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  #31  
Old 08-09-2008, 11:16 PM
Kathy Kathy is offline
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Hello
Doug and old-tv-nut... I am just someone who appreciates electronics (except I am struggling with the logistics of this blog as a newbie). Electronics is in my blood simply because I grew up with a dad who brought home 3-4 tv sets at one time and stacked them on top of each other for "field testing". :0) really! That's what he said.

I remember our "clicker" actually clicked! and it had two switches, one for changing the channel and one for on and off. Then there was the "works in a drawer" and the "instamatic" for dimming or brightening the picture screen on the tv. (a sensory spot on the front panel to match the level of light in the room).

Life in the plant was not good before the 1974 purchase, and the transition to a better work environment did not happen over night. But I do think the Japanese may have invented mass lay-offs. No offense but it was like a chopping block. Dad came home white as a ghost on those days. The company meant everything to him. Post WWll work ethic. How could he be responsible for giving someone the "ax". He swallowed all that stress.

He had to have worked there for 40 years. I think life got better eventually within the Quasar company. Headquarters moved to New Jersey, home of Panasonic and MECA (Matshusita Electronic Company of America). But remember, Motorola severed all ties to this company in 1974 and got out of the tv business all together. Motorola cellphones were a completely different product line unrelated to Matsushita employees, despite anyone working there with asian descent.

This year 2008, the name will be Panasonic (world wide) no more National, or Matsusita. Even though the old cronies who shepherded this company through many economic, cultural and technological trials are now long gone.

My dad's name was Merlyn Armstrong. He was director of engineering for several years. Died may 18, 1983. Age 56 at work. Could have used a defibrillator back then !! Just wasn't enough voltage for personal use at that Quasar Franklin Park location in '83 !!! JUST KIDDING,

Is digital really a lot better than analog? I'm holding on to our "photo slides" - digital reproduction is limited quality for printing, right?

Nice photos of the Quasar building. !!!! Doug. Hang on to them, please?
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  #32  
Old 08-10-2008, 09:07 PM
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Hi Kathy - I remember your dad's name, although I can't recall interacting with him.
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  #33  
Old 02-05-2019, 02:31 PM
bikerspade bikerspade is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by drh4683 View Post
If you are familar with Motorola TV's then you are also familar with the address you see on the back or sticker of just about any pre 1975 motorola consumer product (TV radio, phono.) "Motorola Inc. 9401 W. Grand Ave Franklin Park, IL"

This is the main assembly plant that I visited today, May 5, 2007. The plant is still up and standing but will soon be rehabed into "The Grand Lofts" as you can see in the sign up on the front office of the plant. So the building will not be demolished, just turned into living space. I suggest you visit thegrandlofts.com and you can read a brief history of what this building was all about. Franklin Park is still a very nice suburb, mostly industrial like most of Chicago.
The plant on Grand Ave is only a couple miles west of chicago. In the beginning photos you see the Front main office of the plant. Next you see the NW sides of the plant. As the photo progress, I take photos as I walk south on Edington St. untill I get to the south side of the plant, then I walk east taking photos of the south side, water tower and then walk north on the east side of the plant, untill I finish at the north end. Take a good look at the water tower photos. You can see what once read "QUASAR" on the tower through the rust. You can tell it was even painted over at one time too. Throughout all this photo shooting, I did not see the motorola logo or anything to do with motorola or quasar anywhere inside or outside of the building other than what you can see on the water tower.
I went to an estate sale on Odell st. in chicago today which brought me close to the Motorola plant. I just happened to find a Box for a vintage Motorola quasar color TV in the basement. No TV, but the box was cool and took it. In the living room was a mid 80's quasar TV. I would be willing to bet that the people who lived in that home worked at the motorola plant.
Heres the description for each of the 46 photos, Enjoy:
Photo 1: Front View (North end) of Motorola Office at 9401 W. Grand Ave.
photo 2: West side of office
photo 3: SW side of office
photo 4: NW side of plant. (The office is attached and part of the plant)
photo 5: Office and employee enterance, NW side of plant
photo 6: inside view through window at NW side.
photo 7: west side of plant
photo 8-12: Inside view of plant through auxillary door on west side. Each photo is a different view continuing to the south
photo 13-14: SW side of plant
photo 15: View looking NE
photo 16: Inside view through SW enterance looking N.
photo 17: South end, loading docks nearest the west
photo 18: South end, loading docks, nearest the east
photo 19-20: Inside view through loading dock overhead door.
photo 21-22: Water Tower NE side
photo 23: SE end of building
photo 24: Water tower, west side
photo 25: SE end of building
photo 26: Water tower, SW end
photo 27: Water tower, West end
photo 28: Inside view of building through door window on SE end of plant
photo 29: E side, looking SW
photo 30-31: Mechanical Room, view through door on E side.
photo 32: NE end of building
photo 33: E view of office and plant
photo 34: E end of office
photo 35: NE end of plant
photo 36: Parking, under office, looking to the west.
photo 37: NE end of office
photo 38-39: N end, front Main enterance
photo 40: Sign in front of building, looking to the west
photo 41: Intersection of Grand Ave+ Edington St looking NW.
photo 42: NE end, looking SE off Edington St.
photo 43: NW end at Grand and Edington st.
photo 44: Grand and Edington looking E
photo 45: Front of building
photo 46: Front of building with a Motorola color TV box found at an estate sale just down the street from the plant!
Are these photos still available for viewing?
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  #34  
Old 02-16-2020, 08:43 AM
cpd122 cpd122 is offline
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I can’t view the attached photos
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  #35  
Old 02-16-2020, 09:36 AM
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Looks like the photos are gone.

The buildings were demolished a while back and now it's the site of a server farm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIoxwVpWs5k
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  #36  
Old 02-18-2020, 10:32 AM
Tom9589 Tom9589 is offline
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Thanks for the YouTube link. I particularly like the nostalgic last few minutes. It raised two questions about the 23GP22 CRT:

1. Was Motorola the company that designed and produced the first 23GP22s?
2. Why did the 23GP22 have such a short service life? Were the electron guns of inferior design/quality? Did the phosphors require so much drive that the electron guns just didn't last long?
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  #37  
Old 02-18-2020, 12:15 PM
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I don't know exactly what the 23GP22 problems arose from. Not sure if it could be attributed to cathode problems or general quality.

Generally, CRT life depended on the cleanliness of the production and the thoroughness of evacuation and gettering, as well as the cathode characteristics. Motorola CRT production seems to have been mediocre, but not the worst, which "honor" would have to go to Admiral.
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  #38  
Old 02-18-2020, 12:48 PM
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AlanInSitges AlanInSitges is offline
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When I was maybe 12 years old, in Jr. High, I worked in the shop that sold and serviced newly-Quasar TVs in our little town. I was a Quasar fanatic, in the way that only teenage boys can be. One summer we were driving up to Michigan for family vacation and had to pass through Chicago on our way. Looking at the map I realized that Franklin Park was nearby, and begged, pleaded, annoyed, and harangued my father until he agreed to try to visit.

He pulled over at a pay phone and called up the factory, explaining who we were, who I was, and that I wouldn't give up until we got to visit. I was hoping to at least come into the lobby, collect a few brochures, and get a picture or two.

We pulled up to what I believe was the building in the photos in the OP an hour later and a guy in a suit met us at the door. He introduced himself to me but I don't remember his name, sadly. Later he took us onto the factory floor, showed me the wave-soldering line, and some other assembly. I was beside myself. After the factory tour, we went into a showroom of sorts and he showed me the upcoming models. This was a huge deal (to me) because it was the year they switched from the SuperModule to the DynaModule, and introduced DynaColor with VIR. We had heard about these sets but hadn't seen them yet. I had SOOOO many questions: what if the VIR signal transmitted bad instructions? Would DynaColor step in and fix it? Did they switch to the (smaller, denser) DynaModule to keep repair shops from repairing the modules instead of swapping them? Why did ASS sound so bad? I think I about wore him out.

Anyway he spent about an hour with us, answered all of my questions, and sent me home with an as-yet-unseen brochure for the upcoming sets. I am sure I was the happiest 12-year-old on the planet that day. I really wish I remembered his name, I'd like to thank him again.
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  #39  
Old 02-18-2020, 12:52 PM
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Electronic M Electronic M is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom9589 View Post
Thanks for the YouTube link. I particularly like the nostalgic last few minutes. It raised two questions about the 23GP22 CRT:

1. Was Motorola the company that designed and produced the first 23GP22s?
2. Why did the 23GP22 have such a short service life? Were the electron guns of inferior design/quality? Did the phosphors require so much drive that the electron guns just didn't last long?
The way I understand it the 23EGP22 was developed in 1965 by Motorola (and IIRC was a joint effort with national video or one motos CRT suppliers) to be the first American rectangular color since Westinghouse's failed recalled 1958 rectangular color CRT.

The EGP used a monochrome CRT envelope and was one of the only rectangular color CRTs with the HV button on the side. The EGP had a very orangey red phosphor which made achieving natural looking color difficult....add to that Motorola was using their single tube SODPIL color demodulator circuit which had weak green gain and required both hue and tint controls...this made natural color even more tricky to achieve.

Then on top of that the EGP had cathode emission life issues and an excessive number failed in warranty or shortly after.... I've read on VK that when the plant built to make them got dismantled to be used for something else that debris was found in a wash tank or similar and was probably contaminating the tubes and causing the early failure.

By the time these tubes were failing en masse other makers had developed 25" CRTs that had better reliability and most EGP sets were converted to those.

Doug/DRH4683 will tell you that the EGP is also dangerous to do a cataract removal on....I don't think he is the only member here that has had an EGP implode during a cat removal either.
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  #40  
Old 02-18-2020, 02:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AlanInSitges View Post
When I was maybe 12 years old, in Jr. High, ...
What a great story! Thanks for sharing.
Exactly what year was that? (Trying to figure out if I was out of college and working there.)
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  #41  
Old 02-18-2020, 04:55 PM
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Robert Grant Robert Grant is offline
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It seemed to me that when I took up the hobby of fixing discarded television sets from curbsides (circa 1978) that a TV repairman told me that the 23EGP was, in reality, a 21" tube! And that the tubes were made from the shells of dud 21" monochrome picture tubes (how did they ever get to add two inches to the claimed diagonal measure?).
Any truth to that?
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  #42  
Old 02-18-2020, 05:15 PM
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Originally Posted by Robert Grant View Post
It seemed to me that when I took up the hobby of fixing discarded television sets from curbsides (circa 1978) that a TV repairman told me that the 23EGP was, in reality, a 21" tube! And that the tubes were made from the shells of dud 21" monochrome picture tubes (how did they ever get to add two inches to the claimed diagonal measure?).
Any truth to that?
This doesn't make sense.

1) Picture tube sizes were for a long time specified by outside diagonal. When the requirement for designation by viewable diagonal came in, designations added the letter "V," which was eventually dropped for new tubes when the tubes had been specified that way for some period of time.
2) I have read that the 23EGP22 envelope was based on a monochrome envelope design, but that does not mean it had no added features, was assembled in the same order or was made from duds.

Monochrome tubes could be complete assemblies of faceplate, funnel, and neck before the phosphor was applied. A color tube faceplate had to have locating details to mount the shadow mask in precisely the same location at least four times in a row: once for each color phosphor and then before mating the faceplate and mask to the funnel. So, there are details missing or confused in this story.

The process of removing and replacing the mask for each phosphor application is why monochrome rebuilds could include replacing the phosphor, but color tube rebuilds could not. Once the faceplate/mask assembly was fritted to the funnel, there was no removing it.
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  #43  
Old 02-18-2020, 09:00 PM
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Thanks for the info.
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  #44  
Old 02-18-2020, 10:44 PM
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23EGP22 data sheet can be found at
https://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/202/2/23EGP22.pdf

Outer diagonal is shown as 23 11/32, +3/23, -1/8;
Useful screen diagonal 22 3/8; useful width 19 7/32, useful height 15 3/8.

19.21875/15.375 = 1.25
Notice that this is narrower than the standard image aspect ratio of 1.3333...

This meant that the active trace time could be reduced from about 63.6-10.9 =52.7 microseconds to 49.4 microseconds, increasing the retrace time to 63.6 - 49.4 = 14.2 microseconds, which would crop the sides without geometric distortion of the image.

This increase in retrace time by 30% was very advantageous for reducing the peak voltage on the horizontal output transistor in solid state sets.
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  #45  
Old 02-19-2020, 09:30 AM
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Most CRTs lost 2" from their designation after the 1968 screen size law. The 21FBP22 became a 19V##22, 25##P22s became 23V##P22s etc.
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