Xtal Substitute Solution

[Yorkie]

I went through an Eddystone phase - as a teenager in the 1960s I always hankered after one but they were way out of reach of my pocket. The ones without a BFO carried 66% purchase tax, the ones with a BFO were classed as 'communications receivers' so were free of tax - hence, you got as lot more 'bang for your bucks'. When I got into my 50s and was better off finacially, I started to acquire Eddystones and was a member of the Eddystone User Group for many years when it was paper based and 'Lighhouse' magazine was issued.

I've had most of the sets over the years - I wasn't keen on the AC/DC ones - had a 680SX, 640, then a couple of 940s, which were towards the end of the valve era, and cobbled together from bits from other models, but nice, nevertheless.

When I was interested in amateur radio I had an EA12 - a really excellent pre-WARC bands amateur band only set. I sold that to Rob Philby, the Racal expert, and he later rang me to say how out of spec it was, and what he'd had to do at it to bring it back up to spec, which would have been far beyond my capabilities. The problem with complex sets is that unless you have the test gear and experience, which most users don't, you never quite know if the set is working as it should do - probably not. One of the odd problems with the EA12 is that the S meter, which looks 'plonked on' behind the dial glass, invariably has a crack in it due to the cover being too tight a fit.

Eddystone started to lose its way a bit and to abandon the domestic market at the end of the valve era, (or perhaps the amateur market abandoned Eddystone?) though it made some highly sophisticated solid state professional communications receivers, and equipped most UK FM broadcast stations with transmitters. The EC10 (MK1/2) and EB35 were nicey built - especially the coil packs but really, were simple single superhets and little different from a circuitry point of view from any average pocket portable of the era. (E'B' = Broadcast, E'C' = Communications).

One of the main problems with sets such as the EA 12/940 etc, are the little red Hunt's caps - little oval things that look like pills and leak like a seive. Carbon resistors of course also drift high in value over time.

Very interesting history as to how the company got into radio in the first place. Basically, because of a change in women's hairstyles - they used to make millions of hair grips until bobbed hairstyles came in during the 1920s. Their market collapsed, but it was just as radio was coming into being, so the son of the then MD of Stratton (Lahghton) said 'why not divesify into making radio components?' In WW2, the facctory took a direct hit, and almost everything was lost. They moved into what had been the swimming baths and there they stayed until the demise of the company, in what came to be known as the 'Bathtub'.

The EUG lives on, with some great characters and a fund of knowledge.

Eddystone prices hold up because most are in the hands of collectors who don't want to part with them. Mine just became dust traps and started to take over the house because they're so bulky. Eventually, common sense over-rides nostalgia, so they all had to go, along with a 'bug key' and round speakers. Happy days though!