Philco TV-123 chassis available (2)

[rca2000]

A guy ion the AZ. area I am trying to get one of those remote-only colortrack sets from has TWO TV-123 chassis available he says.

I just KNOW someone here might find that interesting!!

[Don Lindsly]

Are they complete TVs or just chassis?

[Dave A]

Can you find out the condition of the chasiss? Rust, missing parts, etc.

Dave A

[ChuckA]

Can you have him get the serial # and run # stenciled on the rear of the chassis'?

Dave: Can never have enough spares - right?

Chuck

[Dave A]

Chuck,

You can never have enough spares. You never know when your complete and restored TV-123 will need parts.

See you at the February DVHRC meeting.

Dave A

[Pete Deksnis]

Chuck, I see from the ETF data base the number of TV-123's has sky-rocketed up to six! Have you recorded a serial number above 356 yet?

[ChuckA]

Pete,

I have only 5 complete sets listed, have to check with Steve and see if he has info on the new one. 356 is still the highest serial number of all the complete and incomplete ones I have.

Chuck

[Steve McVoy]

6 confirmed: ETF, Chuck A., Pete D., Dave A., Pioneer Village in Nebraska, Collector in CA. (blonde cabinet). Reported, but not confirmed: Estate of Danny Gustafson

[rca2000]

He said he would try and get them. He said the chassis are "mostly complete".

[ChuckA]

I don't have the numbers from Pioneer Village or the California one. I contacted Pioneer Village, but never got any response, I think Ed R. also tried.


Chuck

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by ChuckA

Can you have him get the serial # and run # stenciled on the rear of the chassis'?

Dave: Can never have enough spares - right?

Chuck

Ok. He got the numbers off of ONE chassis.

10307, Run 1.

He gave me permision to give out his ADDY::

See if this link works::

mailto:yavapaitv@msn.com

[ChuckA]

That's part of the number. The actual serial number is the next 3 digits, then 501 which is the run.


Chuck

[Don Lindsly]

As I recall, all Philco serial numbers of the era were two letters, followed by five numbers on a small silver sticker with a black border.

As a history trivia item; Philco provided an update kit for the TV123 chassis. It was a load of parts including a flyback, healthier horizontal output tube, improved high voltage rectifier arrangement and a sub chassis to use two 5U4s as low voltage rectifiers in place of the 5V3. The easy way to spot the mod is to look for the sub chassis. It had a cable that plugged into the power transformer socket and was mounted at the bottom of the cabinet. It also included other circuit improvements. The kit greatly improved reliability and will indicate the quality of service the TV got in its early life.

[ChuckA]

Don,

I guess these sets were the exception, the numbers are ink stamped on the chassis.

One of DaveA's chassis' I have has the power supply mod.

Chuck

[Don Lindsly]

Chuck:

I have never seeen a Philco production run consumer product with the serial number ink-stamped on the chassis. The early color TVs went through a series of reworks. Some of those were ink-stamped with dates and or engineering-notice numbers. I owned a production model until about 1964 when I sold it to an engineering manager in the computer group.

Radio and TV run numbers were typically 121, 122, 123, 124 etc. That tracks with the Philco engineering system. Unless those numbers actually state that they're serial numbers and follow the format, I suspect they are something else or the TVs are pre-production or pilot runs. Engineering models could not be mistaken for production products. Pilot runs were ink-stamped as such.

Only regular production TVs would have qualified for the free upgrade kit. To get one, the service shop had to provide a customer name, address and serial number and got paid to install it.

In any case, the TV123s sound like an interesting find and I look forward to following the progress. I hope we hear more.

Don