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Old 6th Dec 2019, 8:02 pm   #121
Outrun_uk
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

Not so much a nightmare but more a show of incompetence from a previous engineer (allegedly fully qualified). A 90’s Technics hi-fi seperates system that all lit up but no sound. The person who had looked at it previously had it for a few weeks apparently and had given up so I volunteered to take a quick look. The “repair” didn’t even involve opening any of the units up. The system in question has a loop in/out for provision of adding a graphic equaliser and they are usually fitted with linking bars on the phono sockets. Said links were missing....!

Kev
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Old 6th Dec 2019, 8:20 pm   #122
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

I was once asked to investigate a house being rewired by friends (you know about these things!). Switching the lights on caused the fuse box to trip. The wiring was checked and rechecked. More by luck I decoded the birds nest and found that the neutral wire had been terminated on the wrong half of the split neutral rail.
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Old 6th Dec 2019, 9:21 pm   #123
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

A long time ago I knew 3 brothers who rode Honda 50s and lived in...errr...basic circumstances in a large council block in Hulme. Kids kept trying to break into the garage under the flat to nick the mopeds, and they decided to add power to the garage, for lights and maybe a PIR and 'burglar light'. The one with most cop on wired it, and when he switched the light on there was a big bang. Well, the cable had 3 cores, and light switch had 3 screw connectors, how hard could it be?
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 12:05 am   #124
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
In the analog days BBC1 having been the first to come on-air got slot-1, when ITV came on-air it naturally got the second slot. I can remember setting up the 'biscuits' on the old mechanical tuners this way, so to change channels only involved one 'click' either way.

When BBC2 came on, it got 'logical position 3' on the selector-mechanism (whether that was rotary or push-button) - this logic carried over to TVs/VCRs with electronic tuning.

Another confusion - would you put the "VCR" channel on preset 0 or 9?? I always put it on preset 0.
I wonder why you suggested 9?

It was sometimes "0" but more often than not it was "8" and you were wise to use the one recommended by the TV manufacturer as selecting it would switch the flywheel sync to a lighter wheel (!) Meaning a shorter CR time-constant.
That gave us a problem in some of the hotels I covered that had multiple VHS derived programming, not to beat about the bush, we are talking about soft porn here.
The solution was to use one or more time-base correctors, on the non-standard channels I have one here.

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I can sort of follow what you were saying about channel order in the days of turret tuners, but I would say as soon as there were more than one programme on UHF (1971) and single standard sets became viable the pattern:
BBC1
BBC2
ITV
became pretty much universal, in fact the only place where I remember this was not so was at Granada Studios where I believe the MD, David Plowright had mandated Granada should always take the No1 position.

If you thought that was odd, the Chairman, Sidney Bernstein, insisted that every studio, department, and office was equipped with a portrait of P. T. Barnum, and that included every Granada TV Rentals workshop and showroom, and I don't even think the motorway services were immune.
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 12:35 am   #125
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

I've seen 1 or 2 sets with the channel switches labelled: BBC1 ITV1 BBC2 ITV2.

When my family got it's first home computer for some reason my Dad tuned it into 9, (5-8 were used for the Welsh channels we could pick up) & we used 0 when we got a VCR a few years later.
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 12:09 pm   #126
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

Greetings all.
Mongrel jobs?
Ha I can look back on it now and laugh but at the time I was not happy!
Working on a transmitter in the radio room of a large commercial cargo ship in Sydney Harbour many years ago. It was a major upgrade to the TX and I had bits and pieces spread all over a work bench in the radio room.
Had a visit from the master of the ship, a nice affable gentleman, who enquired as to how the job was going. I told him that it would take a while yet as he could see it was still in pieces and would need to be aligned after I had fully assembled it.
He stood there quietly for a short time fondling his beard in contemplation then asked me if I could have it completed in about 20 minutes.
My reply was “no chance.”
“Did I have a clean tooth brush in my kit” was his next question. I thought it a weird question!
He said “no worry as he had one I could use.”
The Captain then beckoned me outside to look over the hand rail to show me that they were preparing to cast off and had in fact already cast off the springer lines and there was only the bow and stern lines holding the ship to the dock.
Sudden light bulb went on that I was going for a little journey. I often wondered why my employer wanted us to have a current passport and to have it in our toolbox with us. Now I knew!
The Captain had already talked to my contract manager and it had been approved by him. Without any consultation with me I might add!
Three weeks later and one typhoon later I arrived in Yokohama, Japan.
All told it ended up being quite a good trip and I kept myself busy doing jobs for the crew and the Captain fixing and improving some of their personal radios and stuff.
Typhoon was scary though! Big time!

Cheers, Robert.
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 12:38 pm   #127
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

Wow! That 'saga' makes the rest of us sound like moaning minnies!!!
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 2:05 pm   #128
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

If it wasn't for the modern radio equipment, that story could have come straight out of ancient mythology!
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 6:19 pm   #129
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
I can sort of follow what you were saying about channel order in the days of turret tuners, but I would say as soon as there were more than one programme on UHF (1971) and single standard sets became viable the pattern:
BBC1
BBC2
ITV
became pretty much universal, in fact the only place where I remember this was not so was at Granada Studios where I believe the MD, David Plowright had mandated Granada should always take the No1 position.
Growing up, quite a number of people in the locality had:

Slot 1 - BBC1
Slot 2 - ATV
Slot 3 - Granada

since they lived within range of both Lichfield (ATV) and Winter Hill (Granada). This was handy when different episodes of a series such as "The Prisoner" were being shown in the 2 different regions.

This was of course before there *was* such a thing as BBC2, but such preset-preferences certainly persisted through the dual-standard area and well into the times of 625/colour-only.
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 6:49 pm   #130
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post

Growing up, quite a number of people in the locality had:

Slot 1 - BBC1
Slot 2 - ATV
Slot 3 - Granada

since they lived within range of both Lichfield (ATV) and Winter Hill (Granada). This was handy when different episodes of a series such as "The Prisoner" were being shown in the 2 different regions.

This was of course before there *was* such a thing as BBC2, but such preset-preferences certainly persisted through the dual-standard area and well into the times of 625/colour-only.
I get what you're saying but on a practical note surely they had to point the band 3 aerial in different directions to get those two different ITV broadcasts coming from different directions? How did they do that? Maybe just a simple vertical dipole did the job, in which case directionality would not have been an issue.
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 6:58 pm   #131
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stevehertz View Post
I get what you're saying but on a practical note surely they had to point the band 3 aerial in different directions to get those two different ITV broadcasts coming from different directions? How did they do that? Maybe just a simple vertical dipole did the job, in which case directionality would not have been an issue.
People had two Band-III antennas. The typical setup being a classic dipole-and-director "H" or "X" for Band-I BBC [Sutton Coldfield], a 3- or 5-element BIII for Lichfield ATV (usually fitted lower down the BI mast) and a 5- or 7-element BIII for Granada Winter Hill.

Sometimes the Sutton Coldfield/Lichfield antennas were a combined Antex "X"-and-BIII array with something better for Granada.

Chimneys in the Wales/Shropshire border area needed to be strong!
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 7:30 pm   #132
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

I remember listening to channel 8 and hearing some unknown serial called Crossroads!
Oh, and the Tingha and Tucker club, a strange Australian themed kids programme from Birmingham.

It might as well have been radio though, because I couldn't get the picture, with Granada on the next channel up.
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 7:52 pm   #133
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
I remember listening to channel 8 and hearing some unknown serial called Crossroads!
ATV's finest, and the inspiration for "Acorn Antiques", I'm sure.

Quote:
Oh, and the Tingha and Tucker club, a strange Australian themed kids programme from Birmingham.
I remember it well. Deeply strange. I guess they bought it on the cheap.

Quote:
It might as well have been radio though, because I couldn't get the picture, with Granada on the next channel up.
"Do not Adjust your Set" was one of my favourites [essentially a precursor to Monty Python, with musical interlewds from the Bonzo Dog DooDah Band]
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 8:50 pm   #134
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

Going back a while a remember a real odd fault on the Bush A774 chassis B/W valve hybrid. When the set was tuned in to a broadcast it would 'radiate' a vertical white line on all the other sets in the workshop. Remove the signal and it would disappear. After been told by the 'sages' that this was due to some breakdown at high voltage in line stage, it turned out to be something very different. In the end it was due to someone changing the sync-sep transistor for the wrong type. They'd fitted a top-hat type BC107 instead of what I can't now remember... Fitting the original type cleared it.

I ended up running the tuner/IF on a separate DC power unit, along with a second supply to replace the gated AGC system. To my surprise on switch-on
the set still radiated. The line field stages were all dead. It was by chance I noticed the fresh solder around the recently replaced sync separator transistor. It felt good at the time to tell the senior engineers they'd got it wrong!
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 8:55 pm   #135
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
I can sort of follow what you were saying about channel order in the days of turret tuners, but I would say as soon as there were more than one programme on UHF (1971) and single standard sets became viable the pattern:
BBC1
BBC2
ITV
became pretty much universal, in fact the only place where I remember this was not so was at Granada Studios where I believe the MD, David Plowright had mandated Granada should always take the No1 position.
Growing up, quite a number of people in the locality had:

Slot 1 - BBC1
Slot 2 - ATV
Slot 3 - Granada

since they lived within range of both Lichfield (ATV) and Winter Hill (Granada). This was handy when different episodes of a series such as "The Prisoner" were being shown in the 2 different regions.

This was of course before there *was* such a thing as BBC2, but such preset-preferences certainly persisted through the dual-standard area and well into the times of 625/colour-only.
Didn't some TV's have one high numbered preset for use with VCRs and later home computers? I seem to remember it was wired to turn off the interlacing or something?
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 9:19 pm   #136
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

Well one of the tuner buttons was dedicated to VCR and this also switched the flywheel
sync to follow variations in line frequency more quickly (reduction in time constant)

Although I have made a few gaffes in 40 years, most problems in consumer gear was
caused by customer intervention, e.g. Philips N2400 cassette deck oiled "to make it run better" by a young lad, muffled sound on N3302 as customer had cleaned the head with a pen knife, and no video on Amstrad VCR4600 as customer had cleaned the
rotating head with emery paper. Drum easily replaced, but hard to polish out the
scratched stationary part !
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 9:48 pm   #137
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

Totally correct Graham and normally the bottom button ,number 6 or 8.
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Old 7th Dec 2019, 11:17 pm   #138
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Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
Chimneys in the Wales/Shropshire border area needed to be strong!
Well, any chimney would have to be pretty substantial in that part of the country anyway .....

My nan and grandad used to have a portable TV in their static caravan in Barmouth (just on the edge of Snowdonia National Park), that picked up BBC1 on channel 3 and ITV on channel 1 when used at their home in Cannock (or my parents' in Derby). Both the transmitter serving the campsite and Sutton Coldfield must have been using channels 40, 43 and 46 (and later, 50 for C4 and S4C) but allocated in a different order.
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Old 8th Dec 2019, 12:11 pm   #139
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

In post #131 G6Tanuki says “Chimneys in Wales need to be strong...”
That brought back a memory when as a lad I had to install tv aerials.
On this occasion it required a triple extension ladder. After putting the two wires around this huge chimney I gave the wire a tug before doing up the bolts, and to my horror the whole chimney rocked, for a moment I thought it was going to fall, but luckily it didn’t, thank goodness they were strong!?
John
Ps I did inform the homeowner it needed attention!
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Old 8th Dec 2019, 1:31 pm   #140
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Default Re: Repair nightmares.

Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by stevehertz View Post
I get what you're saying but on a practical note surely they had to point the band 3 aerial in different directions to get those two different ITV broadcasts coming from different directions? How did they do that? Maybe just a simple vertical dipole did the job, in which case directionality would not have been an issue.
People had two Band-III antennas. The typical setup being a classic dipole-and-director "H" or "X" for Band-I BBC [Sutton Coldfield], a 3- or 5-element BIII for Lichfield ATV (usually fitted lower down the BI mast) and a 5- or 7-element BIII for Granada Winter Hill.

Sometimes the Sutton Coldfield/Lichfield antennas were a combined Antex "X"-and-BIII array with something better for Granada.

Chimneys in the Wales/Shropshire border area needed to be strong!
That answers my query, thanks.
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