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Old 4th Jan 2011, 10:20 am   #61
newlite4
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

In 1974 I obtained a perfect working Bush DAC90a from a local TV shop, a source of many sets in my early years. It was the day of the royal wedding (Princess Anne and Capt Mark Philips), I was tinkering with the insides when I accidentally knocked off the pip of the UL41. In those days, the availability of vintage valves was not like it is today, so I just scrapped it. Thankfully, many more have come up behind that one and been restored so I have made amends.
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 11:34 am   #62
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

As a child of 12 I was playing in a tip with friends from school. We found thousands of boxed valves dumped there - and proceeded to use them as projectiles!

I remember keeping one - it was kept for decades in my Rigonda Bolshoi radiogram. They were in light blue boxes and were made by Pinnacle.

I wonder what they were from....


SEAN
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 12:06 pm   #63
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

I dare only confess to a few of my minor ones, or none of you will talk to me again! all these "crimes" were committed when I was a youth.I rarely scrap anything these days,

Philips A470 (the Bakelite one with what I call the sausage roll front) and the external "stand up" tuning scale, taken apart for bits! Valves smashed.

My Aunties Bush "valve TR82"(forget the model of the top of my head)-bits! The worst thing about that one was I was part way through the dismantling process when |I found the reason it didn't work. Earphone jack was faulty, but by then it was too late.


Russian radio of some sort, with turret tuner-Bits.

Countless more radios, TV's record players and Tape recorders. Still I suppose we all have to learn some how. I justified it at the time because the stuff didn't work- but unfortunately could probably have been repaired if I had had a little more knowledge.
I still have parts from some of them, but where the rest went who knows.


Quite a few old 746 telephones shot to bits by me and a college mate with his air pistol.
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 1:16 pm   #64
Martin G7MRV
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Hmm, im starting to see several common themes in our early delinquency!

1. Learning by 'reverse engineering' and 'destructive testing'
2. Practicing of throwing skills using housebricks and CRTs!
3. A fondness for 'outdoor sports', in particular of the airgun shooting type
4. A desire to explore derelicts and disused locations (something i still do!)
5. An inate curiosity about the content of skips, and what they may be used for
6. Kindly neighbours and relatives who were happy to see us tinkering with their 'junk'


I suppose i hadnt appreciated the fact that all this stuff, at the time, was considered junk, not the valuable stuff it is today. I love the idea that we were inadvertently instrumental in turning these items into collectables by willfully removing many examples from existence!
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 1:48 pm   #65
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Once it was known that I was interested in radio as a youngster I was offered all sorts of "junk" which I gladly accepted. I remember a neighbour of my grandmother giving me a Murphy B81 portable radio back in 1964. We tried to get batteries for it but failed so I stripped it down for the bits. I still have 3 parts from it, the turntable, the serial number plate and the handle which is doing sterling service as the handle on a toolbox.

Around the same time my grandfather said I could have an old 2 valve radio. Fortunately he couldn't find it otherwise it would have been wrecked. My father found it several years later when clearing out their house. I did get it working then it lay unused for years. It's now awaiting the enthusiasm to get round to finally fixing it.

I too have practiced stone throwing with CRTs, usually successfully, and will admit to assisting in the demise of valves with an air rifle, those B7G valves are bs to hit so one got dispatched at point blank range.

My most recent crime was before I knew of the existence of this forum when I destroyed a NOS CRT suitable for the Phillips TVette. I was clearing my mothers loft and I had no use for it. In my defence I did take the old KB GR10 and an Ekco record player home AND get them working.

All the old TVs and radios did however yield a useful supply of nuts and bolts plus a few germanium diodes for use in crystal sets.

At university we experimented with various transistors and the mains usually resulting in a single bright flash and the sacrifical transistor disappearing into oblivion.

Well that ends the case for the defence so be lenient please.

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Old 4th Jan 2011, 2:48 pm   #66
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Hi
When we used to renovate TVs for sale it was usual to visit a wholesalers and get a few of the newer examples of a type (say the Pye 697) for quite a lot of money but get a number of sets using earlier but basically similar chassis (691 and 693s) thrown in. Then we would make the newer one up for sale as the bits in the older sets were often better - CDA panels and the metal LOP towers spring to mind on that chassis.
Also the old dual colours were almost given away working at that time and were mostly scrapped on sight as often they would have a replacement CRT fitted - hopefully a 120X we could use in a more modern 'push-through' set.
Of course paradoxically the earlier examples of a marque are now more sought after! I imagine it's too late to get the skip back....
Glyn
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 3:21 pm   #67
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I shall certainly be sentenced to the fiery furnace for all eternity...

I have lost count of the number of old radios and TVs I took apart for bits as as a lad. Many a round Ekco met it's end at my hands although the one I am most sad about was a Murphy A40 that was given to me. It was in pretty good condition I thought and worked well. Father spotted some woodworm and decided it had to go. I can remember vividly that cabinet out in the rain and in time the mirror top with the reflective coating flaking off.

I was also given many boxes of very early radio components which I used to make simple one and two valve sets but as soon as I had a couple of new fangled transistors it was all scrapped. Who needed all this old valve stuff back then?

As an apprentice in the TV trade in the 60s I lost count of the number of late 40s and 50s TVs that met their end at the local tip/quarry. Lots of TV22s and similar types. We used to throw them into the water whereupon they would float and then the other apprentice and myself would throw anything we could find at the screens to smash them and they disappeared under the water.... forever....

All quite sad when I look back...

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Old 4th Jan 2011, 3:35 pm   #68
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Smile Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Hi,
I'm surprised nobody has confessed to destroying any of the Ekco round radios.



No, I'm not surprised.

They are keeping it quiet.

I know I would .



Cheers, Pete
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 4:26 pm   #69
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tractorfan View Post
I'm surprised nobody has confessed to destroying any of the Ekco round radios.
Isn't that what Denis has just done in the immediately preceding post?
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 4:30 pm   #70
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tractorfan View Post
Hi,
I'm surprised nobody has confessed to destroying any of the Ekco round radios.
Denis Just did!!!!

Dave just pipped me at the post....
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Last edited by Omegaman; 4th Jan 2011 at 4:32 pm. Reason: Added a bit
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 8:34 pm   #71
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

No round ekco's but I'm guilty too, mainly smashing up early colour TV's that where often dumped on the old railway line near where i live. and i remember finding two old Decca schools receivers dumped round the back of a local primary school that ended up suffering the same fate.
Then there where numerous radios bought from jumble sales mostly transistor but some valve that i ether tried to improve or just pulled to bits lots of Roberts and Hackers.
My last heinous crime was when i was 15. i bought a very early I think tape recorder from our secondary school fair, think i paid a £1 for it. I'm not well up on early tape recorders but it was very heavy with an EM34 magic eye, the deck was wood with formica on top with all the mechanism bolted to it. it worked and came with some tapes. i'm sorry to say I pulled it to bits for it's amp which i built into an old speaker cabinet and made a guitar amp out of it, the mechanism ended up in the bin and the case and deck top on the bonfire. I still have the guitar amp but i wish i had the whole player still.

Jay
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 8:38 pm   #72
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

As a teenager I am guilty of a few crimes, but luckily saved a few that came into my hands at the same time as well.

My grandfather gave my brother & I a matched set of Philco Transistones (code 121 & code 122). I still have them though only my brothers just barely. He wasn't interested really so asked me to dismantle it for him, & I did. Completely, & threw away all the parts including IF transformers. The case and chassis ended up in our old barn for years. Luckily I grabbed it before the barn was torn down and have been working on rebuilding it.

My friend & I (as teenagers) got a couple of radios from an elderly neighbor, he promptly removed the guts from an old metal radio (a radiola I think) and asked me to chuck the case (I did). I still have the chassis though.

I have also lost knobs, screws, dials, backs, loop antennas, etc because I didn't take good enough care to keep these with the radios after I took them apart.
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 8:57 pm   #73
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

I broke up a Thorn 2000 CTV around 1980. The CRT was pretty bad and we'd bought something newer. It was big lump to keep. I think I may still have the mains transformer somewhere and recently I came across a sheet of wood that may have been part of the cabinet.
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 9:04 pm   #74
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Honestly I cringe when I read these posts it seems I am guilty by association. Well that and doing lots of bad stuff particularly with TVs and Quarry's. You never forget the sound when a tv has fallen 100 ft onto something solid. Now I wish I could say due to guilt I never want to hear that sound again......... I have carried laptops around the world for more than 15 years If I thought for one minute a laptop would make such a satisfying noise when dropped onto something solid our office would be devoid of the beasts in moments
Unfortunately modern electronics lacks the sophistication to make a satisfying noise during its destruction It goes with a whimper not a nice bang
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 9:36 pm   #75
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In the Domestic Radio category, there are two radios that I do, now, really regret dismantling for bits. For the life of me, I cannot remember what models they were nor the chassis types. One was a Mc. Michael woodie that had a glass-fronted tuning scale on the front right: MW, LW, SW1 and SW2; scales that were vertical. SW2 would go to 32 MHz. IIRC, I vaguely recall listening to American CB and police radios on about 27 MHz.
The other was a Bakelite-cased Philips with push-button tuning (two rows of five) and a 3-gang tuning condenser with circular axial-concentric vanes. It used Loctal valves.

If I was ever to see either again - and they were for sale - I'd be sorely tempted. Nostalgia? But of course!

Then there was a Philips TG170A. However, the strange thing here is that I am quite neutral about my involvement in this set's demise. Why? Simply because I didn't like it - for technical and aesthetic reasons - and although they are still around, I wouldn't acquire one, for same reasons.
I suppose it all boils down to matters of personal taste.

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Old 4th Jan 2011, 9:40 pm   #76
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tractorfan View Post
Hi,
I'm surprised nobody has confessed to destroying any of the Ekco round radios.



No, I'm not surprised.

They are keeping it quiet.

I know I would .



Cheers, Pete
I can;t see why anyone would, although they might have been confused with the rolling cheese event?
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 10:09 pm   #77
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Why should we confess to destroying what we genuinely though was junk!
Even in my early days in the trade I was told to get rid of that old 405 line rubbish and yes I did.
There was so much stuff around then from round Ekco's, Philips TRF's, TV22's, projection sets, you name it, it was there, but people were getting more affluent. in 1971 I was offered a Jaguar XK120 for £100, silly me turned it down.
I must have smashed countless 9 & 12 inch round tubes at least two mirror lid sets, hundreds of obsolete valves, the list goes on, we thought that we were doing good! So perhaps we should plead insanity or just dumb!
We have learned our lesson now though and just fill our lofts, sheds and workplaces, perhaps this makes amends!
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 10:25 pm   #78
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Hello there,
I remember dismantling my granparents late 50's cossor LW MW valve radio. I did not just take it apart but completely dismantled every valve, unravelled the electrolytic capacitors and unwound all of the wound components.

I also had a late Ferranti valve AM VHF radio which I tried to make into an experimental valve amplifier. I t did not work though although some parts still remain here.

I destroyed quite a number of 70,s and 80,s transistor radios with my dads zerostat record static eliminator after discovering what a high voltage can be generated by it and seeing how long they survive!

At the local surplus shop (now a Sainsburys) I also discovered a really nice valve based gas analyser test set which had a nice reciprocating pump to suck air into a chamber test it somehow and then to expel it. After getting bored with it I tried sucking up water to see what would happen. It sucked up the water, flooded the chassis and then unsuprisingly went bang! It then got dismantled and dumped!!

Christopher Capener
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 10:37 pm   #79
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Quote:
Originally Posted by murphyv310 View Post
Why should we confess to destroying what we genuinely though was junk!
A good point, indeed. But not only what we genuinely thought was junk, but so did (almost) everybody else! Besides, if you are running a business, you have to seriously consider storage space; storage space costs money. Same argument, possibly to a lesser extent, applies if your interest in limited to that of a hobby. That was just as true then as it is now. However, I will reiterate what I have previously said: hindsight is a wonderful thing. At each and every moment in time we all have to make decisions: what to, and what not to do; what to keep and what to throw away. All each of us can do is make decisions based on information that is available to us at that moment - and check that it is indeed reliable information.
Unfortunately, a reliable future-revealing crystal ball has yet to be invented. But when it does become available . . . . I dread to think of the consequences.

Al.
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 10:59 pm   #80
Martin G7MRV
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Quote:
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Why should we confess to destroying what we genuinely though was junk!
and also because.... its funny

this has turned into one of the most enjoyable threads ive read for a long time
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