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Old 29th Jun 2020, 1:22 pm   #1
toshiba tony
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Default Saba telecommander

Hi All, I just need a cranial update, who remember these? There was something odd about them, were the customer level controls motor driven and did they have a motorised tuner, I know whenever one came in for repair they always got attention from all the engineers. We got all the oddball tv's, EMO, B&O, Tandbergs. But the Saba was special. Cheers anyone
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Old 29th Jun 2020, 2:16 pm   #2
Welsh Anorak
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Default Re: Saba telecommander

Yes. These were the F chassis, I think. A big square remote, ultrasonic with motorised controls that you could watch turning as you pressed the button. Very exciting when the homegrown product had a hammer hitting a metal bar!
Big 110 degree 26" set that was understandably pretty complicated. Don't recall anything special about the tuning apart from the remote control.
Didn't see many of these, but we did sell a couple of the 26" D or E chassis which was hybrid and weighed a ton. Very reliable and excellent pictures.
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Old 1st Jul 2020, 6:30 am   #3
German Dalek
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Default Re: Saba telecommander

Yes, I remember them very well, had one and parted out many curbside.
The worse of all the SABA TV sets from that time were the Sylvania picture tubes, made in Belgium.
Most of the tubes died during the garanty.
This problem killed SABA and their good name.

I kept for my collection a 1976 full transistor pip-set, picture in picture, the worlds
first set of that kind. A small b/w picture could be placed on the big screen.

Regards,
German Dalek
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Old 1st Jul 2020, 8:14 am   #4
Joe_Lorenz
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These SABA TVs are well among my top-rated sets forever. Excellent workmanship, good components and of course well designed. It is nice to watch the motor pots turning and the program keys changing! There is an old story telling the supply department forced the engineers to buy said poor quality Sylvania tubes. As a young guy I used to shoot these tubes - in some cases three times until they were totally done. I know one set eating up four tubes in 20 years, almost no other repairs necessary. The owner took pride in it. At last it ended in my attic, it is a T3600. I must have a T2705, too. I think I switched to a Valvo or RCA tube, A 63-100X I think. Still have the "Mueter BMR 3" shooting apparatus.

Regards, Joe
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Old 1st Jul 2020, 8:24 am   #5
Joe_Lorenz
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Or was the tube a A67-100X? Me thinks a A67-120X did also fit. Long time ago! Somewhere in my files there must be the the documentation.
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Old 1st Jul 2020, 8:55 am   #6
peter_scott
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Default Re: Saba telecommander

A friend's parents had one and I couldn't believe how good the picture was. It was just like looking at a projected Kodachrome colour slide.

Peter
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Old 1st Jul 2020, 2:47 pm   #7
davidbi
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Default Re: Saba telecommander

I remember our shop made the Sunday newspapers when a customer complained because every time they jangled their keys, the tv would turn on and off, or change channel. Obviously not a lot of news in the mid 70's!!!
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Old 1st Jul 2020, 9:54 pm   #8
Joe_Lorenz
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And I remember one of these sets changing channels randomly, mainly during top news as the owner claimed. Removing the battery from the remote control stopped the strange behavior of the SABA. What was wrong with it? By the time I recognized a very special scent, if not to say bad smell like ... hmm, alcohol and something more ... a bit rotten ...
At last the owner told us that his foxhound once had had a bad day. He let his pee go over the remote control. All cleaning effort had been and was useless, since that day the TV has kept changing channels.
These remotes had no buttons or switches but just three-point touch fields to start a command. A new remote solved the problem.

Regards, Joe
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Old 1st Jul 2020, 10:37 pm   #9
slidertogrid
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Default Re: Saba telecommander

The place I did my apprenticeship at had a few Saba Telecommander sets we had a problem with one which intermittently switched off the motorised switch would give a little screech and the button would pop out .
One of the senior engineers got it on his bench and the usual banter started all just joking but you know the type of thing … let the expert have a look etc..
Anyway he said he had found the fault I think the set was going into an overvolt protection mode but I could be wrong it was a very long time ago!
The set was left running on his test rack and after a day it had performed OK so he decided to take it off test.
Just as he approached it screech! clunk! it turned off! He called it an American swear word then spun around just in time to see one of the other engineers putting a remote behind his back..
More name calling ! This was all too much for my young ears!
I remember the LT bridge rectifier would fail causing the channel change to lock and a snowy screen the clue was there was a hum bar travelling up or down over the snow. That caught a few of the field engineers out until it became known!
Later on I bought a lot of the older 26" Hybrid sets very cheaply because the tube was flat. As others have said the tubes didn't have a good reputation. I found that if the PL519 was poor it upset the beam limiter and made the picture look washed out, a new valve and a tweak of the beam limiter pot (strahstrom? something like that) improved things no end!
Happy days!
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Old 2nd Jul 2020, 9:52 am   #10
toshiba tony
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Default Re: Saba telecommander

Interesting to see our Germans friends posts on these sets. I like them a lot, and the tv's! There was a flood of tv's in the 70s from various places. ASA, Kuba, Emo but those Saba's always caught my eye. Stay well all!
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Old 2nd Jul 2020, 9:28 pm   #11
Joe_Lorenz
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Hello Tony,

the clue is that in the 70s there were countless German TV makes. Over here very little interest was in import makes as the domestic sets were rather cheap - or higly reputed. Yes, we knew Philips and Decca and RCA, too, but the latter was almost exotic. Blaupunkt, Koerting, Graetz, Grundig, Nordmende, Imperial and of course Siemens, SABA, Braun and Wega were very popular. So no need to buy "Japanese junk" as my granddad was convinced.

Regards, Joe
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Old 3rd Jul 2020, 10:22 am   #12
Welsh Anorak
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Default Re: Saba telecommander

Another point that you politely don't make is that the German sets were far better specified than the British equivalents. They used 26" 110 degree tubes whereas the home product was usually 22" and normally 90 degrees.
Britain imported many sets from Germany, Scandinavia and France when the colour boom took off and the British firms couldn't cope. Grundigs and Telefunkens were very common here as were the Korting hybrid sets. Some larger firms imported what they could, so we also saw Emo/Eurovox, ASA, Finlux, Tandberg, Skantic and Kuba alongside the Philips K70 and K80. We all had our favourites - and not so favourites!
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Old 3rd Jul 2020, 1:29 pm   #13
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Default Re: Saba telecommander

Quote:
Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak View Post
Another point that you politely don't make is that the German sets were far better specified than the British equivalents. They used 26" 110 degree tubes whereas the home product was usually 22" and normally 90 degrees.
Britain imported many sets from Germany, Scandinavia and France when the colour boom took off and the British firms couldn't cope. Grundigs and Telefunkens were very common here as were the Korting hybrid sets. Some larger firms imported what they could, so we also saw Emo/Eurovox, ASA, Finlux, Tandberg, Skantic and Kuba alongside the Philips K70 and K80. We all had our favourites - and not so favourites!
Hi Glyn!
That makes me wonder, I didn`t realize in the past that german and other
european sets were big in the british market.
Yes, most of our sets were big screen sets, but I remember very well that
british 22" sets were good sellers here.
I sold in the 80s refurbished colour TVs, which I picked up from curbside, we
call it "Sperrmüll".
I add an older picture of the Düsseldorf "Sperrmüll-Party"
I had some 22" british colour TVs from there, they were simpley to repair and
many people were hot to buy them from me, when I offerend them in the
newspaper.
The Philips-Mullard tubes were a guarantee for a clean sharp picture.
I remember that people bought them for the children- or bedroom.
I sold them for about 200-220 Deutsch Marks without remote control!

A standard big one was too big and a portable too small. I could have sold many more!
But that size was rare and not many german sets with that size were made.

Regards,
German Dalek
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And now something completly different:

MARC BOLAN, he was/is the real king of Pop Music!
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