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Old 1st Jul 2015, 3:07 am   #81
Synchrodyne
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Default Re: UK export models?

Mentioned upthread was the intersection of domestic shortwave receivers and lower-end communications receivers. It appears that at least a couple of British manufacturers did produce combination models during the 1940s, which were claimed to incorporate communications, shortwave broadcast and medium-wave high-fidelity reception all in the same unit.

One was the Peerless 1546 chassis, described in the attached selection of items and advertisements from Wireless World and Practical Wireless. The description in WW 1946 December labels it as a “Communications Type Broadcast Receiver”. Communications-type facilities included a BFO, crystal IF filter and voltage stabilizer. Other features were a separate oscillator valve, amplified agc, mechanical bandpsread and a bandpass RF input. These four, whilst more associated with communications receivers, were also found in some broadcast receivers. Frequency coverage went up to 60 MHz, thus including channel B1 TV sound at 41.5 MHz. A push-pull output using 6L6s was more of a hi-fi feature.

The base price was then £50.4, which I think would have been somewhat lower than say the initial price of the Eddystone 680, which was first shown at Radiolympia 1947 and which in turn was I think about half the price of the GEC BRT400, also shown thereat. £11.5 purchase tax was applicable at the time, but I think that PT was soon thereafter abolished for receivers with BFOs.

Whilst the Peerless 1546 (which number might have been derived from the fact that it was a 15-valve receiver first released in 1946) was not described explicitly as an export model, the fact that it was fully tropicalized indicates that it was intended for sale in export markets as well as domestically.

Peerless advertised quite frequently in the late 1940s, and evidently did have a stand at Radiolympia 1949. Apart from the 1546, its other models, such as the 1047, were clearly domestic in nature. It seemed to have disappeared completely by the 1950s, though.

Cheers,
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Old 1st Jul 2015, 3:09 am   #82
Synchrodyne
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Default Re: UK export models?

Another receiver in the combined communications and domestic category was the Morton Cheyney “Silver Knight”, for which I can find only one reference, in Wireless World 1946 November, attached. It was described as combining the functions of a high fidelity receiver with those of a communications receiver. Its details were somewhat different to those of the Peerless 1546, but the price for the chassis version, at £52.0 before tax, was comparable. As well as the chassis, a console version was available.

Cheers,
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Old 2nd Jul 2015, 11:52 pm   #83
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Default Re: UK export models?

There are a few questions triggered here; how extensive was the market research that inspired the production of these sets?; how many were actually built (as opposed to being advertised)?; and to what extent this putative market would have been affected by the release of ex-government communications receivers onto the market?

Perhaps the adverts were intended as much to gauge the extent of interest as anything. It's understandable that there might have been a perceived greater interest in international affairs immediately post-war, and possibly it was felt that the large number of returning service personell who had become familiar with high-performance receivers might include a percentage who would subsequently be looking for something better than a "4+R" at home- but nonetheless, both high-performance receivers and higher-powered, high quality audio amplifiers were expensive items with limited market share and something that combined the two aspects was likely to have been still more limited in appeal. Perhaps the subsequent (early/mid-'fifties) development of the well-known "hi-fi" power amplifiers/control amplifiers, and the multi-band tuner chassis that were offered in parallel with more mundane tuners represented a more realistic and flexible assessment of what the market was after.
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Old 3rd Jul 2015, 12:16 am   #84
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Default Re: UK export models?

Good point about the research but going back to the WW piece from 1949 [my post 41*] I can't believe they weren't responding to some sort of need/demand re the top of the range sets! Hard to say at this distance though.
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Old 3rd Jul 2015, 5:24 am   #85
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Default Re: UK export models?

Quote:
Originally Posted by turretslug View Post
There are a few questions triggered here; how extensive was the market research that inspired the production of these sets?; how many were actually built (as opposed to being advertised)?
It is difficult to imagine that the smaller manufacturers did much, or were able to do much in the way of rigorous market research. Possibly they relied mostly upon anecdotal feedback. Given that both Peerless and Morton Cheyney seemed to have sunk without trace by the 1950s, it looks as if they quite misjudged the demand for their combination products. Any surviving examples of the Peerless 1546 and Morton Cheyney Silver Knight might be collector’s items, except that they are probably unknown makes that would often not attract a second glance. Actual production of each was likely in the low hundreds at best, and maybe not even that.

The major setmakers probably did some market research, enough to determine that there was in fact a sufficient export market for the “nine-valve” or similar receiver with bandpsread shortwave tuning. Some of these same receivers were also sold into the domestic market, probably in quite small numbers. And in some cases they may also have served as “flagship” models, although later on somewhat displaced in that role by the top FM-AM models, like the Pye FenMan II, when FM arrived. Production of some of these bandpsread export models may have spanned the 1950s, and even extended into the 1960s, but end-of-production information is much harder to come by than initial release times.

Quote:
Originally Posted by turretslug View Post
and to what extent this putative market would have been affected by the release of ex-government communications receivers onto the market?
It may have all but killed the new communications receiver market in the UK, at least in the early post-WWII years. The export market may have been less inundated with surplus equipment, although that would have varied by territory. But the market for more elaborate true communications receivers (say above the one RF, one IF single-conversion type) was not large anyway. For example, the Eddystone 750, which probably went mostly to individual operators, totalled not much above 2000.

An “in-between” option was the reworked ex-government receiver, such as the Radiovision (Leicester) V55R, derived from the R1155; see the attachments. This seems to have been another example that was around in the late 1940s but had disappeared by the early 1950s, although of course supply of the prototype for rebuilding would have been finite.

Quote:
Originally Posted by turretslug View Post
Perhaps the subsequent (early/mid-'fifties) development of the well-known "hi-fi" power amplifiers/control amplifiers, and the multi-band tuner chassis that were offered in parallel with more mundane tuners represented a more realistic and flexible assessment of what the market was after.
Yes, I think so, judging by the fact that several examples in this class that made to the end of the 1950s, or nearly so, and some lasted into the 1960s. It would be enlightening to find the actual production numbers for sets such as the Murphy TA160, Pye PE80, etc., and for hi-fi items such as the Chapman S6BS, but I think we have Buckley’s chance there.

Cheers,
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Old 6th Oct 2015, 1:43 am   #86
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Default Re: UK export models?

The Ekco A733 export receiver was mentioned in the Wireless World 1959 September stand-by-stand report on that year’s Radio Show, pertinent page attached.

WW noted that it was unusual in having variable selectivity, in this case presumably to allow a wider audio bandwidth (say 8 to 10 kHz, maybe more) for local MF stations. In fact WW had commented upon that feature, as being a revival of an old idea, in its previous edition.

That “revival” notion was probably true for UK domestic radio receivers, where variable selectivity seems to have disappeared in the early 1950s, and if not already dead, was killed off when FM-AM receivers arrived on the scene. Murphy (A186 and A188C) might have been one of the last “majors” to use it. But variable selectivity, with provision for wideband, had remained current for hi-fi AM tuners (and a very small number of FM-AM tuners) and in 1959 it was offered at least by Armstrong, Chapman, Dynatron, Jason and Quad. So it had not disappeared entirely from domestic equipment.

The Ekco A733 was numbered in the same series as the previously mentioned A731, so the two may well have been related in circuitry terms.

Cheers,
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Old 15th Mar 2016, 4:28 am   #87
Synchrodyne
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Default Re: UK export models?

An unusual receiver that appeared to combine the attributes of both communications and broadcast receivers was the Mullard GFR520, mentioned briefly in Wireless World 1949 November as part of the Radiolympia Review. Whilst it was not specifically described as an export model, I imagine that Mullard would have had the export market very much in mind back in those days. Whether it was primarily a commercial/industrial or domestic receiver is unclear.

The Mullard GFR520 had a total tuning range of 54 kHz to 110 MHz. Over the 54 kHz to 27 MHz range, where a 455 kHz IF was used, the IF bandwidth could be varied between 10 Hz and 25 kHz. The latter, which would have allowed an AF response to 12.5 kHz, was associated with high quality broadcast reception.

There was a precedent for this kind of wide coverage receiver. A prime example was the American Hallicrafters SX-42 of 1946, which covered 540 kHz to 110 MHz, thus including both the old and new American FM bands, this coverage being a decade less than the Mullard model at the lower end. As well as communications facilities, the SX-42 also provided for high quality audio, with a push-pull output. And it appeared to be aimed at the domestic market, perhaps amongst others. So possibly the Mullard GFR520 was intended to be, more-or-less, a British version of the SX-42. How well it sold and how long it [the GFR520] lasted in production are unknown.

Apparently there were export model or export-oriented British car radio receivers, as well. The attached scan from Wireless World 1949 November refers to the Radiomobile 4050 and Ekco CR61, both with MW and SW but not LW coverage (usually indicative of export models) and with bandpsread on some of the SW bands. Both also incorporated noise limiters, a feature borrowed from communications receiver practice. Ekco had also included a noise limiter in its A182 export table receiver mentioned earlier in this thread.

Cheers,
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File Type: pdf WW 194911 p.441,442 Mullard GFR520.pdf (1.13 MB, 349 views)
File Type: pdf WW 194911 p.434 Radiomobile 4050, Ekco CR61.pdf (1.17 MB, 489 views)
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Old 15th Mar 2016, 6:35 am   #88
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Default Re: UK export models?

I think this class of receiver was largely killed off by the post war release onto the market of many thousands of real communications receivers at surplus prices.

The 'tea planter's special' retained the advantage of more domestically-acceptable looks, but the HROs and AR88s had stronger construction and precision dials and drives for more stable tuning. Also the audio from the AR88 and HRO is not bad at all and the BRT400 is supposed to be outstanding.

In the fifties, anyone who wanted an Eddystone (or a BRT400) had to stump up the full new purchase price, while the surplus receivers represented a sort of tax refund

In the sixties, the Eddystone EA12 I have would have represented a huge outlay. The chap who bought it new owned a large brewery. Around the same time, as a schoolkid I managed to save up enough to buy an AR88, the EA12 was unreachable. New receivers, of a lesser price than the Eddystones would have had to offer substantially less performance/facilities than the surplus jobs. WWII turned a lot of things on their heads.

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Old 30th Mar 2016, 12:35 pm   #89
k_yller
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Default Re: UK export models?

I don't know if was mentioned in topic
CTM17T was exported under VE1000P name to eastern europe
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