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Old 27th Jan 2015, 2:40 pm   #141
Sideband
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The mod was a special valve, made by Mullard, for Ferguson. It was the TY86F.
Wow! Now that takes me back! I think only certain serial numbers of model 306 were affected...once Ferguson knew about it, they changed the line transformer if I remember correctly. For the sets that were already in use, the TY86F (7.2V heater) was introduced so that they would continue to operate without 'eating' the EHT recs. The valve came with a sticker that you stuck on the side of the line transformer cage. If any of the line transformers failed on these earlier sets, after replacement you always had to change the EHT rec back to an EY86.

Happy days!
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Old 27th Jan 2015, 3:39 pm   #142
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OK 0n the shocked cat Roberto. Cats do generate static in their fur, so if you collected some from the TV tube and the cat's polarity was opposite, a recipie for a surprise, but then cats do learn for the nextime around.
I remember one evening call in wintertime. Must have unloaded a TV, and then left the van doors open. I was en route to the next call when there was a noise in the back, indicating I was not alone. The culprit was a large black moggy, annoyed at being shut in. Lucky he'd not sprayed. I was 3 miles downrange by this time, so had to back track, to dump the errant mini panther on his own patch. Jobs for the boys.
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Old 27th Jan 2015, 4:34 pm   #143
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OK 0n the shocked cat Roberto. Cats do generate static in their fur, so if you collected some from the TV tube and the cat's polarity was opposite, a recipie for a surprise, but then cats do learn for the nextime around.
How do you determine the polarity of a cat?
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Old 27th Jan 2015, 6:06 pm   #144
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Easy. They always have a pawsitive charge.
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Old 27th Jan 2015, 7:32 pm   #145
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Don't think i'd like to try, might get clawed to bits. Seems if you stroke one in a warm dry room, sparks can pass between your hand and the cat's nose. Who might be possitive and who negative, I don't know.
We had a works van that was notorious for dealing out a poke when getting out. Just why that particular vehicle offended in this way I don't know. Perhaps the tyres were super insulators. I had a TV customer who had new carpets fitted and regreted the move because of static discharges.
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Old 27th Jan 2015, 7:47 pm   #146
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Nylon carpets were bad news also melted if you dropped solder on them!
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Old 27th Jan 2015, 10:35 pm   #147
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I never was a TV Engineer but I am eternally grateful to the man who used to service my parents Sobell in the late '50s/early '60s. My Mother felt sorry for the poor man being harassed by a little girl pointing at valves and IF's asking what they did; I used to hold a mirror in front of the CRT to "help" him with the adjustments. This now unknown Engineer was the spark [excuse pun] that started me on my career in the Electronics industry. When studying for my "A" levels at a Technical College, I also had time to sit in with the trainee TV Engineers and sat the intermediate C&G Radio & TV mechanics exam. This knowledge helped while I was at University as I repaired a few TV and Radios to supplement my grant - great practical experience.
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Old 27th Jan 2015, 10:57 pm   #148
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my cat jumped onto my bench once and tried to pull itself up onto a set using the tube base panel, the neck snapped, sparkles and arcles all over the place. I don't care what polarity the cat was, it was certainly discharged then, especially after my boot hit it up the arris.

damn thing cost me a new tube for a tx9, biggest loss I'd ever made on a set.
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Old 27th Jan 2015, 11:07 pm   #149
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The early versions of the Ferguson 306T had a tolerance problem with the heater winding of the EY86. This is a separate sealed winding and could not be modified by the removal of a single turn that would have been the answer as suggested.
The 306T had a removeable cabinet and early advice from TEI was to fit a 4.7 ohm resistor in series with the EY86 heater, within the polythene holder.
What an awkward job with risk of melting the holder, the cat, dog and child with the hot iron!
Huge numbers of these receivers were sold by dealers and rented by DER, part of the Thorn group.
Mullard were approached who produced the TY86F. [7.5v heater suffixed F for Ferguson]
It must be remembered that Mullard supplied millions of valves to Thorn and making a special valve that would cure a manufacturing problem would not have been a big problem.
It was only a matter of fitting a 7.5V heater into the standard 6.3V EY86. The TY86F could be fitted in any receiver where the EY86 was slightly over run completely curing premature filament failure. Happy days! John.
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Old 28th Jan 2015, 12:42 am   #150
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Nylon carpets were bad news also melted if you dropped solder on them!
..or soldering irons.
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Old 28th Jan 2015, 8:09 am   #151
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Oh yes! This happened to me. After hanging my soldering iron on the hinged down chassis of a CVC5, I reached across to my spares case snagging the mains lead of the iron which promptly dropped onto the customers pink nylon carpet.

I was amazed at how quickly it melted. It was there for literally half a second, but the damage was sizeable.

It was a good job I was insured!

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Old 28th Jan 2015, 11:09 am   #152
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When I started work as an apprentice in 1961, we had a Lovely Senior Engineer who used to arrive always at ten past nine in the morning, as he came by train, on his bench he had a 25 watt Henly Solon which was pushed into a piece of pipe, the mains supply was via a two pin two amp plug/socket, first thing he would do when he came in was to plug in the iron.We thought it would be fun to pencil across the terminals every morning, to see what would happen, then approximately once a month it would explode blowing the socket and plug to pieces, this happened several times, then we felt sorry for him and stopped doing it, he could never work out why a 25 watt soldering iron could cause so much damage, as it stopped happening I think he put it down to faulty sockets, we never told him as we dreaded what he might have done with the iron.
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Old 28th Jan 2015, 12:26 pm   #153
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I do remember my days at DER Rentals and while out repairing a Thorn 850 I hung the iron on the chassis as you do.The customer was sat in a chair at the other side of the room reading his paper,however the iron caught the nylon nets which a hole quickly appeared two fingers and rubbed the brown burnt nylon and good as new except for a hole!
We never heard any come backs so guess his wife thought moths.
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Old 28th Jan 2015, 12:29 pm   #154
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Now for something gross and to show you the sort of house that a rep would install in just to get his commission.

Went to repair this set and behind it the dog had fouled the carpet, back again a few weeks later and the mess was still there.

Been there seen it all in my days.
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Old 28th Jan 2015, 1:38 pm   #155
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Default Re: Ex TV Engineers

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Easy. They always have a pawsitive charge.
Agreed, but I am inclined to spell it "pussitive".
Colin.
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Old 28th Jan 2015, 1:44 pm   #156
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I do remember my days at DER Rentals and while out repairing a Thorn 850 I hung the iron on the chassis as you do.The customer was sat in a chair at the other side of the room reading his paper,however the iron caught the nylon nets which a hole quickly appeared two fingers and rubbed the brown burnt nylon and good as new except for a hole!
We never heard any come backs so guess his wife thought moths.
Nylon-eating moths? They must have been hungry!
Colin.
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Old 28th Jan 2015, 2:21 pm   #157
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Thank Fully got away with it Colin.
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Old 28th Jan 2015, 3:31 pm   #158
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Quote:
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Easy. They always have a pawsitive charge.
Agreed, but I am inclined to spell it "pussitive".
Colin.
Nice one both. Definately padding in the right direction.
Mike.
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Old 28th Jan 2015, 5:46 pm   #159
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Biggles and ColintheAmpman you guys made me laugh.. but at the time it wasnt so funny because i was worried about damaging the tv.... but lucky i got away with it... only just
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Old 29th Jan 2015, 10:53 am   #160
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As we seem to be discussing mishaps in customers homes, a drop of hot solder falling onto a carpet always caused me concern. I normally managed to pull it out cold with long noes pliers and cover the small gap left with the other carpet strands. So an invisible repair!
Once when standing up suddenly after being crouched working behind a television, I hit a shelf which was resting but not screwed to supporting wall brackets, so it lifted and then fell to the floor. It was a display shelf for the lady's china!. Oh dear.

I went, without catching on, on a joke call to Chessington Zoo and asked at reception for Mr. Lion, the shop staff had a good laugh when I got back.
I also have been to some filthy smelly houses with dog excrement around the back of the television.

Suggestions of sexual advances from women (and men). These customers would get reported at the office and have their cards marked. If they had a call again that had to be done (rental contract) we would send two people.
Sometimes you just wanted to run out of the customers door as fast as you could.

Of course you also met some very nice people and got into places that the public did not see. I have been into several stars homes, and even had tea with some.
We used to service sets at the Grace and Favour apartments at Hampton Court palace, and also the Duke of Northumberlands home at Syon park.
Some hotels around Heathrow also had maintenance contracts with us.

We must have had good bladders as often a tea and appear, without asking first, often just as you were ready to leave and get to the next call so drink it fast and get on.

The Thames television studios were in our area and their staff had an arrangement with us to supply and service their home TV's. When colour first came out some of their studio staff were very fussy on watching you converge the set and expected more than the domestic set was really capable of. Made life much easier when the later tubes which did not need setting up came along. (BTW those studios are being demolished this year for housing development).

Field service was good fun especially in the summer, but it was spoilt by the time restraints for each call due to having so many calls per day. In the workshop at least you had time to work on the set fully and not have to deal with the customer face to face.

John
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