Anyone recognise this Spencer West TV set

[Steve_P]

Excellent picture on that. Well done and a very interesting set to boot.

Cheers,

Steve P.

[murphyv310]

Hi.
Its a fact you know that with todays better components that a rubbish set can be made to work well, perhaps your next set should be an HMV1807.
Well done.

[Duke_Nukem]

Its a fact you know that with todays better components that a rubbish set can be made to work well, perhaps your next set should be an HMV1807

Tis' true; with the aid of modern components, perseverance and some circuit modifications, the 1807 and its Marconiphone variant are capable of excellent pictures, sometimes for many minutes at a time.

As regards the Spencer West, were their sets generally rubbish or have they been unfairly blamed due to their model 957 ?

TTFN,
Jon

[jay_oldstuff]

well i've watched the set for just over an hour bar the hight which is an easy fix i've niticed a slight waveing going slowly up the picture, other than than no smoke and the crt seems to be getting even better.

Jay

[peter west]

Originally Posted by jay_oldstuff

Cant seem to find much about Spencer West on the net and a search on hear only brought two threads up mentioning them and one of them was about the worst 405 line sets built the other compared them to a Lada car.

Jay, This company was based in the Great Yarmouth area, from 1950 to 1961. My father Stanley Spencer West started the firm after moving back to his home town having work for a radio telecomunications firm in London. He was awarded the MBE for his work developing the Mine detector for the British army during the second world war. During the early 50's he developed the very early printed circuits for Pye Television (based in Lowestoft) prior to developing his own television sets, firstly a semi portable aluminium clad set followed by several styles of 17''. He supplied a Midland company Queen Bee with many 1000's of sets for the rental business until this company stopped trading.
I hope this gives you a small insight to the company,

Peter West

[oldticktock]

Wow! Hi Peter fantastic to meet someone with a direct link into the past of TV manufacturing and Spencer West. I was not aware of the link to the early development of the printed circuit board either. I have a PAM521F which PYE were behind perhaps he was involved in that as I believe an earlier PAM was the first set in the UK to have printed circuit boards

I've attached a photo of the 1957 Earls Court show where they mention PAM (PYE) being the first with PCB and they also show case your fathers portable

Any more info anecdotes photos of the company and or your father would be wonderful.

Oh and a big welcome to the forum

Chris

[murphyv310]

Hi.
I have found over the years in this trade that a number of things can be easily disproved once you get the facts, Peter it's good to have you here and your knowledge will be most valuable.

I also had a similar personal experience in 2003 before I closed my shop and before I was on this forum. I had a very rare Alba radiogram which I had restored, somehow the word got out and the founder of Alba's grandson contacted me, because of this I gave the radiogram to him and he was delighted as he wanted to build up a museum of his grandfathers products.

[peter west]

Trevor, I was a teenager during the Spencer West manufacturing period, so did not take much interest. My father was a boffin type who was very differcult to get close to. The company manufacture the first printed circuit boards for Pye, I can remember employees into tanks of liquid to remove the surplus copper. I was kept away from these tanks not knowing why! As I remember the tanks were standard galvanised water storage tanks (my uncle was in the building trade and had premises in the same yard). The company was soon producing PCB's with holes, the holes on these boards were stamped out, in one action, on a 20 ton press, continuous feed process.
It was not long before PYE decided to take the process in house but Spencer West, who had several engineers on their staff still manufactured the jigs for the presses.
Peter

[peter west]

Originally Posted by oldticktock

Any more info anecdotes photos of the company and or your father would be wonderful.
Oh and a big welcome to the forum

I have added some photo's for your interest.
Peter

[peter west]

How do I send an attachment?

[Brian R Pateman]

Peter,

Have a look at this thread.

Basically, avoid using the "Quick Reply" box and select the "Post Reply" button, which gives you a lot more options.

[peter west]

I have enclosed a couple of photo's for your info,

[Heatercathodeshort]

Hello Peter,
You must be quite pleased that Jay has managed to bring back to life one of your Dad's television receivers. It would be great if we could find a Spencer West 'Patterning Removal unit' used with early Band 3 converters to elliminate BBC breakthrough. It was an excellent unit. I believe SW also manufactured a range of high gain pre amplifiers and frequency converters for early television. These were again excellent pieces of equipment and I believe your Dad's company were anong the very best at producing very high Q coils. It's great that you introduced yourself via this Forum, Regards, John.

[oldticktock]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for posting the photos of your Dad nice to put a face to the name , quite a dashing fella too. Interesting letter as well from the days when effort was appreciated.

All the Best
Chris

[peter west]

I have sent you a copy of photo publicity for the 1954 Radio and Television exhibition at Earls Court and a page of early magazine (front page) for your interest, plus another magazine page showing a cost of picture tube!

Peter

[FERNSEH]

Looking through the pages of the 1959/60 Radio and Television servicing book we find that Spencer-west continued to make TV sets possibly as late as 1960.
The later models were the 180 and 181. Unlike the earlier sets the 180 employed a single printed circuit board. The CRT was the 90 degree Brimar C17SM. I reckon that this might have been good set.
Information for the 180 and 181 can be found on pages 597 thru 600.

In the same book what appear to be tidied up versions of the earlier models 17, 171 and 172 appear on pages 593 thru 597.
Models 173, 173R, 174, 175, 176 and 178. 70 degree CRT, Brimar C17LM.

DFWB.

[peter_scott]

I see that Stanley Spencer West worked for Cinema Television in 1943 and that the letter of appreciation was written to Capt. A.G.D. West (of Baird Television fame). Does anyone know if they were related?

Peter

[peter west]

Hi, I have spent a considerable amount of time on my family tree, there does not seem to be any family tie between my father and A G D West.
like many people working at this time there was no discussions at home.
prior to his time in London he owned a radio shop in Ipswich. I have no details of this period of his life. I know he was working with Baird also at sometime during these pre war years.

Peter West

[peter west]

Originally Posted by FERNSEH

Looking through the pages of the 1959/60 Radio and Television servicing book we find that Spencer-west continued to make TV sets possibly as late as 1960.

hi, I can confirm that Spencer West went into administration following the closure of the TV rental firm Queen Bee, who were based in the Midlands in 1961.
Peter West.

[peter west]

Originally Posted by FERNSEH

Information for the 180 and 181 can be found on pages 597 thru 600.
In the same book what appear to be tidied up versions of the earlier models 17, 171 and 172 appear on pages 593 thru 597. Models 173, 173R, 174, 175, 176 and 178. 70 degree CRT, Brimar C17LM.

would you be able to send me a copy of the relevant pages for my interest. I have so little history of what my father was really up to through the 30's to 50's

Thank you, Peter West