WATT RADIO TV 19" YEAR 1977

The  WATT RADIO TV 19" is a 19 inches (47cm)  B/W television with 8 programs keyboard selected and potentiometers tuning search.

 The mechanical turret approach to television tuning has been used almost exclusively for the past over  60 years. Even though replete with the inherent disadvantages of mechanical complexity, unreliability and cost, such apparatus has been technically capable of performing its intended function and as a result the consumer has had to bear the burdens associated with the device. However, with the " recent " Broadcast demands for parity of tuning for UHF and VHF channels, the increasing number of UHF and cable TV stations have imposed new tuning performance requirements which severely tax the capability of the mechanical turret tuner. Consequently, attempts are now being made to provide all electronic tuning to meet the new requirements.

The invention relates to a tuning unit with bandswitch for high frequency receivers, especially radio and television receivers, having a potentiometer system for the control of capacity diodes, the said potentiometer system consisting of a plurality of parallel resistance paths along which wiper contacts can be driven by means of screw spindles disposed adjacent one another in a common insulating material housing in which a bandswitch formed of metal rods is associated with each tuning spindle.

In these tuning units, the working voltages of the capacity diodes in the tuning circuits are recorded once a precise tuning to the desired frequency has been performed. A potentiometer tuning system has great advantages over the formerly used channel selectors operating with mechanically adjustable capacitors (tuning condensers) or mechanically adjustable inductances (variometers), mainly because it is not required to have such great precision in its tuning mechanism.

Tuning units with bandswitches formed of variable resistances and combined with interlocking pushbuttons controlling the supply of recorded working voltages to capacity diodes are known. Channel selection is accomplished by depressing the knobs, and the tuning or fine tuning are performed by turning the knobs. The resistances serving as voltage dividers in these tuning units are combined into a component unit such that they are in the form of a ladderlike pattern on a common insulating plate forming the cover of the housing in which the tuning spindles and wiper contacts corresponding to the variable resistances are housed. The number of resistances corresponds to the number of channels or frequencies which are to be recorded. The wiper contact picks up a voltage which, when applied to the capacity diodes determines their capacitance and hence the frequency of the corresponding oscillating circuit. The adjustment of the wipers is performed by turning the tuning spindle coupled to the tuning knob. By the depression of a button the electrical connection between a contact rod and a tuning spindle is brought about and thus the selected voltage is applied to the capacity diodes. Since the push buttons release one another, it is possible simply by depressing another button to tune to a different receiving frequency or a different channel, as the case may be.

 Moreover, using this arrangement, the only indication--during adjustment--of which channel is selected is by station identification.

•  All commands are front placed including the speaker.

• The set is completely based on semiconductors mainly discretes and few Ics.

• The set is a "undeground"  type as very few of these were around, exact model is unknown and appears as a "singularity" because it's one of the first TVs produced by WATT RADIO who started in only 1975 his own tv production.
  

• The chassis appears as an own design with simple circuits and nothing complex.

History:    Watt Radio; Torino    (I) 
Abbreviation:     watt
Watt Radio; Torino
Via VIII Marzo, 4 - 10092 Beinasco (To)
Founded:     1924

 Watt Radio was born in 1924 as a radio manufacturer.
Among the major works carried out is the collaboration with the Radio Agency for the activation (in the Turin area) of channel "C" for the first television broadcasts. In the following years, he supplied all the equipment and control desks for the filming and broadcasting of RAI's black and white programs. The flagship is the creation of the first color TV entirely produced in Italy (present at the 1964 "International Radio and Television Show" in Milan). In 2006 he was the Official Supplier of the TORINO OLYMPICS.
Currently the company provides technical assistance for radio and TV equipment and supplies or rents video systems for large hospitals and hotels. (Bibliography: company website) ------- by Biagio Laureti.

The company was founded in 1924 in Turin in via Cibrario 39 in the San Donato area on the initiative of Mr. Giuseppe Soffietti with the name Rag. G. Soffietti & C., Watt. Its activities initially involved the production and marketing of components for radiotelephony.

In 1928 the Turin company, which became an anonymous company with the name Watt Radio, Fabbrica Conduttori Elettrici Isolati S.A. , passed to the production of complete radio sets, and the following year launched the Watt Trionfo model, which was followed by the Watt Piccolo models (due to its compact size), and the Rapsodo of 1932, consisting of 8 valves and the first device of the house equipped with superheterodyne.

In the thirties, Watt Radio production was expanded to other categories of equipment such as radio receivers, low frequency amplifiers, centralized sound reproduction systems and electroacoustic equipment, microphones, photoelectric cells, gramophone sockets, becoming one of the major Italian industrial realities of electronics. housekeeper.
During the Second World War, the plant suffered serious damage due to the bombings that hit the Piedmontese capital. The activities were resumed in 1948, and he entered the field of television. In collaboration with RAI he carried out experiments with television broadcasts, which in 1954 led to the activation of the Turin Eremo transmitting center, called "Canale C", with the irradiation of the signal of the first channel.

In 1958 the company was transformed into a limited partnership, changed its name to Watt Radio S.a.s. di G. Soffietti & C. , and moved its headquarters and production plant to a new warehouse in via Bistagno 10 in the popular Santa Rita district. The production also involved televisions.

In the seventies the company encountered the first difficulties, caused by aggressive foreign competition. This situation soon led to the liquidation of the company.

In 1975 the Watt Radio brand was taken over by Piemonte Elettronica S.r.l. by Alfonso Cassin and Francesco Novarese with headquarters and plant in Brandizzo, in the Turin hinterland, which produced televisions and towards the nineties, also decoders for pay-TV.

Later became Watt Radio S.r.l., after the 2000s it is based in Beinasco. It currently markets and repairs LCD and LED televisions.

Further Notes:

1. ^ AA.VV., Alta frequenza: rivista di radiotecnica, telefonia e acustica applicata, vol. 37, AEI, 1968, p. 288
2. ^ Affari Notturni - articolo de L'Espresso pag, 153, 14 gennaio 1990

Bibliografia

• AA.VV. - Watt Radio. Un uomo e un'industria: 40 anniversario di fondazione 1924-1964. - Torino, 1964.

• Sito ufficiale, su wattradio.it.
• Scheda Watt Radio sul sito dell'AIRE Piemonte, on airepiemonte.org.