When did tuning dials change from Metres to kHz?

I think the only radio I have calibrated (as opposed to a digital readout) in MHz is the Hacker, and that is for the VHF/FM band.

they can have my mass in kilograms or my weight in newtons

Do you ask for, are supplied with or give your value for g to get the newtons right?

[Andrew2]

Originally Posted by Phil G4SPZ

kHz x 100, surely, or maybe MHz/10...!

No, AFAIR both mine were marked 54 to 160, so that's 540 to 1600 KHz divided by 10.

[Phil G4SPZ]

Thanks Andy, I stand corrected.

I have just checked to refresh my memory, and my 1960s Japanese ‘tranny’ is actually scaled in two ways. On MW it’s 5(4) to 16, i.e. kHz /100, and on LW it’s 18 to 28 or kHz /10.

Phil

[Graham G3ZVT]

Wasn't there a pre war radio with "Television
sound" marked at around 6 metres?

[music-centre]

From 1946, but there was the Ekco A23 with its TV Sound channel
Steve.

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/ekco_a23_a_23.html

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by rambo1152

Wasn't there a pre war radio with "Television
sound" marked at around 6 metres?

There were several, but there wasn't much else of interest in the vicinity of the television sound wavelength. This dial is from one of 1938's massive motorised-tuning-and-wavechange Defiants, which has "TEL" as its fifth waveband, but doesn't include any wavelength markings on that band, just a single station marker for the position to which to tune.

Paul

[Richard_FM]

The Dynatron Tourist has an oddly scaler tuner, with metres one side & Megacycles on the other.

[turretslug]

Originally Posted by Paul_RK

There were several, but there wasn't much else of interest in the vicinity of the television sound wavelength.

I recall noticing that there were a handful of sets, including some of the posher EMI (Marconi/HMV) specimens, that included coverage to 5m/60MHz to include "7m" TV sound- whilst the rest of that band may have been quiet (other than a rasp at 45MHz), I wonder if any of these sets found themselves requisitioned as low-VHF search sets early in the war. It's well known that Hallicrafters VHF sets were used officially but sets like these might have provided a quick stop-gap.

Apologies fro wandering OT!

[Herald1360]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

The Dynatron Tourist has an oddly scaler tuner, with metres one side & Megacycles on the other.

And what looks like a preset 1500m LW setting at the short end of MW!

[AC/HL]

Which may need retuning for 198kHz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3nfLxmmmCI

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by AC/HL

Which may need retuning for 198kHz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3nfLxmmmCI

I had a set when I was 7 years old with that feature. A black Emerson 888 Vanguard.

It was the subject of my first ever post on this forum, the inevitable "Please can you identify this set" post.

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=54759


In true newbie style, I didn't see Tom_I's informative reply until some time later, but I did PM my thanks to him.

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by rambo1152

I had a set when I was 7 years old with that feature. A black Emerson 888 Vanguard.

It was the subject of my first ever post on this forum, the inevitable "Please can you identify this set" post.

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=54759


In true newbie style, I didn't see Tom_I's informative reply until some time later, but I did PM my thanks to him.

It was a similar situation with the radio above, as my Mum's old one looked like it.

I've seen the same style with a few different names, & other radios with the ablility to tune to 1500 meters.

[Oldmadham]

From the 1940s, up to the early 1960s, the MW sets in Australia had the station callsigns marked on the dials, so Western Australia would have 6WA, 6DL, 6WF, 6WN,6PR, 6PM, 6IX, 6KY, & so on.

Other States were similar, & some radios had room for 2 or 3 States.
A Shortwave band, if present, would usually be in Mc/s,but sometimes was in metres.

After the influx of Japanese radios with 54----16 dials, locally made ones changed over.

The old, pre-war stuff was more likely to be in metres.

Comms stuff was almost universally marked in kc/s or Mc/s, except strangely, one of the last generation of radios from the Traeger company of "Flying Doctor" fame.

The Telephone linesman at Turkey Creek had been given a Traeger to talk to the Lineyard in Wyndham, which had an AWA Teleradio 5a.

Tuning around the same numbers that the frequencies were specified in (they had crystal locked Tx, tunable RX) gave no joy, so as the other Tech & I were passing by, we were asked to check.

We messed with the radio for a while, then "the penny dropped"------the label on the dial said "m", not Mc/s!
The Turkey Creek guy had been pretty much looking in the wrong place!

Had I been a bit more experienced at the time, I might have recalibrated the dial roughly in Mc/s, but I wasn't, so we left it with him to try again.

[peter_scott]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

If I design a superhet in frequency terms, I'd know the wanted signal would maintain the same bandwidth and spectrum whatever IFs it passed through. I'd hate to have to do it in wavelengths, especially before the pocket calculator. I'd have to get my slide-rule out.
David

Absolutely! Common sense prevails.

Peter

[mark2collection]

I find these sorts of questions/answers fascinating.

Radio one on 247 was before my time, but today would make sense in that they play something, 24/7. I also remember being given a faulty pocket radio as a child, 'Made in Hong Kong' on the rear, with double digits on the dial, with possibly x10 written on the tuning wheel? Shibuya I think was the brand.

Interestingly, my Philco 333 & 444 have both kilocycles and metres on the dial, plus station names. This must have appeared quite upmarket for an affordable set(?)

The Philips Philetta has kHz & MHz while our Bush VHF61 has metres on the AM bands, both from around 1957 though of course, from different countries. Both sets use today's convention for FM, with the Philetta having '100' at the far-left.

We also have a Pilot set, with all the usual overseas stations, a few far-reaching ones aaaaand, Bournemouth!

Looking at the humble selection of sets we have, metres appears to fade out circa mid-70's.

Mark

[Richard_FM]

I've seen a few pictures of 1920s-40s American Radios with with station call signs on the dial.

I guess the manufacturers would have had to have issued a different dial for every city, but if they were printed on cellophane like some older British ones, they could easily be changed.

My Dad's Grundig Elite Boy had a decimal scale as an aid to tuning in, along with the Metre bands on Short Wave.

[AC/HL]

Originally Posted by mark2collection

Radio one on 247 was before my time, but today would make sense in that they play something, 24/7.

That was fortuitous. The BBC frequencies had been long assigned to the UK.

[Graham G3ZVT]

VHF/FM channel numbers anyone?

I know they were used in some parts of Europe, but I don't know if the channel spacing and absolute carrier frequencies are standardized around the world to make channels viable as a universal concept.

I think RNI announced its VHF/FM service for the Dutch audience as a channel number as well as a frequency.

[Station X]

Channel 44 100 Mc/s.

There was a thread about it fairly recently.

[Radio Wrangler]

Originally Posted by mark2collection

Radio one on 247 was before my time,

THe rest of us have had the jingles stuck in out heads for about half a century and the damned things won't shift!

Two-fourtyseven Radio wonne Beee Beee Ceeeyeee

Wot's the recipe today, jeeem?

'scuse me while i go bang my head

David

(Wot's the recipe was Jimmy Young, not the one damned to hell for eternity.)