Quite a few of the British setmakers offered relatively elaborate bandspread SW models, mostly for the export market, in the early 1950s, mostly during the Rimlock valve era. There has been some prior discussion of these, for example see:
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=52484.
A partial list would include:
Ambassador Viscount (original model)
Bush EBS44
Ekco A182
GEC BC5045
Murphy TA160
Pye PE80
I think there were some others, and some essentially 1940s models, such as the Ace 600, did just make it into the 1950s. Also, probably more so in the later 1950s, there were some pseuds, namely receivers that had some form of bandspread SW tuning but lacked an RF stage; these may be laughed out of court.
Some setmakers devised their own bandspread systems, whilst others used proprietary units, e.g. the Weyrad.
In the Ekco case, as far as I know, the A182 bandspread tuning system was derived from that of one of its car radios, the CR61, I think.
All of the above had three-gang front ends with an RF stage, and then usually one IF stage. The A182 differed in having two IF stages. Also, unusually, it had “double delayed AGC”, with a second delay for the RF stage bias.
In practice, the one RF, two IF combination provided more than enough gain for broadcast reception (as distinct from communications purposes). If one looks at the high tier bandspread tuners with the same configuration, such as the Chapman S6BS and Dynatron T139, then they typically had gain presets early in the IF strip in order to backoff the overall gain in situations where it was not needed.
Of the above list, the Ekco A182 and Murphy TA160 probably stand apart in circuitry terms, the Ekco as already noted and the Murphy for its use of the Moxon front end in which an image rejection filter was included in the RF to FC interstage. This required the use of a high slope pentode RF amplifier (6F1 in that case), but that was anyway beneficial from a noise viewpoint at above around 20 MHz. The quieting circuit and noise limiter on the A182 were both unusual. The only other UK bandspread units of the period that I am aware of that had noise limiters were the Armstrong EXP119 and BS125 chassis.
Anyway, very well done. It might be a vanity receiver, but more than that an example of excellent setmaker engineering, addressing the needs of those who regularly undertook hands off listening to international shortwave broadcast programme content, whether for entertainment or information, which is I think, a different case to hands on DX’ing.
Cheers,