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Old 27th Feb 2018, 12:20 pm   #21
linescan87
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Default Re: End of an era.

Were in the shop today, said we'd have a tea party. Keys go back tomorrow.
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Old 27th Feb 2018, 6:12 pm   #22
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Default Re: End of an era.

He decided to give the keys back today, followed him home with the last of the bits. He's looking forward to getting a shed built in the garden.

Hard to think I won't be in there again. The shop is going to be a mobile phone repair center, there's already three of those on the street.

John Joe.
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Old 27th Feb 2018, 8:06 pm   #23
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Quote:
The shop is going to be a mobile phone repair center, there's already three of those on the street.
Sadly this is a sign of the times, all the repair shops round here are all long gone

I am old enough to remember when these businesses were thriving, happier times when things were well made & worth repairing.
I wish John a long & happy retirement.

Mark
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Old 27th Feb 2018, 8:36 pm   #24
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Hello Gentlemen,
All this story sounds to me so familiar with what I see in France. The TV Radio repair shop where I went to learn electronics when I was a boy (time ago, I am 73!) disappear to let place to a travel agency in the 80's.
A friend of mine rent a shop years ago, where He is selling (trying to sell) various passive components like resistors, I.C. etc.. But, nobody want (or have capacity to) repair things. So, I foresee the end of the story, closing activity and put a Kebab in place..
My regards,
Roger
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Old 27th Feb 2018, 10:04 pm   #25
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The truth is I should have been out my shop ten years ago. TV rental is a thing of the past, in fact we knew the writing was on the wall as far back as the 1990s for that type of business. I reckon there's only ten sets out on hire now, and yet I still have to be licenced through the FCA.
TV repairs are few and far between now. We just have to face the fact that nobody expects these things can be repaired any more.
Still, I should be out of this shop by the end of the year, unless I find something else to do. Don't fancy fixing mobile phones. There was a time you couldn't keep out of that workshop.
The attachment is from the 30th of April 1955 Electrical & Radio Trading.
Page 42 "Service - with a style." The article is about a Yorkshire firm called
Radio equipment(Yorkshire) Ltd. The service department was located at 115-117 Castlegate, Huddersfield. A floor area of exceeding 3,000 square feet, houses a staff of 16, including those who use vans.
Is this firm still in business?

DFWB.
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Old 27th Feb 2018, 11:17 pm   #26
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John was still doing maybe 10 sets a week, but think this was down to the fact that there are so few places left. He used to be surprised at the distances people traveled to get to him. Vacuum cleaner repair was also pretty good along with the domestic spare parts trade.

The rental side was long dead really, one of jobs on Saturdays was scraping ex-rental sets coming back in and that was over twenty years ago. Only the die hard rental customers remained, my Grandmother was one of them.

Funny story on that, it came into my mind over the last few days. Back in about '95 my mother was over from Holland. One day she went for a walk down Bridge Street, at the other end of the town. She was walking past one of the other TV shops, Swords TV.

As she went past a man walked out of the shop with a old colour set in his arms, she asked him if he needed hand. He said no, but you can have this set of you want it. He had bought a new set in the mean time. She agreed and he even dropped it up to the house.

It was on the floor in front of our rental in the living room, mother tuning it in. My grandmother walked "what's that yoke?" Mother replied "it's a TV, you can give that one back to Mr Twamley" granny replied "are you mad, if that thing broke down it would have us out of house and home!"

How's that for dedication? Needless to say that free TV had to go.

The real killer was the rent and commercial rates.

Cheers,

John Joe.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 7:01 am   #27
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Default Re: End of an era.

Quote:
Originally Posted by FERNSEH View Post
The article is about a Yorkshire firm called
Radio equipment(Yorkshire) Ltd. The service department was located at 115-117 Castlegate, Huddersfield. A floor area of exceeding 3,000 square feet, houses a staff of 16, including those who use vans.
Is this firm still in business?
I don't think so. I was born and brought up near Huddersfield. The name Castlegate got re-used for part of the ring road built in the mid/late sixties. I didn't know the name had been used before that, but google earth points to a remaining block, parallel to Fitzwilliam street. I think this put them at the back of where Riopon Brothers used to be. Handy if they needed to nip out for a new coach-built Rolls Royce.

There were plenty of TV repairers in Huddersfield in the sixties

Woods
Charlie Shaw's
Broadbent up Imperial Arcade
One on Venn St whose name I can't remember
Guy Lacock
One on the Beast Market

But that one I'd not heard of.

David
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 11:36 am   #28
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Fascinating story. Despite the sadness in closing down an established business, John should take pride from the fact that he clearly acted as a mentor to young 'uns'. People such as John serve to give youngsters life long interests, hobbies and careers. Lessons and skills that they impart live forever. I recall as a kid working one day in my Dad's garage with a bit of wood and a knife when his pal popped in, saw what I was doing and then very quietly remarked, "never cut towards you". He then demonstrated how to use the knife correctly. That day I learnt lessons I still remember over 50 years later!
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 11:49 am   #29
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The real killer was the rent and commercial rates.
That's the other side of it and it also pertains to other interesting shops we used to have locally, like junk shops and white good repair outfits.

Town centres around here are now full of bistros and wine bars - and even they "churn" at a fair rate.

I also don't think restricting and ramping up town centre car parking charges helped any.
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 1:42 pm   #30
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What a lovely story.

Thinking of electrical repair shops, the one in Cricklewood closed down last year..."TV and Hi-Fi Studio" it was called, but the last few years seemed to exist on repairing TVs.

I know of one still going in Letchworth, and he's a goldmine for spare parts for vacuum cleaners etc. I can remember when TV repair shops were also great places to pick up a good value used set too.

I guess almost nobody repairs anything any more. I was describing repairing my own washing machine to a friend recently who remarked she knows nobody else who does these things. I probably saved myself £100 on getting an engineer out for a job that took me under 30 minutes, and would take the engineer about 20.

I guess it's not hard to see why Tandy disappeared and Maplin are in trouble....
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Old 28th Feb 2018, 9:47 pm   #31
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Detail from the picture of the workshop in post #25.
Is that a Murphy TPG11 test pattern generator complete with it's external power supply unit?
From the ERT article: "In the department, the working space is mainly split into individual "booths" although there are no doors, and free passage of men and materials is not hindered."

Equipment comprises:-
2 Murphy pattern generators.
7 Advance signal generators (radio)"
2 oscilloscopes.
1 BSR beat frequency oscillator.
1 Ekco ditto.
1AVO electronic multi-range meter.
3 AVO 20,000ohms per volt meters.
4 AVO No. 7 meters.
5 multi-range high resistance testers up to 100 megohms.
3 capacity-resistance bridges.
2 Triplet 1000 ohms per volt meters.
A signal generator for Band 3 is to be obtained.


Plus those alarm clocks.

DFWB.
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Old 1st Mar 2018, 3:19 pm   #32
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I like the 'alarm clock' idea. If the bell rang then the chief engineer will be along to help it says - more likely to give you what for, I'd imagine!
It's quiet now - only a couple of phone calls today, a 'no fault found' Samsung Smart TV on the bench and a 55" 4K Panasonic on the floor with, the customer tells me, occasional dots on the screen (!) but only on UHD. Anyone got a UHD pattern generator?!
Like Fernseh, there used to be a queue of customers.
Ah well, times change. Cooper, wheelwright, TV repairman...
Glyn
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Old 1st Mar 2018, 3:44 pm   #33
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Jeez , Glyn,
That sounds like tough pickings

What you need is a nice clear cut fault - like an open circuit mains dropper
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Old 1st Mar 2018, 3:50 pm   #34
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Coopers and wheelwrights did useful, real, things. Candlestick makers made useful things but elaborated into fripperies, so they were a bit borderline to my thinking. TV repairers did useful things.

However I notice more and more shops closing in Dunferline. We long ago passed the shoe-shop event horizon, and charity shops are at saturation. It's tattoo parlours that seem to be the growth areas now. There is a clear underlying trend of decadence.

Civilisation will fall. We'll be back to hunter-gathering until things lift up again and once more there will be archeologists unearthing things like space invaders consoles and deducing that mankind was almost wiped out by an invasion of wobbly jellyfish from outer space.

David
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Old 1st Mar 2018, 7:26 pm   #35
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Murphy V200 in the middle booth but what is the chassis on the left? Mazda valves.

Council rates taken with one hand increase every year but with the other hand they attempt to put you out of business with ridiculous, unnecessary parking regulations that completely deter customers. You can't have both.

Enjoy your well earned retirement. Regards, John.
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Old 2nd Mar 2018, 11:16 am   #36
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Default Re: End of an era.

Quote:
It's quiet now - only a couple of phone calls today, a 'no fault found' Samsung Smart TV on the bench and a 55" 4K Panasonic on the floor with, the customer tells me, occasional dots on the screen (!) but only on UHD. Anyone got a UHD pattern generator?!
It is certainly very difficult to make a living now, I have a few loyal (mainly elderly) customers who still bring me repair jobs.
Since the closure of the local TV shop, I seem to have the market to myself!

I really don't enjoy repairing modern flatscreen TV's, unless it is a PSU fault,
I usually source a second hand board.
I certainly will not be getting a SMD rework station anytime soon!

Mark
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Old 2nd Mar 2018, 12:15 pm   #37
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I really don't enjoy repairing modern flatscreen TV's, unless it is a PSU fault,
I usually source a second hand board.
I certainly will not be getting a SMD rework station anytime soon! Mark.

Hi Mark,
I don't think anyone gets any pleasure working on flat screen TVs.
Sometimes you get lucky and one comes in with bulged electrolytics in the power supply supply, but that type of fault is becoming more and more uncommon.
Certainly don't waste any money buying SMD rework stations because there will be no returns on the investment. Let's accept the fact the game is up with the TV repair trade.

I'm too old to work in the brick yard now.

DFWB.
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Old 2nd Mar 2018, 1:27 pm   #38
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Yes, it's a bit tough. Today an LG 47" smart needing backlights at over £100 TRADE! Will they, won't they?
And a nice one - an old Samsung needing a scaler chip on the T-CON board. The microscope and SMD tools do come into their own here.
Still, while there's work still to be done I might as well do it. When I started (late Seventies, still at school) there were five TV shops in the town, not including rental outlets. There are now three of us in the whole county!
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Old 2nd Mar 2018, 3:08 pm   #39
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There are now three of us in the whole county!
I get this vision of you standing on the White Cliffs of Dover, looking out to sea with the theme tune from A Family at War playing in the background.

Keep your chin up! John.
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Old 2nd Mar 2018, 3:53 pm   #40
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It is rather sad to see places like John's closing. There is work there in repairs, the resurgence in vinyl brought a lot of record player repair.

I wonder if there wil be a mock-up of a noughties repair shop in somewhere like the Black country living museum in fifty years?

John Joe.
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