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Originally Posted by paulsherwin
The Aussie electronics industry was surprisingly idiosyncratic and it's true that live chassis radios and TVs were very rare there, though I don't know if they were actually prohibited. There were technical reasons for this, but Australia was very protectionist throughout most of the 20th century despite the 'commonwealth preference' talk, and used what would now be called health and safety rules to discourage European and American imports. (Most countries were protectionist to a degree at that time of course, including Britain.)
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We tend to forget how powerful were these ‘non-tariff’ barriers to trade. They’re still around, though attenuated compared with 30-40 years ago. Needless to say, they tend not to enter politicians’ thinking because they’re technical and difficult.
We tend to think particularly of the old challenges of stringent German DIN and IRT specifications, but in many ways competing with Australian products was just as difficult, particularly those from the mighty AWA, who embraced practically all electronic markets, from consumer to industrial to broadcast. As we know, all design involves compromise, and Murphy’s law would guarantee that the AWA designer adopted a different set of compromises from one’s own (often apparently regardless of cost!). Competing with that situation was tough.
However, we have to thank Australian technical independence for the wonderful work of Fritz Langford-Smith (of AWA) and his splendid authoritative ‘Radio Designer’s Handbook’ which so many of us keep close at hand.
Martin