This is the Western Electric Equipment Archive Section of
The Broadcast Archive

Maintained by:
Barry Mishkind - The Eclectic Engineer
Last update 12/12/04

Western Electric Company, Inc. New York, N.Y.

WE 1-A (101-A)
500 Watts  -  1923

The 1-A was one of the first transmitters to be manufactured, as opposed to many of the early transmitters which were constructed by the station owners. Including the Power Supply section, the 500 Watt output 101-A cost $  in 1923 dollars. 

It began manufacturing about January 1923 and the 101B was later released which was basically the same transmitter. The tube compliment was four 212's and one 211. 

Ed Tombley was kind enough to share some pictures out of an early manual:

Stanley Adams says: The Western Electric 1-A was a 500 watt air cooled transmitter. It included a 50 watt speech input amplifier and four 250 watt tubes; two as modulators and two as RF oscillators. Plate voltage was 1.6 kv/1.8 kW and was provided by a DC 5.5 horsepower motor. Filament voltage was supplied by a 16 volt/615 watt current generator. Dry cells of about 130 volts and storage batteries of 13 volts provided power for the speech input equipment.

This transmitter set was used 1922-1924 at numerous radio stations that were relatively well financed. It was one of the very first semi-stable boxes to come out in that period.

Power supply cabinet for the 1-A

The 1-A transmitter in use at KPO in 1923