SABA - 1974 German color TV

[DavGoodlin]

Saba 1.jpg
Built entirely in Baden-Wurttemburg - Schwarzwald This is known as the Schauinsland T6735 color telecommander H
AND
thanks to a fellow collector of all things SABA, I have my first International TV. This previous owner found an ultrasonic remote control only by visiting the Fatherland on one of many trips mainly for recreation and factory tours.

It apparently was imported to the US and converted to NTSC and 120V 60hz and, though no labels or notation is visible anywhere as any USA set would have, seeing the "F" connector and 120 V non-polarized plug confirmed this.

Not surprisingly, it has a GTE-branded delta-gun CRT made in Belgium. I say that because in 1968, GTE owned 85% of SABA and by 1976, 100% selling to Thomsen in 1980. Now owned by "technicolor" , which I thought was a US trademark.

Built to be serviced like a Sony, to my eyes at least, but better and I have the service manual, in German of course. I spy quite a few fuses on a pcb mounted on the power transformer, not visible at far left.
Saba 2.jpg

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

Attachment 202145
Built entirely in Baden-Wurttemburg - Schwarzwald This is known as the Schauinsland T6735 color telecommander H
AND
thanks to a fellow collector of all things SABA, I have my first International TV. This previous owner found an ultrasonic remote control only by visiting the Fatherland on one of many trips mainly for recreation and factory tours.

It apparently was imported to the US and converted to NTSC and 120V 60hz and, though no labels or notation is visible anywhere as any USA set would have, seeing the "F" connector and 120 V non-polarized plug confirmed this.

Not surprisingly, it has a GTE-branded delta-gun CRT made in Belgium. I say that because in 1968, GTE owned 85% of SABA and by 1976, 100% selling to Thomsen in 1980. Now owned by "technicolor" , which I thought was a US trademark.

Built to be serviced like a Sony, to my eyes at least, but better and I have the service manual, in German of course. I spy quite a few fuses on a pcb mounted on the power transformer, not visible at far left.
Attachment 202146

Neat.
You may want to check that it actually was converted for 120V. My Italian market Philips has a an american style plug but is still configured for 220V.
https://antiqueradios.com/forums/vie...ffcd968fccbcb2

[Telecolor 3007]

I doubt it was converterd. More like to be replaced the whole electronics. I don't think converting an color tv from P.A.L. to N.T.S.C. it's so easy. A black and white set, that's different, I think it's simplier to do.
Hmm, Perth type memory selector.

[nasadowsk]

PAL and NTSC are basically the same hing, just PAL has that phase flipper and of course, the line/frame rates and color subcarrier are different.

I'm curious as to what the big 'research' was done into PAL, besides trying to avoid RCA's patents...

SECAM, though. I don't think ANYONE understands that!

[DavGoodlin]

A Rheostat Light Dimmer converted to variac goes to 200 at least, I can change taps to step-up more but not much.
Well see soon see but an F connector instead of a PAL antenna connector gives hope.

[AlanInSitges]

In that era some European market sets were still multi-voltage and would have any variety of plugs on the end of the power cords. Check to see if there is an autoformer before the power supply with a plug you can change to vary the input voltage.

I have a Telefunken PALcolor 616 from 1976 that is only 220V with a regular European plug on it. It's also surprisingly well built, with a fold-out, modular chassis and switching power supply. It's occasionally blowing fuses but produces a killer (though flickery of course) picture when it's working. Curiously all the labels on the PCB and all the stickers are inside are in Spanish, leading me to wonder if this was made under contract in Spain (Franco required this in some cases) or if Telefunken routinely did separate runs of PCBs etc., for each market they sold to.

[TV-collector]

Yes, thats right!
There was a company, still in busyness with house electricity, which
assambled TV sets for italian, american and german companies.
But Telefunken had its own plant since the 30s.
That company received the pre-assambled chassis and mounted the stuff
with cabinet parts, speakers, CRT, etc.
It seems that companies who wanted to sell TV sets in Spain had to pay
unusual high taxes if they don`t give spanish people a job.
Grundig and Loewe Opta sets in Spain were not assambled in Spain.
Maybe they got a better quote.
I have two british 14" sets from Spain, but don`t know of one or both are
produced for CCIR or are only "victims" ( no more 405 line life ) of a moving owner.

Regards,
TV-Collector

[nasadowsk]

GTE started as a (lousy) phone company, sucked up Sylvania, spun them off, became #&$@ Verizon,and basically sucked at everything, except for making those nice CRTs, and of course those HaloLight sets...

Technicolor started as a firm that did the famous color process for color films. The three strip system was ultimately displaced by modern negative films, and they just became some company that did....something. Maybe processing or printing, though Kodak was huge in that.

Thompson started out intertwined with GE, which is interesting because they somehow became a French company and GE sold them RCA and a bunch of other things.

France being France, Alsthom gets into the mix along the way.

Seriously, you need a heck of a chart to figure who was doing what and who became who.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

Attachment 202145
Built entirely in Baden-Wurttemburg - Schwarzwald This is known as the Schauinsland T6735 color telecommander H
AND
thanks to a fellow collector of all things SABA, I have my first International TV. This previous owner found an ultrasonic remote control only by visiting the Fatherland on one of many trips mainly for recreation and factory tours.

It apparently was imported to the US and converted to NTSC and 120V 60hz and, though no labels or notation is visible anywhere as any USA set would have, seeing the "F" connector and 120 V non-polarized plug confirmed this.

Not surprisingly, it has a GTE-branded delta-gun CRT made in Belgium. I say that because in 1968, GTE owned 85% of SABA and by 1976, 100% selling to Thomsen in 1980. Now owned by "technicolor" , which I thought was a US trademark.

Built to be serviced like a Sony, to my eyes at least, but better and I have the service manual, in German of course. I spy quite a few fuses on a pcb mounted on the power transformer, not visible at far left.
Attachment 202146

I have two Grundig 19" table models, almost alike. They both have Toshiba CRTs and they protrude from the mask, like the British and European sets.
A label on the back states that they were sold by a firm in Il.

[DavGoodlin]

Update:
I am about to see the master curator of many things German who sold me the SABA and must plug it in at last. Most of us get something interesting then get pulled into something else and forget it. The posts I have read on this very subject gives pause but I have all the voltages here and therefore, not worried.

Its about time an analog set from Europe is tuned into my four-channel modulator rack (3-7-11-45) There is an encapsulated delay line labeled "Sylvania" on the signal board which swings out. That and the F-connector with some other "added" items inside confirm this was factory-built for export to the US.

This set was originally sold in Allentown PA at his former employer (long before he was there of course), fitted with an obviously European-made cord and non-polarized NEMA 5-15 plug (that's US std) but labeled "10A 250v". He ended up with two of these models when the original owners upgraded to new SABA sets assumed to be cable-ready.

[Hawkwind]

Sold where in Allentown? I was born in Fountain Hill/Bethlehem...

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by Hawkwind

Sold where in Allentown? I was born in Fountain Hill/Bethlehem...

SABA USA distributor was William M. Pany company at 7th and Tilghman, up from TV associates, who sold Zenith.

I worked at Eastern Light co. on Hamilton St, then at Miller and Seng co on Lehigh street, before moving to Texas in '83 after I graduated from Lincoln Tech with AS in Electronics. Really felt I had to leave town, there were no jobs beyond a TV repairman and I was really getting tired of living there. Lots of graduates went to Lutron and Allen Organ, but Bell Labs and Western Electric were not hiring degreed techs, let alone designers.

The Billy Joel song was true then from what I experienced being under 21 made it suck even more. The best thing about A-town then was it had two cable companies in competition.

[DavGoodlin]

Clarification:
I have two of these complete sets, one remote transmitter and set of keys plus a service manual. The keys are for the tambor door that slides across everything, and another for channel presets, volume, etc. On and off is behind this lockable door.

The only controls which are exposed when the door is open is the channel selector up-down buttons.

The power up went OK, instantly I had off-channel sound but no raster and no reception even as I tuned the presets to my in-shop signal via rabbit ears.

The HV stick rectifier is up at the 2nd anode cap and thick-insulated lead from the HV block or "tripler" lit a neon lamp so there was some sweep energy.

After a power up of the first one and look inside the second and finding its tripler gone, , its apparent these sets may make one that works, if Im lucky.

[DavGoodlin]

Just saw the guy who worked at the place where these two 1974 Telecommanders came from. He admitted he never had time to try them out, just getting two when the opportunity arose long ago, for one future project as we ALL have.

I was impressed by the service info alone, though not fluent in german. So on this visit, I paid a fair sum for his former employer's own 1978 SABA 15" with capacitive touchpad tuning, used as a bedroom set. Pictures coming but it may not have a raster to show

[DavGoodlin]

I just tested the gte-sylvania 21(?) " CRTs and the tester showed good but aged emission with cutoff balance of 75% against teh strongest emission - green.

The 15" (? cm) set has a CRT made in Japan by Hitachi, and it tested even better than both Telecommanders.