A tribute to You Tube member Edward Jones aka "Aussie50"

For those of you who are part of the You Tube community and have watched Aussie50's videos over the years, Ed tragically took his own life between the 28th & 29th of June 2019.

As a sufferer of depression in some form or another, I have been through some rough times and know what its like to feel that things aren't worth it anymore, but for some the pain and suffering is too much and they need a release from the torture and I guess Ed felt that was the only way out and now that pain has gone and hopefully his soul has now been set free and he is now at rest.

This has rattled me quite a bit and is a very sobering reminder that us as males need to speak up and talk to someone if we are struggling/having bad thoughts or feelings.

Be rest assured that I am OK and just expressing my feelings on here, I have a very supportive partner and friends/family around me.

So where ever you are in the universe Ed may you rest in peace and I may bump into you on the other side someday. If we do meet up I'd love to do an old washing machine EOL with you or even better destory a TV using a 1 ton machine press!

Link to Aussie50's Channel - LINK

Pye 16" T25Y Update

I added this set to the page back in 2012.  Click the link to see further work that has been done on it - LINK

Update - I've resurfaced...

Hi everyone, well I'm back! To cut a long story short since I last updated this site, due to not being able to login for ages but today have reconfigured settings and now I can access everything. There have been a couple of relocations and a house move so all of my stuff is finally out of storage and back home, and this means I can rekindle the interest with my old TV sets again. Have a workshop set up and access to sets/parts/service info is easy once again. So stay tuned for future updates.

An Update 1/8/2016

To those that have been following my blog and wondering why I haven't been here in a while, well I am still around just not doing much with the vintage TV's anymore.

Personal reasons forced me to put everything into storage and unfortunately I had to dispose some of the sets mentioned here in the blog due to limited space in the storage locker. The majority of the really good condition ones and the ones I restored I have kept. Will make a note on the ones here that no longer exist.

I don't know when I will be resuming posting up on here. Lets just say my life path is a different to what it was a few years ago.

Am still using a old Philips KL9 (KT3) TV as my main watcher but as to my other older projects.. It could be a while before I get to those again.

Philips Home Product Catalogue Summer Edition 1969

Now this was a bonus find I came across the other day and to me this is literally gold as it now allows me to actually date some of the sets I own.
One of my recent finds which was the 23" Panorama Consolette 521 I thought was quite an early F2ZN chassis but it appears not to be the case.
I also have the 17" Florida Sheerline Portable, 21" Narvik Consolette 534, 19" Luxembourg Table Model 500 and the 19" Compact Portable 532.
It would be great to have every set pictured on the the front page including those nice looking consoles, and you never know what may turn up yet...
Take a look at all the radio's and stereo console's that are there as well - Very retro indeed!

A long overdue update and some potentially good news on the TV collecting front...

Well a lot has happened since I last did any new posts or updates on here. I just looked through my older posts and saw the last time I 'actually' put up any new topics was back in December of 2012!

2013 wasn't a very pleasant year for us with me losing my job back in August and my wife tumbling down our stairs which resulted in major back surgery and then I had some health issues myself and its hard when you've got two small kids (2 & 4) on top of all that.

But things seem to be back on track now so lets hope 2014 is a better year! At least Cowan Audio Services seems to be doing well and I get to work on what I enjoy fixing which is mostly older audio equipment and also repairing new products under warranty too so pretty much doing all things audio/stereo across the board.

Now onto some exciting news on the TV front....It looks like I am potentially going to be ending up with more vintage sets due to a good contact I have struck up with at one of the local e-waste/electronic recycling outfits. They have agreed to save old TV sets that arrive and have already put old and interesting television sets aside for me. So far I have collected about four and you'll see of them appearing on here at some stage when I get time to post about them.
Also picked up more old sets over the past six or so months and a couple of these are up on You Tube so go to my channel and you'll see the new additions there.
So a big thank you to the lads at RCN..I really appreciate you guys taking the time to putting TV's aside for me.

So stay tuned for more updates and interesting new finds!

Pye 201T 21" Television - An Early Example of NZ Manufacture **These two sets no longer exist**

Well its been a while since I've updated anything on here...With work/kids/family etc,etc that sure eats into ones time, but still get to tinker with my TV toys after the kids are in bed when its late at night! The Murphy is nearly done so watch for an update on that shortly.

Finally got a chance last night to take some photos of this Pye 201T, which I got a few months ago along with a donor for parts. This is now one of the oldest sets in my collection and other considerable find for 2012.

What you are looking at is an early example of Pye televisions that were being made here in New Zealand at the time, all were 625 line.

The 201T started off in December of 1959 with an initial run of 300 according to my knowledge, but not sure how many more were manufactured and how many years this model ran for.

Both sets are not in the best of condition, cabinets/chassis have suffered due to sitting outside or in a very damp shed/garage. One set is slightly better than the other and thats what is shown here.
They came from Auckland from another vintage radio/electronics enthusiast who could not bear to throw these out, thinking that someone might want them. Thank goodness he didn't.

Like an English Pye TV's this chassis is live with series filament chain running P series valves. The CRT is a Philips AW 53-80, not the sort of tube I'm used to seeing . The chassis mounts on the side of cabinet and the whole thing slides out, making access and servicing very easy. The chassis position and layout reminds of an American design in some ways.

The circuit and chassis layout is very closely related to an Australian Pye chassis T12-D. Comparing the two they look almost identical.

In regards to the valve lineup, it uses mostly PCF80's through out the set.

PCF80 - Oscillator/Mixer
PCC84 - RF Amp
PCF80 - 1st I.F./Sync Clipper
PCF80 - 2nd I.F./Sync Separator
PCF80 - 3rd I.F./AGC Key
PCF80 - Video Amp/Video C.F.
PCF80 - Sound Limiter/Sound I.F.
PCL82 - Sound Output/Audio Amp
PCF80 - Horizontal Oscillator
PCL82 - Vertical Output/Oscillator
PL36 - Line Output
PY81 - Boost Diode
DY87 - EHT
PY82 - HT Rectifiers

So I class the 201T as being rather rare and the 'better' one is going to be a project and a half!
When I do get to this, I'll focus on getting the chassis up and running first and worry about the cabinet later.

There is a lot of wax caps and resistors under there which will all be past their 'use by date' so I've got some work ahead of me with this beast. At least I have spare parts should there be a faulty LOPT or the likes. Hopefully one/both of the picture tubes are still OK. I should test them first.

I doubt whether there are many more of this model that still exists most of them would be buried long ago so I've only got these to work with.

So when I get to this one there will no doubt be an update here of course!

Some photos and a circuit below for your amusement.

The donor set!

Bush EV863C Super Deluxe 23" TV

Here's another English set I got towards the end of last year, I paid a grand total of $1.50 NZD for it.
At the time I nearly didn't get it as space was a big tight then but the advertiser advised that it wasn't a very large set so that made the decision. This is also rare export model Bush.
It cabinet is quite fancy and it would have originally had legs but never came with the set. It reminds me of the English Pye that I've got with doors but this one is later and bit more plainer to look at.
I did power it up when I got it and happy to say that it does work, the vertical has issues as usual and the channel selectors are dirty but it'll bounce back quite well I should think. One thing about the push button channel arrangement, in regards to tuning you push the square button in and then try and turn the hexagonal stalk to tune and this is not easy with big fingers! There is meant to be a tuning tool for doing this, but that too is long gone. At least I'll only have to tune it to one frequency for the RF output from my modulator and leave it at that!
So just some photos for now...Another 'TV' for that project list that is getting very long........

Decca Prestomatic DPT 23" Professional TV

I got this just before Christmas of last year from a friend who also is a radio collector and was about to move at the time and needed to offload some extra bits and pieces that he had and this is one of them.
He brought  this Decca back with him from the UK and modified it to work here. It is actually a dual standards set so does have 405/625 line and UHF.
According to comments I got in regards to this on the UK Vintage Radio & TV forum, this Decca is rather rare so I better make sure I look after this one!
It was working back in 2009 but developed a intermittent connection on a socket which burnt through and hasn't been used since, but did go very well prior. These were a good design and the chassis is also a hybrid. Thankfully he gave me the full service manual and notes with it.
Apparently the 425 switching section has been hard wired out but I'm hoping that this won't be too hard to reverse as I'd love to see a 405 line picture in operation.
Here are some pictures of it, nice looking TV I reckon! Looking forward to getting this one going.

Pye T25Y 19" Slimline TV

Here is another version of the Pye T25Y. This one has a 19" picture tube and is a later production model made in 1971.
It does have legs but were removed when it was transported as this was part of the haul of old TV's that I got back in early January.
Quite a smart looking set with clean lines, Formica cabinet and I love the "Transistorised" slogan on the front. I guess Pye would have been moving the 'Solid State' slogan back then as it was 1970's and this chassis still uses mostly valves. Mind you valves were coming to end by this time and with colour being around the corner.
According the previous owner, this thing did work but not very well.
So just some pictures for now, will update when I get to working on this.