bh | Digital Encroachment: Heathkit AJ-1510 FM Tuner |
The Heathkit AJ-1510 is an FM stereo tuner dating from 1972, utilising a Phase-Locked-Loop tuning system built from hard-wired logic with SSI/MSI ICs.
The Sherwood Micro/CPU-100 from 1976 is presented in another article as an early example of embedding a microprocessor in a common home-use or consumer item. The encroachment of digital technology into this arena began a few years earlier. The Heathkit AJ-1510 is an example of this, without the microprocessor. The digital display, push-button keyboard entry, and lack of rotary knobs was very futuristic in 1972.
Some of the features of the AJ-1510:
The RCA Numitron display tubes used in the AJ-1510 can be problematic. As hot-filament incandescent displays the segments do burn out. These displays were introduced around 1969, shortly before 7-segment LED and vacuum-flourescent displays, and were obsolete almost from the day they were introduced. In addition, the AJ-1510 uses the smaller and rarer of the two sizes of Numitron made by RCA. See the Metrotech digital clock for an example of use of the larger version of Numitron. Numitrons were not extensively used and can now be difficult to source.
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Unit Log
Heathkit AJ-1510 |
bhilpert 2015 Jun |