About 20 years ago a friend gave me a 12" Marconi 1590 portable TV.
He told me that it had mistakenly had mains connected to the 12v battery lead..
( The battery lead had been fitted with a standard 13A plug as the static caravan it was used in was wired for 12V using standard 13A sockets..)
The mains lead had been cut short and tucked inside the case.
Then one day after the set had been taken home his son had plugged it in to the mains. There had been a bang and a flash.
I kept the set purely because I thought the tuner mech would be a good spare for my 8500 one day.
It was plonked in my loft and forgotten about until fairly recently when the tuner mech in the 8500 started to jam and fall apart as they do...
I got the set from the loft with the intention of nicking the mech for a quick fix.
but once the set was on the bench, well dining room table I felt sorry for it.
I thought I would test the tube heaters as being wired across the LT line I fully expected them to be O/C in which case I would nick the tuner and scrap the rest with a relatively clear conscience. I was surprised to find that they were intact,
The 2.5 amp fuse in the set was blown to kingdom come only one end cap remained. the 13A fuse in the what was battery plug was also blown.
I had a quick check around with the AVO, reverse protection diode, smoothing cap. regulator transistor. regulator control transistor and zener diode all ok. which I found surprising.
So I replaced the fuses removed the tube base, connected the AVO across the LT line and switched on.
10 volts LT a splutter and crackle from the speaker and the sound of a 625 line timebase which I can still just about hear!
I connected the tube base and was rewarded with a slightly undersize snowy raster.
Tuning in my signal generator produced a slightly undersize crosshatch with slight foldover at the top of the picture.
Setting the LT voltage to 11volts and I had a belting picture.
The on off volume control is crunching and scratching I think the battery contacts are shattered but other that that the set has survived!
I think it is incredible that major damage had not been done. I fully expected it to totally destroyed.
So now I have a nice little Marconi portable in the collection
The poor old Marconi 8500 will have to wait for a tuner mech.