RFT Color 20, introduced in the German Democratic Repunblic in 1969

[yagosaga]

Hi Folks,

today I got the RFT Color 20, the first East German SECAM color tv set, introduced in 1969 with the start of color television in October 1969. This color tv set is a solid state set with the exception that the early models had three EY51 for EHT rectifying, the later models had a selenium cascade.

The early Color 20s were fitted with a 23" Sovjet color picture tube, the 59LK3Z. Later models were fitted with the (West German) A56-120X or a Toshiba tube. The Sovjet crts were very unreliable, only of of seven which were exported to East Germany, was OK. The lifetime of these crts were estimated with appr. 1000 hours.

I have got a Color 20 with the Sovjet color picture tube. Before I switched it on, I measured the crt with the crt meter. Blue 0.4 mA, red between 0.2 and 0.3 mA, and green 0.2 mA. This crt was bad. A case for a brightener or a candidate for rejuvenating. I switched the set on. The picture was bright and brillant, with full colors. I could not believe it! Another surprise was revealed when I displayed the old U.S. videos: this Sovjet color picture tube, made in the 1960's, has wide gamut phosphors! It is not exactly what I had with the 21AXP22A, but they are not those yellowish green which we have with our West German color picture tubes.

Kind regards,
Eckhard