Mark Zenier wrote:
In article ,
Silfax wrote:

On 2006-05-04, SWL-2010 wrote:

On the long scale along with the regular frequency numbers there will be
some colored "marks" resembling diamond shapes, if I remember right. Set
the main tuner on one of the marks to tune a Meter band. Then, with the
bandspread dial all the way to zero, you will begin to tune slowly across
the band, when you find the station or signal, note where on the bandspread
you are. It's not really to hard to do.


If I recall correctly the markings on the bandspread dial were only
"accurate" for the amateur bands. There was a chart at the back of the
manual for conversion to the sw bcst bands.


I'm pretty sure it was the broadcast bands.

But you folks act like you've never heard of Crystal Calibrators?

Most folks had a box, or built into their receiver, a 100 kHz crystal
oscillator, designed to produce harmonics all across the band, trimmed
to WWV so it could tell you where you where.

Back in the '70s, when digital divider ICs became common, projects to
build them were in just about every electronics magazine that produced
even more useful frequencies, like 1 MHz, 100 kHz, and 25 kHz modulated
with an audio tone so they were easy to find, all done with a chip or
three.

Mark Zenier

It was also in the 70's when digital frequency displays became
practical/economical. I built the display featured in a 1977 issue of
'Popular Electronics'. It cost about $100 for the parts, including the
PC boards. It seemed like a lot of money back then but it was a real
luxury to have 1-Khz tuning accuracy in those days. I used that display
with my Halli' S20R. The magazine article showed the display being used
with the Realistic DX-160. I built a second one for a friend who had a
DX-160. I still have my display and the S20R.