Ex TV Engineers

[Peter.N.]

In the early days we had to dress very smartly, when I worked in London I had to wear a black suit, later when I worked in the local TV shop just round the corner I downgraded to a sports jacket, we still wore a tie though. We were treated very well by most customers with tea and cake the norm although that was replaced with eggs and bags of fruit when we moved to Dorset.

One experience that I remember was knocking at a customers door with toolcase in hand and being shown upstairs to the woman's sick husband. I don't think my dress code in later years would have lead to me being mistaken for the doctor.

Peter

[colly0410]

I love reading these posts of ex TV repair men/women, thanks to all the posters. I wanted to be a TV repairman when I left school, but slight colour blindness put the kibosh on that so I ended up down the pit. I left the pit & I was a radio operator in the Army & learnt a lot on the advanced signals course. Then when I left the Army I was a taxi driver & then a driving instructor, had to give up instructing when my eyesight deteriorated after a detached retina. I'm now a housekeeper on a hospital ward. I'm still a frustrated TV bod though...

[jonnybear]

When I first worked in the rental industry, I went around with the manager to several houses on service calls, first thing he would do is sniff the letter box, if not to his liking he would spray aerosol through the letter box and then knock on the door, one day he went to spray through the letterbox, only to spray straight into the stomach of a woman who had seen him coming up the path. that was a laugh.
John

[Heatercathodeshort]

Oh yes! Filthy homes [and they were often in well heeled areas] Dog and cat muck [squirty] and that Tom cat pong that seeped into your clothes, tool box and van, never smelt by the cat's owner..
Carpets that left a damp patch on the knees of your trousers after servicing those receivers fitted with screw on legs and wire stands.
Carpets that stuck to the soles of your shoes and resembled a huge mouldy pancake.
Disgusting cups of tea, provided in good faith but undrinkable [I had a floating dog end in one..] I once poured a cup down the gap between the skirting board and the point where it met the floor boards. A few moments later there was a knock at the door. It was the lady from below complaining that she had a 'brown liquid' trickling down her wall paper. I cannot remember the outcome. I could tell you hundreds of amusing horrors! Happy days! John.

[FERNSEH]

Hi John,
Been in those houses, in fact I did one call like that this morning, I had to incinerate my trousers when I returned home. Seriously though folks, I will back everything John has written, in fact I've had even worse experiences.

I've taken many sets back to the workshop and literally hosed them down before attempting any work. When the set was returned the owner the response was often "you've cleaned the set for me"

DFWB.

[Heatercathodeshort]

I will tell you this story as it always brings forth collapsing laughter when related to old engineers and visitors to the museum at Dulwich.
Back in 1968/69 I used an Austin 1100 car for picking up and delivering television receivers.It's soft suspension and wide doors provided a damage free ride for customers equipment.
One winter evening I was called to repair a Sobell 1018 dual standard 19" table model at a semi detached house in Tudor Drive Morden. [I can still remember the number]
An HT section of the mains dropper was O/C and bridging it resulted in several minor faults being displayed. I decided to take it back to the workshop, replace the complete dropper and carry out some preventative maintenance, returning it next evening. No problem so far...
The following dark misty evening I pulled up outside the house, removed the Sobell from the back seat and stood it on it's end on the grass verge while I grabbed a screwdriver and the clip on metal legs from the boot. I picked the 1018 up, turned it the correct way round and carried it screen towards my chest up the garden path to the front door.
The house proud owner [a typical Mrs Bucket] opened the door with a big smile and I entered the hall way just giving my shoes a casual wipe on the door mat, and made my way along the hall to the rear living room. I sat the receiver down on the carpet then suddenly became aware of a most unpleasant aroma...
It turned out that when I had placed the 1018 down on the grass verge I had placed it fair and square on the middle of a huge pile of doogy dooz..Picking it up and yes you have guessed it, something came with it. Add to this the fact that I had tramped on another pile on my way across the grass verge and the scene is set for the horror to start.
Looking down at the carpet revealed a trail of disaster back to the front door. If that was not enough it was also on the front of my jumper and squidged between the aluminium legs...
The lady was mortified but it was the stink that put a top hat on the whole affair. I grabbed the bull by the horns and requsted an old floor cloth, a pail of hot water and some 'Detol'. I started at the front door having deposited my shoes in the porch and cleaned up the organic matter rinsing the cloth with a bowl of clean water, finishing with the TV, the legs and myself. I made a real splendid job of it and soon the house had a pleasing scent of Detol throughout. When everything had calmed down the little Sobell was demonstrated, the bill gladly settled without complaint and it all ended on very good terms. When I drive around South London and Surrey these incidents always raise a smile and you never forget the smallest detail.
Yes it really was Happy Days!
I have just read your post David. I used to clean all receivers before returning them after repair. The rexine covered Sobell TPS180's would get the 'Flash' and nailbrush treatment bringing them up like new. Once I was accused of returning the 'wrong' receiver as the lady of the house had attempted to clean it, all to no avail. I explained that engineers were supplied with 'special' cleaning fluid so she would not appear to be seen as an inefficient housewife...You had to be very carefull what you said back then! Regards, John.

[HamishBoxer]

Talking of rotten smells the worst I had was a flat were all the walls were yellow with nicotine and I made the mistake of leaving his set in my vechile over night.It stunk for weeks.

PS We used to be issued at Granada with what we called in 1986 a "prayer mat" the idea that you put it down to avoid risk of solder spillage.

[Samba1360]

As an apprentice back in 1975 for Ketts the first thing I was taught was to wind the mains lead around thumb and little finger in figure of eight and looped of, (a trick that still amazes's people today) then to carry the 1500/3000/G8 screen in, also when you went out with a field engineer he would always say 50/50 or they are all mine when it came to tips, in those days you would could get up to £5.00 a week, plus you could live off P.J's. When I left the the industry in early '90's you would be lucky to get 1 tip a month. Now in the CCTV/security industry.

[Heatercathodeshort]

I had a customer with an Ekco 21" T370 series. The father, Mother, two Sons, daughter and daughter's boyfriend all chain smoked.
They had a cigarette MACHINE in the hall way under the stairs. I had a selection of brands that were dispensed via a series of drawers when the money was dropped into a slot. Every Friday a salesman called, filled the unit up and collected the money rather like the old 'gas meter man'. The chain smoking took it's toll unfortunately but the entire house had to be chemically cleaned before the local authority could re rent it.
The Ekco chassis was a golden brown colour and everything you touched was 'sticky'.
How things and trends have changed. John.

[Nuvistor]

Although nicotine was a problem at some houses, the biggest problem I had was with the dust from the coal fires. It would cover the insides of the set especially around the EHT system. A fire hazard, always vacumned the sets before working on them so I could see the components and leave them as safe as possible.
In that kind of atmosphere it must have been as bad a smoking cigarettes, well perhaps not but it could not have been good.
Has the smokeless zones came in the difference was enormous. Screens both with a glass safety screen and the Panorama type did not get dirty as quick and the insides were much cleaner.
Frank

[Andrew2]

Indeed, Nuvistor. Towards the end of my TV career (around 1987 probably) we were doing lots of contract work for other dealers. One was a call to an old folks' bungalow near Manchester Airport. It was a large-screen Panasonic with the reported fault 'cracking and sparking'.
When I got there I noticed the windows were all steamed up, and going inside was like entering a Turkish bath. I was sweating cobs before I'd even put my toolbox down. When I suggested opening a window, a look of horror appeared on the couples' faces.
The cause of all this water vapour was two Calor gas heaters, both roaring away full tilt. The occupants told me they both had 'chest problems' (not surprising as they chain-smoked throughout my visit) and that the heaters eased the situation.
Inside the telly, the CRT bulb was literally running with water and the area around the EHT connector looked like something from Quatermass!
I gave everything a really thorough clean with switch cleaner and dried and polished the glass. Telly then worked a treat, but I knew it wouldn't be long until the next call!

[Nuvistor]

I had forgotten about the gas and parrafin heaters. You could always tell if the radio had been in the kitchen, any copper/brass had gone green, switches fell apart etc, Paxolin going leaky etc.
One thing the early Japaneses sets had was very good EHT insulation, massive boot around the CRT EHT connection. I think possibly that these sets had been designed to work in the tropics with high humidity levels, later UK made sets the insulation seemed less, unless it was my imagination.
Frank

[Peter.N.]

The comments of Colly letter 162 struck a chord with me, colour blindness preventing him from going into the trade. I am colour blind, red/green mostly in common with probably 6% of the rest of you, but I was in the trade for 50+ years, with other peoples help you could find ways around this. In the '50s when most mains leads were rubber, the green and red leads were indistinguishable to me, if I was only changing a plug I could check which was which with a meter, the real problem arose when renewing the complete lead, I had to go into the shop and ask someone which one was red and keep a tight grip on it until I got back to the workshop.

I of course had problems when colour started, I know I have related this before but not in this thread. This was in the days when the colours and convergence had to be set up prior to delivery. I would often receive a phone call from the customer complaining the the faces were green so I would go to the house and set the red with the customer watching until it was satisfactory. The whole arrangement was far from ideal so I devised a way of doing it in the workshop - very simple really. I set the blue/green for as near white as I could get, I could see that OK, then I increased the red until it was so bright I could actually see it, I then turned it down until I just couldn't and that was perfect, don't think I ever had another complaint.

Re dirty houses, we had a customer with several children who's idea of housework involved occasionally sweeping all the rubbish from the living room out of the door into the hallway and it was this compost heap that greeted you when you entered the front door. I saw in the local paper one day that someone had poured engine oil through her letterbox - I'm amazed she noticed! She complained to me that the council had rewired all the houses in her road except hers, I wonder why. Her children must have been immune to just about everything.

She rented a set from us with a slotmeter so I used to give her the tattiest set I had got and when it went wrong I would throw it out and give her another one, it would sit on the pile of scrap sets for weeks and the rain just ran off it.

Peter

[Neanderthal]

Thanks to all the posters with interesting and amusing stories. I had some grotty houses as well, rumours had it that some kept coal in the bath! Anyway, reckon it's time to tell of an amusing incident that concerned test cards.
This did not happen to me, but a colleague of mine, so I'll take up his story.
'I had an elderly lady customer who was a TV addict. Her set broke down one day and she was on the phone next morning. The fault was simple and her set was soon going again, displaying the test card, and the lady asked me what it was for. I explained the card was used by engineers to set up and adjust TVs, and she took it all in with interest.
Later that afternoon I got a call from the Lady, and she sounded anxious: "I just put my set on a bit early to see if it was alright, but you've left your test card on the screen!"'

Mike G4BIY

[FERNSEH]

I've been in this trade almost fifty-five years. One of the most obvious observations is when one visits customers homes is the vast improvement of living standards for most families. Things ARE much better these days. TV rental was the most important part of the industry right up to the late eighties, I guess hardly anyone rents their TV set anymore. I saw the danger signs for TV rental in the early eighties and I was able to keep my own TV rental going until about 2002, then the effect of the supermakets started to really bite. Many engineers grumble about flat screen LCD and plasma TVs but to honest the last of the CRT sets weren't much fun either. I remember the last Tatung CRT sets, the "G" and "H" series. the EPROM chip had failed on one receiver and after replacement I contacted the service department about how to go about readjusting the set. The reply was, "make sure you have plenty time to do the adjustments, you''ll need it all morning". I asked "so how long does it take the factory to set up one of these sets", 30 seconds!
So if wish to keep your CRT TV set make sure it is one of the excellent models made in the 80s and early 90s, before the manufactures got too clever

DFWB..

[eric8650]

The funniest thing that I ever encountered was a call out to an old lady. She had a small Bush A823 colour set on rental. Had it for about 4 years with no problems when it just stopped working so I went out one morning and found the thermister fallen to pieces on the power supply panel. Changed this and the set came on displaying a nice green picture.
Just Knew it was the SL901 on the decoder panel so I put the set in the car and took it back to the workshop. Changed the chip and reset the grey scale reconverged etc. Soaked it for an hour over dinner and took it back. Reinstalled it back in the house and this lady was not very pleased. All the colors are wrong she said. It was a lovely picture to me. After a bit of thought took the back off the set and turned off the red and blue guns on the set. Ah that's better she said. Colour blind or what!

Dave

[MotorBikeLes]

I started playing with CTV in about 1979, and quickly established a reliable source of ex-rental colour sets, nearly all Grundigs, making it easier not having to learn everything quickly. I put a very few ads in the local paper, thereafter only going by word of mouth. I only ever sold for cash, keeping prices on the high side.
I took the TV mag, and regularly came across various engineer's complaints of customers, especially the "How much"? and "won't pay" types as well as the dirty houses. This puzzled me, as I never had these problems, though some of my sets were filthy when I bought them.
Years later, when I moved over here (Isle of Man), I took employment at an audio/ computer shop. During the first week, I repaired a little Aiwa "Walkman" style recorder, where the fault was obviously clumsy customer. I think the L/S socket. I made out the bill, but when he came to collect, insisted it was a guarantee job, so would not pay. I was asked to comment, and pointed out it was due to careless use, and definitely not a manufacture's fault. He continued to create, and it was decided "downstairs" to give it to him FOC. I immediately realised why I never had problems. Cash, not HP, and working from home. Get a shop and get problem customers!
Les.

[Neanderthal]

It's a wonder your customer went in for colour in the first place Dave. Needs a box of resistors to sort out. I think mid seventies was about the most critical time for TV addicts. Nowadays most households have more than one TV, but back then it was a different story.
Remember going to a house one afternoon, where they did have a spare set, but that had broken down as well, so the situation there was code red.
Set number 1 was soon going, so I switched off and slid it to one side to use the aerial for the second.
A teenage girl said: "Can you not re-connect the other set so we may watch it while you repair this one?"
My comment, if there was one is lost in the mists of time, but the incident remains in memory.
Mike G4BIY

[Peter.N.]

That was something I had forgotten about, resistor colour codes. I kept mine in one of these plastic drawer units with two values per drawer, providing I put them away in the correct drawer when they arrived all was OK but I did occasionally have to check them with the meter. I still have my draw cabinet of resistors and also one for capacitors, but the leads are going as funny colour now.

Peter

[Heatercathodeshort]

Resistor colour codes. We all know how reading codes becomes second nature by recognizing them as one familiar pattern rather than reading the actual colour codes individually. I was led a real dance years ago when I fitted a 15 ohm in place of a 1m grid leak in a sync separator circuit. Lay one of each on your bench and I think you will agree it's a simple mistake to make! John.