Another TV from Oz!
This Astor model is rare but not desirable, you'd have to like vinyl covered metal and green plastic trim! It was made in the same plant that Philips took over to make K9s here, as seen in a recent post.
It was getting in the way in the garage so I put it on the bench to see what it would do.
Some very sloppy servicing in its past, most screws, LOPT and video detector covers missing, components tacked onto the old part leads etc.
So I ran it up and initially got a black screen, touching the contrast pot flashed up an out-of-sync image. A tweak of the line hold and vertical linearity got this:
So I replaced the cranky contrast pot. Easy eh? Too good to be true! The image started fading as if I'd lost CRT heater volts.
But no, heater was alight and all voltages checked normal.
Thinking that this TV might not have dodged the skip after all!
But then it came good again! So I tweaked the out-of-position pincushion magnet and got this pic.
Trim pots, IRC half-watt composition resistors and Anodeon transistors gave early Series 11's like this one more than their fair share of intermittent faults. The No Pic fault came back - it was a bad 68 ohm resistor in series with the contrast pot. So while I was addressing these and the sticky power switch, the CRT faded again - worse this time, and did not come back.
What to do?
I did an emission test and got 3.5%. So I bumped the heater to 8 volts with no improvement. Adopting a Kill or Cure strategy (I'd never get another CRT for this TV) I set the heater to 10 volts - noting that the heater current was stable. It started to slowly improve.
After 30 minutes I had 100% emission and it held at 90% when I reduced the heater back to 6 volts.
Looks good!
In the morning, expecting it to be back to the way it was, I switched it on and as soon as the 1S2 (DY86?) had warmed up I got this! As good as a new one.
A fluctuating contrast fault was due to the video detector bias pot and associated resistor, I replaced the pot with a fixed resistor.
Screwing the back on normally invokes a fault and so it turned out to be. Aster 6 hours the picture had the wobbles. Replacing the AT321 sync separator fixed that.
As you can see above there are still a lot of those carbon composition resistors waiting to give trouble!
On reflection and in the opinion of others, my guess is that the cathode in this tube had never been fully activated and the 30 minute cook has finally done that, on a tube that was built in 1969. It's been running for a week so far, WITH its back screwed on!
Anodean, love it🤣🤣🤣. Is there a PYE/Cathodean connection I wonder?
John.
Hi, that is an interesting set in that it seems to use a rare AT7652 or V5T tuner. This was essentially a classical rotator valve tuner with the valves replaced by the first germanium RF transistors. Quite rare! Would it be possible to make some nice close-up pictures of the tuner, preferably showing its labels? Thanks!
Pieter
No, not a Philips tuner, an Anodeon (Astor) tuner. Made in the Clayton plant.
I think the part number is 4052-300-01. The rubber stamp has been interrupted by the edge and one of the holes.
Astor used Philips-style part numbers. They used the same inventory software!
These tuners came with a comprehensive IF bandpass filter (as needed for our crowded VHF bands) and the 1st IF stage on a small PCB attached to the side. They were also used by Pye in the T25 portable.
Definitely has silicon transistors!
Are you still interested in more info? I have schematics.
Re the Anodeon connection with Pye, Pye sometimes used Anodeon CRTs - I have a Pedigree with one of these as original fitting in 1963 and it still performs like a new CRT. Most of the time they used Thomas CRTs. These have not stood the test of time / hours as well as the Anodeons.
Pye and Astor shared a number of key components. Pye used Astor tuners and Astor used Pye yokes from their Marrickville plant. This TV has one.
The TV is now finished and has its pack screwed on with 12 screws! But here is a cutout from the unreduced internals pic..
