Hi, this is a bit of a long shot research task but hopefully some of the Ex trade or other folk looking in, may be able to shed some light and help.
Around 1975-1978, I would have been 12-15, I remember my dad had been on a never ending quest to get larger and larger colour TV's. I remember one such behemoth, a 25 or 26" dark mahogany cabinet with doors. Like most of us at the time the set would have been rented and I seem to remember the set might well have come from *"Woods" of Kennsington Gardens. Before my father passed away I mentioned this set to him and if he could remember it and to my surprise proclaimed it to be a PAM.
Now I had no idea PAM ( which was a subsidiary of PYE) made colour TV's, I thought they had ceased production of TV's under that name back in the mid 60's which were Black & White Dual standards. I assumed the muddying memory due to time and age had probably left him confused and said no more.
Roll on to this year and I notice a post on our old forum Vrat 1.0, where a thread in the suppliers section was discussing a 697 CTV LOPT for sale on e-bay. The post that jumped out at me is as follows:-
ntsuser said:
Interesting that the seller mentions Invicta, I'd forgotten that particular PYE clone. There was also a Ferranti and (according to Wireless World) a PAM-badged model was exhibited at Earl's Court in 1966.
The bit that jumped out was "PAM-badged model exhibited in 1966".
This confirms to me now that a colour TV badged as PAM was indeed a possible reality and there may have been more sets. So the request is would anyone have a copy of this wireless world article from 1966? Furthermore would anyone have anything that might shed some light on this or other CTV models from PAM. A photo or scans of anything would be greatly appreciated to help solve this mystery and extend the main sites documenting of early colour TV.
* Interestingly I googled Kennsington Gardens, Brighton for photos from the 1970's, low and behold I found a shot of the TV shop. You can see the Philips sign above the shop.
CrustyTV Television Shop: Take a virtual tour
Crusty's TV/VCR Collection: View my collection
Crustys Youtube Channel: My stuff
Crusty's 70s Lounge: Take a peek
Thanks to the other poster I have the article, (see below) it does give some hope of tracking this mystery.
There is some ambiguity but the context of the paragraph (CTV) does suggest these manufacturers ( PAM being one) had demonstrated pre-production models. However I need to confirm it was not just generically referring to all models B&W/Colour that these manufacturers had demonstrated.
I guess my next tack will be to see what if any PAM models were produced for 1967. I'm not even sure PAM continued making B&W as late as 1967. If I can verify that PAM B&W production ceased I'm on a winner.
CrustyTV Television Shop: Take a virtual tour
Crusty's TV/VCR Collection: View my collection
Crustys Youtube Channel: My stuff
Crusty's 70s Lounge: Take a peek
Don't remember PAM CTV's in production in 1967 but definatley Ferranti, we sold them, well not many but i do remember them.
Something in the back of my mind about Invicta CTV but nothing definite like the Ferranti. Like at lot of UK TV makers times were hard and I can understand culling makes to concentrate on a few names, less cabinets and fittings to worry about. I don't think Ferranti made any single standard CTV sets, only dual standard.
To give you an idea of Pye's problems, in around 1966/7/8, they were cutting the circuits in the BW TV's, they brought out a model with direct line sync on a dual standard set when the norm was flywheel sync, especially for 625 Neg mod. When I inquired the sales man, David , his reply was they had to save about £2 on every set they sold so they had to cut the sets down. There were other changes but I cannot remember them but the cabinets looked cheap. They also had problems with the push button tuner knobs breaking and flying across the room. The rotary tuner used to strip the cogwheel and the knob break. There were modifications for both problems which did work but it must have cost them a lot of money.
The first single standard sets were back to decent quality but of course half the grubbins was removed and the price stayed around the same.
We were selling mainly RBM BW dual standard sets at that time due to the above.
Frank
This is the Invicta version of the Pye CT70. I'm assuming Invicta was a wholesale brand by this time as it's £70 cheaper than the Pye console, cheaper even than Pye's 19" set. Anecdotal evidence suggests it was also more readily available than other brands at a time of severe shortage.
