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Old 17th Sep 2013, 10:06 pm   #1
Restoration73
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Default Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

I have seen examples of the Portarama 1 and 2 which are single standard
405 sets, and the very different Portarama 3 which is 405/625.
I am certain that I saw one example of a set which looked like the
Portarama 2 but the top section with the handle was above an
extension of the cabinet which included a dial and pointer UHF (not
rotary) tuner. I cannot find a picture of this variation. Does anyone
remember this dual standard version ?
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Old 18th Sep 2013, 11:09 am   #2
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

That's right. A number of Portarama 2 sets were converted to dual standard operation, probably in the factory. Very rare set. So is the Portarama 3.

DFWB.
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Old 18th Sep 2013, 8:33 pm   #3
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

I think this is all three versions. The one you mention is on the top right. They all worked well when tried a good while back. J.
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Old 18th Sep 2013, 8:37 pm   #4
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

Wow, never seen the "dual standard" MK2 before!
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Old 18th Sep 2013, 8:41 pm   #5
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

Fascinating: I always thought Perdio had gone bust before UHF TV really arrived on the scene.

I wonder what transistors they were using in then UHF strip?
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Old 18th Sep 2013, 8:55 pm   #6
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

Well done HCS - there can't be many sets you've not seen. I was not able to fix it in
1972 as I think the LOPT was dud, but I would attempt it today. Perdio's demise is not
entirely clear - I have a stereo amplifier from around 1971 with the Perdio Audio
brand name (Lion logo) -I have no idea where it was made (UK) or who sold it.
Anyway I think the TV IF strip was germanium, AF178,180, tuner probably AF139 or 239.
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Old 18th Sep 2013, 9:10 pm   #7
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

The increasing far east imports and the huge development costs of the television side finally finished off a very good British Company.
I can't do it at the moment due to other commitments but I will attempt to beat a path to it sometime this winter. J.
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Old 20th Sep 2013, 1:56 pm   #8
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

Hi
The name and logo turned up again in the late Eighties, as old names so often did. This time it was through Colorvision (sic) - black plastic sets fitted with (usually) an Eastern European copy of a Toshiba TV - the innards looked like a Toshiba but the components were at odd angles to each other, something Toshiba would never do.
The manager of the local Colorvision shop admitted they knew nothing about TVs and couldn't care less about them - they sold finance. If you walked to buy a TV with cash and didn't want an extended warranty (their 'Dizzy Gold' package) then you were given very short shrift. Of course the inevitable happened and many low-income customers were left with a broken TV and years to run on a worthless HP agreement.
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Old 20th Sep 2013, 2:41 pm   #9
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

Quote:
Originally Posted by Restoration73 View Post
Perdio's demise is not
entirely clear - I have a stereo amplifier from around 1971 with the Perdio Audio
brand name (Lion logo) -I have no idea where it was made (UK) or who sold it.
Hello,

Some info about Perdio:-

Perdio Ltd, Dunstan House, St Cross Street, London, EC1 (in 1957). In 1962, name changed to Perdio Electronics Ltd, Bonhill Street, London, EC2 (when Perdio became a public company in 1962) and opened a factory near Sunderland.

Established in 1956, by Derek Wilmot and financed by Irish peer, Lord Suirdale. Perdio stood for Personal Radio. Perdio quickly established a big share of the transistor portable radio market. In 1963, they were selling the “KH” high impedance meter adaptor (see Kenure-Holt). In the early 1960’s they also made transistor portable TV sets (The “Portarama”).

They struggled to compete with imported far eastern “Empire made” transistor portables and their “Portarama” TV set didn’t do as well as hoped. Consequently, Perdio went into receivership in 1965.

By 1965, Perdio also owned: Kenure-Holt Electronics and Electric Audio Reproducers ("EAR") Ltd.

The brand was subsequently used on imported radios by others. In 1966, Dansette Products Ltd, a company recently formed to take over the assets of Perdio Electronics Ltd acquired the company. Mr Louis Margolin (of Dansette) became the MD of Perdio and Dansette. Of course, Dansette went bust a few years later (Rank Radio International acquired and used the Dansette brand for a few years in the early 1970s).

I don't know what happened to the Perdio brand after Dansette Products Ltd went bust.............

Regards,

Dazzlevision
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Old 22nd Sep 2013, 11:08 pm   #10
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

Advert from Pratical Television January 1966, presumably bankrupt stock?
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Old 23rd Sep 2013, 5:37 pm   #11
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

Half price! How did Perdio expect to sell what looks like a 'kit set' for £100, a lot of money in 1965. I suspect that the majority of these receivers were sold by Laskys at a more reasonable £51 nine shillings. J.
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Old 23rd Sep 2013, 7:58 pm   #12
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

In about 1968 the "Television Tube Shop" (in Putney??) sold these off in the form of case, CRT, scan-coils, LOPT and knobs. My friend Bob and I bought such a "kit" each intending to build a 625/UHF-only set in anticipation of all channels moving to that standard which was quite forward thinking! Bob got as far as a raster and probably finished the job but we'd lost touch before reaching that stage. I had a lot of educational catching up to do so mine has stayed as a kit...
Graham
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Old 24th Sep 2013, 8:06 am   #13
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

Quote:
Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort View Post
Half price! How did Perdio expect to sell what looks like a 'kit set' for £100, a lot of money in 1965.
A dual standard 9" Sony set was 85 gns in 1965, so they were in the right area. The Sony was near on half the size though, and probably ten times as reliable. I did have a Portarama 3 once, there were lots of odd things about it. One of these was that the UHF tuner worked on the opposite polarity to the rest of the set and so had to be isolated with plastic nuts an bolts, an accident waiting to happen I thought.
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Old 24th Sep 2013, 10:52 am   #14
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

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Originally Posted by Studio263 View Post
One of these was that the UHF tuner worked on the opposite polarity to the rest of the set and so had to be isolated with plastic nuts an bolts, an accident waiting to happen I thought.
That sounds very much like a "production bodge". I'm wondering if it was a bought-in UHF tuner that Perdio simply grafted into their existing design?

The mid-1960s was also the time when the industry was switching from germanium to silicon transistors (and generally from P-N-P to N-P-N as well with a change in which supply-rail was 'earth') so I can easily imagine how a small manufacturer with limited development funds would want to keep as much of their existing design in production and graft in only the bare minimum of what they needed to UHF/625-line-ize it.
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Old 21st Nov 2014, 9:57 am   #15
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

One of these MK2 dual standard Portaramas as described came up on Ebay a year or two back. The picture of the set was very much as described with all the UHF gubbins in an extended top panel. The one for sale also had a toggle switch to turn off the AGC. Apparently it was one of a number modified and used by the GPO to test the real reception conditions of the then new UHF network.
The standard set had absolutely nothing dual standard about it apart from a power socket to feed a UHF tuner. I presume that was a gimmick included so they could market it as 'convertible'. So the dual standard version must include an additional IF strip as well as some timebase switching. I am not aware of any conversion kits, but perhaps the MK2 with UHF was such an animal?
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Old 21st Nov 2014, 1:06 pm   #16
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

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Originally Posted by bobbyball View Post
Wow, never seen the "dual standard" MK2 before!
I second that!

I always liked the look of the (particularly earlier) Perdio stuff and I think it was a great shame they came to grief. My personal favourites were the Town & Country radio and the MkI & II Portaramas. I loved its appearance on the opening titles of the BBC's Play for Today which, one may have thought, would have made it more popular - alas it seems not.

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Old 23rd Nov 2014, 1:38 pm   #17
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

My other interest draws me back to the Laskys advert -
'We prefer not to send these sets by carrier....(but) will send by Express Passenger Train Parcels service at a cost of £4'

Those were the days!
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Old 24th Nov 2014, 12:52 am   #18
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

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Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak View Post
The name and logo turned up again in the late Eighties, as old names so often did. This time it was through Colorvision
Hi Guys. As Glyn says, Perdio in deed did return in the late eighties, obviously only a "label" set. I was an engineer for NEI " Network Electronic Industries", and by that time, we had a "Safety Test Lab" in Bradford, behind the University. The intention was to test to BS415, however, just before we were accredited, the BSI changed the requirements of accreditation, and NAMAS was formed. It was impossible to meet the new standards, thus we could only "pre" test and advise. Our first "none" NEI job was for Perdio, and as I remember it. The cabinet, although it passed the "burning test", the smoke that was emitted was that laden with soot, it looked horrible, but "technically" it passed the test. After our "pre test" the sample was returned and we heard no more about it. Whether it did actually go into production, I don't know.

As far as the Portarama was concerned, the LOPT circuit was VERY Fragile, we sold two in the late sixties, and both had Line Issues, replacing the Transistor and boost diodes. However years later, John Birkett of Lincoln bought some of the redundant stock, particularly the Line Transformers and boost diodes.
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Old 25th Nov 2014, 1:30 pm   #19
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
The mid-1960s was also the time when the industry was switching from germanium to silicon transistors (and generally from P-N-P to N-P-N as well with a change in which supply-rail was 'earth') so I can easily imagine how a small manufacturer with limited development funds would want to keep as much of their existing design in production and graft in only the bare minimum of what they needed to UHF/625-line-ize it.
I think there was also a tendency to have collector-circuit directly grounded in some UHF tuners (AF239/BF180 etc. collector to stripline and the like)- presumably there were doubts about decoupler effectiveness? Thus, an AFxxx equipped tuner might have negative-to-earth and BFxxx positive-to-earth. I'm sure I recall cases of NPN tuners relying on being screwed to wooden cases seperately from the main chassis.

Last edited by Brian R Pateman; 25th Nov 2014 at 1:35 pm. Reason: Quote repaired.
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Old 25th Nov 2014, 10:47 pm   #20
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Default Re: Perdio Portarama Dual Standard

Quote:
Originally Posted by oldgeezer View Post
My other interest draws me back to the Laskys advert - 'We prefer not to send these sets by carrier....(but) will send by Express Passenger Train Parcels service at a cost of £4' Those were the days!
Gosh I'd all but forgotten about the Red Star Parcels service - some time in the late 70's a friend who was banned from driving asked me to take him from London to Huntingdon to get his Quad Electrostatics serviced and borrowed his brother in law's Morris Minor Pickup for transport. Having dropped off the speakers at Quad we went into town for lunch then toured the shops where he spotted an art deco china cabinet he just had to have so that was duly purchased and loaded in the back of the pickup then back to Quad for the serviced speakers but no matter how many times we rearranged the load of three large items I just couldn't see out of the rear view mirror. With only one tiny wing mirror we drove carefully to the station just in time to get one of the speakers on a train then headed back to London to drop off the cabinet and one speaker at his flat before picking up the other one at Kings Cross station.......as you say those indeed were the days!!

Alvin

PS Hauling this back on topic I had a brief flirtation with a Portorama around 4 years ago picking it up at Wimbledon car boot sale then selling it at Harpenden a few months later......I loved the style of it but couldn't justify the cost of an Aurora at the time so let it go.
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