What is the earliest surviving British Colour TV and where is it?

[murphymad]

Who has the oldest / earliest British colour Television?

What is it, and where is it?

This can include monitors as well as commercial home receivers.

AND ... does it still work ?


Mike...

[oldticktock]

I thought that was David Boynes (FERNSEH) 1956 Pye colour TV

[Mikey405]

Here's a picture of David's Pye. (I hope he doesn't mind me posting a picture of it.) Of course I'm unspeakably jealous of it. If Dave vanishes in mysterious circumstances and the CTV disappears you'll know where to look.

[ppppenguin]

I wonder if any Baird era colour kit survives.

[brianc]

Originally Posted by ppppenguin

I wonder if any Baird era colour kit survives.

If there is, it's probably lying in a warehouse somewhere, together with all that Scophony kit.

[murphyv310]

Originally Posted by Mikey405

Here's a picture of David's Pye. (I hope he doesn't mind me posting a picture of it.) Of course I'm unspeakably jealous of it. If Dave vanishes in mysterious circumstances and the CTV disappears you'll know where to look.

The last time I was in Newcastle I fitted a tracker to the set!

[murphymad]

That is an extremely modern looking set for 1956, they were clearly forward thinking for their styling.
Interestingly it looks like the knobs still suffered from plastic rot and fell to bits.

Any chance of some internal pictures?

I know that Murphy designed and made a set in 1958 using the RCA round tube.
I wonder if any have survived.

I have a couple of the 1962/3 designed Rank Bush/Murphy sets with the 22" round tubes.
I seem to remember they weigh about the same as a vauxhall astra! I can still feel the pain from moving the last one...

Here's a few pics.

Mike...

[Mikey405]

Originally Posted by murphymad

Any chance of some internal pictures?

Here you go. Again, I hope David doesn't mind.

Originally Posted by murphymad

I know that Murphy designed and made a set in 1958 using the RCA round tube.
I wonder if any have survived.

Crikey - That'd be something nice to see. Are there any pictures of the beast or did it look much like the later ones?

[FERNSEH]

Hi Everyone,
Fear not, the Pye set is still safely installed in the shop. The last time I tried out in front of visitors it disgraced itself and failed to to work.
I might later today return to the workshop and do some service work on it.

I once owned a Bush CVB100 colour receiver, that was in the early 1990s, but when I discovered it was a 625 line set I passed it on to another TV collector.
Don't want any 625 stuff in my TV collection. I've no idea where it went to.
I wish now that I kept that set.

Trevor: where is that tracker device and does it cover the UK only?

DFWB.

[murphyv310]

I had a chat with David on the Dog & Bone earlier, we had a blether about these Pye Colour sets and David believes that there may have been about a hundred of these sets possibly made! It would certainly be a turn up for the books if another did turn up. I suppose it's possible when you think most engineers from manufacture to service are "Clepto's". We can only live in hope.

PS I am saying nowt about the tracker

[Dave Moll]

I understand that Media Museum in Bradford has one (and possibly part of another) of the remaining sets - though I have never managed to obtain definite confirmation of this.

[FERNSEH]

Good evening Gentlemen,
It's almost 9:15 and I'm about to make a start on the Pye CTV. But first I must clear away all that stuff on top and in front of the set before I start working on the set.

DFWB.

[FERNSEH]

The junk has been cleared away. I connected to set to the mains only to find that half the valve heaters were alight, The fault was traced to a loose PY81, the set uses two in parallel. So now I have a greenish raster.
The RF stages are working well, lots of snow on the screen.

The picture shows the tuner and IF stages of the set and are similar to the Pye VT17, so is the frame timebase. Note that this is a very well developed receiver. Certainly doesn't look like a one-off. The set is a development of the RCA 21CT55 adapted for 405NTSC.

DFWB.

[FERNSEH]

It's still got that frame timebase fault. Could be the scan coils. Have checked just about everything else.

DFWB

[flyingtech55]

Is the set upside down or is the top missing?

TimR

[oldticktock]

The top is present in other photo's I've seen of the set. I would guess it's either an intended feature to give good access for servicing or the top has become loose.

Chris

[FERNSEH]

Access for service is very easy on this receiver. The cabinet top and left side panel can be removed to permit access to just about all the components of the main chassis. Also, the chassis can be removed completely to carry out any serious service work.

DFWB.

[southendsteve55]

Hi everyone. I've been reading this great website for months and this is my first post so please go easy on me! I don't know anything about repairing electronic equipment, I wanted to be a TV engineer when I was young but my sight wasn't good enough. So when I left school in 1971 I settled for being a TV and audio salesman.

Now I love seeing the sets I remember so well being restored by you guys. I have a question, hope it isn't stupid one! Earlier in this thread, murphymad posted a photo of Rank Bush Murphy CTVs being made in Chiswick in 1962. If Colour broadcasting didn't start in the UK until 1967, what were these TVs used for?

Steve

[GLENZ32]

Very interesting see these early british colour sets, I've never seen any colour TV with valves in it yet... I'm hoping someday day one will surface here in NZ.. And when it does I'll be posting a thread up about it!

Oh and welcome to the forum southendsteve55

[gec2110]

That is an intresting set is the tube american?
welcome southendsteve55 hope that you learn alot