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Last Edited:
12-Sep-2004

 

In 1954, H.H. Scott perfected and introduced the first commercially successful Wide-band FM-only tuner, the original 310(A) Broadcast Monitor, a major factor in the popular acceptance of FM radio for Hi-Fi listening pleasure.

Then, in mid-1961, H.H. Scott was ready when the FCC adopted the current standard (Zenith/GE) for FM-Stereo multiplex transmissions. Anticipating the FCC's final decision they were first-to-market with the Type 335 Multiplex Adaptor.  (Also, see the Type 830 FM Multiplex Stereo Generator and Type 4310 Broadcast Monitor).

By introducing Wide-band technology to its products, Scott's talented engineering team, led by Chief Research Engineer, Daniel R. von Recklinghausen, "future-proofed" their RF products with the first "useable" multiplex output.

Daniel von Recklinghausen, Chief Engineer, H.H. Scott
(with WCRB Chief Engineer Paul Day) adjusting WCRB's
first FM stereo generator (H. H. Scott Type 830), during the summer of 1961

Even before commercial stereo multiplex broadcasting was approved by the FCC (in 1961), wide-band tuner design gave superior quality reception. The earlier research on VHF FM receivers by Major Edwin H. Armstrong (see bio by broadcast historian, Donna Hapler), inventor of FM, clearly demonstrated the inherent advantage of wide-band circuitry. Scott tuners were so reliable they were often used in commercial broadcast applications (See FM Relay Networks).

Because of the subtleties of wide-band circuitry, most manufacturers continued to produce relatively "narrow-band" tuners which give adequate but not the best results with monophonic FM. It remained for the FCC to eventually point out the superiority of wide-band design in receiving multiplex: The FCC-approved (Zenith/GE) multiplex system."

   .   .  like any multiplex transmission, will increase energy transmission at the edges of the channel involved. Accordingly, for optimum stereophonic reception the bandwidth . . . must be considerably greater than that of monophonic . . ."

FCC Report and Order, Docket No. 13506, 04/19/61. 

If you could only choose a single vintage H.H. Scott product to own, most agree it would probably be one of the company's sensitive, and ground-breaking tuners.