Seventy-five years ago this month, the September 1947 issue of Radio Craft sang the praises of the Pilotuner model T-601 FM tuner, designed to cover the new FM band. The set had audio output, so could be plugged into the phono jack of a standard broadcast radio or into a phonograph. Priced at only $29.95, it was predicted to be the thing to bring FM out of the luxury class and make it available to the average man.

Those with prewar FM sets that covered 42-49 MHz could simply add the new tuner without making “complicated and costly conversions.” It had a built-in antenna that could be used in strong signal areas, and it had provision for hooking up an external antenna.

It had a power transformer, which was an important feature, since it was isolated from the power line. This meant that it could be hooked to an AC-DC set without having to worry about polarity.

In tests in downtown Manhattan, the set functioned well with the built-in antenna, with no signs of frequency drift. Two strong stations separated by only two channels (in other words, 400 kHz) were easily separated.