Australian Saba Ultracolor T6717

[AndrewM]

Recently I acquired another example of early Australian colour television - the Saba Ultracolor T6717. This is a german import adapted to local conditions by fitting a 240v to 220v transformer. It came complete with instruction manual that is hand dated November 1977. I have been looking for an older european set that used this distinctive bezel-less CRT design for a while.

Australia adopted the same PAL B/G standard that was in use in many european countries at the time so they were a handy source of sets with the introduction of colour here in 1975. Unfortunately few of these early european sets survive as many succumbed to the harsh climate and poor parts support here. The Philips K9 chassis was one of the exceptions to this and it was a very popular chassis here that still turns up today occaisonally.

This set is a one owner set that was in regular use by its elderly owner till recently. Internally it is in excellent condition but has evidence of some repairs. The combined greyscale pot assembly has been replaced by the three trimpots on the rear of the right hand panel.

The set uses an early inline gun CRT (GTE Sylvania) and retains a simplified convergence panel that is acessed behind the upper front user panel. The horizontal scan circuits are a common european design of the time with the use of thyristors (SCR's) instead of transistors for the output stage. Nowadays this circuit design is a curiosity in itself.