I worked for an Admiral & Zenith dealer from 1970 on. Had to deal with a
lot of Admiral stuff but a few things are bugging me that I cant
remember. I am sure the answers are here.

1) They built a 25" solid state chassis that looked a lot like the
dog they put in the 13-17 & 19" sets with one big exception.
It was clean, fairly reliable, a pleasure to work on & gave a
decent but average picture. Not to be confused with the super
rare chassis with stand-up boards used in 19" & maybe 25" sets.
Anyone remember the chassis # ?. I think it was M30 or M35.
Sounds crazy but I just gotta know.

2) I was told by our sales rep Pat Cacamo that Admiral beat Maggie
to market with a true RAT set. If true this would knock the star
system out of its assumed first ever place. I also read this
somewhere but cant find anything on it now. If they did it
must have been limited distribution, never saw it in the line
folders or OEM manuals. Anyone know more on this ??

73 Zeno

I don't recall working on that many Admiral TV's; but, I do remember working on a '79 19" Admiral with a pushbutton varactor 14 position tuner that was a Montgomery Ward's branded TV. I don't remember the chassis; but, it used a 19" inline CRT and a single board chassis. I remember replacing the HV tripler in order to fix the set.

Wasn't '79 the last year for Admiral TV's (not counting the '90's Admiral rebadged junk)? I also remember some AOC (Admiral Overseas Corporation) sets from the early '80's that were made in Taiwan and were fairly junky. The early AOC TV's had styling that looked similar to the last Admiral branded TV's.

zeno, I posted this link in another thread: http://books.google.com/books?id=cuIDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA172&dq=admiral%20limited%20television&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q=admiral%20limited%20television&f=false It's to a Popular Mechanics article from 1976 that talks about Maganavox's Star tv's and also mentions Admiral was coming out with a digital tuner too. They said Admiral called it Era II Limited series. This was '76 and Star came out in '74. But, as you said it wasn't a true RAT, so maybe they were really first.

Here is a newspaper ad about Admiral Era II. Do you remember these sets? http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZIBIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=T20DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4626%2C1888781

Did the Admiral and Philco brand names come together at some point? Maybe I'm dreaming this, but when I was in high school in the early '80 I worked in the library and I seem to remember they had two tv's with vcr's on carts. One was an Admiral and one was a Philco and they were identical except for the name plates. They were 17 or 19 inch sets.

I never saw alot of Admiral sets. I have a few memories tho....
When I was a kid, and helped my Uncle on service calls ( circa 1978-1982) we had a few Admirals on our route. We had one customer that had a metal 19" table-top set (circa 1967-1969) THAT set had a stunning, FANTASTIC picture. A picture so good in fact, it gave a new, at the time, Zenith CC2 a run for the money. ANyway.. it belonged to an older couple who had gutted an old B&W console that this Admiral fit into. The Flyback went out, and they had it repaired. Mainly due to the fact that they wanted to keep their "custom" cabinet set-up and the picture was so good. That set had instant-on, which, when-ever we repaired it, we'd put it in "vacation" mode, but.. the customer always switched it back. I think I saw that same set in a used store 20 years later, and I still kick myself for not getting it. The few other Admirals we had on route were late 60's consoles, that were labled "Solar Color" and they were dogs, and always had bad picture-tubes. Back in the day, when I was married, my ex wife had her parents Admiral console. The set was a LATE 70's early 80's. It had a weak picture tube and an overscan problem. I remember thinking it was kind of junky, so we gave it away. I do remember thinking it was kind of an odd bird, as I wasn't aware Admiral put out anything that late. egrand.. that's a cool ad you found. I have never seen one of those. I remember what a big deal a remote set was (into the early 80's at least) We sold Zenith, and remote was always an option, and always added 100.00 to the cost ( to an already expensive set) Also... I don't think Admiral would have been part of the Philco/Nap line-up in that era. We also sold Philco during that time, and they were rebadged Sylvania's

owned a few admirals in my day.full tube 23 inch console that was ok.never broke down but the crt wasnt top notch.it was an excellent tube,just didnt produce a good pic.also had a 19 inch hybrid that was great.excellent picture and a good performer.gave it to my father in law.he had it for years until he passed away.a couple solar color consoles that were good except for crts.swapped sylvanias in them.had a solid state 25v set that was a fine player and it sold very quickly.cabinet was very ornate and the crt was outstanding.in all,i didnt have much problems with admiral sets.

Wasn't '79 the last year for Admiral TV's (not counting the '90's Admiral rebadged junk)? I also remember some AOC (Admiral Overseas Corporation) sets from the early '80's that were made in Taiwan and were fairly junky. The early AOC TV's had styling that looked similar to the last Admiral branded TV's.

I remember the AOC's never sold one but the earliest ones definitely
evolved from Admiral, even used same part # scheme. Rockwell must
have had it ready to go when they killed Admiral. At first they were good sets. MUCH better then the prev. 13-17-19"s. A one board set.
They evolved into a crap can in a few years, FBT's brewed up
often & ended them. They faded into the sunset after that.

Zeno

zeno, I posted this link in another thread: http://books.google.com/books?id=cuIDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA172&dq=admiral%20limited%20television&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q=admiral%20limited%20television&f=false It's to a Popular Mechanics article from 1976 that talks about Maganavox's Star tv's and also mentions Admiral was coming out with a digital tuner too. They said Admiral called it Era II Limited series. This was '76 and Star came out in '74. But, as you said it wasn't a true RAT, so maybe they were really first.

Here is a newspaper ad about Admiral Era II. Do you remember these sets? http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZIBIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=T20DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4626%2C1888781

Did the Admiral and Philco brand names come together at some point? Maybe I'm dreaming this, but when I was in high school in the early '80 I worked in the library and I seem to remember they had two tv's with vcr's on carts. One was an Admiral and one was a Philco and they were identical except for the name plates. They were 17 or 19 inch sets.

Thank for the ad. It looks like it could be the "rare" 19" I remembered.
We only sold the low end of Admiral as we had Zenith as our main line.
It was a cheaper set. Sold a few top-o-lines out of the books but that
was a cabinet thing usually. I do remember about plug in remotes
but thats all from this mystery RAT set. BTW Sams does list the
25" so they did go mass market with them.

VCR's mostly came from Sony & Sanyo (beta) Hitachi, Panny,
JVC, and more as time went on. Never built by a US company.
So you have different brands that are near identical inside &
usually outside. Big exception was Zenith. They switch from Sony
betas to JVC vhs & the outside was VERY different than JVC.

As for Philco no relation I know of. Sylvania bought Philco &
philco chassis ended. Meanwhile Phillips took Maggy. Maggy
chassis continued but at some point the small set changed
to a very Europian looking chassis. At some point Phillips (NAP)
took Sylvania/Philco & the Philco name faded away. So ended the
Sylvania chassis. The Phillips brand started showing up.
Mid to late 90' the maggy chassis started getting replaced by a real
crappy chassis. But almost else was turning to junk too.

enuf fer now
73 Zeno

I remember the AOC's never sold one but the earliest ones definitely
evolved from Admiral, even used same part # scheme. Rockwell must
have had it ready to go when they killed Admiral. At first they were good sets. MUCH better then the prev. 13-17-19"s. A one board set.
They evolved into a crap can in a few years, FBT's brewed up
often & ended them. They faded into the sunset after that.

Zeno

I've gotten several '80's AOC's with smoked FBT's. Even in the mid '90's, some of the FBT's were NLA and I junked the TV.

Speaking of Sylvania/Philco, I've got a 19" Sylvania from early-'82 (after the NAP buyout) that uses the E32 chassis; which, was a carry over chassis from GTE. I think that by the mid '80's, NAP had phased out all the old GTE designs and went with their own chassis. It's a shame that Philco, Magnavox, and Sylvania wound up being names slapped on low end Funai built garbage.

hi,
I have here a 12" black and white Admiral made by Rockwell, in Taiwan, 1978. It works well and has never needed attention.
As for AOC, I always felt that was a junk brand.

I've gotten several '80's AOC's with smoked FBT's. Even in the mid '90's, some of the FBT's were NLA and I junked the TV.

Speaking of Sylvania/Philco, I've got a 19" Sylvania from early-'82 (after the NAP buyout) that uses the E32 chassis; which, was a carry over chassis from GTE. I think that by the mid '80's, NAP had phased out all the old GTE designs and went with their own chassis. It's a shame that Philco, Magnavox, and Sylvania wound up being names slapped on low end Funai built garbage.
Yup E32. If I remember thats the one that had bad filters, FBT's
& the zener diode shorting...... I liked them, many didnt. Very predictable
& ran decent. Not as good as the GT-matics w/dark lite tube ( E08 etc ?)
but nice. I think the first NAP chassis was C-1. The one with 2
boards & kick-start ala RCA. Nice clean layout, not many problems &
it threw a damn nice pix. After that my biggest beef with NAP was the
switching supplies, could be a pain to deal with. Just dont like switchers.
Funai. I forgot about there "contibution" to NAP. Almostvery brand of CRT
set made a chassis I liked even GE & Orion. But Funai NO !!
I have a special hatered for them especially the combos......

73 Zeno

I must have remembered it wrong. It must have been a Philco and a Sylvania. I recall one was definately a Philco as it surprised me when I first saw it because by then I hadn't seen anything with the Philco name in a long time. It was pretty well forgotten by the early 80's.

I'm afraid I'm at the point where I remember being a teenager, but I don't have the memory of a teenager.

I do recall that I worked the library 1st period my Jr. year. One of the jobs of the last period workers was to set the RCA top load VCR's to record stuff overnight for teachers. Back then the PBS stations and some cable channels showed educational shows late at night that could be recorded and shown to classrooms. Our job 1st period was to rewind the tapes and look at them to make sure they were the right program. I remember a lot of the stuff was sports off ESPN for the coaches. Sorry for the long, dull story, but it was a memory of my high school days.

I never got to see much Admiral stuff when I was younger. We didn't have an Admiral dealer in our town, so no relatives or friends had any. My grandfather took a lot of tv's in on trade and would fix them up and sell them, but I don't remember him having any Admirals either.

hi,
I have here a 12" black and white Admiral made by Rockwell, in Taiwan, 1978. It works well and has never needed attention.
As for AOC, I always felt that was a junk brand.

To me Admiral came in 3 phases. Up til the early 60's a very good set.
They sold tons & were a major player. The later tube sets went down
hill fast. Just an improved GE with more & more compactrons as time
went by. Didnt like them, always tried to up sell to Zenith.

When they went solid state they built a few nice color chassii
and one real dog. The B&W's like yours were about as good a
set as anyone made. So good that I cant remember what went
wrong with them besides the usual antennas, knobs, cleaning etc.

The AOC at first was a definite child of Admiral. Even the cabinet
was almost the same. Physicaly well built & had an OK pix.
After a yr or two they cheapened & turned to trash. Most met an
untimely end with burned FBT's in a little over a year. Kinda
like a Sharp !

73 Zeno


73 Zeno

Yup E32. If I remember thats the one that had bad filters, FBT's
& the zener diode shorting...... I liked them, many didnt. Very predictable
& ran decent. Not as good as the GT-matics w/dark lite tube ( E08 etc ?)
but nice. I think the first NAP chassis was C-1. The one with 2
boards & kick-start ala RCA. Nice clean layout, not many problems &
it threw a damn nice pix. After that my biggest beef with NAP was the
switching supplies, could be a pain to deal with. Just dont like switchers.
Funai. I forgot about there "contibution" to NAP. Almostvery brand of CRT
set made a chassis I liked even GE & Orion. But Funai NO !!
I have a special hatered for them especially the combos......

73 Zeno

We had a 19" Magnavox that used either a 19C1 or C2 chassis (both were similar) and that set ran for about 12 years, until the CRT got tired.

Speaking of Admiral, I know they built sets for Western Auto (Truetone). I have a friend who used to fix Truetone TV's and he said there was one Admiral-built late '70's console that had issues with the varactor tuner module coming unseated. I also remember him having a Truetone "last gasp" 22" B&W console from '78-'79 that was made by Admiral. It had a great picture; but, the cabinet was plain jane ugly.