Kolster-Brandes KV024 television. Any old TV enthusiasts here?

[Zelandeth]

A friend of mine was clearing out recently, and unearthed this in their loft.  Rather than see it go in the bin, knowing that I have a soft spot for technology of days gone by, he offered it to me...needless to say, I said "yes please" and went to retrieve it, utterly irrespective of the lack of space in here!

I've managed to identify the set as a Kolster-Brandes KV-024.

In my opinion, quite possibly one of the smartest looking televisions in existence.



I've been finding myself utterly unable to put a precise date on it.  Can't decide if it's got the hardware of its time with a very futuristic case, or a late case and oldschool hardware.

Fifteen vacuum tubes in there, CRT included.

Further details (and many photographs) are on the webpage you can get to by clicking this link.

I've been utterly unable to find any information on this set so far...so any input from those of you who know such things would be VERY welcome!

[Tim]

Hi Z,

Interesting set!  It's not everyday that I get to see a vintage television from across the pond so thanks for posting the picture.  I agree, the styling is interesting and modern looking and is sure to appeal to the right person.  A quick Google search revealed a bunch of hits including this one documenting some earlier models:

http://www.thevalvepage.com/tvmanu/kb/kb.htm

Perhaps from the links you may be able to locate a vintage television organization near you that could donate the television to.

I don't know when televisions went solid-state in the UK, but the styling looks like 1970s to me, but it's just a guess.  I seem to remember televisions here in the US were "hybrid" at this time, using a combination of vacuum tubes and transistors / pc-boards.

[Zelandeth]

Have been able to find out quite a bit more about it since then, including a lot of service data.  Just a shame I've not had a chance to replace all the caps yet, or I'm sure it'd be working great!

Have pinned down the fact that it uses the ITT VC51 chassis, and was manufactured in early 1968.

I have actually got a picture that is watchable in a dark room now - however the vertical synch is very twitchy, and the contrast control is non-functional (well...the control works, but has no effect whatsoever on the picture!), leading to a totally washed out image when the brightness is turned up.

It's a fairly late set to have the technology it does in it - being one of the last hand wired examples (KB/ITT stuck with that longer than most makers), there are a couple of semiconductors in there...two diodes as I recall from the schematic.

The folks on Vintage-Radio.net have helped me track down the set's age and a lot of technical info on it.

Once I get this one restored...it's on to my next challenge...a 1959 GEC BT-304...



webpage here! This one will be rather more of a challenge I think!  That and I'll need to get me a standards convertor to use it, as this set is 405 line only.