19-01-2018, 11:09 AM
This reminds me of something that happened when I was around 17 or so.
I'd finished repairing this TV and was boxing it up ready for return to the customer when I found, to my horror, that it had stopped working on ITV!
I quickly fitted a new PCF80 in the tuner but still no ITV. I thought it unlikely to be the RF amp but slung in new PCC84 as well, just to be certain. Still no ITV ...
At this point, Ken, one of our field engineers walked in asked me what I was doing.
He peered over my shoulder into the back of the set and said "those heaters don't look very bright, do they?"
I put an AVO across the mains - 197 volts!
This was in a bitterly cold winter and it must have been a bumper year for new electric central heating installations because if we stuck the AVO permanently across the mains, everything would be fine until half past four every afternoon. Then the voltage would start to drop and keep on dropping so fast that you could virtually the needle move!
Eventually the electricity board bought a plot at the end of a nearby garden and installed a new sub-station which resolved the problem.
I'd finished repairing this TV and was boxing it up ready for return to the customer when I found, to my horror, that it had stopped working on ITV!
I quickly fitted a new PCF80 in the tuner but still no ITV. I thought it unlikely to be the RF amp but slung in new PCC84 as well, just to be certain. Still no ITV ...
At this point, Ken, one of our field engineers walked in asked me what I was doing.
He peered over my shoulder into the back of the set and said "those heaters don't look very bright, do they?"
I put an AVO across the mains - 197 volts!
This was in a bitterly cold winter and it must have been a bumper year for new electric central heating installations because if we stuck the AVO permanently across the mains, everything would be fine until half past four every afternoon. Then the voltage would start to drop and keep on dropping so fast that you could virtually the needle move!
Eventually the electricity board bought a plot at the end of a nearby garden and installed a new sub-station which resolved the problem.
