Making Yesterdays Electronics Work Today
Making Yesterdays Electronics Work Today
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
GDPR Note: We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.
You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.
Radios-TV Vrat uses the absolute minimum of cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and which threads you have viewed and subscribed to.
The only personal information we require and store is your e-mail address. By registering, you grant us GDPR consent to hold your e-mail. If you decide to leave it will be removed. See rules here.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
This site uses cookies - small text files that are placed on your machine to help the site provide a better user experience. Cookies at Radios-TV are used to retain user preferences, store information for things like threads viewed, threads subscribed to and forum preferences etc, and provide anonymised tracking data to third party applications like Google Analytics. As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better.
Note: "strictly necessary" cookies are by default disabled. If you leave them disabled, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
More information about our Cookie Policy
These TVs look really great, but I don’t think that they sold as well as our Gosport-produced 1500s and 1600s. Theoretically they should have been more reliable being solid state (although 1600 was solid state but known to have fire issues with its dropper catching fire.) Thankfully by 1985 the TVs and monitors were extremely reliable.
An ex work colleague of mine used to work at the Philips UK factory; he told me that it was a really great company to work for, with great pay and conditions. He told me that once the requisite number of tellies were produced, they could sit and watch TV whilst the TVs were on burn-in. The bosses had a good relationship with their workers. So these sets were put together with great pride and care! There are not many companies like that nowadays, and this probably explains why modern stuff doesn’t last as long!
Circa 1972 when I was a still a teenager I was asked to fix one of the new 24″ models by a local pub manager. The fact that he was asking someone totally unqualified like me and not the person he bought it from suggests it was stolen property. I left well alone. Most of this kind of set in this area were rented by a firm called “Collis of the Midlands” which specialised in Philips rental. Their shop was on my route home from school between 1967 and 1970 but I don’t recall ever seeing a colour model in their shop window.