British Relay - Hitachi?

[Pfraser]

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.

[dj_fivos_sak]

Maybe a rental rebadged set. Like the Baird/DER/Multi Broadcast VCRs that were rented in the UK, which were rebadged JVCs.


Fivos

[Richard_FM]

From what I've heard BR mostly used Pye & GEC sets with their cable systems.

[Pfraser]

Thanks for the replies.

I'll check out some Pye & GEC sets of the '70s.

[Richard_FM]

https://www.transdiffusion.org/2004/01/01/rentals

This has some interesting information about Whitehaven's British Relay network.

[MickMcmichael]

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.

[Pfraser]

Mick - That's very helpful. Thanks.

[Heatercathodeshort]

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.

[electronicskip]

Here is a British Relay TV advert.
Guess the types of set in the advert?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs0q-v12_zk

[Welsh Anorak]

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,,,

[Mike Phelan]

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!)

[Welsh Anorak]

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...

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by Mike Phelan

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!)

Quite a mixture of makes, I didn't realise Zanussi made TVs, I mostly think of them as a white goods manufacturer.

As I assume all of the above were fairly easy to convert to work on the British Relay system.

[Vintage_RC]

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.

[Maarten]

@Richard FM: Zanussi became Seleco later on.

[ATSBod1]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

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.

They were known as model M17/6. I serviced many of those, back in the day!

Originally Posted by Mike Phelan

...they used rebadged Pye 11's - not my favourite!...

Haha - video burn-up, anyone?

[Welsh Anorak]

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.

[Heatercathodeshort]

Originally Posted by Mike Phelan

the latter had thyristor line output stages (look away, John!)

Oh no! Next, someone will mention the Fidelity AVS2000.. Oh no! we have raised the dead! J.

[Red to black]

ICC5, Sharp CS, Amstrad CTV2200!
Ok I will wash my mouth out with soap and water

[dazzlevision]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

I seem to remember MURPHY being strongly connected with BRW.
J.

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.