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  #16  
Old 11-24-2003, 12:34 PM
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Congrats on finding both a rare and attractive set! Glad to hear the CRT checks like new. That will make you more inclined to finish the 15" set and then get started on this one so we can all see! At least you know you can get a Sams for this 21" set.

Curious... what is the big knob at the bottom under the verticle trim? Is that the UHF?
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  #17  
Old 11-24-2003, 02:12 PM
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The bottom knob is volume and tone controls. The UHF tuner is tied to the VHF fine tuning control, not sure how it works until I get the chassis out.

I did get some more info on the set. It was acquired by an ABC employee in '55 or '56 as an unclaimed prize from a game show. I wonder which show was giving away color TV's in 1955-56


Chuck
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  #18  
Old 11-24-2003, 02:32 PM
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Thanks Chuck,
I always appreciate hearing some of the history of these rare early color sets. I can't imagine an ABC quiz show giving away a color set. in 1956 ABC was about 5-6 years away from their first color telecasts. Maybe the ABC brass decided to pull the set as a prize and the lucky employee was able to purchase it at discount. I have a tape of an old NBC kinescope of the "This Is Your Life" program (1957) and they gave away an RCA "Wingate" CTC-5 color set to the subject of the week Phil Harris. nice shot of the set on the tape.
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  #19  
Old 11-24-2003, 03:18 PM
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Knob

Seems they should have put the volume knob higher up being it it one of the main controls. Would not have been a good set for someone with a bad back. Guess they didn't think of being "user friendly" back in those days.
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  #20  
Old 05-15-2004, 09:38 AM
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Update on the Philco TV-123.

After 6 months of on and off restoration I have the TV-123 operating. Luckily there were no major problems to fix, replaced all the "black beauties" that Philco seemed to love, lots of electrolytics, HV capacitors that were shorted, and a few bad tubes. The biggest problem I ran into was having to reconstruct the reactance tube coil. The original uses a hex style slug for adjusting, but after 50 years the coil form shrunk and as soon as I moved the slug it froze in the form. Of course trying to free it only destroyed the slug and form, a spare one from another chassis did the same, so I rewound the coil on a new form that uses the brass screw style adjusting slug.

Now on to the second one.

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  #21  
Old 05-15-2004, 09:58 AM
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For those interested in a little more history of this set I have added some information from documents from a Philco engineer to my web site at: http://www.myvintagetv.com/philco_tv123.htm

Presently only four confirmed complete sets are known, one unconfirmed, and two chassis only. If you know of any sets out there I would appreciate any information, I am building a database to try and confirm the story that only 500 of these were produced.

Also I have about a thousand of pages of documentation about the Philco "Apple Receiver" project, internal memos, engineering reports, and schematics, covering 1950 to 1960. I have listed a bibliography of the documents at: http://www.myvintagetv.com/philco_apple_tube.htm

Many thanks to DaveA for saving these from the landfill.

I hope to scan the documents and make them available to download from my site or make them available on a CD due to the size of the scans, stay tuned.


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  #22  
Old 05-15-2004, 01:51 PM
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Wow !! Gorgeous picture !! I salute you, sir !! -Sandy G.
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  #23  
Old 05-15-2004, 03:48 PM
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Beautiful restoration Chuck. Finally got to see its sister at the ETF convention. Philco went the extra mile with cabinet design and a blockbuster chassis.
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  #24  
Old 05-15-2004, 04:51 PM
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  #25  
Old 05-15-2004, 04:58 PM
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The TV-123 was Philco's first production color set, released for the 1956 model year.

There were 4 Runs over its short production life.


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  #26  
Old 05-15-2004, 10:37 PM
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I wonder what would have happened if Philco pushed these sets instead of the Predictas? Looking at those great screen shots-the Philco guys knew what they were doing.
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  #27  
Old 05-26-2004, 03:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by bgadow
I wonder what would have happened if Philco pushed these sets instead of the Predictas? Looking at those great screen shots-the Philco guys knew what they were doing.
I agree. Philco's early b&w TVs were always good (I had a Microgrid 390 with cascode tuner in the early '70s that worked great until the base came off the CRT and the lead wires broke off at the neck, ruining the tube ) and, from the looks of the screen shots of the color set, they knew their stuff when color came along as well. I especially like the screen shot of the KYW-TV news anchor. I live near Cleveland, and remember when KYW was the NBC affiliate there from 1955-65. Good to know they are still alive and well in Philly as an affiliate of the Eye Network.

I also like the screen shot from CNN. Beautiful picture for a TV set as old as I am (I was born in 1956). It makes me wonder, though. How did you get that picture from a cable channel? I don't see a cable box anywhere on top of the set.
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  #28  
Old 05-26-2004, 06:24 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by Jeffhs
How did you get that picture from a cable channel? I don't see a cable box anywhere on top of the set.
Jeff,

It was the local channel 3 broadcasting a feed from CNN. The logo is in the lower right corner.


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  #29  
Old 01-21-2008, 07:07 PM
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Update. The Philco TV-123 moves to a new home.

You need a scorecard to keep track of this. Follow along closely.

I now have Chuck A's TV-123. He had mine for restoration but time got in the way and we decided to make a major three-way deal. My TV-123 needing restoration went to John Folsom in Florida. Chuck's fully restored set came to me. Cash moved around. Chuck gets to look at my 21CT55 chassis for a problem.

When it arrived at my house in the rain last fall, it went in the den and Chuck smiled and left. I had it on for about 1/2 hour and...poof...it quit. No HV.

Assorted major house repairs left the set waiting for looking at with lot's of consultation in the interim. The prime suspect was the BIG HV donut cap. Tubes swaps did nothing.

John supplied a modern donut cap and today was open-chassis surgery. The new donut had different threads so a bit of measuring, a trip to True Value and some drilling of mount holes got it in place.

Power up and we were making HV after one fuse change. A 53 year old 1/2 amp HV fuse. But the H osc was waaaay off. While staring at it and thinking about what could be wrong, it snapped in to place after about two minutes. ??? Back to life!

Grey-scale is a bear to set and it is close but not the best. Convergence is not the best, but good for now. The right side is not co-operating. The pic overloads at just above minimum contrast. The color control has enough color for another set. And there is audio buzz when color is tuned properly. All that for later. This set falls in to the it-is-working-do-not-mess-with-it-too-much category. A cooling fan will be considered if I can find a quiet one.

There are still only six of them.

And I ran it for an hour Chuck! He did an amazing restoration under the chassis. It is Technicolor under there with all the new caps. Now we wait to hear if John gets his/mine going.

I added a new set photo with the usual washed out CRT and a new screen shot because the old photos are not available.

Slow and sure wins the race. My thanks to all,

Dave A
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  #30  
Old 01-21-2008, 07:44 PM
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beautiful set!!!!
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