New collector in San Diego

[AiboPet]

I'm new here. I also last night registered at antiqueradio as well, but I have a feeling I'm not gonna fit in as well there since I am playing with transistorized TV sets.

About 15 years ago, I learned my dad was collecting (a VERY small collection) of what I would call "micro" TV sets. He gave me a set that he apparently either spent alot of time fixing up....or, it was a great set in REALLY nice condition to start with. He gave me this Sony 5-303 "Tummy" TV in it's little blue suitcase, manual and it's odd little AC cord. I've now had this thing like 15 years, and I would sometimes plug it in...turn it on, and smile when seeing it's "warm" B/W picture after about 20 seconds. THEN...I would put it away for another six months or so.

Well.....I lost Dad earlier this year. nobody wanted all the little "old TV sets", so I decided to just take ALL of them, all the little things associated with them, and bring them down to my little 2 bedroom flat in San Diego (He lived in Los Angeles). Was worried these little sets were just gonna end up TRASHED, and even though none of them were really collectable (the 303 he gave me was really the nicest one)....I decided to sort of meld his collection with my own little collection of "micro" computers (not "microcomputers"...but "very small computers"). His little TV sets look neat among my little Toshiba Libretto laptops and TINY little Artigo computers I have been keeping in good nic for years.

Well.....I also found among his paperwork, a sort of "wish list" of some more rare and older small sets he had scribbled down by either make and model, or some obscure names like "Quasar 5" Pac Man" (an actual entry!). i did recognize some of these sets as "I really wanted one" as a kid....but of course when I was like 15, I couldn't buy a $600.00 JVC CX-500 color "briefcase" style set (enter eBay...and now I DO have one!).

When I was in school....in my teens, I had taken a couple little elective classes on repairing old TV sets. It was just for fun, but I did become familiar with tube testers, CRT rejuvenators....pattern generators, purity, convergence,etc. I've been carrying around this SMALL ability to clean up and maybe maintain a couple vintage sets if I really wanted to. My proudest achievement really being just a total recap of an old Sanyo monitor in my own upright Nintendo Donkey Kong cabinet.

After a few months of just playing around on ebay and buying some cute little TV sets to play around with (I would actually LOOK for descriptions that included minor issues)...I now have Dad's little collection of around a dozen sets......into a collection of nearly 50. A dozen of them a very specific collection of these little chinese "throwaway" sets by Coby, Curtis, Pacific Tech, etc. I could find those for like ten bucks, and started getting them in different cabinet colors just for fun. So they are now their OWN little collection....and I keep a few around just for "playing with". Got a few "basket cases" to work on, use as video monitors, etc.

About a month ago, I got my first micro that I would consider an antique (not counting the Sony 303 of course). I attempted a recap of a Sony 700U simply because I just LOVED it's little compact look. That set is actually STILL not completely well, but I did bring it from "completely dead" to merely "annoying". I found a Sony 900U that ended up ALREADY being "sorta working" and have not messed with it yet.

This last weekend.....I went to a swap meet, and must have walked by this STUNNING looking little Sony 8-301 set on a table like FOUR times. ALL the knobs were there, antenna all there...and even it's little sun shield present and in need of only some very minor attention. He wanted thirty bucks.....and I figured it was worth it even if the thing was JUST to look at on a shelf. Turns out, it SORTA works...but with some classic capacitor issues.

At that point...I decided I'm now into "restoration" and not just "cleaning up and keeping". Joined up to antiqueradio...and here