ETF - Hungarian Sets

Hungarian Sets

Leningrad T-2

Rembrandt FE 852 D

Here are two receivers, brought to Hungary in the early 50s for experimental purposes. The first is the Leningrad T-2, with a design using 26 octal tubes and a built-in radio. It was assembled in the former German Democratic Republic, using Russian parts and documentation. The other was developed in the GDR, the Rembrandt FE 852 D. This set also uses octal tubes except in the tuner. These sets were imported in 1953 or 1954. Thereafter the Central Committee of the Party decided that the Hungarian Orion factory would produce a modern, 43 cm diameter screen television, the AT 501, which was introduced in 1956 right after the Revolution.

(Pictures and information courtesy of Zoltán Kalmár)

Orino AT-501 (Picture courtesy of László Porczió)

The following information is from Gábor Andrassy:

There were three electronic manufacturers in Hungary in the 1950s: Orion, Terta, and Vadásztöltény (later renamed Videoton). Terta never produced any tv sets, but the other two factories made about ten different models in the late 50s and early 60s with 17" or 21" rectangular safety-glass type picture tubes, and about twenty models in the late 60s and early 70s with 25" or 28" tubes. They were all tube type receivers until the late 60s, when they started using some transistors (obsolete germanium transistors like AF136, AC125 etc.). Orion had a patent in late 60s, named the "memory channel selector". It was a simple two-tube 12 channel selector, but it stored the fine tuning setting for each channel. The secret was a metal disc on the axle with 12 little screws.

Color experiments began in early 70s using SECAM. Videoton was the only company to make color receivers, and they made only a few, mostly for public areas, like auditoriums and schools. The set was called "Munkácsy Color", and it used vacuum tubes and germanium and silicon transistors. The set was produced with Russian delta-type picture tubes, and was able to receive both PAL/SECAM OIRT/CCIRT standards. The mass production of color receivers began in early 80s, with Polish "in line" picture tubes. Until then, only Russian color receivers were in use, the most popular being the "Raduga" model, which means "rainbow" in Russian.