About to start on something rather unique and interesting...

[Glenz75]

Hi everyone, sorry that this first post is a bit long its mainly to give some background information for your interest.

I am about to embark on this restoration project which has been on the cards for about the past year or so.
What has prompted me to finally bring this set out of hiding was due to the workshop being recently revamped with nice big long workbenches and I told myself that once those benches were up, this set was going to get looked at…. And today was the day…

What we have here is an extremely rare low production New Zealand made 23 inch black and white TV made around 1963-65.

It may not mean much to anyone else but to me this is a special set as the person who designed and made this set, I knew him personally. Alan was a very clever man with an amazing brain for knowledge and was very switched on when it came to anything technical or electronic.

He started making radios back in the 1930’s and all of his sets were manufactured from his house, and a large area of his house was used solely for making them. His brand name was called “Telerad”.

After the Second World War he returned and continued to make radios including hi-end hifi amplifiers as audio was one of his passions, all of his radios had a very well designed audio section and the sound quality left any other locally made set for dead. I also have a couple of his sets and they really perform well.

I can’t remember when he stopped making radios, think it was the around the mid 1950’s but his hifi amplifiers were still being made though.

Alan always followed the latest technology so naturally gravitated towards television when it started becoming the latest craze in the electronics industry.

I met Alan in the early 1990’s as a teenager through the local radio club. I used to call him regularly to ask questions and he didn’t mind and he could talk for ‘hours’. You had to listen to an hour or two of his war stories first but then he could be easily diverted with an electronics question so he’d rattle on for ages about his designs/circuits and the things he made and would answer the question in between… He was a talking book and I wish I had recorded some his phone conversations as they were dam fascinating.

Alan died on July 7th, 2007 aged 94.

This TV came out of his house, it was buried in a back room with stuff piled on top of it. He became a hoarder in recent years and the house was ‘full’ of test gear/valves/components/radio cabinets etc. Unfortunately some of it was dumped but a lot was rescued and found new homes. I got about six Tektronix scopes, heaps of components and some other bits and pieces including three brand new unused radio cabinets for my Telerad sets.

This set is probably the only one left in existence, I have no idea how many TV’s he made as this was the only model, he probably did tell me but I can’t remember and I highly doubt that there are any others that have survived.

The internals have been made up using left over radio components and two radio chassis stuck together. Alan was not one to waste anything, he never threw anything out.
One of my unrestored Telerad radios which was made in 1948 has the exact same brand of components in it.

The tuner and line output stage are all Philips, so is the picture tube (Miniwatt AW-59-90) and deflection yoke.

It is hard to believe that this TV was made in the 1960’s as the chassis/valves/components looks like something out of the mid 1950’s!

Here is the valve line up, the majority of them are octals: All I'm going by is the hand drawn valve location chart that was taped to the back cover.

Tuner ECC88/ECF80
1st IF 6SH7
2nd IF 6AC7
3rd IF 6SH7
Sound IF 6SH7GT
Sound Det 6SQ7
Audio Amp 7C5
Video Det 6AC7
DC Restorer 6SA7GT
Peak Detector 6SA7GT
Sync Amp 6SA7GT
Sync Sep 6SH7
AGC Gate 6SA7GT
Line Multivibrator 6SA7GT x 2
Vert Osc 6SA7GT
Vert Amp 6L6
Line Output EL36
Boost Diode EY88
EHT Rect DY87

So there’s quite a mixture of valves there and he used a lot of 6SA7’s! Anyone know why?

Also a Rola 12 inch dual cone speaker was used for the sound, the one shown in the photo is not the original. I have the original speaker for it.

In regards to the circuit diagram, well there isn’t one and this is going to make the repairing/fault finding/restoration a lot harder! I can see head scratching/frustration and swearing in the wind with this one!....
But fortunately I do have a complete spare chassis so this is going to be my only saving grace.
I have no idea what circuit design he based this on either so its going to be an interesting journey bringing this set back to life.


He put a note in the set saying it was last run in 1987 and that it has a horizontal sync fault. Do I dare wake it from its 24 year slumber?

When I got this back in 2007 I found the main filter caps had let go and the terminals were eaten away so I temporarily wired some filter caps in and replaced the rotten power cord… I never did get around to putting any power on it though. Everything else looks ok underneath and I’m toying with the idea of slowly bringing the set to life with the variac and seeing what happens.. I know this is a bit risky but at least if the set show signs of life I will then know what stages are working and as I don’t have a circuit it maybe the only way to get voltage readings etc. Hopefully the picture tube and lopt are ok.

The first thing I will do is change all the capacitors and then check resistors along the way. There are a lot of can type 10+10uf filter caps throughout and some look quite difficult to get at.

Wish me luck on this voyage, it maybe a rocky one!

I'm not going to rush at this, well will try not to as have other projects on the go at the moment but at least I now have the space to leave it untouched.

Will post up progress reports when time allows.

Enjoy the pictures...

Cheers
Glen.

[Glenz75]

More Photos...

[Glenz75]

And more photos...

[David Roper]

Wow. One thing's for sure--that set's not a clone of anything! What a fabulous design; it makes contemporary Soviet stuff look cutting edge!

[cwmoser]

This would be a very interesting restoration project.
Like to follow your progress. Keep posting about it.

Carl

[Steve McVoy]

Very strange set, using 40s tubes. I think this is a one-off set.

[Sandy G]

Wow....

[old_coot88]

Wowzers! This is going to be an interest grabber sorta in the same vein as the RCA 'prototype' set in another forum. oc

[Phil Nelson]

Amazing. Homebrews are commonplace in the radio world, but pretty unheard of with televisions.

To quote Bertie Wooster, I shall follow your future progress with considerable interest!

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[Glenz75]

Here is an update...good news Its ALIVE! The CRT checked strong so and I bought it up slowly on the variac over an hour or so and watched for any signs of stress, took some basic voltage readings and I was greeted blank raster so somethings up with the If/video stages but hey at least the flyback/vertical are working so a promising start so far!!... Not bad considering its 25 year slumber!
I think my next move will be to check all the tubes in the front end and then start fault finding from there....I'll start replacing caps in the flyback/power supply sections as I'm going to have to power this up again no doubt...

Thanks guys for the all encouraging comments too I'll try and keep you all as up to date as possible.

[AndrewM]

Certainly a unique TV and it will be interesting to see it's restoration.

The set was made from commonly available and possibly war surplus valves. Alan probably had a pile of 6SA7's left over and used as many as he could in the TV. He has used them in very unconventional applications though.

[Microtrol]

Basically a home built tv, pretty impressive . Great to see it alive again and good luck and we'll be watching the restore

[bgadow]

I think it's great to restore this to working condition as a tribute to the builder. He did very nice work. I assume he worked alone, perhaps building these to order? This most reminds me of the Transvision I have. Something to treasure.

[Glenz75]

Yes his workmanship standard was always very high, and yes he did work alone, I'm not sure if he made them order, but more than likely as most of his customers were exclusive as he lived in a well to do area and the locals knew he was the 'guru' when it came to good quality electronics back then.
I'm sure Alan would have been pleased that I saved this set from being dumped and getting it going again is pretty much in his honor.... He was a good friend of mine and after he passed away his daugther told me he'd once said that I was the like the son he never had...That brought a tear to my eye...So this is definetly something to treasure.

Originally Posted by bgadow

I think it's great to restore this to working condition as a tribute to the builder. He did very nice work. I assume he worked alone, perhaps building these to order? This most reminds me of the Transvision I have. Something to treasure.

[bandersen]

Wow! That really is amazing. The tube lineup reminds me a little of the early GE 80X sets with all their octal tubes.

Good luck getting it running