K-B Featherlight (VC11) restoration

[dazzlevision]

Hello,

I might be. Let me look up my Ebay records to check.

Regards,

Dazzlevision

[dazzlevision]

Yes, it was me.

[Niechcial,Steve]

Nice to be in touch again- the Sony is still going strong.

Back to the KB- you're quite right of course about the intended life span, but the real issue was the reliability in that life span. I don't have any figures for the 60s, but I remember that for the early colour sets the UK manufactured ones had an incredible 4.5 call outs per year compared with the Japanese at 0.5 per year. The Sony 9-306 UBs from the same as the KB are only just now presenting faults, and pretty minor ones at that. Granted they were all transistor without the extra hazard of all that KB heat in a small cabinet, but even so the superiority in component quality is very noticeable. The Sony however has inferior pictures to the KB- particularly on UHF.

[dazzlevision]

Hello Steve,

I'd be wary of comparing valve versus transistor reliability figures. A more accurate comparison might be between the Philips 11TG190AT T-Vette dual standard versus the Sony TV9-306 or the Sony TV9-90UB. The T-Vette was pretty reliable and gave very good results - picture quality and sensitivity wise; better than either Sony IMHO.

As for colour, there were no dual standard sets from the Far East, so we would have to compare the 17" Thorn 8000 with the Sony KV-1800, for example and there, the Japanese sets were much better in terms of reliability, component quality and manufacturing quality. I've no data on the initial costs though. In the years of the colour TV boom, the UK manufacturers certainly plumped for quantity over quality and that was the beginning of the end for all of them!

Regards,

Dazzlevision

[dazzlevision]

Originally Posted by Niechcial,Steve

Nice to be in touch again- the Sony is still going strong.

Hello Steve,

I'm glad to hear the Sony KV-1320UB is still going, but they do that, don't they? That's why the indigenous UK TV manufacturing industry died out. It's ironic that their Japanese/Korean/Taiwanese successors in the UK have all followed suit, but for different reasons (e.g. British labour became relatively expensive compared to China and Eastern Europe).

I fondly remember there being a KV-1320UB in a local HiFi shop that were Sony dealers. It displayed BBC2 Test Card F all day, every day (except Sundays) and by the time it was either sold or taken off display, I was told the Test Card image had been burnt into the CRT's phosphors!

Going back to the subject of the VC11, I have only ever seen one example of the RGD "Night Owl" version, which had a clock/timer feature and (IIRC) a much grander wooden cabinet.

Regards,

Dazzlevision

[FERNSEH]

From the December 1964 Practical Television:

DFWB.

[Niechcial,Steve]

Yes that certainly was the beginning of the second set trend. If I remeber correctly the KB was the first British small screen set to have a UHF tuner as an option.

[ntscuser]

Originally Posted by dazzlevision

Well, after giving the cabinet front moulding and cabinet shell a good clean with Greygate plastic polish (to remove some ground in black marks) and then foaming cleanser

Hi Dazzlevision , when you say "foaming cleanser" do you mean that spray bleach normally used for removing mildew in bathrooms?

[nickdoofah]

wow!

that set looks like new again

tube looks very good indeed

well done

[dazzlevision]

Originally Posted by ntscuser

Hi Dazzlevision, when you say "foaming cleanser" do you mean that spray bleach normally used for removing mildew in bathrooms?

Hello,

The foaming clanser I use is the sort sold to the TV repair trade (and doubtless other trades) by such firms as CPC in Preston (a division of Fanell Elctronic Components of Leeds).

There are various brands, Electrolube, Servisol, Ambersil, etc.

I use this: http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/search/pr...KU=SA160001000

Other contributors to the forum may have other products they prefer, but I find this works very well.

Foaming cleanser was introduced (at least to the TV trade) in the 1970s and, along with desoldering pumps, was a godsend!

Regards,

Dazzlevision

[ntscuser]

Thanks brilliant

I never worked in the servicing trade myself so a lot of it is new to me

[Focus Diode]

Excellent work indeed and how nice to see it functioning.

I was given a similar model some 30 years ago which was in a right state. It had been dropped down a flight of stairs destroying the CRT implosion protection glass (a protected CRT was fitted later and available for replacement purposes), as well as a huge break in the cabinet. The CRT itself had survived despite huge chunks out of the glass! Needless to say I was terrified of it. It never got restored sadly.

Brian

[Heatercathodeshort]

Does anyone remember the TV advert for the 'Featherlight' ?

A little girl was watching it in her bedroom and her mum called up the stairs 'Melony, Tea time and bring the television.' She picked it up and came down carrying the receiver.
'This is the incredible new television from K.B.' etc.
They forgot to mention that the handle was a very weak point with these transportables and many met their end crashing to the floor. I had one in the kitchen/diner of my London home for years and like 99% of transportables, it never left it's spot on the sideboard! John.