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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc. |
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30th Sep 2018, 4:40 pm | #1 |
Pentode
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: Devon, UK.
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British Relay - Hitachi?
In the '70s, we rented a colour set from British Relay. I recall my Father said he had peeled back the BR name strip, to see Hitachi beneath. I'm now nostalgically curious as to what exactly the set was...I've found no evidence of BR Hitachi TVs!
Was this an Hitachi, or a case of 'economy with the truth'? Certainly, the Japanese consumer electronics firms had gained a good reputation by circa 1975. The set was reliable; I can only recall one service call in several years of use. |
30th Sep 2018, 5:29 pm | #2 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2015
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
Maybe a rental rebadged set. Like the Baird/DER/Multi Broadcast VCRs that were rented in the UK, which were rebadged JVCs.
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30th Sep 2018, 11:02 pm | #3 |
Nonode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
From what I've heard BR mostly used Pye & GEC sets with their cable systems.
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1st Oct 2018, 2:47 pm | #4 |
Pentode
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
Thanks for the replies.
I'll check out some Pye & GEC sets of the '70s. |
1st Oct 2018, 5:58 pm | #5 |
Nonode
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
https://www.transdiffusion.org/2004/01/01/rentals
This has some interesting information about Whitehaven's British Relay network.
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2nd Oct 2018, 6:15 pm | #6 |
Pentode
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK.
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
The last colour set made exclusively for the British Relay system was manufactured by GEC. They had made sets for BRW for many years. This last effort was made during the time when GEC were using a Hitachi chassis ( they later went over to Tatung but there were no Tatung series BRW sets ).
These sets were around in the late 70's in 20" and 22" models. They were referred to within BRW as the GEC MK6. The GEC MK1 was dual standard colour. The MK2 was hybrid and the MK3 plastic cabinet. The MK4 was the wooden cabinet version of the MK3 and the MK5 was the square chassis with the power supply up the right hand side - the one which went BANG when the 150k failed! The MK6 was the GEC / Hitachi badged chassis. I don't know of any other association between BRW and Hitachi and I worked for them for many years. Hope this helps. |
3rd Oct 2018, 1:01 pm | #7 |
Pentode
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: Devon, UK.
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
Mick - That's very helpful. Thanks.
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4th Oct 2018, 5:17 pm | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING.
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
I seem to remember MURPHY being strongly connected with BRW.
I used to buy for spares, V310 models that were designed for cable use. They didn't have tuners with just a front end suitable for the cable network and a huge multi core cable ending in an odd plug. They usually had good tubes and LOPTs. I paid only 30/- for them so had little to complain about if the odd one had a weak tube. J. |
4th Oct 2018, 7:02 pm | #9 |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Gloucester, Glos. UK.
Posts: 2,150
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
Here is a British Relay TV advert.
Guess the types of set in the advert? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs0q-v12_zk |
4th Oct 2018, 10:52 pm | #10 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
Posts: 6,925
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
The GEC 20AX early on in the advert - or possibly the one prior to that with the delta tube. After that it gets a bit difficult,,,
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5th Oct 2018, 8:51 am | #11 |
Dekatron
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
When I worked for BRW in Manchester in the 1970's, the monochromes were Thorn and occaasionally GEC. Then they used rebadged Pye 11's - not my favourite!
Later hybrid Pyes (actually Invictas) with the separate IF PCB were much better. When colour came in, hybrid Pyes and Thorn 2000 were used, as were Philips. Then when we became single-standard we used Thorn 3000, 3500, Philips G6 and G8 and Pyes. Luxor and Zanussi were used - the latter had thyristor line output stages (look away, John!)
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5th Oct 2018, 12:58 pm | #12 |
Dekatron
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
Many years ago I remember getting a very smart 20" mono TV. Much to my surprise inside was a Pye 11U looking very tired. Luckily it had a good tube that was soon liberated from its historic innards...
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5th Oct 2018, 2:17 pm | #13 | |
Nonode
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Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
Quote:
As I assume all of the above were fairly easy to convert to work on the British Relay system.
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5th Oct 2018, 4:33 pm | #14 |
Heptode
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
I was an R&D engineer at the British Relay lab in Leatherhead in the early 1970's. I was working on a unit that automatically compensated for cable loss and and HF roll off. This was for use in Pye sets and I visited Pye during the development phase.
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5th Oct 2018, 5:03 pm | #15 |
Dekatron
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Location: Haarlem, Netherlands
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
@Richard FM: Zanussi became Seleco later on.
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6th Oct 2018, 11:04 am | #16 | |
Diode
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Birmingham, West Midlands, UK.
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
Quote:
Haha - video burn-up, anyone? |
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6th Oct 2018, 12:06 pm | #17 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
We bought a few ex-rental Zanussi TVs in the early 90s as no-one else wanted them. They were sort of flat screen and a bit boxy, but worked well and were quite reliable with just the odd LOPT and tuning faults to contend with. Some were badged Seleco as Maarten says. People were quite happy with the Zanussi brand.
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6th Oct 2018, 12:12 pm | #18 |
Dekatron
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Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING.
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
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6th Oct 2018, 12:34 pm | #19 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, UK.
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
ICC5, Sharp CS, Amstrad CTV2200!
Ok I will wash my mouth out with soap and water
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6th Oct 2018, 2:10 pm | #20 |
Dekatron
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Re: British Relay - Hitachi?
Yes, Murphy Radio had a shareholding in British Relay, but after The Rank Organisation took Murphy over, it was subsequently sold. I have seen a Murphy U198H radio badged BRW (British Relay Wireless Ltd), with the model number BRW8.
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