[GreenKeys] [External] ASR-33 manufacture date

[Jones, Douglas W]

From: Christian Tobar via GreenKeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net> -- Friday, May 29, 2026 11:41 PM
> about the ASR-33 teletype ... is there any way to find out when it was made

Electronic components such as capacitors frequently have date codes on them.  A common format back in the ASR-33 era was a 4 digit code such as 3769.  Finding that code on a capacitor would indicate that it was manufactured in the 37th week of 1969.  Date codes like that are common on integrated circuits, large capacitors, and some big power transistors.

Serial numbers are useful, and so are hardware revisions.  Early models had a cast zamac base plate.  Later production had a stamped steel base plate.  There were more subtle revisions in the mechanism, things like the details of how the linefeed linkage worked.

Look for tags inside the machine from resellers or reconditioning shops.  Some of those have dates -- the date of a rebuild, for example.

             Doug Jones