Well yeah Muntz was on the same track. Both sets were not super stars.
Just to show how good the engineering department at Magnavox was they were
the first to come up with the AUDIO leveling type circuit. It worked pretty
good for about a year then was removed from TV's probably due to bean
counter's insistence. The TV networks probably wrote a big check.
You know the sound gain goes through the roof during commercials. Well for
a while in Magnavox homes it didn't...
Oh here's a great story.
My neighbor with the BRAND NEW MAGNAVOX also had an old RCA. The TV was
built very stout, nice B&W unit.
RCA had built sets with 21400 Mhz IF right smack on the top end of a new ham
band (15 meters). Well guess who used to check into the 21405 Fast Scan TV
net back in about 1971?
Well that resulted in a very interesting barrage of conversations.
Fortunately after dealing with the wife I later that day got to deal with a
really pissed off homeowner. He was a big engineer from Honeywell and while
he was smoken hot, I was still able to ask him a few questions...
I knew it was a Black & White RCA and I had heard through the radio club
from other guys commenting about those TV's as they all hung out on 405.
Yes radio clubs can be good things.
He pulled the back and low and behold the schematic showed a 21.4Mhz IF. I
told him sorry, nothing can be done but throw the TV away, it is a BOB
receiver I'm operating on 21405 with a KW. You're tuned to my frequency and
I'll be operating. Then once off the phone feeling very vindicated. The
family had been very nasty to me that day.
I moved slightly to 21.400 and taunted him on AM... Hey I was only 15 Years
Old... Things like THIS IS GOD Speaking and I'm going to melt your TV....
He called me back and told me a was a very bad boy... etc. That's OK his
kid ended up in jail and for now I'm still free.
BOB DD
-----Original Message-----
From: amps-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:amps-bounces@contesting.com] On
Behalf Of Bob Nielsen
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2007 11:07 AM
To: Amps
Subject: Re: [Amps] Ceramic capacitor ratings
I remember the same story, but it was about Muntz televisions in the
1950s (Earl "Madman" Muntz, who also was a used car dealer and
manufactured the Muntz Jet sportscar).
73, Bob N7XY
On Apr 15, 2007, at 6:02 AM, Robert Bonner wrote:
> Boy exactly Peter... I've always thought the same thing. Pop the
> top off
> an amplifier rated at such and such and go, whoa, these guys are
> dreaming.
>
> Every amplifier I've built after the first few were built to make
> POWER.
> All components have been CCS or larger. I've found the amp will
> define the
> weak links with time... I don't have the time to be fixing.
>
> It's a different story when producing a product for sale. There
> they want
> to shave every cent out of the product they can. My personal
> philosophy has
> always been to spend a buck to save a buck.
>
> There was a long standing joke back in the 60's regarding MAGNAVOX
> TV Sets.
> You were meant to understand the engineers would build a fantastic
> TV set...
> The Bean counters would then start clipping parts out of the TV
> until it
> stopped working and then solder that part back in. That's the set
> they'd
> produce...
>
> All through the 60's and 70's Magnavox TV's were nothing but TVI
> receivers.
> They were popular because they were cheap... A few of them in my near
> neighborhood sure made my life miserable growing up.
>
> BOB DD
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: amps-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:amps-
> bounces@contesting.com] On
> Behalf Of Peter Chadwick
> Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2007 12:44 AM
> To: amps@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [Amps] Ceramic capacitor ratings
>
> Manfred said:
>> By the way, we can get even more peace of mind if we consider that an
> amplifier in ham use will run in ICAS, and typically in SSB, with an
> average much below the peak. So it turns out that those 100pF caps in
> practice will just be loafing along!<
> I would have supported this view until recently, when I started a
> rebuild of
> a 45 year old amplifier where the capacitors were rated on that
> basis. There
> I found definite signs of overheating, with presumably some loss of
> metallisation, as the measured capacity was only 50% of what it
> should have
> been in one case. So although the concept is true, I'm not too sure
> about
> long term reliability. Of course, you could question quite what you
> want in
> terms of life from an amplifier!! It's the sort of thing you can get
> probably get away with if you're 60 years old, but you may not want
> to if
> you're only 20.
> 73
> Peter G3RZP
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>
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