|
GFS
ELECTRONICS
|
| Page 3 of 7 - Early 1980's GFS Electronic Imports Products |
|
|
From the late 1970's and into
the early 1980's programmable VHF/UHF scanning receivers became popular in
Australia. GFS Electronic Imports were the Australian distributor for J.I.L.
(Japan Industries Limited) who had been a large Japanese CB manufacturer
during the 1970's CB boom. In 1979 JIL produced the model SX-100 VHF/UHF
scanning receiver shown above. Although the SX-100 was capable of FM mode
only and covered a somewhat limited frequency range, it was innovative for
it's time and sold quite well in Australia. In 1980 JIL released their model SX-200, a scanner capable of both AM and FM operation, with wide frequency coverage from 27 Mhz to 514 Mhz, including the Airband. The SX-200 became very popular was large quantities being sold throughout Australia. |
|
|
|
GFS Electronic Imports main income was derived form the importation of communication products from Japan and the USA, however in a much smaller way they were also involved in the manufacture of communication accessories. Shown above is the Worldscan, a shortwave converter designed to give the SX-200 VHF/UHF scanner HF coverage. The World scan allowed reception of signals over a range of 300 Khz to 25 Mhz using the SX-200's 120.3 to 145 Mhz band. Other products for use with the SX-200 included their A4-AM kit which gave the scanner automatic AM capability whenever an airband signal was received. The model EXP-32 kit for the SX-200 doubled the receiver's memory channel capability from 16 to 32 channels. Shown below is a model MDK-17 RTTY (Radio Teletype) modulator-demodulator kit manufactured by GFS Electronic Imports in the early 1980's. |
 |
|
|
The early 1980's also saw GFS Electronic Imports manufacturing a Radio Modem, the model CPU-100. The CPU-100 was aimed at a very new commercial radio data market. Shown above is the Mark 1 version which used a modified MDK-17 as modulator-demodulator and a Motorola 6809 microprocessor to generate and decode the error correcting protocol used over the radio link. The CPU-100 communicated with data world via a them commonly used RS-232 serial port. The Mark 1 CPU-100 found it's way into a number of applications including the Victorian Education Department's School of the air. Another application was in a road traffic flow survey where it provided data communication between a Bell 47 helicopter and a ground terminal. The airborne installation is shown below. |
 
|