Hello.
I've been going through the "Television Service Handbook" and have been looking at Pye models. There are two circuits that don't seem to fit. On page P78 there is a model X21C 17" 90 degree set and then the X621LB/A on page P78A, a 21" 110 degree type. These both have transformerless power supplies with European "P" series 300 mA valves and use selenium power rectifiers. These do not fit with the usual pattern of Pye and Pye-Tecnico TVs. My question is this: Were they imported, presumably from the U.K., or were they made here?

Regards, Stuart

They were imports, a failed experiment. Very rare, most of the few that came in were junked very early on.

If memory serves, Pye supposedly had a disaster that resulted in their new motto "You can rely on Pye".

If that's true then maybe this model was the cause?

The W101 and W201 were excellent designs. Some of the cost-cutting chassis after that went backwards a bit. I think that's when the UK sets appeared. Then the T18 and T19, fairly forgettable.

Things got a lot better from the T20 on, first flip-down chassis.

With the release of the T23 they introduced 4 years free service. That was a big impetus to improve reliability.
Pye in Australia were first in the world with a large screen all solid state B&W TV - the T26. A great performer and rock-solid reliable.

This reliability was due in large part to Russ Hauser's ground-breaking research into the physics of CRT flashovers, which were not well understood and were regularly destroying semiconductors in TVs in those days.

With colour on the way, the engineers looked at what Pye UK were doing and quickly decided they would have to roll their own. That led to the T29, T30, the world's first IR remote control, the T34 and T30C. After that, Pye were canning Philips chassis, starting with the KT2 and the K12. Both giant steps backwards.

Thank you all for your replies. Fascinating! Yes, reading old "Television" magazines certainly gave me the impression that U.K. made TVs were very unreliable. I remember Gerald Wells telling me once that Mazda valves and Hunts capacitors were the death of the British TV industry.

Cheers, Stuart

Another odd one: On page P82 is a model VE1000AUST also using 300 mA series connected valves. I presume this is Australian made, perhaps a version of a U.K. chassis. Anyone seen one of those?

Made in UK for Australia. Very rare, I have never seen one, and that's saying something! Probably all in landfill before I got into the industry! I've also seen those circuits though and often wondered. Learned more when working with Pye engineers in the mid - late 1970s.

Live chassis and series heater sets in the 1950s have always been hated by Australian service techs, not without good reason. When I was working for a TV service company in the radio dispatch room, some techs would refuse to take service calls on some such TVs. Death traps they were known as.

As far as I am aware, from the W101 in 1956 to the T30C in 1981, Pye never built a TV chassis in Australia that wasn't also designed here.