kuba combo

[sampson159]

saw a beautiful kuba combo today in a customers home. radio was so clear and the turntable rocked the house. the tv had raster and snow,no video. set came from germany in the late 50s. because they are on a different system,is that why no video? it does have audio in the snow. experts,please?

[Aage]

Well, jah, in Germany they use the PAL (or is it SECAM? don't think so) system for TV, not NTSC as we do in North America.

You don't need to be an expert to know that...

Here's my fav Kuba:

[Old1625]

Very nice! But those were the days when we were trying to let the whole world know we had a television set.

I had a very early '60s Zenith color console that took up an acre of my livingroom floor. It was very much an in-your-face color TV set. Worked well enough--until some bottom screen data later broadcast started being shown, and then the round window became a serious minus.

I now have modern TVs that I try to hide as much as possible, as they are not the highest-tech stuff I have.

I try to hide as much of that stuff as well.

Times have changed.

I appreciate the peek down memory lane (i thinks she kin to Lois--mayhap...?), but my current telly is nestled in a bookshelf where I was able to back-cut into a closet space behind to accommodate the set's depth. Such rear access makes hookup changes much easier as well...

But--oh man!--thanks so much for sharing this! I love it! So much a part of television history, it is!

PS: Aage, love your sig as well!

[Aage]

Old, hope I didn't give you the idea that the Komet I put in the previous posts is mine! It's not, just some pictures found on a site talking about one that had been damaged.

It's a combo, too. I posted a couple of other pics here, some with the door open. It certainly is a striking set, with the TV in a rotating "sail".

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by sampson159

saw a beautiful kuba combo today in a customers home. radio was so clear and the turntable rocked the house. the tv had raster and snow,no video. set came from germany in the late 50s. because they are on a different system,is that why no video? it does have audio in the snow. experts,please?

Germany has a different sound IF (5.5 MHz instead of 4.5 MHz), a wider video bandwidth (5 MHz), and an other channel frequency raster. The best thing would to operate this set with a German RF modulator. You can buy a German RF modulator on an internet auction, see for example #120219913919 or 180213690759. I have a used UHF modulator too, if you are interested.

When operating the set, you have to check the vertical hold (60 Hz instead of 50 Hz). Horizontal hold will work with NTSC also.

- Eckhard

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by Aage

Well, jah, in Germany they use the PAL (or is it SECAM?

Both until 1990. West Germany had PAL, East Germany had SECAM. After 1990, it was PAL. Now we have DVB-t and DVB-S. DVB-H ist just coming.

- Eckhard

[sampson159]

he told me that the tv worked and he used to watch sanford and son on it. i knew about the different systems and just wondered how this could be. thought he might be pulling my leg a little. the model is the" sorrent60 ".thanks guys. i learned something knew!

[hposter]

There had to be a USA version of the set, which used the NTSC system.

I had negotiated a sale in Oregon, a couple years ago, and another in the south, and each seller assured me they were working 'in the good old days'.

Too many people would have to be untruthful...which leads me to wonder why these individuals would have bought, and saved the sets all these years, if they never worked! Remember, in the old days, even an Art Deco TRK-12 was ugly to most people, and you could fit 10 TRK's in the space of one of these sailboats! It would have been easy to just tell me, "It never did work in the States, but it looked good, so I saved it!"

A good way to test this theory, like we do with vintage cameras...if the controls and intructions are written in English, and there are references to USA makers or importers, then it's a USA distributed item, and would have worked in the USA. Also, the tuner should have 12 channels, possibly with UHF, something that a European TV should not have.

[old_tv_nut]

If this was a B&W set, you might be able to tune in a picture on some US programs, but the sound would be a problem. If he had pix and sound, it was modified for NTSC, I think.

[edison64]

HEY TO ALL:
Back in the day, at least in NW Indiana, Chicago aera, Kuba and Grundig were sold by the same dealers. And the Kuba tv's came special order for the us market. NTSC. the instruction books were printed in german, for all sets. after all,all americans knew how to operate tv sets. as a youngster, i remember watching Garfield goose at a friends house on a Kuba. the sets were not for everyone, (too expensive). as for the book, more to show off your high end set. remember at the time, imported audio and tv were a big statis symbol for the upper middle classes.

[bgadow]

I was leafing through a bunch of old service bulletins and trade papers recently and one of the many things I read was a question from a repairman regarding a tv brought home by a serviceman in the early 60s. The 'answer' column gave rough details of what would be involved in making it work and said that it certainly could be done, perhaps by subbing some IF parts from an American set, but unless it was late model it probably wouldn't be worth the considerable cost. So, folks were doing it to some extent. Only the best repair shops need apply, I suppose.

[sampson159]

went back to sign him up and the conversation got around to the combo. the controls are marked in english and it is a set made in germany for this market. he even turned it on and the tv works! tuner is a might bad,and some vertical problems,but it does work and pulls in the stations! very nice piece of history.