Radio today (Sept 1935-Dec 1936)

t=T GEMLOID DIAL' EMERSON "COLORAMA DIAL" GENERAL ELECTRIC PREVIEW OF 1937 * MORE than ever before, the new 1937 radio sets give the radio dealer an opportunity to break all previous sales records. There are features which enable him to sell sets to families who do not at present own a radio — other features provide a basis of showing that old sets are now obsolete and should be replaced. These new features are more than descriptive phrases — they are real ideas that can be shown and demonstrated to the customer. This year the trend in new developments has been to produce features that the customer can see and touch — no longer must the dealer talk about some improvement that is hidden under the chassis. Automatic tuning Perhaps, the most outstanding developments as far as the public is concerned, have taken place in tuning systems. As early as the middle of June two manufacturers have announced sets with automatic tuning. Phileo's more expensive sets are tuned by turning a small dial lever to the space -having the name of the desired station. Grunow with its "Teledial" tuning utilizes a giant-size dial operating similarly to a telephone dial. In contrast to various automatic devices introduced several years ago, the new systems work without a miss, owing to the new circuit development of AFC or automatic frequency control. Dials this year have increased in size so that they can be easily read. The white-on-black idea has been adopted by many manufacturers. General Electric has the "Colorama" dial which operates on a color scheme similar to a traffic-light system. When the set is out of tune the dial is colored red — as the condenser is tuned to a station the dial turns green. In addition there are markings of the station names below the dial scale. The Arvin dial with clock type tuning has a spotlight illumination which travels with the main pointer making station finding extremely easy. It is a small bulb that travels behind the dial to spot the stations on whatever band that is in use. The cathode-ray tuning indicator is also part of the dial. Philco has a dial on which the names of the various foreign stations are printed — it shows the user where to look for the important foreign stations. All-i m-one dials B.VJD-STAND BAFFLE" -AMERICAN BOSCH Zenith has taken the set controls and made them part of the dial — the position of the wave-change switch, tone and volume controls is indicated on the dial. The tuning indicator known as "Target tuning" is also combined with the dial. Fairbanks-Morse uses a similar idea in its "Semaphore dial" — in the manufacturer's own words, "Visual indication of band, tone, and volume." Emerson has a dial that presents a very fine appearance — on the allwave jobs a clock scale is incorporated for ease in logging. The dials have 'a distinctive aspect reminding one of the face of a fine watch, particularly the dials having only two wave-bands. While new dials will help sell sets, the dealer can talk and demonstrate AFC to the customer on several sets. Among those having this latest circuit development are Crosley, General Electric, Grunow and Philco. It is easy to show the poor tone quality obtained when the set is out of tune — then a turn of the AFC knob and perfect tone results. AFC will find wide acceptance, particularly with those who do not take the trouble to tune properly. Also AFC makes tuning on shortwaves easier. Better tone Each year finds the manufacturers giving the public better tone quality — the 1937 sets surpass those of previous years. On the basis of tone practically every past set is now obsolete. Not only can the customer hear the improvement, but in many cases it is possible to show him the device which is responsible for the excellent reproduction. The importance of having a set which will reproduce both the high notes and the low ones is shown in the chart on page 17, "Tone ranges in radio." "Magic voice" is the name given by RCA-Victor to its new tone development. A series of open tubes are mounted on the bottom of the console connecting to the outside. These Radio Today