Bud TAB99
Bud was a maker of metal boxes, accessories and small products for the electronics industry. They jumped into the TV booster market pretty early, as evidenced by the Channel 1 position on the TAB99 dial. (Channel 1 was reassigned to Land Mobile and Ham Radio services by the FCC in early 1948.) The company's limited electronic engineering capability at the time is reflected in their few, simple electronic products, of which this is a good example. My guess is that most of their electronics were designed by ham radio operators on their staff.
The circuit is very simple, almost rudimentary, with a single variable capacitor tuning only the lower six TV channels. The lack of very many TV stations anywhere in the US at the time made the limited tuning range only a minor obstacle to sales. Their "two-band" model TAB81 was available for those places that had both low- and high-channel stations. Styling is almost non-existent, or, rather, it is just "utilitarian;" brown "hammertone" paint on a (Bud) metal cabinet.
Updated October 22, 2003