Got the TV this week and I'm pleasantly surprised that it is working ok. Attached is a picture of the set. For kicks I found an inexpensive UHF to VHF converter that looks to be from around the same era (it's on top of the Motorola). The converter proved to have a bad tube, so I resorted to a modern VCR to get UHF until I get a replacement vacuum tube for the converter. It felt like an odd mix of old and new technologies hooking up a VCR to a '54 TV set.

The picture is pretty decent, but has a few minor distortions. The talk about the rarity of picture tubes for this set got me thinking of what other parts I should hunt up and stock away now before I need them. I've heard of something called a flyback transformer that may be hard to locate. I've found a few electronics surplus places and a business that specializes in hard to find vintage TV parts.

Any suggestions on what I should ask for? I'd like to try to locate a replacement flyback transformer--does anyone have any suggestions on what else I should stock up on (or what model/part numbers I should tell them for the flyback)?



Thanks,
Joe