The demand for a sturdy flywheel/knob harks back to the 50s and 60s when
the fine radios had neat gear drives and sturdy flywheels so we users
couldn't feel the gear teeth. Those radios tended to be top of the line
with the best mechanical stability. The radios with plastic knobs and
string drives weren't quite as responsive (a more limber connection from
knob to dial and capacitor) and we DID need to spin the knob to move the
radio across the band, and in the two dial receivers from Hallicrafters
and Hammarlund, many dial turns were require to switch bands. The less
expensive to make string drive radios generally weren't all that well
made all over, so they tended to have irregular tuning and poor
stability. The plastic knob on a shaft encoder tends to have less feel
of there being a radio connected to the shaft than the dial cord radios
of old.
Some users might actually need a flywheel to absorb shaking fingers and
other nervous twitches without tuning the radio halfway across the band.
I don't have such twitches, but I sure do like the 2" diameter by 1"
thick solid aluminum knob that I turned for my Corsair II. Gives it that
heft of a fine radio of old.
73, Jerry, K0CQ
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Entire content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson. Reproduction by
permission only.
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