Thursday, 16 August 2012

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........













5 comments:

  1. There was a 21" Bush TV in Aus that had about twice the valves of other brands (all superb Mullards which never needed replacing).

    Since it was 21", I'm guessing it was late 1950s [UK?] design. It had mechanical 4-channel pushbutton VHF tuner (who would more than 4 channels they thought).

    Being branded simply Bush, it was of the high quality before the Murphy merger in the early 1960s. An English guy told me that "Bush [in 1950s]were the Rolls Royce of TVs"

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  2. Interesting stuff about that Bush set you encountered. I find some of the old English sets quite fascinating. Some of the 1950's 405 line Pye sets were really good from what I've seen and read about on the UK Vintage Radio & TV forum.

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  3. Nice looking set. Can't see the picture too well but it looks like it's got some kind of frame linearity fault. The presenter's head looks stretched and the bottom of the picture looks cramped up/folded over. Time for some new capacitors I think!
    Also in respect of your quest to find a colour set which has valves, I don't like your chances. The first colour sets into NZ (around 1973) were the Philips K9 and subsequently the Sanyo Telecolours. These were all solid-state receivers.
    As far as I know, there were some colour sets (B & O make) which used some solid-state components and some valves (for the high voltage section).
    A colour set which used all valves probably wasn't practical as there's a lot of circuitry needed for decoding a PAL signal - you'd need dozens of valves.

    Awesome site, keep up the good work. It's great to be able to come here and see the old sets. I started my apprenticeship in radio and TV in 1984 and worked on the colour sets of the time which were the Philips K9, KT3, Bell Coloursonics, Thorn 9000s and some TX574s, Sanyo Telecolours etc.

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  4. Hi Mac, thanks for you comments on the Bush and kind words about my site, I know the chances of finding a colour/hybrid TV here is NZ is quite slim, but I remain optimistic... You never know what might be lurking in someones garage or back room forgotten about for years.
    I started in the industry doing TV servicing in the early 1990's and back then there were heaps or Sanyos/Thorns/Nationals/Pye/Philips which I repaired. They've all but vanished, expect the K9/KT3's those things just keep on going. I have got one of the early Sanyos (5VR560)? which has the pre-heat circuit for the CRT and gives a really nice picture too.
    Glad you enjoy coming here...I hope to add some other colour TVs on here soon. Thinking of getting one of my Pye CT102's up and going for a change so will post some photos up when I do. Cheers! Glen.

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  5. Hi Glen,

    I think the 5VR560 is quite an early one. I've seen them but never worked on them. The Sanyos I started repairing in 1984 were the 5D/5E560/670 etc with the turret tuners and 'instant start' system which was just a small transformer providing a few volts to keep the filaments warm when the set was off. It was a great sales gimmick.
    My folks bought a 26" Telecolour in 1975(?) - it had fold out doors on it. That set was only retired in the early 90s and it sat in our garage for some time before disappearing. I don't know what happened to it but it would have been nice to keep. The cabinetry was in pristine condition.

    The CT101 was PYE's first offering in that line and there weren't so many around by the mid-80s. The 102 and subsequent 103 and 104 sets were somewhat more plentiful and I did many house calls to carry out 'sync mods' on these, to allow them to lock correctly with the timebase signals from the new VCRs which people were buying.

    Cheers.

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