BBC Microcomputer TELETEXT Project
Viewdata, Prestel, Philips
Philips Model Identification
1976/77 Rank Arena AC6333 – Worlds First Teletext Receiver
PYE 1980s Brochure
Ceefax (Teletext) Turns 50
Philips 1980s KT3 – K30 Range Brochure
Zanussi Television Brochure 1982
Ferguson Videostar Review
She soon put that down
1983 Sanyo Brochure
Wireless World Teletext Decoder
Unitra Brochure
Rediffusion CITAC (MK4A)
Thorn TRUMPS 2
Grundig Brochure 1984
The Obscure and missing Continental
G11 Television 1978 – 1980
Reditune
Hitachi VIP201P C.E.D Player
Thorn 3D01 – VHD VideoDisc Player
Granada Television Brochure, 1970s
Long Gone UK TV Shops
Memories of a Derwent Field Service Engineer
PYE Australia Circa 1971
Radios-TV VRAT
Fabulous Fablon
Thorn TX10 Chassis
Crusty-TV Museum, Analogue TV Network
Philips N1500 Warning!
Rumbelows
Thorn EMI Advertising
Thorn’s Guide to Servicing a VCR
Ferguson 3V24 De-Robed
Want to tell us a story?
Video Circuits V15 – Tripler Tester
Thorn Chassis Guide
Remove Teletext Lines & VCR Problems
Suggestions
Website Refresh
Colour TV Brochures
1970s Lounge Recreation
CrustyTV Vintage Television Museum
Linda Lovelace Experience
Humbars on a Sony KV2702
1972 Ultra 6713
D|E|R Service “The Best”
The one that got away
Technical information
The Line Output Stage
BBC Microcomputer TELETEXT Project
Viewdata, Prestel, Philips
Philips Model Identification
1976/77 Rank Arena AC6333 – Worlds First Teletext Receiver
PYE 1980s Brochure
Ceefax (Teletext) Turns 50
Philips 1980s KT3 – K30 Range Brochure
Zanussi Television Brochure 1982
Ferguson Videostar Review
She soon put that down
1983 Sanyo Brochure
Wireless World Teletext Decoder
Unitra Brochure
Rediffusion CITAC (MK4A)
Thorn TRUMPS 2
Grundig Brochure 1984
The Obscure and missing Continental
G11 Television 1978 – 1980
Reditune
Hitachi VIP201P C.E.D Player
Thorn 3D01 – VHD VideoDisc Player
Granada Television Brochure, 1970s
Long Gone UK TV Shops
Memories of a Derwent Field Service Engineer
PYE Australia Circa 1971
Radios-TV VRAT
Fabulous Fablon
Thorn TX10 Chassis
Crusty-TV Museum, Analogue TV Network
Philips N1500 Warning!
Rumbelows
Thorn EMI Advertising
Thorn’s Guide to Servicing a VCR
Ferguson 3V24 De-Robed
Want to tell us a story?
Video Circuits V15 – Tripler Tester
Thorn Chassis Guide
Remove Teletext Lines & VCR Problems
Suggestions
Website Refresh
Colour TV Brochures
1970s Lounge Recreation
CrustyTV Vintage Television Museum
Linda Lovelace Experience
Humbars on a Sony KV2702
1972 Ultra 6713
D|E|R Service “The Best”
The one that got away
Technical information
The Line Output Stage
Trade Chat Tips, Dumps & Scrapping Back in the Day
It may have been the same guy Martin, the Martin I knew at DTV was young maybe he set up on his own as Mike at DTV was sole trader later on.
Yes PVS are/were on Papyrus road the owner, another Martin was service manager of British relay and set up on his own, originally on Dogsthorpe road around the same time as me. This would have been around the time of the Visionhire takeover. BRW didn't last long after that.
My mum worked for Freemans for years the staff shop provided many bargains over the years, She had a mate who worked in the shop and would tip her off when end of line clearances came in. I bought a lot of VCRs in the early 80's. The wastage though was incredible, later on they cleared large quantity job lots to traders they called "jobbers" but early on a huge amount of stuff was deliberately smashed and chucked in Eye tip. I remember hundreds of sets of bathroom scales, brand new fridge freezers, transistor radios, cassette recorders - all sorts being chucked in the clay pit but everything was smashed. I used to get a lot of speakers and PCBs from there!
There was also a lot of smaller firms that subbed to the bigger firms a lot of TV engineers left the trade at the lure of better money. Peterborough had a very big industry back then. I remember the lunchtime 'Buzzer' going off at B.P and 5 minutes later a 'cloud' of men would tear down Taverners road on bicycles. Then the return buzzer would go off about 50 minutes later and they would go back the other way.
Sorry bit off topic.... 🤐
Admin Edit:
Split off from the Comet Electrical thread here
Posted by: @slidertogridI remember hundreds of sets of bathroom scales, brand new fridge freezers, transistor radios, cassette recorders - all sorts being chucked in the clay pit but everything was smashed.
I often wondered how much stuff got chucked in the knott-holes provided by LBC, not least by their own employees! An archaeologist could have a field day in years to come... nearly fifty years ago I got a Dansette Hi-Fi that way, along with one of those little Japanese tape recorders that drove the spools rather than having a capstan and pinch roller...
@cathovisor It'll probably be like the Atari games and consoles buried in New Mexico!
It is frightening to think about how much stuff has gone into landfill over the years. when I had the shop in the early days (early '80s) I followed on with what the previous owners had done with rubbish. The dustmen took a couple of bins a week that was from the workshop and office. Everything from dud parts to paperwork. All the cardboard boxes from sales and the old scrap TVs were put on a bomb fire once a week. A scrap man then took away the chassis, the rest of the ash was from time to time shovelled into a huge pit that was at the bottom of the 'garden'. Towards the late '80s the council decided they wouldn't take commercial waste anymore and we were banned from burning rubbish as the wasteland at the rear of the shop was built on.
That meant that around every two weeks we sent a large van down to the tip full of rubbish and old TVs. Being commercial waste and having to pay (van was weighed on way in and again on way out) we were allowed into the tip to sling the stuff out. A couple of bulldozers would then plough it in. Horrific when you think about it now! But back then there was no recycling and no-one thought any more of it!
During the '90's we had a skip in the back yard all the rubbish and scrap went in that and it was emptied when full. Where it went and what was done with it I don't know. But at a guess I would say it was probably just dumped at the tip.
The brick pits and subsequently the council tip must be a strata of waste from the '70's onwards. More worrying the council tip had previously been on the riverbank near the town centre, who knows what is leaking into the river. There is now talk of building a sports stadium there I wonder what will happen when they start disturbing that lot!?
Our local tip was hideous. Located on the side of a hill you just reversed up to a wall and threw stuff over the side where it dropped about twenty feet. A bulldozer came along and battered it down. Everything went over there. Fridges, TVs amongst all the usual DIY detritus, broken furniture mattresses and general household waste. Some time around the late 80s B&Q built a store on there. This involved building an embankment on which the car park now stands. There are little vents on posts dotted across the car park – the same as you see on old coal mine landscaped spoil heaps.
With all the recycling collections and points for paper, cardboard, plastics, bottles, cans, etc., and vegetable waste going in my compost bin, my household ‘black bin’ waste (there is only me) rarely fills more than a plastic loaf wrapper – that’s what I use the wrappers for. It would probably take six months for me to fill the wheelie bin though I don’t think I shall try the experiment.
More to the point though is where some of our diligently sorted recycling ends up. Some beach or dump in the Far East?
Nick
The Knott holes as they were known locally were old clay pits in Peterborough (well Eye to be accurate) and were a rich picking ground for us kids back in the early '70s. There was one near the brickyards which was bordered with reject or used kiln closing bricks. Half full of water. This is where a lot of people fly tipped rubbish along with a few firms that presumably had permission. Unfortunately a lot of stuff was unsavable as it was either in the water or smashed to bits on the bricks around the pit.
Occasionally you would strike gold, someone would just plonk something down on the grass by the pit. The challenge would be to get to it before the local kids smashed it. I had a few record decks out of radiograms, radios, numerous chassis, speakers and PCBs from stuff Freemans chucked there, usually half way down into the pit so you took your life in your hands to get it!
One day while we were prowling I found an Ekco (405) TV in mint condition. I heaved it back to my bike which was fitted with a rack I had made in metalwork at school specially for this purpose, then my mate Baz shouted "come and look at what I have found" I ran back to where he was to find him peering into a cardboard box.
I looked in the box and jumped back! I thought it was full of rats! It turned out they were kittens, 5 in total all very young their eyes had only just opened by the look of it.
We couldn't take the box and the Ekco so we hid the telly in a bush and put the cardboard box on my rack. My mum was a little surprised when I got home and while she admitted I couldn't leave them on the 'tip' she was adamant I wasn't keeping them!
She helped me feed them and then we set about finding homes. We managed to find homes for all of them that afternoon, my mate Baz had the Black Tom he called him 'Panther' after the Peterborough speedway team. That cat grew and grew it acted like a dog guarding his yard only the chosen few got in! We were both well into our late 20s by the time Panther passed on so (Baz was a little older than me and was married by then) I think he must have lived at least 15 years maybe more. The Ekco? I persuaded my dad to go back the following day after work in the car, the set was still there intact. The boost diode was 'snow capped' one second hand valve later and away it went. I recon I sold it at school for 30 bob that's usually what sets like it made!
A real result day!
This is a photo taken by my mate Mick in 2006 who worked for the firm that bought my business in late 2000. This picture was used for an article he did for 'Television' magazine in 2006 (the short lived re-launch of the mag) I have not seen the article but I am going to borrow the magazine and have a read. The subject of the article was the problem of recycling. The picture was taken at the back of 'my' shop just before the sets were launched into the waiting skip!
I remember sometime in the mid 1990s going with my friend & his Dad to the local commercial tip. His Dad was a plumber & had the right credentials to use it. I helped throw a trailer load of commercial waste into a large pit with a bulldozer piling things up. Something I threw in managed to damage the case of a 12" portable TV someone had already thrown in! This was when they were hard to even give away!
The local scrap man to me often advertised that they could take away your analogue TV at the time of the digital switchover, often I would see an old set near to some flats I would pass on my way to work, usually gone by the time I came home. Nothing interesting though, mostly CRT sets from the mid 1990s onwards.
Posted by: @richardfrommarpleoften I would see an old set near to some flats I would pass on my way to work, usually gone by the time I came home. Nothing interesting though, mostly CRT sets from the mid 1990s onwards.
I snapped this in a layby next to a bus stop in Peterborough a year or so ago. The council had stopped the bulky waste collection scheme so some people just plonked it in the street bins. Often there would be a sofa or bags of garden waste, or an old telly... Almost comical!
A lot of stuff gets wasted, Luckily at my tip i'm such a regular swiping bits and bobs they just turn a blind eye. Yesterday I got 3 x brand new T12 light bulbs, and this. There were a load of 90s portables too but didn't bother with them.
Marvellous ! I sold and rented loads of Mitsubishi sets from the 30AX sets that were built like a brick outhouse to the Blue Diamond series up just before the widescreen sets when I think Mits pulled out of TVs in the UK. Almost 100% reliable, hardly ever ever saw one! Have you tested it? Bet it works! Check for drys on the line osc transformer.
Rich
Pointless bit of trivia: Mitsubishi is Japanese for... "three diamonds".
https://www.mitsubishi.com/en/profile/group/mark/
For a time I had a Mitsubishi set which my Dad's friend didn't want any more.
It worked fine as a bedroom set until I got my first digital set & it had to go.
Stupidly I gave away the brochure with it, as it was in the same plastic wallet as the instructions!
I was in a service organisation where every Christmas we did Santa Sleigh street collections for our charity account. One of our guys was well in at his local tip and each year the speaker system was augmented by bigger and better ones that had arrived and been reserved by the tip operatives which in those days were Council employees.
The piece de resistance was when an enormous disco unit turned up which was the width of the trailer. By gum residents and children knew when we were on the street!
(OT: The funniest thing that happened was when we decamped to the local pub at the end of one run to count the cash and came out to find all the presents piled on the back of the sleigh had been pinched. We’d have loved to seen the looks on the faces of the villains when they tore off the wrapping paper to find they were only empty cardboard boxes!)
Nick
This is the rather tongue in cheek article my mate Mick wrote for The magazine that the original picture was taken for. Apparently the one of the trainee lads was given a hammer and told to break the neck of the tubes before the sets were skipped. He had a better idea and decided it was far more fun to smash the screen, with resulting mess!
@slidertogrid interesting you brought that magazine up, take a look on page 25 when you borrow a copy.
Hi Michael I borrowed the copy from Mick today, the article you mention is a good read. It seems your life is similar to mine TV wise! Tip prowling as a kid. I had the same experience as you did with the microwave only with a portable TV! I also managed to rent a customer their own set ! Long story...
If you don't mind and Chris agrees I can post the article here for others to read? I don't think it is available on-line?
@slidertogrid I don't mind at at all, going to the tip has been a big part of my life, in fact over many years I have made a lot of money from it, I stopped going to the tip back in 2010 after the bridge collapsed but when the tip re opened it was taken over by the council and they wouldn't let you have a thing then, prior to 2010 the tip was privately owned and I went every single week to buy stuff, I was such a good customer they bought me a bottle of wine every Christmas, Makes me cry now going to the tip seeing all the good stuff I could sell.
Thanks Michael. I will attach the article. I thought it was best to ask!
I know elf 'n' safety has a lot to do with it but I find it frustrating that councils' don't allow stuff to be taken and reused. The best kind of recycling! Out local house clearance auction sells all sorts of stuff from absolute rubbish to some pretty good stuff. Their thinking is that anything they sell no matter how low value is cheaper than skipping it and having to pay for the disposal. Often stuff that doesn't sell is left by the skip for a few days to see if it is taken.
I have noticed a few things are put to one side at our new improved local 'recycling centre' maybe for the employees' to take, but they won't allow the public to take anything. They could easily put obvious good stuff to one side and have a once a week auction or have a sales area. No point in suggesting it though they would come up with all sorts of reasons as to why not and no doubt if they did it would run at a massive cost to the taxpayer rather than make a profit!
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