[Zelandeth]

Well, with R141 replaced (and still getting worryingly warm), we have EHT and a picture again.

Having gone "Hmmm..." and investigated the purpose of the mysterious parallel resistor to the contrast controls by the highly technical method of snipping one of its leads, has led to having a working contrast control again...and I swear a brighter picture.

All was not good news however. I was suddenly becoming rather worried about the state of the CRT...as the brightness control is advanced, things did after a point go rather silvery, with very little in the way of brightness being available. The first picture below showing what I was seeing.

However, after fiddling around a bit with the controls, I noticed that this seems to have improved somewhat with the set having been running for a little while (obviously given its current state of health, I can't really leave it running for a couple of hours to see if it gets any better!). I have noted that if you tune "past" a station a little, there's a tendency for the picture to blink out for a moment, then return in a much more watchable state, without any of the silvery appearance unless the brightness is turned up far further. AGC doing something odd, maybe? The second picture (Oh how I wish I had a test pattern generator...) shows what it's like now...despite the appearance, the second pic is actually quite a bit brighter than the first. Though I do seem to recall someone mentioning before that the image from these sets was a little dark anyway - I don't imagine that the oraglass front panel really helps, as it is a fairly dark colour for a contrast screen.

Just wondering is this something that's maybe down to the CRT having not been used in 20 or more years, and expect it to improve after a while, or is it likely to be a duff CRT? Don't know what sort of reliability record the CRT in this set has, pretty sure from memory that it's a Plessy tube, service data indicating an A47/11W or A47/26W. I've almost subconsciously scratched an EHT problem off as a possible cause for the pseudo low emmision CRT...but I guess that could be suspect too. One step at a time though. Once they arrive, I'll get all the caps to chassis replaced, and see where we stand. At least that will stop it from eating PL36 grid resistors. In theory.

And the panel lights still seem to go out after about ten minutes. Will have to investigate that later too...it's low on the priority list though.

Ah, does make a lovely smell this old beast when it's running though!