GEC 2028 dual standard CTV.

[Till Eulenspiegel]

Yesterday my GEC 2028 disgraced itself by failing to display any sort of picture so if there any spare time tomorrow I'll take look at it to find out what has gone wrong with it.
This dual standard set was hard wired to 625 only. Also, after the original line output transformer burnt a single standard 2040 line output transformer was fitted as the replacement. I now have the correct dual standard LOPTx but because the fact the set is hard wired for 625 only it might be considered not be worth the bother replacing the transformer again.
All the system switches were removed sometime in the seventies. An attempt to improve reliability.

Till Eulenspiegel.

[Till Eulenspiegel]

How do you like that! The no picture fault was nothing more than a badly fitted CRT base socket.

I'll post up pictures later today.

Till Eeulenspiegel.

[malcscott]

Rediffusion did the cable version of these sets. The picture quality was superb, Malc.

[Till Eulenspiegel]

Hi Malc,
This assumes the cable version was not fitted with the VHF and UHF tuners? The IF board was substituted by a dual standard SF board.

Till Eulenspiegel.

[malcscott]

Hi David, s/f board fitted and the audio output components missing.

[Till Eulenspiegel]

Hi Malc,
didn't some of the cable TV 2028s finish up in the disposal warehouses? No one wanted them so they were chopped up for spares.
Update on my 2028: The four button Philips tuner has a mechanical fault. The tension spring is OK but the operating cam has disengaged itself from the tuning shaft gear.

Till Eulenspiegel.

[malcscott]

Hi David, in 1975 we were pulling the crt,s out of them and scraping them hand over fist. Customers complained loosing them, Malc.

[Till Eulenspiegel]

Pictures of the GEC 2028. Picture No. 1 shows the busy internals of the set. No. 2 The quadrant had come disengaged with the gear wheel which drives the tuning capacitors. No. 3. The correct dual standard line output transformer and a pair of eight pole switches which were used in certain Ekco TVs which had FM radio. These can be fitted to return the set to full dual standard operation.
No. 4. An off screen picture taken last night.

Till Eulenspeigel.

[Cathovisor]

If those switches are suitable for the task of returning the set to d/s operation, I think you should.

[Till Eulenspiegel]

Hi Cathovisor, I regret hard wiring the set for 625 only but that was the norm in those days. When I did the single standard conversion the set was well over ten years old and was considered nothing more than an out dated model, the sort of set that would have been used as a customers loan set.
Now the 2028 is almost fifty years old it's a survivor and as you say it deserves returning to it's dual standard status.
Fortunately, the IF panel is still in it's original state, complete with the standards switch, but it does need realignment.
I was lucky to find the switches, one was removed from a very rusty TMB272 and the other was found in a TV shop in Scotland.

Till Eulenspiegel.

[Cathovisor]

Hi Cathovisor, I regret hard wiring the set for 625 only but that was the norm in those days.

No need to apologise - the number of sets I had through my hands with those switches soldered up was a sight to behold. All b/w sets though, I only ever saw one d/s colour set (a KB) in my youth but never worked on it.

[Till Eulenspiegel]

I bought this set in 1968. Thinking we would be the first colour TV license holder in the village it was off to the post office to buy one, only to find that someone else had beaten us to it for that honour.

Till Eulenspiegel.

[Doz]

I must say mine's very reliable. Must get round to re-fitting the line stage cover one day, it glares at me from a shelf in the workshop from time to time.

625 sound is poor though.