1960's NZ Murphy Television. Project Done!
 

Hi guys, well the TV collection has grown yet again...Just the other day I picked up this New Zealand made Murphy 23 inch B&W Television for a few dollars.

It would be from the mid 1960's at a guess and I quite like the look of this one too.
Hasn't been turned on for about 20 odd years according to the previous owner, they were going to turn it into a fish tank display or something but had sold the house and were about to move house so thankfully the set was saved.

The chassis is basically an AWA 35 Series variant, and pretty certain that it was based on an Australian design. I have another Murphy and two AWA sets with the same chassis as this. From what I've been told they were reliable and performed well. On the back cover it does say 'Manufactured under license from Rank-Bush Murphy Limited'

The deflection yoke plastic shroud that holds the geometry adjust rings has decomposed and the filter caps are leaking and bulging so before I apply any power to this I'll temporarily tack some filter caps in place and then see what happens. May be a while before I get to doing this part but you never know curiosity may get the better of me.

The photos were taken with my new iPod touch as I was curious about the picture quality, not as good as a digital camera but still acceptable.

I've also done a video on You Tube about this, here is the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CThn6yz8fE

Enjoy!

Cheers Glen

Nice! That chassis looks alot like Packard Bell BW sets from that era. Very well made.

Nice!! I really like the upright chassis design in this & other tv's.
Who is the Rank in Rank-Bush? any affil. with Rank-Arena?

Thanks for the comments guys :) Yes I think Rank Bush were tied up with Rank Arena.

Here is a link to an older thread showing two sets I got earlier in the year using the exact same chassis at this one and some extra photos below of those two sets.... http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=251672

Cheers...

それはすごいね！(That's cool!) I like the "Super Signal" written at the bottom of the bezel. How many I.F. stages does she have? Is there something to that or was that a marketing thing? Why does it have a channel 1??!!

きをつけて、
Mark

Love the styling on that set. Looks to be built like a tank, too.

I guess many countries did plan a TV channel 1, and did not delete it later...
In the U.S.A., channel 1 was soon found to be useful for some other
applications, and as UHF was growing removal of one VHF channel was
deemed to be acceptable.

What is the function of that strip of power transistors? Fine looking
set, built during my childhood, so definitely worth a restoration!

Nice save ! Me likey !

What is the function of that strip of power transistors? QUOTE]
According to the adjustment locations on the back, those are really pots. They do look like TO-3 cased transistors.

i like the clean look of it - nice how it has its own legs rather than needing a stand or taking up space like a console. That tv is worthy of a place in the living room!
I look forward to seeing a picture on that screen!

We never did have any channel 1 stations get on the air. The old 45MHz FM band was there, and David Sarnoff of RCA, who decided he didn't like Edwin Armstrong (the inventor of FM, and built a network of FM stations on the 45MHz band) anymore wanted to kill FM radio, and convenced the FCC to relocate that band for TV's channel 1. And kick FM radio to 100MHz, and Sarnoff figured that would bankrupt FM radio. And get rid of a competitor to TV set sales. Sarnoff did freak when the FCC decided to make TV sound FM instead of AM. He had RCA not pay patent royalties to Armstrong, who had the FM patents. My own speculation: Had Armstrong pointed out to Sarnoff that FM sound would help make TV a killer app... Who knows... Anyway, 45MHz FM was to stop in 1950 to make way for TV channel 1, but it was found that 45MHz had a tendency to propagate long distance to other cities when the solar weather was right (sunspots and such) and that would make a mess of analog AM video modulated television. Before the DTV changeover, you would sometimes see this on analog channel 2. Later TV set makers went from an IF of 22MHz to 45MHz, which would not have worked on a channel 1. And the old 45MHz band ended up with police and fire comms.

I have a 1984 RCA with digital tuning which can tune channel-1 but I wonder what frequency that actually is on this tv. The raster goes blank on that channel.

Hey Tom, I've had one of those too and wondered the same thing. It may be some sort of cable channel, I remember having a channel 1 on local cable as a kid. I don't know how common it was though.

Thanks, yeah its a neat looking set. It has three I.F. stages. I think the super signal was probably a marketing thing but these were good sets so maybe a bit of both. Channel 1 - There used to be a TV channel operating at that frequency in the early days of broadcasting in New Zealand.

Thanks for the positive responses to this TV guys :) I think I may be prompted to having a go and seeing whether I can get some life out of this beast. Thankfully it hasn't been moved too far into the depths of my storage area so its nice and easy to move back into the workshop :D

Attached is the schmatic for your interest. :smoke:

Cheers
Glen