General > General Technical Chat
Old electronics shops in Melbourne: what's there today (video)
I wanted a rude username:
--- Quote from: Kerlin on December 22, 2020, 10:43:39 pm ---Maybe located, in Little Lonsdale just around the corner from Swanston street.
--- End quote ---
There was a radio parts store right there, on Little Lonsdale Street, in one of the little 19th century buildings opposite the church just west of Swanston Street. It was noticeable from Swanston owing to the entire frontage being painted yellow. Closed down some time in the early 2000s I think, and it's quite possible the entire building was torn down, as there are two 2000s era buildings in that strip.
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: Kerlin on December 27, 2020, 03:41:55 am ---I would definable say that most TV repair shops were reputable and all customers were stingy, they thought everything should cost $2, and listened too much to the rubbish that was propagated by the media. Don't the public have a big reputation for always doing that anyway?
I never worked full time in TV repair as I could get better paid jobs, it was just an interest.
I did however complete four years of TV and video repair courses at RMIT and met many technicians who attended the courses.
I also worked part time, after work, in in the workshops of three TV repair shops as well as at home.
I have a BOCP and TVOPs, worked as a Senior Technician at Channel 7 and and have trained in installed and repaired digital TV stations.
When I hire technicians anyone who applies that is qualified in and has done TV repair gets the job.
The very best of repair technicians for sure.
Fixing all kinds of items with often no circuit, RF, SMPS, digital anything you name they can fix it and have it ready in a fraction of a day.
--- End quote ---
I worked both for PMG/Telecom Aust, then for Ch7, & I have mixed feelings about TV service companies.
At one point, in an early flirtation with "outsourcing", TVW7 decided to send all the failed "second level" picture monitors, & domestic TVs out to TV Service companies, with the aim of giving the station techs extra time for more important stuff.
Amongst these were several big, heavy 27" Sony sets.
The CRTs had low emission, so we supplied a regunned tube along with the first set, requesting that the chosen company change the tubes over, adjust & converge the TV, & return it, along with the removed tube.
We further specified that they do nothing to the removed tube, as it needed to be suitable for regunning.
After about a week & a half, we got them back, the tube flopping round in its unsealed box, with the end of the neck smashed off, & the TV with gross colour purity issues, & almost no work having been done on the convergence.
We ended up burning more time fixing their stuff-up than we took to do the job ourselves, which we proved by promptly doing the job properly on the other one.
We came out of it OK, though, as we found another company, which,although a bit slow, did a competent job, for a very much reduced number of jobs.
Even they had their moments, though, ----on one occasion, we did a bit of "first in maintenance" on one TV, determined pretty much what area the problem was in, attached a note outlining what we had done, & dropped it in to them, feeling virtuous because we had "helped them out".
Alas for our efforts, when we got it back, we could see where our note had been torn off, & a fault docket tied on, where under "reported fault" it said "doesn't work!"
On the other hand, I always found it annoying when a TV Network would find some self satisfied twat "Engineer" who would, in between talking a lot of crap, "set a trap" to prove TV service companies were ripoff merchants.
On one occasion, one of these tweaked an internal control in a new set, & sent it off to the company concerned.
The TV servicemen, tested it, saw an apparent fault, found the misadjusted control, which led them further down the rabbithole.
I know that if I found a misadjusted control, I would assume it had been so tweaked as a "bodge" to compensate for a real fault, which was evidently intermittent.
This what the guys did, then after spending hours,looking for an intermittent fault, reset the control, left the thing on test for hours, & with misgivings, returned it, saying "if it played up, bring it back!"
Of course, "Bighead" then quoted the time they spent as being evidence that they were crooks!
Why a TV Network, with "in house" technical expertise "coming out of their ears", wouldn't check with a passing Tech or EE before engaging a "showboat" is beyond me!
MIS42N:
Brought back bits of old memories (can't remember it all). I bought stuff at Waltham trading - one was a 1000W light bulb, the bulb was at least a 30cm sphere and it was BRIGHT. About the only use was playing pranks - wire it up in someone's room so it is a meter or so inside the door and watch the reaction when they come home and turn the light on.
I built an oscilloscope, I think it was an Radio TV and Hobbies design, bought a Cathode Ray tube from Waltham's war surplus. No idea where it went, moved too many times.
I also designed a 50W amplifier using 6CA7s running with an ultralinear transformer and a regulated 400V power supply. The regulation was using a 2N3055 which I bought from Mullard somewhere in Melbourne along with the valves. I have a vague thought they were in Carlton. The 2N3055 sat on a heat sink standing on insulators, the base was fed by a 150-0-150 30mA transformer usually used in preamps but I used it single ended to get 400V. The collector was fed somewhere between 430V and 460V depending on the volume. OH&S would have a fit, it was lethal. There was a 75V zener from collector to base to protect the transistor. This must have been prior to 1966 because I remember the 2N3055 cost £1/5/-, a small fortune. Surprisingly it all worked as intended and delivered a very clean sound (into a speaker enclosure with 2 15inch Fane woofers and I can't remember what handled the high frequencies). It was a huge thing and I sold it in 1968 when I moved to Wollongong.
I also bought and built a couple of kits from Radio Spares in Lonsdale St. (after returning to Melbourne in 1970).
My electronics has been on the backburner since the late 70's, about the time kids turned up. Just getting back into it building microprocessor based 'things'. Electronics Australia published a sidereal clock I built, little more than a GPS module, a PIC16F628A and an 8 segment display. Didn't get any interest so it now displays UTC time in the kitchen because I've not gotten around to putting in the time zone correction. I never did find out for definite if a GPS unit outputs a 1ppS then the NMEA data of the time of the 1ppS, or if the NMEA data is for the next pulse. I assume the former. There isn't a talking clock any more to check against.
Another early haunt was Encel Electronics in Bridge Rd Richmond. Bought JH turntable, Grace tone arm. It had a Garrott cartridge which I bought from Brian Garrot (I believe unfortunately he died not long after) Still got them but nowhere to set up. I was going to buy a replacement stylus, quoted about 5 times what I paid for the cartridge so it sits unused.
GlennSprigg:
To satisfy old 'Adelaidians' here, (I used to live in Adelaide), there was an ancient shop towards Port Adelaide, that
was called 'Robby's'. He was an old man who had a 'Steptoe & Sons' version of an ancient electronics store! There
were downstairs & upstairs areas that went way back, in definitely cluttered fire-hazard areas, full of every ancient
bit of valve equipment & parts you could imagine, including military. He would pull apart or de-solder countless parts
too, to make massive stocks of knobs, pots, terminals, valve bases etc etc etc. If you needed it, he had it!!!
He also had a MASSIVE collection of old valves/tubes hidden away. Later on, his son took over, but did not have the
same interest. Has been closed up for years now, but would love to have been in a position to make an offer!! :D
I had so much stuff that I had collected from him, including some very rare tubes & components...
Now, these places are as rare as 'Rocking-Horse Shit', or vanished all together !!! :-\
digsys:
--- Quote from: GlennSprigg ---To satisfy old 'Adelaidians' here, (I used to live in Adelaide), there was an ancient shop towards Port Adelaide, that was called 'Robby's' ....
--- End quote ---
ooooooo That's pretty much exactly my story .. even just came back from Adelaide today !! I surely must have seen you there. We'd ride down there on our bikes all the way from Prospect on many occasions. Also collected heaps of awesome stuff. Late 60s for me
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