philco-ford roundie score - pics - Videokarma.org TV - Video

fujifrontier · #1 04-20-2008, 08:17 PM

I finally got around to taking pics of the ford roundie that I picked up from the next door neighbour.

Judging by my arm, you'd think i was sacha baren-cohen... that's not really the case.

The door won't stay shut. Have to work on it. I think the gray bar above the tuner dial used to have something that said "colour television" or something.

Didn't fire her up 'cos I was only going to take pics - the garage is too stuffy for roundie-watching

sampson159 · #2 04-20-2008, 09:00 PM

nice score! that is exactly like the first roundie my dad bought in 1966. he didn t
go shopping very much,but when he did,he bought the best.this set really worked well and we had much fun with it.the philco ford crt was so bright it was amazing.worked well until he bought a d-16 sylvania in 1972 or 3.the philco was given to a poor family on our block and they had it until the mid 90s.congrats on your find post pics in operation.

sampson159 · #3 04-20-2008, 09:06 PM

ours had the green tuning bars.everything else is the same though

reeferman · #4 04-20-2008, 11:25 PM

I remember them touting the tuning indicator (EM84/6FG6) tube, and featuring Red Buttons on an actual screen shot.

fujifrontier · #5 04-21-2008, 02:48 PM

Fix Or Repair Daily indeed.

So, after having watched a strong spanish station with no antenna for 15-20 minutes when the lady had it plugged in next door, a few weeks ago, today I go out and buy one of the matching-VHF transformer thingies and plug it in to teh TV to maybe play Kingdom Hearts II on it in Roundie Colour for awhile.

The POS won't show a picture now. It'll show snow, but when you make it "lock on" to a good source the picture goes blank. I tried picking up the strong spanish station again, the snow tears out and the picture goes black and the audio comes in. I connected a sony VCR with the OSD on the screen, it showed a faint snowy outline of that but when you adjust the fine tuning it goes black again. Also, the tuner indicator lamps are dead,

I tried messing around with it for a while, maybe thinking it was the fine tuning, or the switch was partly in service mode, no dice. Then it started being pissy and I heard the characteristic snap of HV, so I decided that was that and turned the thing off. Now I have two dead TVs around the house.

*SIGH*

RetroHacker · #6 04-21-2008, 02:57 PM

Any chance the AGC adjustment got diddled with while you were moving it? Sounds like the AGC is getting overloaded with strong signals. Also, check all the tubes and make sure none have wiggled loose. Any time that you move one of these old sets, there is the potential for minor mishaps.

-Ian

fujifrontier · #7 04-22-2008, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RetroHacker

Any chance the AGC adjustment got diddled with while you were moving it? Sounds like the AGC is getting overloaded with strong signals. Also, check all the tubes and make sure none have wiggled loose. Any time that you move one of these old sets, there is the potential for minor mishaps.

-Ian

I'll check that maybe later. Don't think it got messed with, it's an adjustment hidden on the back IIRC. Would it still get overloaded even with an off the air, normal station (with no antenna connected)? I don't live right next door the tower or anything; it's just a decent, solid signal you can pick up while in a garage. If you turn everything up to full blast you can sorta kinda see a wavy, distorted image flying by (almost like hsync is lost)

bgadow · #8 04-22-2008, 10:28 PM

Sometimes the signal doesn't have to be all that strong, just stronger than it was before might be enough to push it over the edge. Yeah, the agc is the first thing I'd check 'cause it's real easy. I had this issue with my Zenith roundie and found some bad tubes in the IF & video circuits. It behaves much better with those tubes replaced.

fujifrontier · #9 04-23-2008, 07:41 AM

Should I just pull them and replace them all? I've gotten a bit rusty in identifying discrete sections of the TV

fujifrontier · #10 08-15-2011, 07:12 PM

ok guys, sorry to dredge up such an old thread. I dug the philco out of storage and powered it on. I tried attenuators in various strengths and combinations, from 6db to 20db... is it possible to spin the hell out of the fine tuning so much that channel 4 is now channel 3 and vice versa? When adjusting the fine tuning to get a somewhat acceptable picture (even at full strength) I noticed that I was on channel 4 selected, but channel 3 was on the VCR output!

I've attached some pics of the chassis, all the tubes have 1967 as the date and say Philco Cool Chassis TV. I'm almost afraid to touch any of that dust for fear of being zapped... there's a local TV shop that's been around since the 50s that only charges $40 for a diag and may be able to help me. I'm guessing a retube is probably not out of the question, eg replace tubes in the chassis since I have no way of testing them, but finding NOS tubes will be a PITA.

I can very occasionally get a "watchable picture" with smashed highlights and exaggerated colour. Seldomly it will flash and give hints that the 21fbp22a it has will give a glorious picture, but most of the time it has fits and won't lock on the picture. When it does, it looks like a weak signal, noisy and blurry.

It displays snow just fine! LOL

kvflyer · #11 08-15-2011, 07:22 PM

It's Alive!!!

Electronic M · #12 08-15-2011, 07:35 PM

I bet if you go through the horizontal adjustment proceedure in the Sam's manual for this set (maybe replace the paper caps in the horizontal osc. stage beforehand), and tweak the front adjustments carefully you will have a very good picture.

Tom C.

miniman82 · #13 08-15-2011, 07:38 PM

Your horizontal frequency is off a bit, tweak the hold control till it comes in. If you can't get it, the pots will need to be cleaned/replaced as required. Mine did the same thing, I'd just replace the front panel controls since they are very low quality. After that, you'll probably get a very watchable picture. Mine didn't even need a recapping job, it works just fine with original parts.

bgadow · #14 08-15-2011, 11:19 PM

Did you tweak the AGC? Yes, it isn't hard to mistune so that channel 3 shows up on channel 4. Easier on some sets than others.

A wholesale tube change is overkill. For the most part, those aren't hard to find. A number of us on here could set you up with any you need.

fujifrontier · #15 08-16-2011, 12:40 PM

Yes, I tweaked the AGC back and forth thru its range of operation, it doesn't seem to have any effect. The H-V hold pots on the front of the TV have limited effect. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and spend the $40 to have the local TV shop take a look at it... with my level of patience I don't trust myself to do anything beyond twist knobs to this set, and especially because I don't know which parts are hot with voltage.