Soviet tv's bought in U.S.A. and Australia

[Telecolor 3007]

Originally Posted by Kiwick

Russian and east European sets were quite popular in Italy: here's what we have here

Unitra B/W and color sets from Poland, from the mid 70s to the early 80s

Geloso branded "EI" sets (B/W portables and color) from Yugoslavia

VideoPocket 5" B/W portables from USSR, sold from the mid 70s to the mid 90s, actually a wonderful little piece of engineering.

Telecolor 80s sets from Romania.

Tesla B/W sets from Czechoslowakia in the 60s and early 70s.

Also many Italian set makers used russian KEA-IT capacitors in the Early-mid 80s, these were fairly reliable, much better than the Daewoo or Nichicon capacitors they used in the late 80s

Didn't know that Telecolors where also exported! What modell they where how good they where?
And "Tesla"? Is true the components where crowded and those sets weren't to good?

[Kiwick]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

Didn't know that Telecolors where also exported! What modell they where how good they where?
And "Tesla"? Is true the components where crowded and those sets weren't to good?

I had the Telecolor about 10 years ago, i don't remember the exact model, it was beyond repair due to a lightning strike and a local repairman gave it to me so that i could have fun at dismantling it (which i did, sadly), the CRT was a 22" 90 degree Videocolor if memory serves.

I've seen a couple of Tesla sets, one was an early 60s set, it had a flat-on bottom metal chassis with a power transformer and was quite ordinary, very similar to many slighly older Italian or American sets, the other was a smallish mid-late 60s set with a 110 degree CRT and had a vertical fold down metal (live) chassis which was a terrible mess, everything, including the tuners and the side facing speaker was mounted on the chassis!

[Robert Grant]

Originally Posted by Hokieman

Yep, you guys are correct - the Russian system is SECAM, not PAL. For the last 10 years I've been working in Russia, the TV's they use (all imported, BTW) use PAL/SECAM encoding, so I assumed it was PAL without doing my homework. I actually had my original post as PAL/SECAM before editing it out to only PAL.

If you ever saw an old Soviet factory operate, you would understand why it would be well nigh impossible for their system to have had the flexibility to alter their design, parts manufacture, and assembly processes to accommodate:

120v/60 Hz versus 220V/50 hz power and component specs
NTSC versus PAL/SECAM (different tube architecture, if I'm not mistaken)

This wasn't the export-driven Japanese electronics economy, which depended upon the US and European markets to drive their businesses, as well as having NTSC as their native format. They had sufficient economies of scale to justify these variations, similar to LH vs. RH drive cars. Russia was (and still is) a very inward-looking society and economy, and really only concentrated on its "captive" market in eastern and central Europe during this period.

One thing I might mention - Japanese TV sets for the US and Canada still had to be made for export, despite common use of NTSC color, for the following reasons:
1) The channels were different - on VHF-high and UHF, one would have to always remember to convert channels (one off), and US / Canada VHF lowband would be untunable on a Japanese market set (Japan's first three channels start at 90 MHz, which is the FM radio broadcast band in The Americas).
2) Voltage- despite common 60Hz AC, 117 V American power could harm a 100 V Japanese set.
3) Markings - EXTREMELY FEW Americans can understand Katakana or Hirogama characters. A set with no knob or button marked "ON/OFF VOLUME" would have been impossible to sell.

Another problem that -may- have arisen is the fact that NTSC-J set a different standard for black (thought I suspect one twist of the brightness control would fix this for the life of the set).

The Soviets probably could have had the ability to run a production line for US market sets (not just NTSC, but different frame rate, audio frequency, tuner, power supply and markings!), but, even with trade barriers and attitudes toward the USSR at the time aside, they would have had no chance competing with Tokyo and Chicago.

Not to mention that possibly the only American to have worked in a Soviet TV factory was Lee Harvey Oswald!

[Captain Video]

In Cuba, color TV began in 1958, but sometime between 1959-1960 it was put off the air. The cubans had to be stuck with black and white TV until the mid-1970's... when they got only brand new Soviet color transmitters and TV sets.

I think that I might be EXTREMELY unlikely that any color TV set from the 1958-1960 period had survived in Cuba. Maybe even black and white TVs from before 1959 might be very hard to find, if any ( TV in Cuba began in 1950, a few weeks after Brazil ).

As for my own country, Brazil, there were never any Soviet or Eastern European TV sets sold here. Not only the standards were totally different, but also between 1947 and 1961 Brazil had no diplomatic relations with the USSR, although we had diplomatic relations with other countries from behind the Iron Curtain. Also, we were fostering our own industrial development during that period, and focused ourselves to depend less on import goods - that's why imports of TV sets from the USA decreased during the 1950's, while national production got bigger. As I remember, only two foreign nations exported TV sets to Brazil in the 1950's and 60's: the USA and Japan - the Japanese began selling TVs here during the 1950's, they had some import representatives here, from JVC, if I am not mistaken. Also, those little 8 inch B/W Sonys sold like hot cakes here in the 60's. They are very easy to find.

I do have seen, however, some components of Eastern European origin inside Brazilian made TVs of the 1950's and 60's. The countries were Yoguslavia and Tchecoslovakia. Those components were inside TVs that were made in national factories, factories that belonged to Brazilian businessman. Mostly things like capacitors and vacuum tubes. I guess they were pretty cheap.

The only Western European brand that I have seen here, was a Grundig TV set from the 50's that I saw in the collection of a guy I know. I have no idea of how this German TV set ended here, but he said that it is working - meaning that is able to receive NTSC signals.

Soviet products have a very bad reputation here. In 1990 and 1991 we made the horrible mistake of importing many thousands of that piece-of-junk-of-a-car called Lada. Yes, it was VERY cheap, but that was it's ONLY advantage. The car is a complete TRASH, from the engine to the metal used in it's body. Those Ladas seemed to be everywhere, but after a very short years they disapeared completely. Vanished. People who bought that thing lost money. Pretty quicly there were no longer any authorized dealers and repair shops. Probably parts became impossible to find - not that it make any real difference, because trying to repair that thing is a waste of time and money. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I see a Lada today on the streets during a whole YEAR. I see much more ( way much more ) 1960's VW Beetles that were Brazilian made than Ladas.

That, I guess, speaks about both the ( good ) quality of the VW and the ( zero ) quality of the Lada.

[Sandy G]

Yeah, they tried selling a Yugoslavian car called the Yugo here in the mid '80s. It was incredibly cheap-$4300, IIRC, & initially, they sold pretty well. But the bloom soon left the rose-it was basically a 10-15 yr old Fiat design to begin with, & the cars were pretty much junk. I don't know of anyone who bought a SECOND Yugo. I can't remember the last time I saw one.

[electroking]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Yeah, they tried selling a Yugoslavian car called the Yugo here in the mid '80s. It was incredibly cheap-$4300, IIRC, & initially, they sold pretty well. But the bloom soon left the rose-it was basically a 10-15 yr old Fiat design to begin with, & the cars were pretty much junk. I don't know of anyone who bought a SECOND Yugo. I can't remember the last time I saw one.

Interesting. I knew that the Russian Lada cars marketed in Canada from
the early eighties were a Fiat 124 design, but I never realized that the
Yugo was also a Fiat design. Ladas were still available as late as 1997,
I got to test drive the brand new one a friend had bought despite my
advice of picking a used Toyota rather than a new Lada. One feature (?)
I remember was that it you stalled the engine (easy with the truck
style clutch) you had to return the ignition key to the OFF position
before starting again, otherwise the starter motor would not turn.

[Sandy G]

I always thought the Lada Niva was a kind of neat design. Pretty original & innovative for a Soviet car, it might have cashed in on the first wave of the SUV craze, had it been sold here.

[Hokieman]

I have a god deal of personal experience with Ladas from my years in Russia. The early ones were based on the 1975 model Fiat 124, and Fiat actually helped build the AutoVAZ car factory in Russia. The early ones used a very good Soviet steel in the bodies, and can be seen running around still all over Russia. Over time the Russians began evolving the design to accommodate the needs and requirements of their particular market, so it diverged substantially from the Fiat designs of the Eighties. These things were still coming from the factory with carbs and manual chokes as late as the 2000 model year.

The first Lada Niva was the biggest piece of junk I've ever been associated with. We (Pepsi) bought four new ones in 1998, and one I was riding in literally had its transmission and transfer case fall out of the car when we driving down the road at 45 mph. It seems the first thing a new Lada owner is supposed to do with his shiny new machine is take it to a local mechanic and pay him $200 to tighten up every bolt and nut in the car! How's that for assembly line QA/QC? When I left last year nobody wanted to buy Ladas any longer - the Ford Focus made in St. Pete was the biggest selling car in Russia and the Korean and Japanese makes weren't far behind. Interestingly, a small Chevy made in Ukraine is also quite popular now, and I think GM just opened its first full assembly line in Russia recently (talk about timing).

Sorry didn't mean to crap the thread, but Russian car talk is quite fun. Every Russian man over 25 fashions himself a Smokey Yunick / Michael Schumacher combination. They are handy with wrenches - they had to be.

[Sandy G]

Weren't Crown Vics quite popular in Russia, too, as taxis & cop cars ?

[electronjohn]

Reading these posts, and I don't think anyone has brought up a prime reason for Soviet reliance on tube technology: EMP resistance. Tubes are far more likely to survive the massive electromagnetic pulse produced by a nuclear blast: thus the USSR's reliance on tubes for milcoms, radar and the like.

[Robert Grant]

Originally Posted by Captain Video

In Cuba, color TV began in 1958, but sometime between 1959-1960 it was put off the air. The cubans had to be stuck with black and white TV until the mid-1970's... when they got only brand new Soviet color transmitters and TV sets.

I think that I might be EXTREMELY unlikely that any color TV set from the 1958-1960 period had survived in Cuba. Maybe even black and white TVs from before 1959 might be very hard to find, if any ( TV in Cuba began in 1950, a few weeks after Brazil ).

In 1958 Cuba was still under the Batista administration, and had few or no ties to the USSR.

In all likelyhood, all those color TV sets used to watch Canal 12 were RCA CTC-5's shipped from Miami - and, in 1960-61, back TO Miami!