GEC 2115 (2040 Chassis)
The Final GEC’s: The early 1980’s
Making Yesterdays Electronics Work Today
Making Yesterdays Electronics Work Today
GEC 2115 (2040 Chassis)
Very interesting, our first colour set was rented from Granada TV rentals back in the 70’s about the same time I started work as a TV Apprentice. The set we had was the 19 inch version of the 2115, if my memory serves me correctly was the 2103.
As an Apprentice I used to do a lot of work on the 2100 when they where rather a new set and later on the solid state 2111 series, at the time though our main line was the wonderful ITT CVC5 but the GEC will always hold fond memories. At one time about 10 years ago I did own 2 2028 dual standard colour sets ………wish I had them now .
It is interesting to note that even back in the 1970s, great companies like GEC hadn’t mastered the use of the apostrophe s. As in “TV’s”.
I’d forgotten that there were varicap tuners fitted to the last of the 2040 hybrid chassis. I did have a 20″ C2115 for several years until recently. It worked very well indeed and had particularly pleasing colour. I swapped it for another 2040 chassis model, this time a 22″ 2100 which also works beautifully.
The description of the 2028’s use of hybrid technology certainly tells Thorn what they think of their 2000 chassis! Wonder who that description was aimed at? I notice that the GEC’s line output stage was capable of 25kW (sic) – must have had some massive valves in there!
I repaired a lot of GEC products both privately and working for Curry’s.
The circuits boards were of an early type of double sided print, which, especially when well used or had burned or overheated components could be challenging and required a lot of rework, joining tracks with wire and repositioning components. The C2110 solid state chassis were very prone to destroying BU208 line output transistors due to the rubbish flyback tuning capacitor GEC used. I fitted a different type I think from a Philips G8 which was much more reliable.
However they were still happy days.
My parents had a GEC as their first colour set in about 1977, it was like the 2121 pictured above but with different channel buttons, being round rather than square.
I think they rented it from Granada, but I’m too young to remember.
I’m not sure if we kept it when we moved as I can remember the TV we had until 1984 being a bit different (I’ve got the feeling was a Thorn or Ferguson, but can’t find an exact model that looks right), but certainly we rented from Granada until my parents went & bought a Philips TV from Comet in time for Christmas 1984.
We rented a GEC C2201H from Spectra, later Granada. We got it in the spring of 1976 and apart from a brief trial of a teletext set, it stayed with us until November 1982, though the picture had lost height by then, before its final failure. It needed repair about once a year on average.
I loved GEC we use to sell a lot of the plastic cabinet type
They were good and produced good results
the circuit boards always looked like they were made in a school electronics class and always looked as if they had a non professional Finish
We had the 20″ with the plastic printed wood effect cabinet . My dad bought it in about 1976. I remember it had a very good picture and was pretty reliable except for the tuner button unit which had to be replaced a couple of times. Before that we rented a GEC 2100 which my parents got for the 1972 Olympics. .. Memorys !!
Thanks for this GEC catalogue :), it brought me back to my childhood.
I am living in Belgrade, Serbia.
While I was a kid, it was ex-Yugoslavia and my family bought our first colour TV in 1977. It was GEC, shown here as “family TV”, together with infrasonic remote control (it cost 50% more just because of remote option). It worked very well with just a few minor issues until 1990., when we replaced it with Daewoo, but continued using it in another room until 2001. if I remember correctly.
It was really fine piece of equipment and British engineering.