Italian Phonola tube TV

[Kiwick]

Sadly, no color roundies here in Italy, as color broadcasts came in the era of rectangular CRT and hybrid chassis

There were very few consoles here, 99% of our sets (even expensive ones) were tabletop models (by the way, both Phonola TVs i have are 23")

We had some strange "half american" sets back then, for example, we had 100% Italian Emerson TVs made by Emerson's Florence plant

then we had Philcos with an American-made chassis in an Italian made cabinet, then Dumonts and Admirals made from 100% american components but assembled in Italy

We even had the little "porta color" but it had an Italian made PAL chassis inside.

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by Kiwick

Funny, i thought that the styling of this Phonola was very "americanized"

That's what I was thinking too, the set has a very "finished" look to it, like a Zenith of the era, not unlike the remote set I just picked up (but haven't taken a picture of).

Speaking of Zeniths, have you ever seen any in Italy? There is another Italian collector who posted some pictures of a 4-tube color Zenith set made for the Italian market (Never had a knob for hue, as it was a PAL set since new). That model was very popular in the US.

[Carmine]

Oh yeah... keep the pictures coming for all the Italians living over here! I'd love to see that tube-hybrid digital tuned set!

[Kiwick]

I haven't yet seen a Zenith in Italy, any color set made before 1975 is extremely rare here.

I'll take a pic of the digital tuned hybrid ASAP, i have it deep down in my "basement landfill", sadly, it has a totally worn-out CRT

[Carmine]

Here is a link to that earlier thread...

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthr...190#post963190

[Sandy G]

What "gets" me is how relatively late in the game so many of the Western Europe countries got color TV...I mean, it wasn't like it was some big state secret or unknown technology we were trying to hide from everybody else.. Australia could possibly be excused for the lower population there...But Italy ? Prosperous, well-educated country, no shortage of engineers/scientists, good infrastructure...Decent electronics industry...Looks like the populace would have been raising hell to get it. Lots of Italians in America, surely some of their "old country" cousins came over here & saw it 1st hand for themselves...

[Kiwick]

Well, it was mainly a political problem, they first tried to halt the beginning of experimental color broadcasts during the 60s (i guess because the Italian electronic industry was not happy to invest in R&D for color TV, remember the tube chassis dragged into the 80s...)

Then it took the best part of the 70s for them to decide between PAL and SECAM, until, in 1977, they officially adopted PAL,

So almost all of our color sets made before 1977 were able to receive both PAL and SECAM or were PAL sets with an optional module for 625 line SECAM reception

many people bought color sets early because in some parts of Italy you could receive color broadcasts from neighbouring countries (france, switzerland, istria...)

I still have our first color set, a 1976 Voxson (italian) fitted with electronic tuning, ultrasonic remote, and a 110 degree delta gun tube, sadly, the flyback blew in the mid 90s

By the way, sadly, we're not great at preserving vintage TVs, no one wants them, even for free, most people consider them ugly, the only exceptions are some 70s plastic portable TVs which are considered "modern art" (i prefer big wooden sets a lot anyway)

Francesco

[Kiwick]

I have found a schematic for the Phonola TV, it's quite unusual and complicated for an European set

Here's a scan of it: (the dark grey areas are the PCBs)

Attachment 45054

[tritwi]

Hi Francesco! Your Phonola is very similar to the one I owned for several years when I was much younger! My aunt bought it in 1964 and it had exactly the same frame surrounding the picture tube! It had a long bar you had to push to switch from VHF to UHF reception. When you were on VHF range the word "nazionale" (national) would come on while when you switched to UHF you could read the word "secondo" (second channel). The selector knob was very similar and I ever thought the set looked very "american style" while almost all italian and european models had a push through picture tube. The chassis was the same. Which brand is the second set you show on this thread? I'm an italian tv collector too. Perhaps we could get in touch and speak a little in our language...

[tritwi]

Francesco, in Italy we had color roundies. They were mainly Zenith and Admiral sets. I owned a beautiful Zenith roundie with metal cabinet. I know of another Zenith sitting unsold in an old tv shop here in my town. I also had the pleasure to meet the importer of Zenith color roundies here in Italy. He had a warehouse literally full of Zenith color roundies. Too bad all this was thrown away no longer than four years ago. Zenith sets were very popular here in Florence when I was a child!

[Kiwick]

Hi folks,

I'm done with the recapping of the Phonola, now i have better picture geometry and stable, less touchy vertical hold.

But the original problems are still there, i have a very bright raster, but the picture has little contrast, it gets to a half scale grey where it should be black (swapping the video amp tube with a NOS one makes no difference)

I also still have the shrinking horizontal scan, it starts wide then starts to shrink after about 5 minutes (as you can see in the photo of the TV in the first page)

By the way, this TV has cathode drive for the CRT

I hope i don't have a bad CRT or partially shorted flyback... any ideas?