18-07-2017, 10:14 AM
In 1969 I was rather surprised when our Brown Brothers rep asked me if I was going to the Trade Shows and, if so, would I mind popping into their office and giving them my opinion of a Russian TV they had on display there!
So, a slight diversion to Great Eastern Street on arrival in London where I was warmly greeted and shown this new set - probably under the Rigonda trade mark, but I could be wrong.
What a sight! Of course we were used to the cut down 'slim-line' cabinets extended to the full length of the receiver inside by a deep back cover which had been introduced with 110º tubes to give a false impression of the depth savings created by the new tubes but the Russian public were obviously not so easily deceived! So, the cabinet was a large cube with a straight back. It was single standard, of course, and had obviously been produced to take advantage of full 625 working due to start the following November.
The back came off straight away, of course, and the first impressions were of the design of the Bush TV75 et al some 12 years or so earlier with its vertical chassis. Except that this set had several PCBs mounted on the chassis. Now, the quality of the base material of a PCB can be judged by how translucent it is. These boards were jet black! The chassis was all valve, of course but, in keeping with the subject of this thread, I can report that it did contain some transistors - in the UHF tuner which, despite the Russian components mounted on it was clearly the product of AB Electronics of Abercynon, South Wales!
All in all it looked like the product of a bygone age. I can't remember much about the performance but I don't recall being particularly impressed by it.
I was thanked for my opinions and put in a taxi - at Brown Brothers expense, of course - for the journey to my next port of call in the West End.
I left the retail trade at the end of that year but I never heard of any sightings of such a set. Did anyone else ever see one, I wonder?
So, a slight diversion to Great Eastern Street on arrival in London where I was warmly greeted and shown this new set - probably under the Rigonda trade mark, but I could be wrong.
What a sight! Of course we were used to the cut down 'slim-line' cabinets extended to the full length of the receiver inside by a deep back cover which had been introduced with 110º tubes to give a false impression of the depth savings created by the new tubes but the Russian public were obviously not so easily deceived! So, the cabinet was a large cube with a straight back. It was single standard, of course, and had obviously been produced to take advantage of full 625 working due to start the following November.
The back came off straight away, of course, and the first impressions were of the design of the Bush TV75 et al some 12 years or so earlier with its vertical chassis. Except that this set had several PCBs mounted on the chassis. Now, the quality of the base material of a PCB can be judged by how translucent it is. These boards were jet black! The chassis was all valve, of course but, in keeping with the subject of this thread, I can report that it did contain some transistors - in the UHF tuner which, despite the Russian components mounted on it was clearly the product of AB Electronics of Abercynon, South Wales!
All in all it looked like the product of a bygone age. I can't remember much about the performance but I don't recall being particularly impressed by it.
I was thanked for my opinions and put in a taxi - at Brown Brothers expense, of course - for the journey to my next port of call in the West End.
I left the retail trade at the end of that year but I never heard of any sightings of such a set. Did anyone else ever see one, I wonder?
