Thread: End of an era.
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Old 10th Mar 2018, 4:30 pm   #102
Vintage Engr
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK.
Posts: 823
Default Re: End of an era.

Brilliant John, (Post 60)

I couldn't sum it up better myself.
I started out with domestic radio & TV servicing in th eearly 1960's. Life then was really interesting, with the coming changeover to UHF/625 lines. I got into real trouble one day, after converting a Plessey 405 only + VHF/FM TV into permanent 625 line operation. In a slack moment in the workshop, with the boss on holiday, it seemed like a nice project. He admired the conversion, but wasn't happy with the hole in the side of the cabinet, that I'd made to accommodate the UHF rotary tuner!

Then of course it was the progression to colour. I remember going to a TV show at Olympia, when colour was launched, & being interviewed by a very young Joan Bakewell, on the Mullard stand.
As you say, it was an interesting job.

I moved out of domestic TV, into Broadcast Television engineering, just after the introduction of colour but still kept in touch with the domestic scene, as we often used domestic TV receivers in non-critical positions. However, even the broadcast industry slowly went the way of the domestic TV servicing, with the eventual progress of domestic cameras, the line between real broadcast & consumer becoming rather blurred and some kit being named 'Prosumer'. About that time much of the broadcast kit became uneconomic to repair.

For instance, I used to repair cameras & recorders that had been used in war-zones, some with the odd ricochet bullet mark!
However, with the use of smaller, cheaper Prosumer kit, the tape would often be removed, & the camera just ditched & left where it was.

It's a good job we still have all this interesting older equipment there for us repair addicts to preserve, & not just preserving the equipment, but also our sanity, and dare I say it, our youth!
I still get a real buzz out of resurrecting old radio & TV equipment, as I am sure we all do.

David.

Last edited by Vintage Engr; 10th Mar 2018 at 4:34 pm. Reason: Missed attribute.
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