Radios with fixed, pre-set frequencies (Walter Dittel FSG16). Why?

It's basically the same sort of question as to why did my first tv only have 4 preset channels?
Why was it black and white?

Tech has developed a long way in 40 years.

If you are looking to upgrade just a little, I can offer you a Dittel FSG40s. Just removed from my Libelle, and I am guessing it was new with the ship.

A few years ago the radio in my ASW20 had problems. I took it out and took it apart.

It had the ability to store four frequencies in it (which you could set). To do this it had a couple of large chips which turned out to be memory. Each chip's capacity was 32 bits. Not Megabits. Not Kilobits. Bits.

State of the art at the time, I suspect.

When I was a lad....

Back in the 80s, I built a couple of RST radios from kits. Light, dependable, decent range. But crystal controlled. I bought 123.3 and 123.5 with the kit. I wanted to add a frequency later so I had to buy another crystal (two, IIRC, for transmit and receive?). There were 10 slots but I didn't fill them all up. This was back when an aviation set had 360 frequencies.

Technology marches on.

Chip Bearden

Just buy your club a radio that you want it to have like 1000 watt Becker and help them out.

The idea of one quartz crystal per frequency is as old as some of the earliest radios (think "crystal" radio set). And, yes, it was cheaper, at least at first but obviously very limited in functionality. Radio Shack carried all sort of crystal so that you could retune your police scanner based on your locale. As an aisde, my club has two Dittel base stations (battery and AC powered) that are based on panel mounted Dittel radios. One radio is an FSG60M which has a four channel "memory" manually set by some large rotary switches on the top. Never saw that before. You can see pictures of this radio at http://aviation.derosaweb.net/transceivers/dittel/.

On Monday, February 8, 2016 at 11:14:43 AM UTC-5, Paul Ruskin wrote:
A few years ago the radio in my ASW20 had problems. I took it out and took it apart.

It had the ability to store four frequencies in it (which you could set). To do this it had a couple of large chips which turned out to be memory. Each chip's capacity was 32 bits. Not Megabits. Not Kilobits. Bits.

State of the art at the time, I suspect.

When I was a lad....

My Libelle came with a US-made radio that held 4 frequencies and you had to tune the receiver to the frequency you were transmitting on. Now that was old-school stuff!
Uli
AS