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Forum 135

B&W TV Ferguson 3649 Junior 16

Black & White Television

Last Post by irob2345 3 months ago

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slidertogrid

(@slidertogrid)

Posts: 1196

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Years ago i was gifted one of these sets by my Uncle. He had a holiday home at Hunstanton and this set was used there. One day it failed so he bought a new set and asked me if I wanted the "old set". Did I? Wow! A portable! Not something I found at the time as my sets were chucked out by telly shops or came from the tip!

I remember fixing it fairly easily I feel sure one of the line stage valves had cracked so the fault was fairly obvious. I guess I sold it I certainly didn't have it long.

So 45 or so years later I was on a mission to get one for my collection. The first one I got came from the Cowbit auctions. Maroon case (my original was black) and very tatty and mucky. Then as is usual with these things another came along fairly quickly this time in good condition and a black one! The black one was renovated and went into my collection. The poor old Maroon one sat on a shelf in the spare room for many years. "in case I needed any spares".

I decided today to have a look at it and see if it is worth dong anything with. I put it on the bench and had a look inside, Muck and spider's webs! The on off switch is broken, the control just goes 'round and 'round and had been bypassed, the mains lead joined with Sellotape! There is a capacitor splitting it's sides but evidence of some repairs as some capacitors have been replaced.

So I gave it some power via the variac and after I was happy nothing was going to go bang I wound it up to full mains. A bit of a smell of hot dust a bit of clinking from the line bottles and a raster appeared! Connecting it to my 405 converter and we have pictures! Isn't it always the same that the rough sets are the best electrically! The frame twitches about a bit , the frame lin is poor, there is a bit too much height with the pot at min but it works! No sound but the amp is working so I guess we have a sound IF problem or maybe it is the broken control. Considering the set hasn't been run for 10 years that I know of the tube is excellent!

So decision time, Do I strip it down, fix the mask, clean it out and sort out the other problems? Or put it back where it came from for another decade? I really don't know what to do. I always seem to end up with two or more!

First picture is the black one in my collection the rest are of the grotty maroon one.

Posted : 20/06/2024 5:10 pm

LSmith and Lloyd reacted

Lloyd

(@lloyd)

Posts: 1968

Prominent Member Registered

Ah, I have 2 of them as well!! I got the maroon one from Daventry tip back in 2005, along with the Stella ST-2049A, someone had cleared a load of black and white sets out from somewhere, but back then I didn’t really think they’d be interesting to anyone, so just grabbed the 2. I remember it was missing a valve, which I think was the line oscillator (ECC something?!), so it was put away until I could find one.

I found another set at the NVCF one year, that’s the black one! Sadly the mask is pretty much totalled, there is less than half of it left! But after a few new caps it was brought back to life.

I actually had the maroon one running on display at ‘the festival of vintage’ at York racecourse back in 2011, it worked faultlessly all day, and also did a great job of keeping my hands warm, as I was set up in the doorway, with a right cold draught blowing through!

The mask on the maroon one has started to deteriorate, it’s really brittle, I did line the inside with fibreglass, but I think it’s shrunk over time, which has made the deterioration worse.

One thing I have noticed about these sets is the line linearity is a bit naff, never did find out why!

Posted : 20/06/2024 7:20 pm

slidertogrid reacted