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Tuning Eye Tube Patterns

S

Schroedingers Cat

I don't remember if anyone posted this here before, but it shows the patterns of many tuning eye tubes. Usually they were used as signal meters, but sometimes as VU type meters on tape recorders.

http://www.magiceyetubes.com/patterns.htm

Someone posted recently that the red tuning eye on the Westinghouse Console radio on "A Christmas Story" is fake, as is the green glow on the console radio shown on "The Waltons".
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
I don't remember if anyone posted this here before, but it shows the patterns of many tuning eye tubes. Usually they were used as signal meters, but sometimes as VU type meters on tape recorders.

http://www.magiceyetubes.com/patterns.htm

Someone posted recently that the red tuning eye on the Westinghouse Console radio on "A Christmas Story" is fake, as is the green glow on the console radio shown on "The Waltons".
Click to expand...

My first tape recorder was a webcor from the 50s with a VU meter just like one of those patterns.
 
I have an 1936 model Montgomery Ward floor model radio with a tuning eye, it's like the first tuning eye in the left top corner. I haven't fired that radio up in years. I really need to take it to a shop and have it fired up slowly, and have any work done on it that it may need. This was the first radio my grandparents had.
 
radioman148 said:
Schroedingers Cat said:
I don't remember if anyone posted this here before, but it shows the patterns of many tuning eye tubes. Usually they were used as signal meters, but sometimes as VU type meters on tape recorders.

http://www.magiceyetubes.com/patterns.htm

Someone posted recently that the red tuning eye on the Westinghouse Console radio on "A Christmas Story" is fake, as is the green glow on the console radio shown on "The Waltons".
Click to expand...

My first tape recorder was a webcor from the 50s with a VU meter just like one of those patterns.
Click to expand...

I have one of those 50's era Webcors (similar to the model Maj Winchester had) that used the 6E5 indcator and an Eico Capacitor checker that uses the EM84, haven't fired that up in a long time.
 
When I was in High School in the early 1960's, My first "SERIOUS" DXing radio was an old RCA communications receiver built in 1937. It was a model ACR-111 with 16 tubes weighing 50 or 60 pounds, maybe more! It had a green 6E5 tuning eye.
 
Would someone please explain to this young whipper-snapper what a tuning eye was? Went to that link and it raised a lot more questions than answers. Thanks!
 
If you click on the link in the first post, you will see a variety of tuning eyes going through their paces. The tuning eye was just that....a indicator on tuning in a signal. When the green (or other color) came closer together, it indicated you were zero-ing in on the center of the carrier for the best reception. In a sense, tuning eyes were an early version of an S-meter on radios. They were also used on some of the early tape recorders to adjust audio levels. Hope this helps you.
 
KR4BD said:
If you click on the link in the first post, you will see a variety of tuning eyes going through their paces. The tuning eye was just that....a indicator on tuning in a signal. When the green (or other color) came closer together, it indicated you were zero-ing in on the center of the carrier for the best reception. In a sense, tuning eyes were an early version of an S-meter on radios. They were also used on some of the early tape recorders to adjust audio levels. Hope this helps you.
Click to expand...

Thank you, that does help. What an interesting concept for the time! Honestly, I never knew that they did it this way.
 
Neat site!

I love the green glow that emits from my E.H. Scott.
 
In the old days, people would often leave the radio on a single station (there weren't that many stations in many areas), meaning the shadow pattern didn't change, and over time, the phosphors would fade in the illuminated area. Then, there was a reference where, if a stronger signal was tuned, part of the illuminated area would be brighter. Then, if the pattern closed and overlapped, it was even brighter. For people who want S-meter type reference points, this sort of provided that.
 
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