Eddystone User Group


Archive for June, 2015

Eddystone Radio Tie-pin and cuff-links?

June 26, 2015 By: chris Category: News

cufflinks and tiepin ebayBefore Marconi purchased Eddystone Radio in 1965, they were owned by Laughtons, a family owned company that made ladies, compacts, cufflinks, hair grips and Twinco plastic goods. So it should come as no surprise that at some stage in Eddystone’s history it was decided to make a set of Eddystone cuff-links and a tie-pin. I even have an Eddystone tie-pin myself. I expect they were made for sales promotion purposes to give out to valued customers.  So I was surprised to see a set of cuff-links and tie-pin offered for sale on E bay recently and even more surprised to see that they went for nearly £78 after a hard fought for auction. The original case was lost so the one in the picture is not how they were originally produced. I believe the original packaging was a small cardboard box with Stratton printed all over it. They were obviously bought by an Eddystone enthusiast who really wanted them.  I see the same seller has another pair of cuff-links also for sale but slightly different. Wonder how much they will get?

 

 

 

Edometer S902 MkII sold for £68

June 24, 2015 By: chris Category: News

edometer S902MK2This  Eddystone “Edometer” S902  Mk 2 in a wooden box complete with operating instructions booklet  sold for £68 recently on E bay.

The Edometer was versatile transistorised instrument which functioned as a dip oscillator, signal generator, absorption wave-meter, AF tone generator and AM modulation monitor. It came with seven plug-in miniature coils and covered the frequency range 390 kc/s to 115 Mc/s. Powered by 9v. PP3 battery. This example looks complete will all seven coils and space for the spare battery.

The  S.902 Mk I came out in 1965 and was supplied in cardboard box and is usually minus its coils and is very rare. The S.902 Mk II was supplied in beautiful mahogany case, as well with improved circuitry (NPN transistors).The price in 1969 was £27 10s. Still quite rare.

I think someone got a real bargain with this purchase, as in recent years they have sold for as high as £250 when in good condition. The EUG were donated one by Barry ZS2H for club funds but it has not been offered for sale yet. I will wait until prices go back up again.

 

 

Santi EA2UM’s Eddystone 940 with speaker

June 15, 2015 By: chris Category: News

 

Eddystone 940

Eddystone 940

Photo of Santi EA2UM’s Eddystone 940,

Greetings from Bilbao, Spain,

Santi EA2UM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eddystone 1650/6 sells for £314 on E bay

June 10, 2015 By: chris Category: News

Eddystone 1650-6 receiverSeeing the offer and eventual sale of an Eddystone 1650/6 receiver brought back memories of the original sale and their subsequent disposal by the customer onto the Government surplus market.  The 1650 set was the company’s first microprocessor controlled general coverage communication receiver. Introduced in 1984 and went on to have many variants, all looking the same. It had a sealed membrane front panel and covered 10kHz to 30MHz in 5Hz steps. It also had a 99-channel memory, any number of which were scannable and with any portion of the frequency spectrum sweepable. Tuning was either by keyboard or knob and it had a built-in motor-tuned pre-selector option. It was a double conversion super-het with a first of IF 46.205MHz, and second IF of 1.4MHz. Could operate from AC mains or 24V DC and was remotely controllable Prices c.£3.5k in 1984.

In 1988 to Government asked us to quote for a special version which would be controlled by computer. I personally didn’t see the specification as it was restricted but it clearly did not require a tuning knob or front panel controls. This set was designated the 1650/6. It was to be used for some sort of FSK operation and had two IF centred filters with a special 5kHz product detector. (more…)

Eddystone 960 sells for £333

June 02, 2015 By: chris Category: News

 

Eddystone 960 Transistorised Receiver

Eddystone 960 Transistorised Receiver

The 960 was the first transistorised communications set Eddystone produced and they are quite rare with a production run of only 150. Performance was reputed to be inferior to its valve equivalent, the 940. This example looked in reasonable condition although there was no guarantee of performance. In the end it sold for £333 on E Bay. Obviously much fought after and the price probably reflects its being the first transistorised set. I remember  Bill Cooke, MD and Chief Engineer at Eddystone, telling me that he was tasked with using as much existing stock as possible and I believe the transistors were fitted into “valve-holders”.

Apparently these first transistors such as the OC171, OC45, OC71, OC83 and OA70 were very expensive and god help any engineer who destroyed one during the sets development.