TV Signal Booster
Anchor 101-75

The Anchor model 101-75 "Suburbanite" was the more stylish replacement for their first model, the 101-50. Electrically it was largely unchanged; a single 6AK5 tube with permeability tuning, switched between high and low bands. The "automotive dashboard" styling is very much in evidence here -- take a look inside almost any 1940's car to see the influence! The heavy metal cabinet is covered with the same thin imitation leather cloth of the 101-50, but the control panel is much different.

There is an ingenious mechanism behind that single central knob, much of which is devoted to making the dial pointer move from one channel-indicator window to the other. Turning the tuning knob clockwise, a collection of cams and levers make the pointer move horizontally from channel 2 to 6, in typical "slide-rule dial" fashion. As the knob goes through the center of its range, the pointer drops out of sight, and a switch turns the unit off. Continuing clockwise rotation, the power turns on, and the pointer appears again, this time in the right-hand window, and moves more-or-less smoothly from channel 7 to 13. The tuning slugs move in and out of their coils in the usual way, as in the 101-50. Considerable care was taken to produce good gain flatness across each TV channel, with transformer coupling in and out of each tuned circuit. Anchor was proud to publish gain-bandwidth curves of its boosters -- unique in the industry.

For some reason, model 101-75s are not often seen today, though the older 101-50 and the fancier 101-100 are relatively common.

Updated March 12, 2018