As the Commanding General of the Color-Burst Liberation Army, I have often wondered why so many of these 3.579 MHz crystals were made. Heck, even the crystal filter of my first homebrew superhet receiver used these crystals.
When we launched the CBLA effort, we used the Michigan Mighty Mite as our transmitter of choice: I mailed out around 40 of these rocks. Many transmitters were built. I have received reports of guys pulling their cars over to the side of a road (with hapless family members in the car) when a discarded color TV was spotted -- the 3.579 Mhz crystal would be quickly extracted. Such was the dedication of the CBLA members (the family members were, of course, baffled).
Anyway, the story of the Color-Burst crystals is deeply entwined with the story of the birth of color TV. This fellow (above) does a good job of explaining the hows and whys of 3.579 MHz. Thanks to Al Williams and Hackaday for alerting us to this, and for some really useful commentary on the video: https://hackaday.com/2025/12/18/the-miracle-of-color-tv/
Viva el CBLA! VIVA!
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