It was a damn good day out, I cheated this year, since moving up to Lincolnshire it’s been a bit of a trek, so I booked us into a cottage in the village of Farnborough, just about a half hours drive away from the venue, it’s a really lovely little place! No doubt I’ll do the same next year. We are also going to make good use of our National trust cards and visit as many as possible whilst down here!
There was a really good range of stuff for sale this year, and for once I actually bought stuff that was on my shopping list! There was one telly I really wanted, it was the Marconi one sat running on a stand with a Bush next to it, it was the very first vintage telly I ever saw when I was probably only 11, sat in an antiques shop priced £45, with no chassis in it! I was very tempted to buy the one at RetroTech, but I thought £180 was a little too much, but I suppose it wasn’t bad considering it was in really nice condition, with a good tube and was seen to be working very well for the whole day!
There was another telly I’d been after for a long time, a GEC BT-2147, which I pounced on as soon as I saw it! I had a good long chat with the 2 guys on the stall about telly’s, and just managed to bag the set just as someone else turned up to try and buy it! And looking carefully at it, it looks as though the tube is possibly ok, I can’t see anything nasty going on in the neck at least. The chassis has a good layer of dust so it looks like no one’s been in it for some time! It is sadly missing its Bakelite feet (anyone got any?). I also came away with a few radio’s, a Philips 141U in poor condition, a Roberts R827 which looks a bit crusty but did show the clock when I put some memory batteries in! An Ultra T-491, I’d fancied one for quite some time, a nice little French art deco radio, and 2 Tesla’s! Also picked up a nice Bell & Howell cine camera in its case with a sealed roll of film. I was also given a pile of price guides by a guy I used to work with a few years back, which should make interesting reading! I also picked up a few odds and sods as spares for other projects, and not forgetting the KB FB10 chassis from Rich (many thanks again! Was good to see you again 😊)
Many thanks to everyone who makes this great event possible each year, and long may it continue!
Anyway, enough of me waffling, here’s a photo of the pile!
My first time there, me and the wife went the day before and booked a hotel for the night, think by the time we arrived though all the best TVs had allready gone, but yes it was an excellent day out and I'm sure we will be doing it again now.
My mate who had the stall said there was a nice Reddifusion version of a Decca Bradford early on that had sold by the time I got there. I saw a couple of early 405 sets running on a stall but apart from that the only others I saw were on the B&B stall a 23" GEC 1000 chassis and a Thorn 950 19" which was a fairly plain looking set at £50. I can't remember what it was badged as... Anyway I resisted! I have examples of both models and I don't need anymore! (I'm told!!)
I managed to shift some stuff that had been hanging around for much too long. I now have room to put the vacuum cleaner in the cupboard under the stairs at last!
Nice! Fingers crossed I can get this one to work as well as that, I do still have the other GEC with a similar chassis, so if anything (except the CRT!) is toast, I have spares! I can’t wait to get stuck into this set, but I’ll have to wait until the weekend at least, and then I’ll have to clear some space on the bench so I can actually get it on the bench!
@lloyd it did put up a bit of a fight and GEC tubes aren't the greatest...
In case you're wondering; the bottom unit is the standards converter, the top unit is the Ch. 1 modulator and 440Hz tone source and the location is my old studio's maintenance room in Television Centre - sadly, one of the demolished studios.
It is good to hear so many had a good experience with many of last years teething problems over.
I had a great day out, with a stall and had great success selling and meeting friends old and new.
Thank you Greg and team for organising another event even better than last years.
It was a good day out. Had a cracking breakfast at Gilk's garage (in Kineton) on the way to Coventry. Nice to put names to a few faces. I scored a couple of Panapets, a 14" TX9, and the annual can of de-oxit. Parking was farcical, but we managed to get parked in a layby , and then moved to the car park later on in the day.
Ah yes, we thought the parking would be problematic, especially after last year, so we turned up at about 9:40, then sat and waited until about 20 past 10 to join the queue. Was there no overflow car park this time?
I went along for the first time at the new venue, having missed last year's Retrotech as it clashed with the Dunstable Downs radio rally. I arrived around 11.15 to find the car park full, so I had to park precariously on an embankment then move my car later on in the afternoon. Other than that, no problems. I didn't use the on-site catering, I always bring my own food and drink because it's a lot cheaper.
Anyway it seemed busy with lots of stalls and visitors. I met up with a number of fellow vintage telly enthusiasts whom I've known for years on this or the other forum. However I'm sure there were others whom I would have known but didn't recognise. I saw someone carrying away a Ferguson TX9 television, then this evening I saw this video posted by Doz of this forum:
So I must have seen Doz without knowing who he was. Likewise I saw someone buying a rather rusty Roberts PLL radio from the Bring and Buy stall. It has appeared in the photo of Lloyd's stash. Lloyd and myself have met before but for some reason I didn't recognise him this time. Sorry for that. However, someone recognised me as the person from whom he bought a dual-standard Sony TV back in 1997! Back then, a local electrical shop called C.F. Lake was celebrating its 50th anniversary. They invited their customers to bring vintage items that they had sold over the years, culminating in a grand display of vintage tech, and I contributed the vintage Sony TV to their display. Someone asked me if I would sell the set afterwards, so I did. I thought no more of it until the buyer recognised me on Sunday, all those years later. He lives only a few miles away from me, and yes, he still has the set! Amazing! That really made my day. The social aspect of these events is what makes them so enjoyable.
I managed to avoid buying any big items, despite some things being offered very cheaply. There were a couple of wind-up gramophones, working, for as little as £25 and some 405 line tellies from £10 (untested). Instead I picked up a "Realistic" (Tandy) 4 inch handheld television from 1987 with "flat" monochrome CRT like the Sinclair / Sony Watchman pocket TVs only a bit bigger. Amazingly some sellers on AliExpress are still selling these miniature CRTs with driver boards, presumably new old stock. I was considering ordering one and building it into a monitor but now I don't need to. The other items I bought were an Ericofon telephone with rotary dial (looks like a cobra) and a vintage (?) brick-sized MP3 player from 2001 for £5 - a future collectible, I think.
All in all, an enjoyable day out.
I thought I saw you there at one point, Hamid! I also thought I saw Doz and John-Joe, but as always by the time my small brain had processed what I was seeing, everyone had disappeared into the crowd! I saw the Realistic telly, I was tempted! I still have the Ansonia clock from you! And I still haven’t got a pendulum for it!
.. I saw my legs in Doz’s video!! I’m famous now 🤣
I thought I saw you there at one point, Hamid! I also thought I saw Doz and John-Joe, but as always by the time my small brain had processed what I was seeing, everyone had disappeared into the crowd! I saw the Realistic telly, I was tempted! I still have the Ansonia clock from you! And I still haven’t got a pendulum for it!
.. I saw my legs in Doz’s video!! I’m famous now 🤣
There where lots of legs due to my epic camera work. 🤣 It was a very social event, which made it for me
I've added an events calendar to the top menu (if on pc/mac/linux) or burger menu (if on mobile/tablet) above. Already added Retrotech 2025, if anyone has other events they wish added, please just pm me the details and I will add.
It's pretty easy to navigate the calendar, you can drill down to an event, see a brief advert for the event selected. You can also select "read more" if scrolling, which will then expand on the event for further details.
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