Polish TV set "Fala"

[AlekZ]

"Fala" can be translated into english as "Wave".

This relatively small TV set was manufactured around 1962 in Poland. Today it is rather rare here. The receiver had a manufacturing defect - the heat emitted in the horizontal deflection tubes often melted the top cover made of polystyrene.

The TV I was repairing had a damaged wire-wound resistor with taps. Fortunately, we still have a company that made these resistors for me on a special request.

The twin brother of this TV set was the "Pegaz" (could be translate as Pegasus) TV set. It was intended to receive only one channel...

[kramden66]

That's a nice piece.
Why only 1 channel ?

[kf4rca]

What standard does it use? Line and frame rate?
Is it PAL? Is it AM or FM sound?
You could use individual resistors for the tapped resistor if you have enough space.
There was once an American model called FADA which was the initials of a man's name.
Why only one channel? I once worked for a station and the general manager said he often dreamed of a cable system with only one channel- HIS!

[Penthode]

PAL was not introduced until 1967. Polish analog tv was system B 625 line 25fps interlaced with a 5.5MHz video-sound,carrier spacing. Essentially the same as the rest of Westen Europe.

One channel is practical for two reasons, saving the cost of a complex tuner and ensuring the audience is properly propagandists by control of the media.

The earliest British TV sets were one channel as there was only the BBC Alexandria Palace transmitter until 1949 when the West Midlands transmitter at Sutton Coldfield began

[Mr Hoover]

Poland used the Soviet system D OIRT
625 line, 25 fps system with 6.5 MHz sound
vision spacing, Western Europe and E Germany
used 5.5 MHz audio system B.
Colour was Secam when first introduced
but went over to PAL probably in the early 90's.

[AlekZ]

Originally Posted by kramden66

That's a nice piece.
Why only 1 channel ?

Until 1970, there was only one television channel in Poland. On October 2, 1970, when the second program of Telewizja Polska was broadcast, the chairman of the Radio Committee, Włodzimierz Sokorski, announced during a ceremonial speech that the launch of the new program was an expression of "concern for the nation's education and culture". The Two was initially an educational program that broadcast mainly science and education programs, including language learning; that is why "Dwójka" also broadcast foreign films in the original version in series such as "Cinema of the original version" or the slightly later "Cinema of polyglots". It was also intended to promote the achievements of theater, film and good entertainment.

The second channel also broadcast program blocks devoted to the countries of "people's democracy", such as the Day of Czechoslovakia, Day of Yugoslavia, where documentaries and fictional films as well as entertainment programs from these countries were broadcast, but some Western countries were also presented (eg French Day, Austrian Day).

Therefore, before 1970, it was enough for the TV set to have only one channel, and the frequency was set by replacing the cartridge in the service, depending on the region in which the TV set was installed. This "saving" concerned only two models of TV sets produced in Poland - around 1956-1957 "Wisła" and around 1962-1963 "Pegaz".

The audio-video gap was 6.5MHz. The sound was broadcast with frequency modulation.

[Tom Albrecht]

AlekZ: Thanks for posting! Really interesting to learn a bit about Polish TV technology, channels, and programming.

One interesting thing I see about the chassis -- it looks like some tubes face one side, and others the other side. Does that make changing tubes harder than simply removing the back of the set?

[AlekZ]

I will be happy to answer these questions. Replacing the tubes is actually quite easy. The module with the tubes mounted inversely visible on the right is equipped with a hinge. If you need to replace the tubes in it, you need to raise the metal tongue, visible at the top right. Then the module can be tilted backwards and the vacuum tubes and horizontal deflection transformer become available. The tubes in the head are also easy to replace. The head can be moved to the rear by loosening the two screws.

[DVtyro]

Originally Posted by Mr Hoover

Poland used the Soviet system D OIRT
625 line, 25 fps system with 6.5 MHz sound
vision spacing, Western Europe and E Germany
used 5.5 MHz audio system B.
Colour was Secam when first introduced
but went over to PAL probably in the early 90's.

I saw an article on the web, but cannot now find it, that at first when GDR started broadcasting, they use System D, then at some point, I think sometime in 1960s, they switched to System B, but now I cannot find this link

BTW, System D was the original 625-line system. System B came about because Germany wanted to fit three channels into a 21 MHz band.

[DVtyro]

Originally Posted by DVtyro

I saw an article on the web, but cannot now find it, that at first when GDR started broadcasting, they use System D, then at some point, I think sometime in 1960s, they switched to System B, but now I cannot find this link

BTW, System D was the original 625-line system. System B came about because Germany wanted to fit three channels into a 21 MHz band.

So East Germany started broadcasts in Berlin in 1952 in System D, but switched to System B in 1957, fully harmonizing its frequency bands with the Western standards in 1960. I wonder why did they do it. Was it a quid pro quo for West Germany accepting the 625-line standard introduced by the Soviets, for the reason that West Germany could not completely split away from East Germany, so choosing the same standard (if only just a little different, 7-MHz instead of 8-MHz) was imperative.

[Telecolor 3007]

625 was adopted by most countries in Europe, including some Western ones.
The only communist countries from Eastern Europe to use P.A.L. from the begening where Romania and former Yougoslavia.
P.S. I'm 6.25 (6,25) % Polish.

[Mr Hoover]

Originally Posted by DVtyro

So East Germany started broadcasts in Berlin in 1952 in System D, but switched to System B in 1957, fully harmonizing its frequency bands with the Western standards in 1960. I wonder why did they do it. Was it a quid pro quo for West Germany accepting the 625-line standard introduced by the Soviets, for the reason that West Germany could not completely split away from East Germany, so choosing the same standard (if only just a little different, 7-MHz instead of 8-MHz) was imperative.

I think they did it so the West Germans could view their TV... Of course the Easterners could view W, German TV and having a TV antenna pointing westwards was dangerous to do!
. E Germany used 625 line system B and Secam colour was added from the late 60's or early 70's, not compatible with W German Pal so unless you had a Pal Secam colour set
transborder viewing was done in black and white.Uhf was system G Secam I think, maybe H but the difference was in the vestigial sideband width channel bandwidth on Uhf was a common 8 MHz.

[AlekZ]

In Poland, since the beginning of television broadcasting, i.e. after 1952, the definition of an image is 625 lines. Earlier experimental emissions were on 441 lines, but that was in the 1940s. Only single receivers were built to this standard:

https://muzeum.wroclaw.pl/wp-content...2019/10/24.jpg

The audio-video frequency separation was 6.5 MHz. This meant that even if someone watched Western stations with favorable propagation conditions, there was no sound (their distance was 5.5 MHz). Amateur radio newspapers showed how to make changes so that they could be viewed with sound.