Greetings People of the Internet!
I got this TV set at an Austrian flea market for about 30€ about two years ago, but it has simply served as a bookend until now. I decided that I would try to fix it this summer.
The cord has a weird 4 prong thing going on, but I stuck my regular shaver cord onto the contacts and that seems to work just fine. I did make sure to plug it onto the 220V prongs, and not the 12V ones, no worries. Before turning it on, I checked to see if the transformer was giving out 12V properly, which it was. (Though, I admit, I only checked the alternating current straight out of the transformer, perhaps I should check if it really does output 12V DC as well.)
The set did not turn on, but it did make some television-like sounds. It sounded like the kind of high frequency noise you would expect from an analogue TV, except, I feel like I could actually hear the cycling, and it sounded too slow. However, the speed of this oscillation did start increasing, if I played with both the HOR and VER dials.
I have some experience with old tube radios and a little bit of an electronics background (having attended one semester of electrical engineering). I found a wealth of information at:
https://antiqueradio.org/Sony8-301WTelevision.htm This was also where I found the full manual, which is excellent.
I decided I would follow Philip Nelson’s advice and start looking at the capacitors. Unfortunately, I do not have an ESR meter. The four large filter capacitors tested largely within spec, and the smaller ones largely did not. At this point I decided that investing in new electrolytic capacitors and just replacing them seemed like a sensible idea. I have already ordered new ones from Farnell and they should arrive within the next couple of days.
If the CRT itself is faulty, then there is really nothing I can do, from what I can tell. Of course, I hope that it won’t be. Once the new capacitors arrive, I plan to start recapping the horizontal and vertical sweep board, plugging it in and seeing what happens. And then the rest as well. Sorry for not posting any interesting photos.
Any advice in particular that you have for me? I will keep you updated on the project as it goes along.
Thanks!