Leak Logo Leak Trough Line II
FM Tuner
 


At the time this Tuner was released it was an advanced design for a consumer FM tuner. It's main design feature was a very stable oscillator circuit, preventing significant drift of the tuner (many tuners of the time needed to be periodically re-tuned as they warmed up). The oscillator in the Trough-Line does not use conventional wound coils or inductors, but instead a tapped transmission line. A good description appeared in "HiFi News":

The oscillator circuit has a quoted drift of 15kHz with out AFC. With the AFC circuit switched on, this is further reduced to 3kHz drift (or approx 0.003%).

The Tuner was originally issued as a mono unit, with provision for adding a stereo de-multiplexer later. Subsequent models were also available with solid-state stereo decoders. These decoders could have been designed better, and it is worth replacing the original decoder with a better circuit. (It seems likely that the original stereo decoder may have had cost and physical size as the main design considerations rather than performance.)

This Tuner has enjoyed a resurgence in interest in the last few years, with advanced external stereo decoders becoming available.

"Trough-Line II" Summary Specification

Circuit Diagram
88-108 Mhz
3kHz maximum drift with AFC on
2 microvolt sensitivity for full limiting
300 Ohms or 75 Ohms aerial input
Cathode follower audio output
Multiplex output for add-on stereo decoder
Valves: 2x ECF80/6BL8, ECC84/6CW7, ECC85/6AQ8, EF80/6BX6, EM84/6FG6 indicator, EZ80 rectifier.
Weight: 11 lbs


H. J. LEAK & CO. LTD.

Designers and Manufacturers of Specialised Electronic Instruments for the Communications Industries

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