I just picked up this Westinghouse portable. It's from the estate of a Sears sales rep. The set was made in Japan and contains an interesting mix of USA-made WH and Japan-made Hitachi tubes date coded 1965. The CRT is Mitsubishi-built. The set has a nice picture, and the little speaker really performs.

The set was found new, sealed in its box. The picture it's producing below is a YouTube feed from my computer. No amount of adjustment eliminates the distortion on the right side of the screen. But I'm leaving I alone. The issue isn't so bad that I want to compromise its originality. And boy does it run hot.

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Now that is a cool find!

That is so cool!! :banana: :banana: It even picks up old TV broadcasts, Gloria Swanson on To Tell The Truth! :thmbsp::D

Neat set! I guess by the mid 60's they changed their slogan to "You can't be sure if its REALLY a Westinghouse"...

Neat set! I guess by the mid 60's they changed their slogan to "You can't be sure if its REALLY a Westinghouse"...

I was surprised that it was Japan-made. I though WH offshored a little later. Even so, it's obvious Westinghouse was the dominant partner. The only evidence of Japanese parts is the Hitachi sun logo on some tubes and the three diamond Mitsu logo on the CRT label and yoke. The names of the parent companies are absent.

I think a lot of companies that otherwise built their own sets started outsourcing small less profitable things like portables in the mid 60's. by the late 60's most 12" and under sets were imports I think.

It looks a little bit like this radio http://www.wa2ise.com/radios/aa5tv.jpg that looks a little like a TV set. The marketing dept must have been a wild place to work back then...

It does look like that funky clock radio! Was the Westinghouse TV and Radio division headquartered in Pittsburgh?

The UHF and tuning knobs are VERY similar. I've got one of those westy clock radios...It looked cool and was cheap so I figured what the hey.

Time to gut the radio and install an iPad behind the bezel and run a fishtank screen saver on it. But then, the clock-radio purists will be up in arms about the damn TV guys "upcycling" their goodies. It's always somethin'. :)

Chip

It does look like that funky clock radio! Was the Westinghouse TV and Radio division headquartered in Pittsburgh?

Pittsburgh was the large electrical equipment plant, switchgear, transformers, motors and generators. The earlier radios were built at Sunbury, PA. All the later electronics were made at Metuchen, NJ.
The CRT label has E-MET on it. :scratch2:

I was surprised that it was Japan-made. I though WH offshored a little later. Even so, it's obvious Westinghouse was the dominant partner. The only evidence of Japanese parts is the Hitachi sun logo on some tubes and the three diamond Mitsu logo on the CRT label and yoke. The names of the parent companies are absent.

The set's Mitsubishi built.
IIRC, there was a manufacturing agreement between Westinghouse and Mitsubishi, even with the large electrical equipment line.

BTW, I wonder how many people younger than me can decipher Roman numerals. My year is MCMXLIV. :boring:

Very neat set ;)

Neat set! I guess by the mid 60's they changed their slogan to "You can't be sure if its REALLY a Westinghouse"...

I have a Westinghouse pre-war table radio, that was built by Stromberg-Carlson. Even the paper caps are marked with their name.
Some of the refrigerator radios were built by Wells-Gardner. :thmbsp:

MGA CRT & yoke probably all MGA built. I dont remember
seeing these, just the W built ones that looked the
same on the outside. Look for the three diamonds on
the main PCB. The set looks better built than the other Jap tube sets
so probably all MGA.

73 Zeno:smoke:

I just wanted to take a minute and thank everyone for their kind responses. I've put a few hours on the set over the last few days and I love it. I have it hooked up to a generic Chinese ATSC/NTSC converter that includes a USB port on the front panel. Using this box with an antenna, the picture fills the entire screen. I can also rip video files onto a USB thumb drive and watch that way too. Unfortunately, there's a significant buzz that I can't seem to eliminate. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

When I have more time, I'm going to dive deeper into the set and see if I can find any more markings that would clue me in to the manufacturer. I agree that it's probably Mitsubishi.

And Dieseljeep, I'm going with 1944.

I just wanted to take a minute and thank everyone for their kind responses. I've put a few hours on the set over the last few days and I love it. I have it hooked up to a generic Chinese ATSC/NTSC converter that includes a USB port on the front panel. Using this box with an antenna, the picture fills the entire screen. I can also rip video files onto a USB thumb drive and watch that way too. Unfortunately, there's a significant buzz that I can't seem to eliminate. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

When I have more time, I'm going to dive deeper into the set and see if I can find any more markings that would clue me in to the manufacturer. I agree that it's probably Mitsubishi.

And Dieseljeep, I'm going with 1944.

You are so right, regarding my year of birth, December, 1944. Franklin Roosevelt was the President. :yes:

I just wanted to take a minute and thank everyone for their kind responses. I've put a few hours on the set over the last few days and I love it. I have it hooked up to a generic Chinese ATSC/NTSC converter that includes a USB port on the front panel. Using this box with an antenna, the picture fills the entire screen. I can also rip video files onto a USB thumb drive and watch that way too.


Never seen one witha USB port before, Sounds like an interesting converter box.

Here's an example of one that happens to be on sale for $39 at MCM:

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/30-2890?scode=EMC387&trk_msg=CF3PLJDONL74LC0QO5NGTOG0HC&trk_contact=0J56S8CGA0BT3GF8QV8ML24KN8&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=30-2890&utm_campaign=EMC387

In addition to the USB port, it also has component outputs so the Green or "Y" channel could be used to feed a modulator and avoid the chroma dots on a vintage B&W set.

Edit: It looks like the URL I posted is too long, and just takes you to the MCM site. Search for "High Definition Digital Tuner with HDMI and Component Video Output MCM Part #: 30-2890 | Stellar Labs Part #: DT-800"

-Clark

As much as I love all things Westinghouse, I would hope on some level that the Metuchen plant (1954-1970) produced yet another interesting design, but I guess they knew when to outsource such a neat little set.

... Unfortunately, there's a significant buzz that I can't seem to eliminate.

Does that buzz get worse when there are bright white areas on the screen? If so, what is likely happening is that the set's IF strip is going into cutoff when the video carrier is at its lowest level (which happens at peak white). And maybe a tube, or some biasing circuit, is clipping the IF signal so it goes completely away. And in intercarrier sets, where the video IF beats against the sound IF at the video detector to get the 4.5MHz sound subcarrier. But if the video carrier disappears momentarily, the sound subcarrier also disappears. Which makes "holes" in the sound, thus the buzz.

One workaround is to reduce the amplitude of the video signal going into the RF modulator inside your ATSC converter box. This would allow a larger amount of carrier signal to be produced on peak white, and hopefully enough of the carrier reaches the set's video detector to avoid the holes in the sound subcarrier.

Or dig into the set's IF strip circuits.