Universum ST 901

The Universum ST 901 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 is an improved form of the Mondial, with a lower noise level, a better vertical sync board and higher reliability; it has no tone control [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: Mondial E 61-691, Universum ST 902, Audiphon 961 A, Royal 1074 E 61-710 E 3.

In May 1970 Electronica signed a contract with the West German mail-order firm Quelle for 50,000 Universum ST 901 and ST 902 sets, to be delivered in 1971–1973 (15 million DM); 48,000 were delivered [2]. Built on the Miraj chassis, they had a transistorised VHF-UHF channel selector from the Italian firm Ducati and a Preomat keyboard with seven freely programmable memory keys [2]. Quelle checked every delivery by sampling (AQL), and lots were rejected because of poor workmanship, soldering and components; Electronica sent technicians to Nuremberg to repair and repack the sets [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].