[Milsurplus] Re: BC 604 FM modulation Milsurplus digest, Vol 1 #578 - 4 msgs

[aGEnuine Ham]

On Tue, 10 Jun 2003 08:49:18 -0400 (EDT) "Marty R's GI-stuff haunt"
<cosmoline@aa4rm.ba-watch.org> writes:
> > A lot of times the government buys the entire drawing package...
> 
> Mike I've a Colonial Radio BC-603 that has a sticker that says:
> 
> Licensed by Edwin Armstrong only for military and naval use  
> (there's a 
> difference?)
> 
> This supports the the GUESS the court patent climate was different 
> in 1940
> than now


That was certainly true, as a look at any apparatus or component box from
before about 1950  will attest.  Vacuum tubes were licensed for
entertainment radios only.  Said so right on the box, or on the tube in
some cases.  Couldn't legally use them in commercial transmitters or
traffic light controls, for instance.  Then, look at the stickers on the
back of radios.  Couldn't use a home radio to listen to anything but
broadcast (legally).  Which makes you wonder about 'Police Band'
coverage.  Early on, you couldn't buy a radio with the tubes already in
it from some manufacturers who hadn't paid tribute to the right
companies.  RCA patents.  Hazeltine patents.  And so on.  Sort of makes
the VCR controversy of a couple decades back look tame by comparison.  A
good perspective on this is:  Sarnoff could not put a network of already
licensed stations together broadcasting already existing program material
without permission from the Commerce Department.  Tough times.

By the way, that hokey delay line modulator reappeared briefly in the
initial GE TPL mobile radios in 1957.  Didn't work any better there
either.  Replaced by a conventional phase modulator fairly quickly.


73,
George
W5VPQ

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