Kuba PAL PortaColor on E-Bay Germany

[Sandy G]

Perzacly !

[julianburke]

I have always loved those little sets! I pick them up whenever I find them at yard sales, flea markets etc. and have over a dozen so far. I worked on them when I was in high school in the late '60's.

[jhalphen]

Hello Eckhard,

Thank You ! for the pictures of your Kuba PortaColor, the outside links and your progress report.

Have you now solved the color decoder issue & achieved correct color reproduction?

What are the capacitors like in the TV; OK or need for total/partial replacement (paper capacitors?)

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[yagosaga]

Hello Jerome,

I was on a trip to the Rhine for some days, so I did not worked on the Kuba Porta-color. Yesterday, we returned back home. In the moment, I am working on a Color 20, I have raplaced the picture tube with a better one from Russia. Now, I have to do the fine adjustments (purity, convergence, white balance, and SECAM).

I am sill waiting for a possibility to get the 7.8 KHz coil for the Kuba Porta-color. I am not sure that this might be the only fault. But let's see what happens.

Kind regards,
Eckhard

[Mikey405]

Well done Eckhard for rescuing that Kuba set. I kinda-like those sets. They always feel like they'll drop to bits at any minute when you pick them up and the picture always seems fuzzy on those low-definition tubes, but they do have a kind of charm about them.

Originally Posted by Robert Grant

It must be in there, but I don't see how the set "knows" which lines are R-Y, and which are Y-R.

Hi Robert. With 625 line PAL, each alternate line has a burst signal which "swings" +/- 45 degrees relative to the previous line. This "swinging burst" is then rectified to generate a 7.8KHz (half line frequency) square wave which then operates the PAL switch so that the R-Y synchronous demodulator recieves a reference signal in the "correct" phase relative to the signal.

Hope my dodgy explanation helps. Probably does more harm than good.

Kind regards.

From Mike.

[yagosaga]

Hello Jerome,

recently I have acquired another Kuba Porta-color on the British ebay. It was sold in non-working condition, "suitable for spares or repair", so I could win it for a low price. I wanted to take the 7.8 KHz coil from this set for my first set. But fortunately, there was only a small soldering problem at the anode connector of the PL504. After a few minutes this set works fine.

The tint control of Simple PAL is a little bit tricky. When I change the input source (test pattern, DVD or aired broadcasts), I have to readjust the tint control. With fine tuning of the channel, the white tone also changes. You see, I have to go through the circuits.

But now, I have the chance to measure the 7.8 KHz coil for getting the values to design a replacemend for the other set.

P.S.: The emission of the 11SP22 in this British Porta-color is 0.4 mA on Blue, 0.4 mA on Green, and 0.4 mA on Red, similar to what I have measured on the other picture tube.


Kind regards,
Eckhard

[yagosaga]

Did you know that the Kuba Porta-color has the highest number of tubes in relation to transistors on the chasssis, and it has the lowest power consumption of all color tv sets of the 1960s in Europe? It needs only 160 watts. The only color tv set, which had the same low power consumption was the solid state Color 20, introduced in 1969.

Note that the brand "Kuba" was taken over by General Electric in 1966 for 80 million Deutschmarks. This is the reason, why the Porta-color was redesigned and produced in Wolfenbuettel, Germany.

[Sandy G]

Were the Kuba Porta-Colors "cheap", too? They were over here, usually about the cheapest-or close to it-color set you could buy. Especially from a "major' brand like General Electric.

[yagosaga]

The first Kuba Porta-colors were sold for 1500 Deutschmarks in 1967 and early 1968. The price was lowered to 998,- Deutschmarks in 1968. For comparison: the cheapest 25" color tv set, the Körting, was offered for 1998,- Deutschmarks in 1967. The 25" standard color tv sets costs appr. 2400,- and 2600,- Deutschmarks in 1967 and 1968.