An interesting feature of this and many radios from the 1940s is that if could be powered from both DC or AC household current as both were available in the United States at the time. DC household current was eventually entirely replaced by AC.

About the Continental Radio & Television Company

Ross Siragusa founded the Continental Radio and Television Corporation in Chicago during 1934. Admiral Corporation was a subsidiary of Continental Radio and Television Corporation of which consumer electronics were marketed.

In addition to the Admiral name, Continental Radio and Television Corporation marketed their products under the Globe Trotter, Radiomaster, and Star Raider names.

During WW II, electronic equipment was supplied to the military under the Admiral brand.

Admiral branded televisions were a top seller during the "Golden age of Television", which spanned from 1947 to 1960.  

Successful television sales allowed the company to branch out into large appliances, such as washers and refrigerators, in the 1950s.

Admiral Corp was also successful in moving product through major sales outlets such as Montgomery Ward and Sears. 

In 1960, its heyday, Admiral Corporation boasted sales of 300 million and employed 8,500 people with four manufacturing plants. 

Like many American consumer electronic companies in the early 1970s,  Admiral Corporation hit hard times due to electronics dumped on the US market from Japan. 

Rockwell Automation purchased the company in 1973, they proceeded to sell off large appliance manufacturing operations to Magic Chef. This division was later sold to Maytag and finally to Whirlpool.  Whirlpool now markets the Admiral brand exclusively through The Home Depot chain.

In the 1990s Admiral branding was being used on Zenith products. Currently television business continues under AOC (Admiral Overseas Corporation) International that sells LCD and HDTV appliances. 

The Admiral name lives on, but is used to rebadge large appliance and consumer electronics manufactured by other corporations. 

Conclusion

Please stop by radioboatanchor.com in the upcoming months to see updates on the restoration of my newly acquired Admiral 7P35N Portable Radio.