Trying out a Sony Watchman FD-9B

[Lloyd 1985]

Hi

Having received the little Sony from Chris (Herald1360) (Thanks again Chris!), I set about testing it on the workshop's RF distribution system, along with some other pocket / handheld TV's. I already had 3 of the Sinclair flat-tube TV's, 2 of which work and one will never work again in a million years! The one I used for the test is one that I rebuilt from parts of 2 duff ones, and also re-sprayed the front case in a metallic grey after it had an unfortunate accident with a bottle of superglue when we moved house.

Back to the Sony, a very compact set indeed! On the bench power supply it draws 220mA at 6V, which was about 100mA less than a Casio colour LCD set of similar size. It also runs off 4 AA batteries. First thing I noticed, even without a signal, was how bright the CRT was, once tuned it was also noticed how clear the picture was, compare it with one of the colour LCD things, and it's a wonder the LCD's ever managed to get off the ground! As can be seen in one of the photo's you can read text on the screen quite clearly, whereas the LCD is just a pixelated mess when looking at text. When compared with the Sinclair, it's a clear winner, it's brighter and sharper. The Sinclair set does look nice though

I've got a bit of a collection going here now! The Citizen is one I badgered my parents into buying for me when I was about 11! It's still got it's original box and instructions too. It didn't see much use, as when we lived in Daventry, the TV signal was utter rubbish, even the main TV in the living room had a fuzzy picture, and indoor aerials were entirely useless there.

One thing that I have noticed is that the pictures on the CRT sets are being distorted by some magnetic field in my workshop, which I haven't discovered the source of yet! There are no big speakers or other magnets in there, just picking up the set and turning it upside-down is enough to make the picture move about on screen. It seems worse at one side of the workshop (which happens to be where I've put all the TV's...) and near the floor.

Regards,
Lloyd

[mark pirate]

The FD-9B is a great little set, as you say, the picture quality is far superior to the LCD sets.
I have both the black and white versions, the white one is in excellent condition.
It still has it's carry bag and earphone, I remember using it a fair bit before the analogue switch off.
I have quite a few proper CRT pocket TV's, the early ones date from the late 70's.

Mark

[dj_fivos_sak]

Nice gadget! I'm guessing it has a single-gun tube right?

[camtechman]

Besides all gadgets electronic I'm also a passionate collector of cameras (1950-1980) and at one camera fayre I bid on a "Blind Auction" of photographic odds & sods.

However, when I delved into the box, there was one gadget I couldn't figure out, although it had a black, hooded magnifying device.

Move forward several years, I bought a black Sony Watchman at a boot sale. When I got it home & whilst testing the Watchman, the penny dropped, the hooded gadget was an enlarging/viewing device for the very same Watchman.

Luck sometimes chooses when it shows it's hand !

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by dj_fivos_sak

Nice gadget! I'm guessing it has a single-gun tube right?

Absolutely right, it's monochrome.

[MrBungle]

Those CRT sets look much nicer than the LCD unit I had (Casio TV-430) back in the day. I remember squinting at X Files on that.

Do they get terribly warm? I remember mine did.

[dj_fivos_sak]

Originally Posted by rambo1152

Absolutely right, it's monochrome.

Oh. Didn't notice it's a monochrome. There are Sony "Indexitron" color tubes which are signle-gun though.

[AC/HL]

http://lampes-et-tubes.info/cr/cr037.php?l=e

[Lloyd 1985]

I nearly forgot this thread!

Mark, I didn't know they made a white one too, I have seen red ones whilst googling, probably a different model.

It is a single gun CRT, every bit the same as any other monochrome CRT, just really small, and the screen is at a funny angle! It's not the smallest CRT I've encountered, some old camcorder viewfinders had some really tiny CRT's, but they were conventional types, not flat ones. I have read about the Indextron tubes that Sony made, never got to see one yet though!

I can't say I noticed the Sony getting warm whilst on, the colour LCD sets do though! You can cut the power consumption of the LCD sets by modifying the backlight from CFL to LED. I've been keeping broken modern LCD screens from things like camera's, iPods and laptops for this! You end up with an almost perfect drop-in replacement if you find an old screen the same size as the one in the TV, it even comes with all the diffusers. You just have to disable the CFL driver and find a suitable power source for the LED's.

Regards,
Lloyd

[McMurdo]

They use a similar flat tube in those doorphones you get in blocks of flats.

I have the citizen colour lcd, though it's a pathetic picture. I only kept it as thought it might be useful for setting up cctv cameras, it has a composite input. I wonder if changing the ccfl for leds might make it brighter.