Hello all,

I have always been interested in electronics, but old cathode ray tube televisions had been nothing more than mundane everyday objects to me, that is, until a couple of months ago. My initial interest started after I read online that many great electronic components could be salvaged from CRT televisions. I started looking and found them everywhere, thrown out because of the digital switchover. My first set is a 21" Sony Trinitron KV-2185AS that I found out on the curb for collection. I hauled it's heavy butt home on a trolley, and it has provided faithful sevice ever since.

I have nine televisions, which go as follows:

- 21" Sony Trinitron KV-2185AS
- 13.5" TEAC DVTV3401 TV/DVD combo
- 13.5" Palsonic
- 13.5" Sanyo
- 13.5" NATIONAL TC-1406R (1980's?)
- 12" PYE 12G13 monochrome (1970's)
- 10" Philips Natural 10 AC-DC portable Model KA910 (1980's?)
- 5" Aiko monochrome (red, 1988)
- 5" Computec monochrome (white, 1990's?)

Three of my 13.5" sets (not the National) are just interesting sets I'm preserving, since most other CRT sets are being thrown in landfill or recycled.

I recently bought a special set-top box (Altech UEC DT3900RF), which is compatible with any television, even my old Pye! I've been looking for one of these portable PYEs for ages, so now the search for a nice 1950's set (hopefully with a round tube!) will commence.

I have a website, to which I will be adding photos and info on my televisions, hopefully over the next few weeks.
http://www.thyhumbletoll.webs.com/.

I can also be contacted at:
chrisronaynelive.com.au

I have a Youtube account, with videos about my televisions on it:
fairlane500skyliner
http://www.youtube.com/user/Fairlane500skyliner?feature=mhee .

And finally, I have a Facebook account,

Chris M Ronayne

and a group for cathode ray tube collectors:

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Technology
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/295773603871364/?fref=ts .

G'day Chris,

Welcome to the Vintage Radio forums. You have an interesting website pertaining to the humble insulator. Still stacks of them to be had if you are keen on collecting porcellain ones. On many back roads there's fallen telegraph poles that used to carry telegraph and telephone trunk wires before the Postmaster General's Department decided to start laying them underground and they'd be ripe for the picking if you got a landowner's permission to enter in order to access them.

In a technical sense they are still the property of Telstra but I doubt they'd be interested in them after being out of service for so long. It'd be a good thirty years since I last saw a good run of aerial telegraph wires in service.

Your Pye telly would now be classed as 'vintage' with some of the others approaching that classification so they are worth hanging onto for that reason.

Thanks Brad!

I'm pretty happy with my PYE. $20 for it, and it works pefect. With the new set-top box I bought (Altech UEC DT3900RF), I've spent several nights watching movies and television in black and white! For someone of my generation, who is used to flatscreen colour technology, it is an awesome experience!

By the way, I've just uploaded a video on Youtube, featuring the new set-top box.

I'm still trying to figure out how everything in this forum works. I'm used to the vBulletin format. I'm just incredibly happy that I've finally found a forum for vintage radio and television collectors like me!

Cheers,

Chris

P.s. Happy belated New Year!

I'm still trying to figure out how everything in this forum works. I'm used to the vBulletin format.

Yeah, it's a unique place this one and due for replacement some time this year with something faster and more feature-packed.

I think a few people have attempted to host vintage radio forums in the past but then realised that due to the small number of people it involves here in Australia that it's not an easy task to get people interested. I found the same thing out though had the patience to see it through (and do most of the talking until the membership got big enough for the forums to support themselves).

Hi Chris.
You have some nice retro pieces there.
If any of your TV's are VHF only and you want to use your set-top box or a DVD player Jaycar sell a RF modulator CAT. NO. LM3873. They have an A/V input & aerial output for channel 0 or 1.
Cheers.

Hi Monochrome,

Thanks! I'd like to find out the date of manufacture for my older televisions. The only one I know for sure is the 5" Aiko, because it was bought by my stepfather in January of 1988. It was an awesome find, because we found it in our garage, right under my nose, while moving house!

I've been looking around for a decent RF modulator, but I'm short of money at the moment. I spent most of my money on the PYE and the Altech set-top box.

I've actually been looking into ways in which I can broadcast a low wattage analogue signal through our house, so I can run my televisions independently (no set-top converter box or RF modulator connected directly to it).

I'm not sure how exactly I'd do it, and I'm not sure yet if I'd need a broadcasting licence for that. Am I right in guessing that you can transmit a signal by connecting a signal amplifier to the output of a set-top box, and than connecting an antenna to it? What would you need for the input?

Cheers,

Chris

Hi

A mate of mine has a little VHF transmitter he knocked up out of a kit from Jaycar. Alas, Jaycar no longer has these kits available. From memory I think this transmitter was from a Silicon Chip project. You could contact SC and see if the circuit diagram and construction details are still available. You'd also have to obtain a VHF RF module from somewhere. There is plenty of info on the Internet dealing with this subject.

Cheers.

Welcome to the forum.

I would strongly suggest that you consider joining the Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club.

"The club aim is to foster the hobby of Amateur Radio and associated electronics."

This is a member club of the Wireless Institute of Australia. Through such clubs you can meet people very experienced in electronics generally (not just two way radio) and also do a course or two in basic electronics.

http://www.wia.org.au/clubs/vk2/OxleyRegionAmateurRadioClub/.

Hi Chris,

Nice to see another person interested in preserving some old CRT sets.

Rubbish collections are the No.1 place to find old TV's. Even older valve models still sometimes turn up. If you live near your local tip / recycling centre, keep an eye on the e-waste as it comes in. Some really nice 1970's era TV's are still turning up fairly often but they won't be for too much longer.

The digital change-over is not the end for these old sets despite what people think. A decent set top box (or a RF modulator) is all that is needed to keep these sets in use.

A cheap source of modulators is an old VCR. They are not very good but do the job until you can save up for something better (or build one).

TV Collector,

There's a council dump site near us. The only problem is that being a country dump, everything gets thrown in the same large 40' skips, to be sorted off site. Tellys and all.

I've never asked them, but the stories I hear about council tips are often discouraging, in that you aren't allowed to take anything.

When we lived in town, I'd go out on my bike for three or four hours after school, most nights of the week. I'd always find old televisions, mostly within ten years of age, though the occasional 1970's, 80's or early 90's set would turn up.

One of my major regrets is from just before my interest in CRTs started. Just down the road from us, there was a heap of about a dozen wooden cased (veneer?) televisions from around the 70'st for disposal. I don't remember much as it was dark, in fact, I didn't even bother picking them up to have a good look. All I remember is that there was a lot of them.
Looking back now, I have to wonder what goodies I missed out on that night. If there were any older valve sets, or anything unusual. I would've definately loved one. I really want an old wooden set, but guess I'll have to keep searching. The sad thing is that a few days after they disappered, my interest in CRTs started...

Anyways, not much I can do about that. Just hope that I have the same luck again.

Cheers,

Chris