Michael D. Sullivan <userid@camsul.example.invalid> writes:
> Television, on tho other hand, started out in two discontiguous VHF
> bands, with somewhat variable spacing between channels and a need for
> precise tuning, and tuning in on a single band by twiddling an analog
> variable tuning capacitor to the right frequency would have been
> difficult. This tuning method was used on some early TVs; I don't know
> whether they were tuned by numeric frequency or by channel number, but
> it would not have been very convenient.
I'm not sure when the manufacturing of TV sets with a single analog
tuner was finally discontinued in the US, but I recall my family
having a very early duMont (?) receiver (maybe 5" diameter circular
screen?) with an analog tuning knob which drove the tuning capacitor
through a reducing gear. This would have been in the early 1950s when
WDSU-TV [*] went on the air in New Orleans. And no, I can't recall
the brand we got to replace this receiver, but my (non-parity-checked)
memory says that it had a "revolutionary" drum tuner with detents and
tuning settings for each of the channels.
[*] I get a number of questions at the office when my wallpaper changer
pops up with the original WDSU-TV test pattern. It makes me feel old when
I turn out to be the only person there who remembers when test patterns
were routinely incorporated into the station ID slides ...
Joe Morris
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I seem to recall when I was about five
years old my parents had a television set with a tiny little screen
which was maybe two or three inches round. And it had a _huge_
magnifying glass attached to the front of it. PAT]
Joe Morris (jcmorris@mitre.org)