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  • Author Author: jw0752
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Circa Christmas 1965 Eico Model 324 RF Signal Generator

jw0752

This blog was inspired by and his 50 year ago post.


Sometime around Christmas 1965 I built this Eico 324 RF Signal Generator Kit which still works. For the fun of it but with a little fear of what kind of a solder job I might find inside, I also opened it up and include a couple pictures of the insides. The Owners Manual is dated 1954 but the unit was still being sold in the mid 1960s. Since the transistor was still green behind the ears at this time tube technology equipment was still available and desirable.

 

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The EICO Electronic Instrument Company was founded in New York City, New York in 1945 by Harry Ashley who owned an electronic repair business. From the start the company specialized in electronic test equipment in kit form. As they were successful they branched out into other specialty items such as Geiger counters and audio equipment. At the height of their success they had sales in excess of one million units. Unfortunately the times were changing with new technologies and new competitions. By the late 1970s the company had ceased to make and sell any more electronic kits. I googled their address in New York to see if I could get a picture of the building that held the EICO company but found what looked like a school buss company at the location now.


John

  • in reply to DAB

    Hi DAB!

     

    I appreciate seeing old instruments too. Also there is knowledge embedded in those designs that shouldn't be lost.

    I retain old books wherever I can find them, because they contain tricks that made good use of resources and certain topologies and some of these techniques can be put to very good use today too.

    One example that immediately comes to mind is amateur radio - it can be extremely expensive buying inductors or transformers (and a lot isn't produced any more), but very cheap to make your own based on guidelines which are as relevant now as 50 years ago.

    John's shop tips also have shown some timeless techniques useful in labs for prototyping for example.

  • Your post certainly brought back a lot of memories.

     

    I used a lot of the older instruments like this in my various jobs in the early 1970's.

     

    We did a lot of good work with what would be considered primitive tools by today's standards.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to shabaz

    Thanks Shabaz,

    I saw a couple of techniques that seemed OK to me 50 years ago that I wouldn't tolerate now but overall I was glad to see the condition of the unit internally. I too thught the arrangement of the RF coils was kind of neat. Thanks for your inspiration on this line of posts.

    John

  • Hi John,

     

    It is really nice to see such beautifully designed and constructed equipment.

    It looks like a useful instrument, that is quite a large range it covers. It looks great inside and out (I'm not surprised, it was expected if you made it : )

    And very interesting how the inductors are in curve around the switch!