Richtige Fernseher haben Röhren!

Richtige Fernseher haben Röhren!

In Brief: On this site you will find pictures and information about some of the electronic, electrical and electrotechnical Obsolete technology relics that the Frank Sharp Private museum has accumulated over the years .
Premise: There are lots of vintage electrical and electronic items that have not survived well or even completely disappeared and forgotten.

Or are not being collected nowadays in proportion to their significance or prevalence in their heyday, this is bad and the main part of the death land. The heavy, ugly sarcophagus; models with few endearing qualities, devices that have some over-riding disadvantage to ownership such as heavy weight,toxicity or inflated value when dismantled, tend to be under-represented by all but the most comprehensive collections and museums. They get relegated to the bottom of the wants list, derided as 'more trouble than they are worth', or just forgotten entirely. As a result, I started to notice gaps in the current representation of the history of electronic and electrical technology to the interested member of the public.

Following this idea around a bit, convinced me that a collection of the peculiar alone could not hope to survive on its own merits, but a museum that gave equal display space to the popular and the unpopular, would bring things to the attention of the average person that he has previously passed by or been shielded from. It's a matter of culture. From this, the Obsolete Technology Tellye Web Museum concept developed and all my other things too. It's an open platform for all electrical Electronic TV technology to have its few, but NOT last, moments of fame in a working, hand-on environment. We'll never own Colossus or Faraday's first transformer, but I can show things that you can't see at the Science Museum, and let you play with things that the Smithsonian can't allow people to touch, because my remit is different.

There was a society once that was the polar opposite of our disposable, junk society. A whole nation was built on the idea of placing quality before quantity in all things. The goal was not “more and newer,” but “better and higher" .This attitude was reflected not only in the manufacturing of material goods, but also in the realms of art and architecture, as well as in the social fabric of everyday life. The goal was for each new cohort of children to stand on a higher level than the preceding cohort: they were to be healthier, stronger, more intelligent, and more vibrant in every way.

The society that prioritized human, social and material quality is a Winner. Truly, it is the high point of all Western civilization. Consequently, its defeat meant the defeat of civilization itself.

Today, the West is headed for the abyss. For the ultimate fate of our disposable society is for that society itself to be disposed of. And this will happen sooner, rather than later.

OLD, but ORIGINAL, Well made, Funny, Not remotely controlled............. and not Made in CHINA.

How to use the site:
- If you landed here via any Search Engine, you will get what you searched for and you can search more using the search this blog feature provided by Google. You can visit more posts scrolling the left blog archive of all posts of the month/year,
or you can click on the main photo-page to start from the main page. Doing so it starts from the most recent post to the older post simple clicking on the Older Post button on the bottom of each page after reading , post after post.

You can even visit all posts, time to time, when reaching the bottom end of each page and click on the Older Post button.

- If you arrived here at the main page via bookmark you can visit all the site scrolling the left blog archive of all posts of the month/year pointing were you want , or more simple You can even visit all blog posts, from newer to older, clicking at the end of each bottom page on the Older Post button.
So you can see all the blog/site content surfing all pages in it.

- The search this blog feature provided by Google is a real search engine. If you're pointing particular things it will search IT for you; or you can place a brand name in the search query at your choice and visit all results page by page. It's useful since the content of the site is very large.

Note that if you don't find what you searched for, try it after a period of time; the site is a never ending job !

Every CRT Television saved let revive knowledge, thoughts, moments of the past life which will never return again.........

Many contemporary "televisions" (more correctly named as displays) would not have this level of staying power, many would ware out or require major services within just five years or less and of course, there is that perennial bug bear of planned obsolescence where components are deliberately designed to fail and, or manufactured with limited edition specificities..... and without considering........picture......sound........quality........
..............The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of todays funny gadgets low price has faded from memory........ . . . . . .....
Don't forget the past, the end of the world is upon us! Pretty soon it will all turn to dust!

Have big FUN ! !
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©2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Frank Sharp - You do not have permission to copy photos and words from this blog, and any content may be never used it for auctions or commercial purposes, however feel free to post anything you see here with a courtesy link back, btw a link to the original post here , is mandatory.
All sets and apparates appearing here are property of Engineer Frank Sharp. NOTHING HERE IS FOR SALE !
All posts are presented here for informative, historical and educative purposes as applicable within Fair Use.


Sunday, June 2, 2013

PLANET (PRANDONI) MOD. 671 YEAR 1970.




The PLANET MOD. 671 is a red / orange wooden cabinet 17 inches B/W portable television with 4 programs mechanic keyboard tuning system.

In the end of the 60's  increasingly attention was focused on the varicap diode tuner as the latest, sophisticated means of television receiver frontend tuning in both colour and black and white sets.
 The main purpose of this article is to investigate the servicing problems associated with this comparatively new method of tuning.

First however let's briefly recap on the principles involved in this tuning system:

 The tuners use variable capacitance (or "varicap") diodes as the variable tuning elements: the effective capacitance of the diodes is controlled by the reverse bias applied across them, tuning being achieved by varying this voltage. As the reverse bias across a varicap diode is increased so its junction depletion region widens thus reducing its capacitance.
A VHF/ UHF television tuner is constructed in accordance with the present invention includes a preselector tuned circuit having a solid state voltage controlled capacitor as its tunable element, a radio frequency amplifier coupled to the preselector circuit and alsoother circuit to perfect the signal receiving capability and the application the like.

Considering the Mechanical Tuner Problems:

To get the servicing problems in perspective let us next consider the tuning arrangements previously used.
 The earliest of these, employed on v.h.f., was the switched tuner which was either of the turret or incremental type.
 The turret tuner substituted a coil bearing "biscuit" mounted on the rotating drum or turret when channels were changed. Twelve positions were normally provided, with a fine tuning knob to adjust the local oscillator frequency. As its name suggests the incremental tuner simply added more inductance to the tuned circuits at every downward channel movement: thus the highest inductance was present on channel one and the least on channel 12 (which normally covered 13 as well with manipulation of the fine tuner).
The movement towards u.h.f. TV working, initially with dual standard sets and later with single standard ones, brought about the need for u.h.f. tuners. In the earliest u.h.f. receivers valve tuners which were not particularly efficient were used.

The drive mechanism was usually a dual  speed rotary system calibrated from channels 21 to 68. Experience in the field indicated that 625 line television was in many cases considered by the viewer to be inferior to 405 -line reception, on account of the poor signal to noise ratio achieved by the valve tuners. Many viewers were not prepared to use external u.h.f. aerials of course, having achieved satisfactory reception on v.h.f. with an indoor aerial: this aggravated the situation even more.
Another aspect which caused difficulty was the care needed to tune in a u.h.f. channel using a rotary tuner covering the whole of Bands IV and V. Many viewers simply could not tune in BBC 2  or ZDF or ORF or any channel correctly with such a tuning mechanism, finding that they had passed right over the channel they wanted before realising what they had done.
The advent of transistor tuners rapidly improved the quality of u.h.f. reception but use of a rotary mechanism was continued by many manufacturers. Thus while potential reception was improved the same tuning difficulties remained and viewers continued to gravitate towards 405 line viewing using the "old faithful" switched tuner. The operational breakthrough came with the introduction of the push-button u.h.f. channel change. 

The mechanism is basically simple. Adjustable push buttons press down on a lever bar which in turn rotates the tuner's variable capacitors to the appropriate position. Each button is capable of tuning over the entire u.h.f. bands and this leads to customer confusion at times when after some adjustments which were too heavy handed they find themselves receiving ITV on a BBC button or a ORF and ZDF broadcasting or any channel possible !

Mechanical Faults:

 Mechanical tuning obviously has its snags. There are for example contact springs which earth the tuning capacitor and go intermittent. This gives rise to the most random tuning defects, capable of driving the. most patient viewer to a state of total exasperation. It is also possible for the rotation mechanism to hang up and jam intermittently, or just become sticky, so that the reset accuracy of the mechanism is impaired and the receiver has to be retuned every time the channel is changed.
The vanes in the tuning capacitor can also short out at different settings, thereby eliminating some channels. The  Varicap Tuner It will be seen then that mechanical defects can cause very irritating fault symptoms. If one thinks along the lines that anything mechanical is nasty, then the elimination of mechanical parts can only be to the good.

The logic of this is splendid provided the electronic replacement for the mechanical system is more reliable! Otherwise we are leaping out of the frying pan into the fire! In the light of experience gained with mechanical tuning devices it seems great that with the varicap tuner we have at last dispensed with the dreaded rotary tuning capacitor, replacing it instead with a variable voltage to the tuner. 
Let us think about this however since things are never quite as simple as they first appear. The tuning voltage has to be variable in order to tune the receiver. Obviously then a means of varying the voltage has to be provided to act as the tuning control.
As it is a voltage that has to be varied the tuning control takes the form of a potentiometer., Now we have returned to a mechanical system again, though in a less complex form.
A potentiometer is required for each channel, selected by pressing the appropriate channel button.

We have lost a tuning capacitor and its rotating mechanism and gained a set of pots and selector switches therefore. Provided the pots and switches are mechanically more reliable than the tuning capacitor we should be better off-or should we? 

Need for Voltage Stabilisation.
 The voltage selected by the pots cannot be allowed to drift otherwise the receiver will go off -tune. The voltage supply to the potentiometers has to be stabilised therefore and a stabilising zener diode or integrated circuit (TAA550) .is needed for this purpose.

Any failure in this part of the circuit will give rise to tuning drift or worse, a total loss of reception. A short-circuit TAA550 for example will completely remove the tuning voltage while if it is open circuit the tuning can vary with picture brightness. Likewise any intermittency in the potentiometers or associated switching and/or resistors can also cause problems.

Relative Reliability of Tuners:

 It  will be seen then that in order to lose our troublesome mechanical arrangement we have had to introduce considerably more electronics which we trust are going to be more reliable. In addition we have not so far considered the relative reliability of the varicap tuner itself compared with the mechanical type. Since two r.f. transistors are generally used to compensate for the reduced Q of the varicap tuned circuits we immediately have twice the likelihood of an r.f. stage breaking down! 
And being semiconductors the varicap diodes themselves are more likely to fail than the sections of a ganged tuning capacitor. It is reasonable then to conclude that if mechanical faults are the most prevalent the use of varicap tuners will make life easier. Mechanical faults are generally not too difficult to sort out however and the field engineer can often cope with them in the home. 
Can the same be said of the varicap tuner? It seems that this type of tuner does not need so much attention as its mechanical counterpart but is likely to throw up some much more difficult faults when it does, resulting in bench repairs being needed. So far my own experience has indicated that varicap tuning faults nearly always need servicing on the bench.
Generally speaking it seems true to say that varicap tuners themselves are adequately reliable: the snags result from the tuning system and stabilised power supply.

Tuning Drift with Varicap Tuners:

 If a varicap tuned receiver is constantly drifting off tune the +30V supply should be the number one suspect. It is best to connect an Avometer permanently to the supply so that it can be precisely monitored-if necessary write down the exact voltage measured.
 If the receiver drifts, check the voltage. If it has changed, even slightly, this may well be enough to be the cause of the fault. To pinpoint and confirm the diagnosis aerosol freezer should be applied to the stabiliser i.c. or zener. If the voltage returns to normal or changes wildly for the worse the stabiliser is almost certainly the cause of the trouble and should be replaced.
A prolonged soak test should then be carried out. Another point concerning varicap tuners arises with their use in colour receivers.

 There were  makers of the most expensive colour receiver on the market still didn't use a varicap tuner but instead use a mechanical one. The makers' claim is that the signal to-noise ratio of the varicap tuner is inadequate for their colour standards. Undoubtedly the results obtained on the receiver seem to confirm this. Interestingly, the same manufacturers use varicap tuners in their black -and -white receivers, and the tuning button system is often full of troublesome intermittent contacts. The varicap tuner has its advantages and disadvantages then. Probably the simplest comment would be to say that when it is good it is very very good but when it is bad it is horrid!

Incorporated antennas for both VHF UHF channels are fitted back side.

The Chassis was hybrid TUBES / semiconductors type even with a full steel chassis structure half hand wired.

(Note: Model code may be wrong due to missing original sticker)

TRANS CONTINENTS / OCEANIC / PRANDONI was an Italian manufacturer of radio and after of televison sets.

It was also the owner of brands like Trans Continents and Nuclear radio TV or simply Nuclear.

"Prandoni S.p.A." was founded by Dario Prandoni. Finally his son Giorgio Prandoni sold the company to the French "Thomson".

In 1998 Francesco Juilland and Giorgio Prandoni co-founded "Mediacube USA, Inc.", a film production company and a visual effects service provider in USA, Europe and in Italy.
a film production company and a visual effects service provider in USA, Europe and in Italy.

Even if "Prandoni" seems to be a major player in the Italian radio and TV business the details are very rare.

Giorgio Prandoni is a leading figure and heir to the most prestigious industrialist dynasty in the design and manufacture of radio equipment and multi standard television sets in Italy. (His father was Dario Prandoni the luminary owner of Prandoni S.p.A. one of Europe's most highly regarded electronic companies;


Dario Prandoni formed the basis of the Prandoni Empire and Giorgio Prandoni sells the company in France to Thomson with a big one deal). During his tenure from 1998 to February 2002 as Mediacube's CEO Francesco Juilland has created important joint venture between Mediacube USA, Inc. and important European, American and Canadian companies. He also brokered the acquisition of a share of Minerva Pictures (Italy) they own a library of more than 1,500 titles of which 850 are for worldwide rights in perpetuity. The titles include classics works by Pasolini, Germi, Bellocchio, Godard, Fellini, Antonioni and others. Most recently in 2000, Francesco Juilland was elected in the Board of Directors of Ionic WW Studios, a fully digital Hollywood studio organized and financed by Mediacube as Major Investor together with Giorgio Prandoni and Javier Rodriguez, Spanish businessman and scion of an important and conservative Family of Spain full of history and tradition and thank to the greenlight of a guardian angel like the economist Mr. Diego Colombo, chairman of the Colombo Group with offices in Switzerland and around the world and longtime serious advisor of the Juilland family office. Francesco Juilland is in the Board of Directors with the man that he considers his American mentor Mike Medavoy (producer, former chairman of Tristar Pictures and a legendary "Hollywood industry hero" as Fox News channel calls him, many times Oscars winner, his movies including the masterpieces Apocalypse Now, Philadelphia, Dance with wolves, Who flew over the Cuckoo's nest, Annie Hall, Platoon, Rocky, the Sting, Silence of the lambs, Amadeus, The Terminator, Sleepless in Seattle) and Norman Pattiz (called from "USA Today" and "LA Times" The Ted Turner of the radio) and Arnold Messer (president of Phoenix Pictures, company producer of Larry Flint, The thin red line, U-Turn, The 6th Day, Basic, Holes, Stealth, All the King's men), together with David Hayden and Gigi Pritzker (film producer with Deborah del Prete of "the Wedding Planner" with Jennifer Lopez)



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