Hoffman...yea or nay

[Tubejunke]

Originally Posted by Reece

If it's a remote that early, it must be a wired remote running a motorized tuner and perhaps motorized volume control. If so, and if missing, it would not be hard to make up a control box for it with some buttons and a long cord.

Zenith was selling wireless remote (Space Command) sets as early as the mid fifties; maybe earlier. The tuner was indeed motorized and the volume was controlled in something like three steps through the use of relays as was power and mute. The signal was simply generated by tuning forks of various lengths in the remote control that would be struck whenever a button was pushed. The sets remote receiving unit would react to the different sound frequencies and perform the task.