mysterious delay lines

[Ian Fritz]

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) delay lines , maybe? -- Ian

Hcabnivek at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 98-08-04 06:31:20 EDT, you write:
> 
> > Looking through my bin of mysterious surplus parts, I've found these
> >  oddities: little plastic rectangles marked "delay line".
> >
> >  The symbol upon these is a diamond, with "KSS" inside.  They model numbers
> >  at MS-15 and MS-19.  There are 4 leads coming out the bottom.
> 
> Yeah, I have a few of these things too, and I'd like to know as well.  The
> ones I have are tear-outs from several video cassette recorders.  If you
> extract the guts from the plastic case you will find a (I guess) quartz waffer
> with the wire leads fused to the edges.  Each pair of leads is attached to
> opposite sides of the waffer, which on the ones that I have, is about  2cm x
> 3cm.  I find it hard to believe that these are "delay lines" in the sense that
> we in the synth world think of them.  Any of the electro-Gurus out there know
> what these things are for?
> Kevin