Ekco 267/I restoration

[bandersen]

Thanks for the offer. I was able to get very high quality, inexpensive scans of both the manufacturers service info and the Trader Sheet here: https://www.service-data.com/

I have a much better understanding of what I'm looking at now


The CRT base is compatible with US CRTs so I should be able to use an 8XP4 on the workbench.

[Penthode]

This indeed looks like an interesting project. I wonder how a 405 line television ending up on this side of the Atlantic? I suspect the unwitting owner when emigrating to the US years ago did not know about TV standards.

It will be fun building a modulator as it is positive rather than negative modulation with AM sound.

And with the converters made with FPGAs, I wonder if anyone had ever considered or produced a convertor for 525 59.94 to 405 50Hz ?

As for the CRT, it looks like the 17BP4 can be made to fit.

I also noticed it has a spot wobble switch on the back! Never knew that spot wobble was ever applied to consumer receivers.

[ppppenguin]

Spot wobble was used in a few UK sets. With larger screens the 405 line structure was very visible. Still not common.

The Aurora WC-01, of which only a few were made, will convert NTSC to 405/50. The modulator output is correct too. You would be very lucky to find one.

The field timebase will lock to 60Hz if necessary.

There are various published designs of System A modulators. From simple designs using crystals and 1496 balanced modulator chips to the universal modulator chips used in the Auroras. It's more or less essential to use a separate sound modulator, whichever approach you use. I wrote this article in 1989: https://www.borinsky.co.uk/simple_channel.html David Looser's design is similar but earlier: https://www.thevalvepage.com/project...at/modulat.htm

Several people in the UK and Europe have generated 405 (and other standards) by using a VGA output from a graphics card and setting the modeline. I have never tried this. I think there is some writing about this on my friend Peter Scott's site: http://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk/

[Notimetolooz]

Bob, you might want to contact the folks at the ETF museum. Pretty sure they have some 405 line sets they run.

BTW folks, I've never heard of a wobble switch. What is the deal?

[jhalphen]

Hi to all,

Hi Bandersen,
I replied to your enquiry about your Ekco TV on the ARF forum, but maybe you haven't had time to read the thread since you posted :

https://antiqueradios.com/forums/vie...p?f=3&t=416233

The Aurora SCRF "economical" series of standards converters do not change the frame rate between 25 FPS and 30FPS (or vice-versa), in your case, the British model converts 625/25 to 405/25. There is no model aside from the World Converter which will accept 525/30 and convert to 405/25.

In my opinion, you could use the UK model (with built-in RF System A modulator) feeding it from a cheap Euro DVD player with 625/25 baseband output & a Zone 2 (Europe) DVD disk.
There are also relatively cheap true PAL/SECAM/NTSC Standards Converters (consumer grade) which really change lineage and frame rate. See brands such as Atlona on E-Bay in video accessories section.
I've run a bunch of them in my personal systems and they do an astonishing job vs what used to be 50K-100K$ +Broadcast converters.

or

Attempt to run the Ekco with 405/30, just with a slight adjustment to the V-Hold frequency. However, i do not know if the UK SCRF model will sync with a 30 Hz frame rate.

Maybe Darryl H. (Aurora designer) will read this thread...

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by jhalphen

Hi to all,

Hi Bandersen,
I replied to your enquiry about your Ekco TV on the ARF forum, but maybe you haven't had time to read the thread since you posted :

https://antiqueradios.com/forums/vie...p?f=3&t=416233

The Aurora SCRF "economical" series of standards converters do not change the frame rate between 25 FPS and 30FPS (or vice-versa), in your case, the British model converts 625/25 to 405/25. There is no model aside from the World Converter which will accept 525/30 and convert to 405/25.

In my opinion, you could use the UK model (with built-in RF System A modulator) feeding it from a cheap Euro DVD player with 625/25 baseband output & a Zone 2 (Europe) DVD disk.
There are also relatively cheap true PAL/SECAM/NTSC Standards Converters (consumer grade) which really change lineage and frame rate. See brands such as Atlona on E-Bay in video accessories section.
I've run a bunch of them in my personal systems and they do an astonishing job vs what used to be 50K-100K$ +Broadcast converters.

or

Attempt to run the Ekco with 405/30, just with a slight adjustment to the V-Hold frequency. However, i do not know if the UK SCRF model will sync with a 30 Hz frame rate.

Maybe Darryl H. (Aurora designer) will read this thread...

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France

If you want a versitile 625i 50Hz video source to convert to 405@50Hz a better option than an imported DVD player would be a cheap HDMI to composite video converter....All the ones I've bought off Amazon here in the USA have a switch or button to select PAL or NTSC, and I have used mine in PAL mode to drive an Italian market CCIR/PAL 625i 50Hz Philips that is my only foreign market TV. The advantage of those HDMI converters is practically every signal source today is HDMI (and there's AV to HDMI converters for those that aren't) so rather than being chained to DVDs as your only media, with an HDMI converter you can play anything.

[Notimetolooz]

Originally Posted by Notimetolooz

BTW folks, I've never heard of a wobble switch. What is the deal?

OK, so I watched Bob's video and he had a short explanation.
Sounds like it basically blurs the lines in a vertical direction to remove the slight gap between lines.