Mondial E 61-691

The Mondial E 61-691 is a black-and-white television set for export to the Western CCIR standard, made by Electronica in Bucharest, with a 61 cm, 110° picture tube [1]. It was the first type of television set exported by Electronica, to West Germany from 1969 [1].

Electronica began exporting stationary television sets of the Miraj family in 1969, to West Germany with the Mondial type, followed in 1970 by the Universum ST 901 and ST 902; in 1971 it began exporting kits to Albania for the Adriatic, and continued exports to West Germany with the Select 2000, Interfunk, Star-Lux and others [1]. In 1970 television production moved to the new plant at Pipera, and its first batch was for export to West Germany [1]. Electronica’s TV exports began with 650 sets in 1969 and reached 140,546 in 1980 [1].

Other models of the same group: Universum ST 901, Universum ST 902, Audiphon 961 A, Royal 1074 E 61-710 E 3.

The export contract with the West German wholesale group Interfunk was signed on 15 March 1969, for 15,000 sets at 299 DM each (4.5 million DM); the customer chose the name Mondial [2]. Instead of the Orega rotary tuner, the Miraj chassis was fitted with a mechanically switched VHF-UHF tuner from Telefunken, and the 61 cm picture tube came from Telefunken and SEL; the cabinet was veneered in walnut imported from West Germany [2]. The set obtained its FTZ and VDE approvals for the West German market in three days, instead of the usual three to six months [2]. A nearly identical Grundig set, more transistorised and with a lower consumption, was sold to Interfunk at 389 DM; both sold at 499 DM [2]. About 10% of the first delivery of about 1,000 sets (September–October 1969) arrived damaged, because the single-board vertical chassis, not fixed at the top, vibrated during transport and cracked its printed circuit board; a bracket costing 1.70 lei solved the problem [2]. In all, 15,450 sets were delivered to Interfunk [2].

In the source table, video sensitivity is given for 6 V rms on the picture-tube cathode, the signal-to-noise ratio on the sound path, and the selectivity values are, in order, the rejection of the own sound carrier and of signals below and above the picture carrier (and, where given, of the IF and the image frequency); the audio response is at −3 dB [1].