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Tiny telly! Sinclair MTV1B

Lloyd · 2024-04-12T21:43:21Z

I’ve been out hunting again today, at Newark antiques fair, and came across this little tiny telly! I have been after one for a long time, I already have some of the FTV1 model, one of which is boxed. All the ones I’ve seen before were either in lousy condition, or seriously overpriced. I was quite pleased when the lady on the stall said it was £25, but she was happy to take £20 for it, and it’s in really nice condition, complete with its protective case! on returning home I fitted some batteries to see if it would work, it came straight up! In the workshop I could tune in the workshop RF signal clearly, but the picture was too tall, and off centre, I was in 2 minds as to whether or not to open it to correct it, especially as 1 of the case screws is hidden under the serial label, and another under the sticky back foam pad in the battery compartment. I decided to go for it, and carefully peeled up the end of the serial number label to reveal one screw, and the foam pad to get to the other, the remaining screws are under the telescopic antenna. Then things got a bit scary, trying to separate the 2 halves of the case, there is a bit of a clip at the front above the on/off/volume control, and it didn’t want to budge, but then it did and the CRT lifted up at the front with the top case, I didn’t think much of it and pushed the tube back down into place on the bottom case, I connected the battery pack and powered on and was greeted with a blank screen! I had a good look around then spotted something that made my heart sink… there was a black tubular bit on the tube base, which looked like it was protecting the evacuation pip, and it was sitting distinctly wonky, and it seemed loose too, I immediately thought the worst, that I’d snapped the pip off the tube and killed it! But on picking up the set with the power still on the picture appeared! Turned out that the set is very sensitive to magnetic fields, and I’d sat it on top of another of the day’s purchases, a GEC radio, with a permanent magnet speaker! So after a bit of a sit down I set about finding out what preset does what, and adjusted the picture so it was the right size, and central. It now looks pretty good! 4 of the presets are hard to get to without removing the guts from the case, but I was able to push them round from the side. The set goes back together a lot easier than it comes apart, and a bit of hot air helps stick the label back down. It’s not a bad little picture! Not very bright, but it is clear and very watchable.

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Black & White Television plus Standards converters

Last Post by Lloyd 1 year ago

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slidertogrid

(@slidertogrid)

Posts: 1404

Prominent Member Registered

@doz Could the filter be a magnifier? I have seen some small American sets with a built in magnifier which makes the picture only really visible head on, from an angle it becomes blurred and distorted.

Posted : 15/04/2024 9:20 am

Doz

(@doz)

Posts: 1506

Prominent Member Registered

@slidertogrid No, it just goes progressively darker. I'm not sure of the mechanism, maybe some sort of polarising trick.

Posted : 15/04/2024 9:22 am

slidertogrid reacted

Lloyd

(@lloyd)

Posts: 1988

Prominent Member Registered

Topic starter

@doz

I hadn’t seen those little Sears telly’s before, they look neat! The privacy filter sounds unusual, the only thing I have seen that on is someone’s phone at work, screen looks black unless you look straight at it.

Posted : 15/04/2024 5:23 pm

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