CTV 1983 PYE 22" 3400 (KT30); 198x PYE 51KT3260/05T (KT3)

That’s how I ended up with so much stuff!! There was one culprit in particular that I used to work with, normally saying something like ‘well if you don’t have it, it’ll go to the tip!’.

I’m looking at the bigger set and thinking it looks very similar to a set I used to have, which was a remote controlled set with teletext, that was the very first TV project I ever had at about 11 years old! I badgered my Dad into letting me buy one from the tip to have a go at repairing, cost all of £2, wasn’t much of a repair project, all it needed was a new mains lead and it worked!

Regards,

 Lloyd 

A closer look at and inside the PYE's

The KT3

The KT30

As you can see, they both look remarkable clean and nothing looks untoward.

Later.... Power and signal, fingers in ears to deaden the 'electroboom'. 😉 

Edit:

Just checked my stockroom KT30 chassis and it looks to have a huge additional board. It's either a remote board or teletext. The reason I'm vague is I can't make out the large chip as the entire chassis is suspended from the rafters. I need to get the small steps, but they're in the garage, and it's lashing it down, so I'll leave that until tomorrow. It would be great if it is TT, but I'm fairly sure it will be the remote option.

Power up and signal results.

KT3

powered up without dramatics however, it appeared dead, no sound, no raster. Powered off and that's when I saw a flash of colour in the centre of the tube. Obviously not the three delta gun dots, but whatever PIL does. So the TV is alive in some form, but we're not getting to raster, no brief sound hiss upon power application either.

This will need investigating

KT30

What can I say, other than stunning picture.

The KT3 and K30 gave superb pictures. The MkII versions had single-chip chroma decoders although the teletext chroma board had an extra switching chip fitted. Not interchangeable with the early two-chip decoders.

A lovely pair Chris ! The KT3 is a late model by the looks of it. Check the tripler on the KT3, as you probably know if you disconnect the input and the set comes on that will prove it! The tags break off the focus control very easily but can be soldered back on with care, if one is loose the sparking can shut the set down. Not a lot went wrong beyond the tripler and the 4R7 on the power board. Most went on until the tube wore out! 

Well, whatever it was it's now cleared, took it to the bench and it's now working.

The pair

Had a reshuffle and a new arrangement in the upper display area of the museum this morning. The PYE's are now placed, and by placing the TVs at a jaunty angle it's actually given me a little more space. Now I can see why TV shops did this. 🙄 Also, it will help when I finally start providing them all with a signal to display test card F. The lower end of the museum is a little more difficult to layout like that due to massive TVs and my work bench needs decent access.

Those chassis look a lot like Singapore builds.

The KT30 started life in Oz as the KL9, a development of the KT3 that Philips Hendon (SA) did because the K12 was uneconomical to build. They were used in Philips, Pye and Kriesler TVs until production at Hendon ceased, all chassis then came from the Singapore plant.

The Oz KL9s used a similar line transformer and tripler as the KT3, rather than the diode-split transformer we also saw in the K12. Probably because it was cheaper.

Actually, as I now recall, all but the early Oz-build K12s used a separate transformer and tripler. The tripler in the K12 really looked like an afterthought, mounted at 45 degrees on a little bracket.

The K12 was disliked in the industry for being too complicated and unreliable. It was a high-end chassis being used to build (mostly) low-end TVs. Easy to see why the KL9 was developed.

The KL9 had a small PCB screwed to the chassis rail near the focus pot that contained the Screen control pots. I don't recall looking too hard but it's possible the KL9 used the same monocarrier PCB as the KT3. It would have made sense if it did.

The first Singapore KT3s we saw had the RGB amps on the monocarrier.

While all this was happening the Japanese were making single board TVs (no modules) with 2 or 3 chips that never broke down.

Looks good Chris! 😎

Lovely! I'd say the mid 1980s was perhaps the golden age of colour tv manufacture, as by this point sets had become very reliable, serviceability was good, the pictures were generally excellent, some thought had been finally been given to sound quality and the cabinet designs were just (to my eyes at least) incredibly smart and well presented. Those Pye sets have aged well.

Posted by: @colourstar

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Lovely! I'd say the mid 1980s was perhaps the golden age of colour tv manufacture, as by this point sets had become very reliable, serviceability was good, the pictures were generally excellent

Totally agree and was thinking the same myself. The PSU's seemed complex at the time but were pretty straightforward compared to what came later and you just didn't get the massive blowups with collateral damage requiring various "Repair kits" with blanket component replacement. 

Yes indeed....collateral damage.....anyone here remember the Philips G110 chassis (not the CP110 chassis that was a lot simpler). The G110 was hated by a lot of engineers even when Philips produced a repair kit (two actually) which consisted of around 20 components, mostly chip resistors and transistors. I actually did a couple of service articles in Television mag covering the repair of these power supplies. The extra kit brought the component count up to about 30. A full repair using both kits probably took about an hour and a half....I got so used to them others used to send them to me to repair so I did quite well out of it in private jobs. The problem wasn't helped by some PCB's being wrongly marked with one zener diode reversed which meant that after replacing 20 odd components, the thing still wouldn't start......I think I mentioned it in the second article. Took me ages to find that.....caused much frustration to engineers who'd carefully replaced each component and still not have a working set. When I found it and engineers rang Philips in complete frustration, I directed them to that diode which invariably resulted in a working power supply.....

Inspired by this thread I dug my Pye K30 out today.

I posted a thread about it on the UKVRRR  when I got it, I can't believe that was over 4 years ago!

Pye K30 - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum (vintage-radio.net)

It came from the house clearance place my mate frequently haunts, sorry, visits! many a nice old set has been rescued from there over the years!

Today after it's long rest I powered it up and away it went! The tube was a little low at first but picked up nicely after a run.

The set tripped off a couple of times at first which was because one of the clips holding the dag earth had broken so the earth wire wasn't tight against the tube. @crustytv Chris, I wonder if that is why your set tripped at first? Might be worth checking the earth wire is secure and tight? 

I really like the K30/K35 they were good earners on rental and in those days were still worth selling at the end of contract! 

Both are nice looking sets with strong CRT's good one Chris! I know the KT3 chassis well, used to fix a lot of them back in the day. Here in New Zealand we had the KT3 & the KL9 chassis (26 inch tube) and the KT3 was used in the 14 to 22 inch models. They always came up good after a good solder up on the boards and a new tripler usually. When I shifted a few years ago I dumped all of my KT3/KL9 spares..kind of wish I hadn't now but these things happen.

@slidertogrid Your example is a really nice looking set - traditional yet modern.

Loved these sets, many faults could be cured simply by replacing open circuit safety resistors, I still have the extention board for in set panel repair.