philips 40pft4509/12 dead

[bonesy]

My Dad for many years worked all over the uk,installing / removing machines from factories.Lathes,huge milling machines,transformers,all sorts of stuff.I remember him telling me about working at a GEC plant,in the 1950's,where one of the research engineers showed him their experimental colour t.v.All mounted in dexion racking,full of valves & stood about 7 plus feet tall & around 8-10 feet long.The end result was displayed on an RCA picture which was almost ,but not quite round.Dad reckons this was around 1954/55 ish,but can't remember where the factory was.The nearest I got to that was the thorn 3000/3500 service rack that was made of dexion & Rank Bush Murphy,was a more plush blue welded steel frame,with slots,you placed your board in an ally frame & that fitted/slid into the main steel frame.

[Turnip]

Hi Bonesy,

The Ferg 3000/3500 were cool sets (Although caps suffered as they sensibly placed the power and line scan boards at the top - To be heated by everything else)

Was working for Rediffusion at the time, where panels were mended in a standard telly with a mirror behind it. They also tried mend Bush 823 and their very own crap colour hybrid set the same way.

Horrified, as I formerly worked for Visionhire who sensibly had test rigs for most every set (Apart from the GEC models that never went seriously wrong, and the Decca hybrids were just as good, and had better pictures)

Was lucky enough to buy a mono test card generator in a 7 foot rack from Pye in Lowestoft. Used a monoscope tube and used nearly 3 kw - Warm workshop 'till I got the colour version that worked off 2 x AA cells a while later - Chris.

[Davy]

Young apprentice fitted headphone socket on a Thorn  1400 chassis in his bedroom. Lol, using old style head phones one night.... he got hell of a shock, then ber ber BANG as the wire melted! The headphone socket lead draped across the dropper!

Yeah Redifusion MK3 & 4 sets were great sets ...... and so was Granada's with the thyristor line stages. Redifusions I saved the I.F panels for the IFT as coil formers.

Dave

[bonesy]

I wasn't great fan of thorn stuff tbh,I did like the ITT/KB sets,Decca's all gave good pictures,I think the Granada sets were called "Finlandia" may be,Scandinavian sets,very good pictures.My Mum & Dad had two Tandberg ctv2.2 chassis,very good set's very reliable,they both clocked up over 20 years,before their lovely Teak / Rosewood cabinets were replaced with finest Panasonic black plastic,which after being on for three/four hours use to let out a loud cracking sound,as the plastic expanded.During the very late seventies early eighties,there was a shortage of tv sets,so all sorts of euro set filled the gap.Oddest one I ever fixed was an EMO from France,nasty pictures,pretend wood cases,dodgy tuning.
I'm sure like me,it's hard to believe how many manufacturers there were & how many are long gone,but every now & then an old name reappears from the past,but this time cheap nasty set.
Suppose we should have made this separate post,lol.

[Turnip]

Hi Bonesy,

Best tube set I ever met was the  B&O - Also in rosewood, but so full of (SSB) dries that folks binned them before the tubes had expired although sound and picture quality was terrific for the time, with that flip down panel for tuning and such.

Next best was one that used 4 x BD131 in bridge for F/OP - Telefunken of course, where if a fly crawled across the touch buttons - Got a service call that night. It was rather amazing as it had a drop panel under the set with an incredible number of pots to sort convergence, and to be honest, it could be the best converged set on the market.

Again got pile of them early, and with good tubes due to heat induced dries, so moved everything hot on to aluminium panels fixed above the main board. Took a while, but in those days I had time and enthusiasm, rentals being profitable - Chris.

[bonesy]

Yes I had forgotten about the B&O's the little shop in London where I served my time,was an agent,very expensive sets,fantastic build quality,but the early valve ones ran so hot.If I remember rightly all the cables were laced together around the edges of the panels.I think they lost a bit of their sparkle when the first all transistor sets came in,we changed quite a lot of early PIL tubes,which failed.
I also remember Telefunkens & of course proper Grundigs & early ultra sonic remote hand sets.All gave very good pictures.You tend to forget that almost all the Scandinavian countries also  had their own tv manufacturers,all of which are now gone.How many people there must have been at one time making,selling & repairing that box that sits up the corner of the room,or now day's hangs on the wall.

[Turnip]

Hi Bonesy,

Had forgotten 'till you mentioned 'Grundig' with the thyristor line scan, where dries were just a bit of a problem, and Sony sets with a 'Gate Turn Off' thyristor thingy that didn't, and went S/C.

Guess can't complain about modern sets, even if we have to puzzle 'em out, as they're cheap enough to dump after any guarantee, and the bits can be useful.

Mind you, have been saving bits for some years, and it's mostly a waste of space and time, as folks move on to the newer models which are thinner, and now curved for some reason. Mind you, a curved screen should be tougher than a flat one - Chris.

[bonesy]

I'm sure the custy's will find new ways to smash even curved one's,lol.