Above are my two VCS units, a 1978 Taiwanese "Heavy Sixer" and a 1980 Hong Kong Sears "Light Sixer". As discussed in the Tech Page - there's some moderate to drastic circuitry differences between these early units and the later "4-switch" and "Junior" consoles. See, the issue we're all seeing, is quasi-musical "noise" when the controller starts talking to the dongle. So this page is going to act as sort of a collection of data on this minor inconvenience, since I'm collecting a lot of data both of my own, and from the AtariAge forums. And, just because I'm a technie guy, so this kind of stuff intrigues me.

First, a side note about Heavy Sixers - most, not all, but most Atari Video Computer System "Heavy Sixers" will have problems with the dongle fitting. This is because of the back plastic trim on the console blocking the dongle from being fully inserted. My theory as to why it's only SOME that have the issue, is because of differences between production parts used for the controller ports across the 200,000 or so of these consoles that were built. The first lots were made in Sunnyvale California, and might have a longer-extended port that will allow the wireless controllers to be used. In 1978, production of the "HEavy Sixer" was moved to Taiwan (and overlaps with the Sunnyvales a little), and these seems to be more consistant as they use parts found in a Light Sixer, which the ports are shorter and don't hold the dongle as well, if at all. The fix for this issue is to use an extension cable....

The reason this is important is because, at some point, I might be considering leveraging this issue to fix the other, main problem. If we can find a way to resolve it using external electronics.

The main problem is that when the controller and the dongle sync and activity begins, a semi-musical, changing tone is heard through the TV, and sometimes even "interference" is seen on screen (albiet very minor in my cases). You can hear this in a bunch of early youtube videos from 2025 as I'm using my Sears Telegames LIght Sixer with the wireless controller.