Murphy Astra

[slidertogrid]

For some time now I have been looking for a Murphy Astra. I had one back in the early 1970's which I had been given by a neighbour it had all manner of faults which as a young lad I struggled to fix. I did get it working reasonably well but I remember it being plagued with frame faults.
I really liked the tuner with the arrow that pointed to the channel that was selected.
One day it went Phut and started burning up some resistors I had enough and took it apart...
Since I started collecting vintage sets from my youth some years ago the Astra was on my wish list. I saw a couple over the years but not the model I had with the tuner with the pointer.
Then as I was on my way to the NVCF my mate who was already there rang (I wasn't driving) to ask if I still wanted one as he had seen one there for sale.
In fact two! One 19" and one 23". He wanted the 23" himself which suited me as it was a 19" I was after and it was exactly the model I was looking for!
A little later I arrived at the NVCF to see what I had got..
Its a lovely set ! It needs a good clean and a few valves but looks all original and untouched .
I'm very pleased with my slightly late birthday pressie to myself....

Rich.

[Colourstar]

Well done Rich. Well worth that celebratory mug of tea! Always great when you find a long-lost set again. My abiding memory of those Murphy Astras is how surprisingly heavy they are.

Good luck with the restoration!

Steve

[slidertogrid]

Thanks Steve, yes it is a heavy set the other 23" one took two of us to carry it to my mate's van. I am fairly sure they did a plinth to sit the set on to convert it to UHF.
I have never seen one converted but I'm sure I saw the conversion kits being flogged off by someone advertising in Practical Television.
The plinth must have been made of strong stuff to support the weight especially with the larger screen set.
It may have been a later model that was convertible as there is no sign of a socket on this set to plug it in or any timebase switch...
I am going to start by giving it a good clean and polish then find out what valves I need. I just hope the bean tin full of GTX is OK...!

Rich.

[Colourstar]

Hi Rich

Yes indeed there was a plinth they sat on with the UHF converter. I'm pretty sure the convertible ones have an octal socket on the underside of the cabinet or a blanking plug over it. There are several similar looking models which I thought were all convertible. Does yours have any switching on the timebase panel?

'Monochrome Marc' of this parish has custody of my old Astra, so I'm sure he'll be along shortly to fill in the details. I think 'Fernseh' has one up in captivity in the North East too, complete with remote control.

Steve

[MonochromeMarc]

'Monochrome Marc' of this parish has custody of my old Astra, so I'm sure he'll be along shortly to fill in the details.

Hi Rich & Steve,

Under my Astra (also known as the 'oil slick' ) there's a removable blanking plate which hides an octal plug and the mechanical link for time base switching in readiness for fitting the 625 converter plinth.

I guess David (Fernseh) will be along soon too with details of his Astra

Marc.

[jayceebee]

Do you have the model number, I'm not sure but I think could it be either a V659 or V739? The boost diode looks as though it's down to air and I notice that line sync board which fits into the edge connector in front of the two empty valve holders is missing. Do you have it?

There were two types fitted, either a flywheel or direct sync version. The dealer where I served my apprenticeship would remove the flywheel type on sight and fit a direct if one was available.

Great sets, good luck with it.

John.

[dazzlevision]

It’s a Murphy V659. If it has a 405-625 system switch fitted, it would be a V659X and if it had the plug in flywheel line sync printed circuit board fitted, a V659XA.

This V6xx series of models was known as the Astra range. The following and final range of true Murphy designed TVs was the Astra Mark 2 series, which had round pushbuttons for channel selection and additional components fitted for simpler “plug-in” UHF/625 conversion, including the Octal socket on the underside of the chassis. The equivalent Astra Mark 2 set to the V659, was the V759.

A 19” rental model was offered in the Astra Mark 2 range, the V739, which used one large round knob for channel selection, rather than five pushbuttons.

Manor Supplies, of West Hampstead, London sold the UHF converter plinths and I bought a few. There were at least four versions: 19” and 23” sets without VHF/FM radio and 19” and 23” sets with VHF/FM radio. They has three 6F23 vision IF stages, so had good gain, albeit with a valve (Mullard/Philips) UHF tuner.

UHF converter kits for the V6xx series had additional components included that had to be fitted to the chassis, such as an additional section of 405-625 slider switch and the Octal socket that the UHF converter plugged into.

[dazzlevision]

Here's a 1961 Murphy leaflet showing their first Astra TV range.

[slidertogrid]

There certainly are some knowledgeable folk on here! the model number is indeed V659X and it appears to have a linkage on the bottom. I cannot see the system switch or octal socket though. maybe these had to be fitted from the conversion kit?
It has a label on the back stating that it is convertible...
The sync panel is missing there is a metal bracket bent over which I assume was it's support.
I will put a request on the wanted section for a panel just in case anyone has one.
Otherwise I wonder how hard it would be to make one on veroboard? I will have to go and have a look at my mate's 23" version to see what it looks like. This is assuming his panel isn't missing as well both sets came from the same seller...
Rich.

[Heatercathodeshort]

Good looking receiver but suffered from what was probably Mazda's shortest life tube, the 19" CME1901, 23" version CME2301. This together with the cost of the oil filled LOPT did not make them economically viable as reconditioned receivers.

Not many survived beyond 5-6 years. BRW [British Relay Wireless] rented thousands of them.

My example suffers from dampness within the oil filled LOPT can resulting in the well known gradual lack of width after 30 mins working.

Lovely conversion unit with loads of gain as Daz mentioned. John.

[dazzlevision]

Originally Posted by slidertogrid

The model number is indeed V659X and it appears to have a linkage on the bottom. I cannot see the system switch or octal socket though. maybe these had to be fitted from the conversion kit?

The sync panel is missing there is a metal bracket bent over which I assume was it's support.

Rich.

Hello,

The V6xx series did not have a factory fitted Octal socket, that came as part of the UHF converter kit. In the case of the V659X, it would been known as a "K659".

Manor Supplies also had a box of brand new Astra flywheel sync boards on the counter and I bought some of them. So, when your "Wanted" post appears, I should be able to help you (I think I still have one). The tall thin metal bracket should have a small black plastic retainer that slides up and down along it and which held the top edge of the flywheel (or direct) sync panel firmly in place.

[dazzlevision]

Here are photos of the direct line sync (the smaller PCB) and flywheel line sync PCBs, as fitted in the Murphy Astra chassis.

[dazzlevision]

I completely restored my Murphy V879 (Astra 2 series, with excellent built-in VHF/FM radio - using three VHF tuner turret "biscuits" for Home, Light and Third transmissions - all that was available on the VHF band in those days).

In the case of your V659X, I'd firstly just dust it out and replace the missing valves and line sync board (checking to see if anything else is missing). In particular, be on the look out for anything that looks non-original and check it is actually correct and suitable.

These Murphy oil filled LOPTs will, like most LOPTs of this era, have absorbed moisture, as mine had, causing the classic symptoms documented elsewhere on this forum.

My set is in a heated room with a dehumidifier running 24/7. This will tend to draw out moisture from the TV and I have found that, after many months of switching the set on for just fifteen minutes or so, before the LOPT starts to complain, the LOPT will eventually "dry out" enough to operate for much longer periods of time. However, you may want to try the other methods mentioned in this forum, such as passing a modest current through the LOPT windings, causing them to heat up and drive off moisture.

I'd also test the CRT, if you have (or can borrow) a CRT tester, to see whether it has reasonable emission, before getting seriously stuck in with complete set restoration.

The first job for me was to clean the chassis, especially where oil has seeped out of the LOPT canister. I removed the LOPT, to avoid any more oil seeping out when the chassis wasn't in its normal orientation (during restoration of the chassis, removed from the cabinet).

Then there are many wax "TCC" and black "Hunts" moldseals to replace, together with a few metal cased paper dielectric types (Dubilier?). A lot of the carbon composition resistors will also have drifted way out of spec.

You may have to reform or restuff the HT smoothing can electrolytic.

The HT rectifier in these sets was originally a large "finned" metal rectifier, located at the front of the chassis, under the CRT, near the HT smoothing can. It has probably been replaced by a Silicon rectifier and series resistor (typically 20 Ohm).

I hope your restoration goes well and look forward to seeing the results.