BBC QUAD Broadcasts-specifically SQ and QS

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My dad had Sony UK product line brochures in the early to mid 1970s, I wish I still had them. I used to pour over them as a child, marvelling at Elcassette with optional wired remote control, and at SQ decoders. So quad gear was marketed in the UK to some extent.
Yes it existed - but the general public wasn't aware of it and sales were dismal. Even stereo radio had very little penetration at that time (and of course the BBC didn't even have a fully stereo FM network yet anyway).
 
Ah now stereo FM is something we did have in 1973 with a Sony receiver.
Me too, I persuaded my father to let me install this big antenna so we could get FM from France and the Netherlands when the conditions were right (mum was horrified when it went up)!-

antenna.jpg
 
Maybe the radio stations chose QS because Sansui provided the encoders free.

Also note that EMI was making SQ records, and any of those played on the air would be in SQ.

As far as mono compatibility is concerned, ALL matrix systems except the following have a center back signal that disappears in mono play:

UMX/BMX
G (in the trials, but never used elsewhere)
H
HJ
UHJ
 
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My dad had Sony UK product line brochures in the early to mid 1970s, I wish I still had them. I used to pour over them as a child, marvelling at Elcassette with optional wired remote control, and at SQ decoders. So quad gear was marketed in the UK to some extent.
UK electronics manufacturer Sinclair which produced the Project 60 kits intended primarily to be installed in a turntable plinth had an SQ decoder module available as well.
 
UK electronics manufacturer Sinclair which produced the Project 60 kits intended primarily to be installed in a turntable plinth had an SQ decoder module available as well.
Clive Sinclair was an archetypical mad scientist. His products fell into one of two categories. The brilliantly innovative and successful or the laughably badly made and unsuccessful. In the first category were the computer products such as the ZX80 and the Spectrum which revolutionised Home Computing in the UK-
ZX80.JPG


Spectrum.JPG


In the second were such disasters as the portable flat screen TV and the hilariously dangerous Sinclair C5 electric ‘car’ that effectively destroyed the company’s reputation-

C5.JPG


Unfortunately the audio stuff was largely in the second category. It was sold very cheaply but looked and felt even cheaper, no one in the hifi world took it seriously. Here’s the flimsy SQ pre-amp decoder in the upmarket (!) Project 80 version, complete with nasty cheap slider controls that only lasted for a few operations !….
 
Clive Sinclair was an archetypical mad scientist. His products fell into one of two categories. The brilliantly innovative and successful or the laughably badly made and unsuccessful. In the first category were the computer products such as the ZX80 and the Spectrum which revolutionised Home Computing in the UK-
View attachment 67828

View attachment 67829

In the second were such disasters as the portable flat screen TV and the hilariously dangerous Sinclair C5 electric ‘car’ that effectively destroyed the company’s reputation-

View attachment 67830

Unfortunately the audio stuff was largely in the second category. It was sold very cheaply but looked and felt even cheaper, no one in the hifi world took it seriously. Here’s the flimsy SQ pre-amp decoder in the upmarket (!) Project 80 version, complete with nasty cheap slider controls that only lasted for a few operations !….

Yes it would seem that Sinclair spared all expense with their projects. I used a Project 60 for awhile when I was in high school, it didn't sound too bad. Eventually I upgraded the trim pots that they used for volume, balance, bass and treble with real ones. When the CBC started testing their new FM broadcast transmitters the phono section became unusable, the 1K test tones came blasting through the pre-amp. Still occasionally I look nostalgically at the instruction book and application notes that came with it. It was also featured in a couple of magazine articles, it actually looked much better in those articles than in person. I had a friend who used one on his "test rack", it worked fine for that application.

Also my first electronic calculator was a Sinclair. I still recall how you could hear it operating through the AM radio speaker.

I remember the Timex-Sinclair computers as well, I never bothered to get into that though.
 
Yes it would seem that Sinclair spared all expense with their projects.
Also my first electronic calculator was a Sinclair. I still recall how you could hear it operating through the AM radio speaker.
Ah, Sinclair’s calculators!! – you just reminded me I had an ancient old Sinclair “Cambridge Scientific” calculator stuck away in a cupboard somewhere since the seventies (heaven knows why I’d kept it). I managed to find it and put some batteries in it. Did it still work?-

c1.JPG


Well no, not really, although the tiny LED display lights up, the keyboard is pretty hit and miss. I remember how it always was a bit flaky, you had to push the buttons very carefully and deliberately, but it’s next to useless now. Actually it wasn’t a very good scientific calculator even at its best – the trig functions were based on simple algorithms that were particularly inaccurate. So after all these years I thought I’d have a look inside before I finally threw it away, sadly there wasn’t much to see!-

c3.JPG


c2.JPG


As you said clearly no expense had been spent in making this stuff!
 
Ah, Sinclair’s calculators!! – you just reminded me I had an ancient old Sinclair “Cambridge Scientific” calculator stuck away in a cupboard somewhere since the seventies (heaven knows why I’d kept it). I managed to find it and put some batteries in it. Did it still work?-

View attachment 67832

Well no, not really, although the tiny LED display lights up, the keyboard is pretty hit and miss. I remember how it always was a bit flaky, you had to push the buttons very carefully and deliberately, but it’s next to useless now. Actually it wasn’t a very good scientific calculator even at its best – the trig functions were based on simple algorithms that were particularly inaccurate. So after all these years I thought I’d have a look inside before I finally threw it away, sadly there wasn’t much to see!-

View attachment 67833

View attachment 67834

As you said clearly no expense had been spent in making this stuff!
I've still got my Sinclair Scientific somewhere along with the Slide Rule my Grandparents got me circa 1971/72! My first calculator was a 4 function Plustronics I think it cost £9.99, and a few years later for my A-levels I bought the Sinclair, also for £9.99 if I remember correctly.
 
I've still got my Sinclair Scientific somewhere along with the Slide Rule my Grandparents got me circa 1971/72! My first calculator was a 4 function Plustronics I think it cost £9.99, and a few years later for my A-levels I bought the Sinclair, also for £9.99 if I remember correctly.
I could never get along with a slide rule - my answers always seemed to be off the end of the scale! I was always much happier using log tables. My first four function calculator (a Sharp EL-something, about the size of a paperback book with a vacuum fluorescent display that consumed AA batteries at an alarming rate) was a birthday present from my parents when I was in the sixth form - it cost £35, a big sum in those days! But it was a time of rapid development and six months later prices (and sizes) had halved - my parents weren't pleased!
 
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Me too, I persuaded my father to let me install this big antenna so we could get FM from France and the Netherlands when the conditions were right (mum was horrified when it went up)!-

We lived less than 10 miles from Holme Moss, one of the main BBC national FM transmitters. So that Sony receiver in 1973 had fantastic stereo FM reception using just the supplied flexible dipole pinned to the back of the dresser.
 
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