EMERSON MODEL SKYRAY YEAR 1967.

The EMERSON MODEL SKYRAY is a 24 inches B/W television with VHF UHF rotary selectors.

Was first model with a UHF transistorized tuner but all other parts are tubes based.A solid-state voltage-controlled capacitor (varactor or varicap) UHF television tuner is described which includes a varicap preselector tuned circuit, a varicap tuned RF amplifier stage inductively coupled to the preselector circuit, and a varicap tuned oscillator stage, both the oscillator stage and the amplifier stage being inductively coupled to the diode mixer stage from which an IF signal is derived. The tuner employs a single tuning voltage source to tune across the entire UHF range and also includes provision for AGC. Trimmer capacitors and inductance adjusting devices of unique and advantageous configuration are employed to align the tuner. Further disclosed are unique methods of assembly and alignment for the tuner.

(To see the Internal Chassis Just click on Older Post Button on bottom page, that's simple !)


The B/W Tubes Television set was powered with a External Voltage stabiliser unit (portable metal box) which relates to voltage regulators of the type employed to supply alternating current and a constant voltage to a load circuit from a source in which the line voltage varies. Conventional AC-operated television receivers exhibit several undesirable performance attributes. For example, under low-line voltage conditions such as those encountered during peak load periods or temporary power brown-outs imposed during times of power shortage, picture shrinkage and defocusing are encountered and under extreme brown-out conditions the receiver loses synchronization with a resultant total loss of picture intelligibility.

On the other hand, abnormally high-line voltage conditions are sometimes encountered, and this can lead to excessive high voltage and X-ray generation. In addition, either abnormally high steady state line voltage conditions or high voltage transients such as those encountered during electrical storms or during power line switching operations may subject the active devices and other components of the receiver to over-voltage stresses which can lead to excessive component failure.

It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a new and improved AC-operated television receiver having greatly improved performance characteristics in the presence of fluctuating power supply voltages.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide an AC-operated television receiver affording substantially undegraded performance under even extremely low-line voltage conditions without excessive high voltage and X-ray generation under even extremely high-line voltage conditions.

Still another and extremely important object of the invention is to provide a new and improved AC-operated television receiver having greatly improved reliability against component failure. Such regulators are frequently provided employing saturable core reactors and condensers connected in circuit...  in such manner as to provide a plurality of variable voltage vectors which vary in different senses, as the line voltage varies, but which add vectorially in such manner that their vector sum remains substantially constant upon variations in line voltage, for providing automatic voltage stabilization of single or multiphase A. C. circuits where the supply voltage and frequency are subject to variation above and below normal value and where the load is subject to variation between normal limits.
voltage stabilization
is automatically effected by the provision of an inductive pilot control device which is adapted to provide two excitation supply voltages for producing excitation or satuation of two magnetic circuits of a reversible booster transformer unit or units and diversion of flux from one magnetic circuit to the other, the booster unit being energized by primary windings from the A. C. supplysystem and being provided with a secondary winding or windings connected between the supply system and the corresponding inain or distribution circuit and in series therewith, through which a corrective boost voltage is
imrorjiiced into the circuit under the influence of the pilot control device, of an amount equal to that of the supply voltage fluctuation which initiated it and appropriate in polarity and direction for restoring the voltage to normal value and providing automatic stabilization of the circuit voltage against supply voltages which fluctuate above and below normal value.

The pilot control device which may be employed singly or may comprise three units or their equivalent when applied to multiphase supply systems comprises a pair of closed magnetic circuits or cores constructed of strip wound magnetic material or stacked laminations, the two
circuits forming a pair being constructed of materials possessing dis~similar magnetic characteristics when jointly energized by identical windings in series or by a collective primary winding, the said magnetic circuits being suitably proportioned to provide equal fluxes when ener-
gized at normal voltage.

The pilot control device is provided with a main and an auxiliary secondary winding or group of windings, the main secondary winding or windings being adapted to provide a voltage representing the difference in the fluxes of the two circuits to which it is jointly associated, while
the auxiliary secondary winding embraces only one circuit, preferably that subject to the least amount of flux variation. Either of the windings consists of two equal sections or in effect a double winding with a center tapping to which one end of the single winding is connected.

The voltage in the single secondary winding of the pilot device becomes directionally additive to that in one half of the tapped secondary winding and substractive in respect to that in the other half. When the supply voltage is normal the voltage provided by the single secondary winding is zero, since there is no difference of flux in the two magnetic circuits, and the two excitation voltages
produced in the halves of the other secondary winding are equal and when connected to the two excitation windings of the booster units, do not produce any diversion of flux between the two circuits or sets of circuits in the magnetic system of the booster transformer unit become equal, and since the series winding on the booster unit is arranged to provide a voltage due to the difference of
the fluxes in its two magnetic circuits or sets of magnetic circuits, no corrective voltage is introduced into the main circuit by the booster. If, however, the supply voltage varies from normal the pilot control device provides a voltage across the one secondary winding due to the difference in the fluxes of the two dis-similar magnetic circuits of which it is comprised, which voltage is combined with thosc in the halves of the other secondary winding to provide two excitation voltages which vary complementarily to each other as the supply voltage fluotuates, and cause a transference of flux between the two
circuits or groups of circuits in the booster unit and automatically provide a corrective boost voltage in the main circuit in which the series winding of the booster transformer is includcd of a value equal to that of the variation in supply voltage which initiated it.
The pilot device may be arranged in various ways, forboth single phase and multiphase operation, as exemplified by the constructions hereinafter more fully described.Similarly, numerous arrangements of the booster transformer unit are possible, some of which are hereinafter described in detail. The booster transformer unit embodies thc principles of the inductive devices described in my co-pending Application No. 411,189, filed February 18, 1954.

As an alternative to the provision of an auxiliary secondary winding on the pilot control device this may be
replaced by an independent or external source of supply,which may be either subject to or independent of supply voltage variation, provided such supply may be arranged with a center tapping if required.

Feed-back arrangements may be employed for providing compensation against voltage drop due to the effects of load in various ways. These are preferably providedon the booster transformer unit and may comprise a current transformer in one or more lines of the main circuit,
the secondary output of the transformer being rectified and arranged to energize an additional excitation winding on the booster transformer unit which in clfect increases the amount of the corrective boost voltage as the load increases.

Emerson Radio Corp., founded in 1948, is one of the nation’s largest volume consumer electronics distributors with a recognized trademark in continuous use since 1912. It continues to be one of the oldest and well-respected names in the consumer electronics industry.


The Company engages in the design and marketing of audio and video products tailored to meet consumer preferences of the local market, particularly in the case of International markets. The breadth of products offered encompass televisions, Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) players and video cassette recorders (VCR's), audio accessories, microwave ovens, home theater, high end audio products, office products, mobile stereo and wireless products.


The Company distributes its products primarily through mass merchants, discount retailers, and specialty catalogers and, to a lesser degree, the Internet. The Company utilizes an extensive distributor network to facilitate its international presence and further leverages the Emerson brand globally through various licensing agreements. Its core business consists primarily of the distribution and sale of various low to moderately priced product categories.





History
1915–1920

Emerson Radio Corp. was incorporated in 1915 as Emerson Phonograph Co. (NAICS: 421620 Consumer Electronics Wholesaling), based in New York City, by an early recording engineer and executive, Victor Hugo Emerson, who was at one time employed by Columbia Records. The first factories were opened in Chicago and Boston, in 1920. In December of that year, the company fell victim to the unanticipated sales slump for phonograph music that accompanied the post-World War I recession and the growth of commercial radio. It went from the self-claimed third largest record manufacturer into receivership.
1921–1940

In 1922 Emerson Phonograph Co. passed into the hands of Benjamin Abrams  and Rudolph Kanarak. Abrams, a phonograph and record salesman, along with his two brothers, ran the company and renamed it Emerson Radio & Phonograph Corp in 1924 after entering the radio business. The company's record interests were subsequently sold. Although Emerson introduced the first radio-phonograph combination sold in the United States, the company remained in obscurity until 1932, when, during the Great Depression, it introduced the "peewee" radio (see "Historical Products" below).
1941–1950

Emerson Radio & Phonograph converted to military production for World War II in 1942, when it held one-sixth of the U.S. radio market. In 1943, it became a public corporation, when it offered over 40 percent of its stock to the public for $12 a share. In 1947, among its first post-war products, Emerson offered a television set with a 10-inch tube.
 Although its ending retail price was nearly equal to a month's salary for the average working American, it put Emerson at the lower end of the market. However, between fiscal 1948 and 1950, the high demand for television allowed Emerson to more than double its sales. Its net income reached a record of $6.5 million in fiscal 1950, with sales of $74.2 million.
1951–1960

In 1953 Emerson Radio and Phonograph purchased Quiet Heet Corp., which entered the company into air conditioning. Although radio represented only 15 percent of Emerson's revenue by 1954,
 the company credited itself as creating the firsts of the clock radio, self-powered radio, and transistorized pocket radio; production of tape recorders began in 1955.

Emerson Radio and Phonograph paid $6 million to purchase the consumer products division of DuMont Laboratories in 1958.[4] With this acquisition, a higher-priced line of television sets, phonographs and high-fidelity and stereo instruments, along with the DuMont trademark was added to Emerson's products. Unfortunately, by this time, almost every U.S. household that wanted a TV set already had one, and many customers who were in need of another set were waiting for color television instead of buying a replacement. Sales fell from $87.4 million in fiscal 1955 to $73.9 million in fiscal 1956, when the company earned a paltry $84,852.

A cost-cutting campaign by Abrams rebounded net income which reached $2.7 million in fiscal 1959 on sales of $67.4 million. In fiscal 1964 (Emerson's last full year of independent operation) it earned $2.1 million on sales of $68.2 million.
1961–1980

In 1965 the company acquired the Pilot Radio Corp. from Jerrold Corp. Its line of Quiet Kool air conditioners became a separate National Union Electric division. Later in 1965 Emerson Radio and Phonograph was purchased for approximately $62 million in cash and stock by National Union Electric Corp., a diversified manufacturer. This company continued to produce radios, television sets and phonographs distributed under the Emerson and DuMont names and hi-fi equipment under the Pilot name.

Between 1967 and 1971 the National Union Electric division lost about $27 million due to too little volume to cover costs. The division contracted out the manufacturing of television sets and some other home entertainment products to Admiral Corp., and laid-off 1,800 employees. In addition to importing some of its home entertainment products from the Far East, Emerson continued to be responsible for design, engineering, and marketing.

In late 1972 National Union Electric announced that Emerson was discontinuing distribution of television sets and other home entertainment products. In 1973 Emerson sold its license for marketing products under the Emerson name to Major Electronics Corp. Founded in 1948 by Melvin Lane and incorporated in 1956, this Brooklyn-based company originally made children's phonographs.
 The company later diversified into the production and sale of a broad line of low-priced home entertainment products that included stereos, radios, and clock radios. In 1971 Major also began importing low-cost radios. By 1975 the company was only manufacturing portable phonographs. In 1976 the company moved its headquarters to Secaucus, New Jersey, and changed its name to Emerson Radio Corp. in 1977.

Sales rose from $11.5 million in fiscal 1975 to $49.2 million in fiscal 1978, the year in which phonographs, radios, tape recoders and players, compact stereos, digital clock radios, and other low to medium-priced electronic equipment was being imported, assembled, and marketed, primarily under the Emerson name. Approximately 60 percent of its components were being imported from the Far East and 20 percent from each Great Britain and domestically, and assembled in either Secaucus or Sun Valley, California.

In 1979, Emerson began selling Heart Aid, after purchasing a large portion of Cardiac Resuscitator Corp., a near-bankrupt company. Emerson spent heavily to develop and produce both an improved Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator and a pacemaker. In addition, the company took an 18 percent share in a developer of Computerized Axial Tomographic (CAT) scanners. Because this line of products never made money, Emerson disposed of its holdings in them between 1987-88.

Emerson Radio dropped its last U.S.-made product, the phonograph line, in 1980 because it became unprofitable due to rising labor costs. Despite harsh competition, Emerson Radio raised its sales and earnings in fiscal 1980 to $81.9 million and $1.6 million, respectively. Their plan was to have their suppliers (mainly in Taiwan and South Korea) to imitate Sony and Panasonic audio/video products and then sell them at a lower price.
1981–1990

Sales soared from $94.8 million in fiscal 1983 to $181.6 million in fiscal 1984, when net income came to $9.1 million
because of the company's reintroduction of television sets in 1983. Emerson purchased sets from Goldstar Electric Co. (AKA LG Electronics), a South Korean company, but sold them at a higher price point.

In 1984, Emerson signed a 10-year contract with Orion Electric to produce a line of VCRs to its existing product lineup.

In 1985 a compact disc player and microwave oven were introduced causing sales to once again double in fiscal 1985 to $357.5 million, and net income rose to $13.3 million. TV sets and VCR's accounted for two-thirds of sales that year.
 Later that year, Emerson Radio moved its headquarters to North Bergen, New Jersey, and acquired H. H. Scott, Inc., a company that manufactured high-fidelity audio and visual equipment. Products were sold under the Scott name until 1991, the year the line was discontinued.

In 1986 Emerson began importing and marketing compact refrigerators and Hi-Fi stereo VHS VCRs. Camcorders, telephones, and answering machines were added to its product line in fiscal 1988. In 1990 personal computers and facsimile machines were added for a major roll-out to more than 500 Wal-Mart stores.[11] In 1992 sales reached a peak of $891.4 million, unfortunately, net income was a lowly $10.4 million.

Emerson's addition of personal computers ended up being a catastrophe for the company—a $150 million loss. That coupled with the recession that began in 1990 brought the company's total loss to $37.5 million in the last nine months of the year. Shares of stock fell as low as $2, compared to the high of $12.75 in 1987. Several shareholder suited charging some Emerson directors and officials with breach of fiduciary duty and self-dealing. Emerson also fell into technical default on its long-term debt of $55.4 million at the end of the year.
1991–2000

Fidenas Investment Ltd., a Swiss firm based in the Bahamas, began purchasing shares of Emerson Radio stock in 1989. It held a 20 percent stake (more than that held by Stephen and William Lane) by 1992, when they began a takeover attempt. The Lane brothers were seeking to restructure $180 million in debt, but ended up conceded defeat in June 1992. Unfortunately, Emerson's financial situation worsened, and in fiscal 1993 the company incurred a loss of $56 million on sales of $741.4 million. When the company filed for bankruptcy in October 1993, Emerson had been in default on $223 million in debt for the previous two years.

In 1994, the company emerged from bankruptcy pursuant to a plan of reorganization and with $75 million in financing arranged by Fidenas, which had assumed a 90 percent stake in Emerson.
 It then issued 30 million shares, some of which were claimed by creditors. Legal battles ensued and continued until mid-August 2001.

In early 1995, in an effort to cut costs, Emerson Radio licensed the manufacture of certain video products under the Emerson and G Clef trademarks for a three-year period to Otake Trading Co. Ltd. The company also licensed the sale of these products in the United States and Canada for the same period to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. As a result, Emerson's net sales fell from $654.7 million in fiscal 1995 to $245.7 million in fiscal 1996, with the licensing agreement only providing about $4 million a year in royalty income.

Also in 1995, Emerson Radio entered the home theater and car audio fields, and the $900-million-a-year home and personal security market with a carbon monoxide detector. The company planned to eventually lend its name to burglar alarms, motion detectors, personal alarms, smoke detectors, and safety lights, however, the company left this field in fiscal 1997. Additionally, Emerson announced it would license the Emerson name to more than 250 audio and video accessories made by Jasco Products Co., an Oklahoma firm selling cables, remote controls, and appliance cleaning devices.

The company took a 27 percent stake in Sport Supply Group, Inc., the largest direct-mail distributor of sporting goods equipment and supplies to the U.S. institutional market, for $11.5 million, in late 1996.

Subsequent to a net income of $7.4 million in fiscal 1995, Emerson dropped into the red again the following three years. They lost $13.4 million, $24 million, and $1.4 million in fiscal 1996, 1997, and 1998, respectively, with net revenues of $245.7 million, $178.7 million, and $162.7 million.

Emerson Radio Corp. announced in November 1998 that it had entered into an exclusive agreement with Team Products International, Inc. of Boonton, N.J., a distributor of audio, video and other consumer electronic product accessories in the United States and Canada. They would promote the sale of a wide variety of Emerson branded consumer electronic products and accessories.

The owner of Fidenas's, Geoffrey P. Jurick, had assumed the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company in 1992 and in 1998 he added the titles of President and Chairman of the Board. In December 1998 he held 60 percent of Emerson's common stock, during which time Kenneth S. Grossman, a private investor, along with Oaktree Capital Management, a Los Angeles-based investment firm that held a smaller stake in Emerson Radio, proposed to buy Jurick's holdings in the company for more than $14.6 million, but the offer was rejected as "inadequate."
Emerson announced in August 1999 that it planned to sell to Oaktree for $28.9 million.

On the day the licensing agreement with Otake expired, Emerson replaced the company with Daewoo Electronics Co. Ltd., which entered into a four-year agreement with Emerson to manufacture and sell television and video products bearing the Emerson and G Clef trademark to U.S. retailers. In 1999, Emerson also signed five-year license and supply agreements with Cargil International covering the Caribbean and Central and South American markets, along with WW Mexicana for certain consumer products to be sold in Mexico. They also had a licensing agreement with Telesound Electronics for telephones, answering machines, and caller ID products in the United States and Canada.

Net income for Emerson was a meager $289,000 on net revenues of $158.7 million in fiscal 1999 with a long-term debt of $20.8 million at the end of the fiscal year. Nearly 84 percent of its merchandise that year was imported, primarily from China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand. Tonic Electronics (32 percent), Daewoo (22 percent), and Imarflex (12 percent) were its main suppliers. The company depended heavily on Wal-Mart Stores, which took about 52 percent of its goods in fiscal 1999, and Target Stores, Inc., which took about 24 percent.
2001–present

In 2001, Emerson exited the video electronics business (TVs, DVD players, VCRs) and handed 100% of the operations to Funai. Funai currently makes and markets Emerson consumer video products for Wal-Mart. In January 2003, Emerson announced it had entered into a letter of intent naming Sablian Group of Shandong, China the exclusive distributor of Emerson branded products through its subsidiary, Sanlian Household Electric Appliance Company (SHEAC).
 The agreement contemplated the supply and distribution of Emerson originated product categories through SHEAC's 200 retail stores and maintenance service centers as well as its extensive BtoB and BtoC e-commerce network. Furthermore, Sanlian shall license the Emerson brand for additional product categories it finds suitable for China-wide distribution and cooperate with Emerson in the design, development and sourcing for such.



Historical products

In 1915, at the company's inception, Emerson's main product was the Universal Cut Records, capable of being played laterally or vertically. Music offered included a wide variety of popular, band, opera, classical, religious, and folk music. Also during their first years, Emerson offered one of the last of the external-horn phonographs, which sold for only $3.

The "peewee" radio was introduced December 1932. Measuring about 8½ inches long and 6¼ inches wide, approximately 60 percent of all radios sold between early December 1932 and late May 1933 were peewees, half of which were manufactured by Emerson. The Universal Compact line was priced from $17.95 to $32.50. Emerson led the production and sale of this class of radio until 1938, having by then sold more than a million.

In 1947 Emerson offered a television set with a 10-inch tube, which retailed for $375. It was among Emerson's first postwar products. They dropped the price to $269.50 by June 1948, when the newly developed television industry had sold 375,000 sets.

In 1953, Emerson Radio and Phonograph purchased Quiet Heet Corp., which entered the company into air conditioning.

Although radio represented only 15 percent of Emerson's revenue by 1954, the company credited itself as creating the first clock radio, self-powered radio, and transistorized pocket radio.

Production of tape recorders began in 1955.

When Emerson purchased Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc. in 1958, a higher-priced line of television sets, phonographs and high-fidelity and stereo instruments, along with the DuMont trademark was added to Emerson's products.

In 1979, Emerson began selling Heart Aide, after purchasing a large portion of Cardiac Resuscitator Corp. The company spent heavily to develop and produce both an improved Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator and a pacemaker. In addition, the company took an 18 percent share in a developer of computerized axial tomographic (CAT) scanners. As this line of products never made money, Emerson disposed of its holdings in them between 1987-88.

Emerson manufactured the Arcadia 2001, the most well-known of the "Emerson Arcadia 2001" second-generation 8-bit game console variations. Although, considerably more powerful than the then-dominant Atari 2600, the Arcadia 2001 wasn't released until just before the more-advanced Atari 5200 and the ColecoVision, in mid-1982. It was successful in other countries, however, because Atari had exclusive rights to many games, it was nearly impossible for Emerson to market in the United States due to the lack of popular game titles.

In 1983, Emerson began selling re-branded Goldstar televisions at inflated prices for a substantial profit. The compact disc player and microwave oven were introduced in 1985 doubling sales. In 1986 Emerson began importing and marketing compact refrigerators. Camcorders, telephones, and answering machines were added to its product line in fiscal 1988. Personal computers and facsimile machines were added in 1990.

In 1995, Emerson Radio entered the home theater and car audio fields, and the $900-million-a-year home and personal security market with a carbon monoxide detector, however, they left this field in 1997. Also in 1995, Emerson announced it would license its name to more than 250 audio and video accessories made by Jasco Products Co., a firm selling cables, remote controls, and appliance cleaning devices.

Emerson began manufacturing and selling television and video products bearing the Emerson and G Clef trademark to U.S. retailers in 1999. They also had a licensing agreement with Telesound Electronics for telephones, answering machines, and caller ID products in the United States and Canada.

A good point  on good  old  B/W Televisions.....................

The Sixties was a time of great change for TV. At the start of the decade there were just monochrome sets with valves, designed for 405 -line transmissions at VHF. By the end there was 625 -line colour at UHF, with transistorised chassis that used the odd IC.

The following decade was one of growth. The "space race" had begun in 1957, when the USSR launched Sputnik 1 and terrified the Americans. Thereafter the USA began to spend countless billions of dollars on space missions. This got underway in earnest in the Sixties, with the announcement that America would be going all out to get a man on the moon by the end of the decade. There followed the Mercury series of earth - orbit missions, then the Apollo launches. Success was achieved in 1969. Most of these missions were televised, and in those days anything to do with space was hot stuff. It was inevitable that everyone wanted to have a television set. At the time an average receiver would be a monochrome one with a 14in. tube - there was no colour until 1967. It would cost about 75 guineas. 
TV sets were often priced in guineas (21 shillings) as it made the price look a bit easier on the pocket. Anyway 75 guineas, equivalent to about £78.75 in 2000's currency, was a lot of money then.  For those who couldn't, rental was a good option. The Sixties was a period of tremendous growth for rental TV. 
Much else was rented at that time, even radios, also washing machines, spin driers, refrigerators and, later on, audio tape recorders (no VCRs then). 
For most people these things were too expensive for cash purchase. 
There were no credit cards then. And when it came to a TV set, the question of reli- ability had to be taken into account: renting took care of repair costs. 

TV reliability.........The TV sets of the period were notoriously unreliable. They still used valves, which meant that a large amount of heat was generated. The dropper resistor contributed to this: it was used mainly as a series device to reduce the mains voltage to the level required to power the valve heaters. These were generally connected in series, so the heater volt- ages of all the valves were added together and the total was subtracted from the mains voltage. The difference was the voltage across the heater section of the dropper resistor, whose value was determined by simple application of Ohm's Law. 
As valves are voltage -operated devices, there was no need to stabilise the current. So the power supply circuits in TV sets were very simple. They often consisted of nothing more than a dropper resistor, a half or biphase rectifier and a couple of smoothing capacitors. If a TV set had a transformer and a full wave rectifier in addition to the other components, it was sophisticated!
 As the valve heaters were connected in series they were like Christmas -tree lights: should one fail they all went out and the TV set ceased to function. Another common problem with valves is the cathode -to -heater short. When this fault occurs in a valve, some of the heaters in the chain would go out and some would stay on. Those that stayed on would glow like search- lights, often becoming damaged as a result. Dropper failure could cause loss of HT (dead set with the heaters glowing), or no heater supply with HT present. When the HT rectifier valve went low emission, there was low EHT, a small picture and poor performance all round. CRTs would go soft or low emission, the result being a faint picture, or cathode -to -heater short-circuit, the result this time being uncontrollable brightness. On average a TV set would have twelve to fourteen valves, any one of which could go low -emission or fail in some other way. All valves have a finite life, so each one would probably have to be replaced at one time or another. The amount of heat generated in an average TV set would dry out the capacitors, which then failed. So you can see why people rented! 

The CRT could cause various problems. Because of its cost, it was the gen- eral practice to place its heater at the earthy end of the chain. In this position it was less likely to be overloaded by a heater chain fault. But during the winter months, when the mains voltage dropped a bit, it would be starved of power. This would eventually lead to 'cathode poi- soning' with loss of emission. The 'cure' for this was to fit a booster transformer designed to overrun the heater by 10, 20 or 30 per cent. It would work fine for a while, until the CRT completely expired. At about this time CRT reactivators came into being - and a weird and wonderful collection of devices they turned out to be. Regunned tubes also started to appear. You couldn't do this with the `hard -glass' triode tubes made by Emitron. These were fitted in a number of older sets. Yes, they were still around, at least during the early Sixties.



Developments................... A great deal of development occurred during the Sixties. Many TV sets and radios made in the early Sixties were still hard -wired: the introduction of the printed circuit board changed the construction of electronic equipment forever. The first one was in a Pam transistor radio. PCBs were ideal for use in transistor radios, because of the small size of the components used and the fact that such radios ran almost cold. 
They were not so good for use with valve circuitry, as the heat from the valves caused all sorts of problems. Print cracks could develop if a board became warped. If it became carbonised there could be serious leakage and tracking problems. In addition it was more difficult to remove components from a PCB. Many technicians at that time didn't like PCBs. As the Sixties progressed, transistors took over more and more in TV sets. They first appeared in a rather random fashion, for example in the sync separator stages in some Pye models. Then the IF strip became transistorised. Early transistors were based on the use of germanium, which was far from ideal. 

The change to silicon produced devices that were more robust and had a better signal-to-noise ratio. 
Car radios became fully transistorised, and 'solid-state' circuitry ceased to be based on earlier valve arrangements. Many hi-fi amplifiers had been transistorised from the late Fifties, and all tape recorders were now solid-state. 
Both reel-to-reel and compact -cassette recorders were available at this time. Initially, audio cassette recorders had a maximum upper frequency response of only about 9kHz. 
To increase it meant either a smaller head gap or a faster speed. Philips, which developed the compact audio cassette and holds the patents for the design (which we still use in 2000!) wouldn't allow an increase in speed. Good reel-to-reel recorders had a fre- quency response that extended to 20kHz when the tape speed was 15in./sec. 
This is true hi-fi. In time the frequency response of compact -cassette recorders did improve, because of the use of better head materials with a smaller gap. 
This led to the demise of the reel-to-reel audio recorder as a domestic product We began to benefit from spin-offs of the space race between the USA and the USSR. 
The need to squeeze as much technology as possible into the early computers in the Mercury space capsules used by the USA lead to the first inte- grated circuits. 
This technology soon found its way into consumer equipment. Often these devices were hybrid encap- sulations rather than true chips, but they did improve reliability and saved space. The few chips around in those days were analogue devices.  To start with most UHF tuners used valves such as the PC86 and PC88. They were all manually tuned. Some had slow-motion drives and others had push -buttons. They didn't have a lot of gain, so it was important to have an adequate aerial and use low -loss cable..............................