[Synchrodyne]

I have found an odd reference to Dormer & Wadsworth in Elektor magazine 1976 March. This was in a constructional article for a TV sound tuner that also received FM, using both a TV front end and an FM front end whose respective outputs were the converted to 6 MHz for further processing. In respect of the front ends it was said:

“The internal circuitry of the front ends will not be described as these are commercial units and the circuits will obviously depend upon the manufacturer.

“A word of warning would not come amiss at this point. There are on the market vast quantities of scrap TV front-ends, and as many of these are of dubious quality they are best avoided. It is advisable to obtain a front-end from a reputable manufacturer such as Toko, Dormer & Wadsworth [my emphasis], or at the very least a new, boxed, surplus front-end from a reputable TV manufacturer. The problem does not arise to such as [sic] extent with the front end of FM radio, as there are less scrap ones on the market”

From that one could reasonably infer that both Toko and D&W also offered TV front ends as well as their probably more well-known FM front ends. That would not be surprising in the Toko case, although I have never seen mention of it. But it could well have made TV front ends for those Japanese TV makers that did not wish to build their own. On the other hand, with D&W I have the impression that it might have been oriented to relatively small production runs that might have made it uncompetitive when it came to TV front ends. I think that the TV front-end business was somewhat cut-throat, requiring a melding of both precision engineering and low-cost mass production techniques.

Still, in view of the Elektor comment, the question needs to be asked – has anyone here ever come across a D&W TV front end?


Cheers,