Astatic CT-1
Based in the eastern Lake Erie town of Conneaut Ohio, the Astatic Corporation was a microphone and phonograph-cartridge maker founded in the late '30s by two Ham Radio operators. No doubt because their town was too far away from TV stations in Cleveland or Buffalo, their engineers came up with a series of TV signal boosters, the last of which was the model CT-1. It was produced around 1952.
This model used two tubes -- a 6J6 for low band, and the then-newly developed 6BQ7 for the high band -- in the push-pull balanced triode permeability-tuned configuration used by so many other booster manufacturers previously. Astatic had used capacitor tuning in the AT-1 and the Mallory Inductuner in the BT-1 and -2. Construction was typically robust, with a copper-plated chassis and a phosphor-bronze tuning drive cable. The usual power transformer and selenium rectifier provided necessary voltages. A switched AC outlet on the back apron allowed control of a TV set from the booster's front panel function switch.
The styling is rather basic, but not unattractive, and the woodgrain pattern is part of the paint job on the metal cabinet. The cabinet itself seems to be the same as for the earlier model BT-1.
The CT-1A improved on the CT-1's styling, with a plain brown cabinet and updated knobs. It lost the copper plating on the chassis and the switched outlet on the back, however. The styling is essentially the same as the UHF converter-booster combination, model CB-1, which suggests that the CT-1A came out in 1953 or '54.
Updated September 15, 2010