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  #31  
Old 03-08-2016, 11:39 AM
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I wouldn't try to reform the caps, I'd replace them, maybe restuff them. If you can see the heater in the CRT light up, it likely still has vacuum. Still need to find out if the flyback, yolk, and other unobtanium items are all good. Probably a ton of wax caps to replace...


I don't suppose the warranty is any good, even if you are the original owner and you just bought it from the store...
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  #32  
Old 03-08-2016, 11:55 AM
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My TRK12's electrolytic caps were bad, very very bad.
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  #33  
Old 03-08-2016, 12:09 PM
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THAT has got to be one of the top-tier finds EVER!

You didn't ask, but here's my 2-cents: a totally original set is one of the few examples of the type of mass-produced artifacts we collect that deserves to stay totally original. Please consider leaving it 100% factory stock original, even if that means it will never work. Lots of other sets work. Stratospherically few are 100% original.

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  #34  
Old 03-08-2016, 12:40 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandy G View Post
This score is about as good as finding a Guttenberg bible in an old trunk in yr Mamaw's house.. Or stumbling over a "Patent Motorenwagen" in the barn. Wonder how many lines per the CRT its set up for ? 441?
Many years ago I remember going to the estate sale of a book collector who's family had a find like the former...I don't remember if the book was a bible or what, but it apparently was a very old book put out by the church, and the church had put a scrap of Mary's clothing in the book...

From what I understand for most pre-war sets the scan rate conversion was as simple as turning the horizontal hold control till the sync locked. IIRC the OP said the tuner had been converted to a postwar type so it was probably last used with late 40's-50's NTSC. The sound conversion might be interesting...Pre-war sets were AM sound modern sets are FM sound. IIRC some prewar sets could be adjusted to work with no circuit changes. If the AM IF has the right bandwidth you can tune it so that the frequency of one audio peak is at the peak of the IF response curve, and the frequency of the audio valley is outside of or on the lower ragged edge of the IF response curve....This makes the IF response curve convert a varying frequency to a varying amplitude that an AM detector circuit can make into sound.
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  #35  
Old 03-09-2016, 06:37 PM
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I guess you have to debate the tuner conversion history to decide if it is factory original as converted or later in the home and not factory. In the factory...leave it as is? In the home...corrections have been made and more conversions do not change history? This set was never in a home. Did it arrive at the store already converted?

I do not know when RCA did the conversions on either the 12 or the 120. My 120 has the conversion. Just asking.
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  #36  
Old 03-09-2016, 08:29 PM
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The tuner conversion consisted of realigning the coils and putting new decals on, if I remember correctly.
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  #37  
Old 03-09-2016, 08:56 PM
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You sure you want to keep that in your basement? In that condition, I'd move it into the living room.
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  #38  
Old 03-10-2016, 04:47 AM
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I've been in his basement. It's like a first class museum
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  #39  
Old 03-10-2016, 06:09 AM
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Sorry for not replying in a while. I don't mean to abandon the thread. My son Enzo was born on Saturday and I've been busy and very sleep deprived since then. I am in contact with the original store owner's grandson and will be getting as much history as possible soon, I just have to sleep for more than 90 minutes at a time first.
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  #40  
Old 03-10-2016, 08:36 AM
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Congratulations on the birth of your son!!
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  #41  
Old 03-10-2016, 09:03 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve McVoy View Post
The tuner conversion consisted of realigning the coils and putting new decals on, if I remember correctly.
If my set is a correct example, which it may not be as it was shipped around to various RCA places as a test bed ....

It most certainly was NOT "realigning" the coils! The alignment range on my oscillator coils if FAR too small. In fact, except for (current) channels 3 and 4 its insufficient to get the sound carrier to tune properly into range of the fine tuning, which even on 3 and 4 barely has enough range.

The coils were actually rewound. This is obvious looking at them.

The tuner design is very, very bad indeed. The main problem is that the tuning wafers on the switch are too large in diameter, meaning that wires are too long. The coils are too big. Some are not even coils ... they are straps that are very low inductance. In fact I had to augment the width of one
by soldering on a strip of copper sheet about 3/16 x 3/4 inches to get
one coil to tune correctly (to the "intermediate" channel set to which my set is tuned.). I do note that I have tried heterodyning
"cable series" channels down into range of channels 1, 2, and 5 (oscillator frequency under the incoming frequency) and they
work fine by fine tuning the frequency synthesizer.

Also the 6J5 was likely the best tube to use, in its time, but still, the distance from the socket tabs to the tube elements is rather too long.

Last edited by dtvmcdonald; 03-10-2016 at 09:08 AM.
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  #42  
Old 03-10-2016, 07:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vts1134 View Post
Sorry for not replying in a while. I don't mean to abandon the thread. My son Enzo was born on Saturday and I've been busy and very sleep deprived since then. I am in contact with the original store owner's grandson and will be getting as much history as possible soon, I just have to sleep for more than 90 minutes at a time first.
Congratulations ! ~ Yah - the tv can wait........

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  #43  
Old 03-12-2016, 09:55 PM
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Simply flabbergasted. Amazing.

Best to leave that one totally alone.
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  #44  
Old 03-16-2016, 01:41 PM
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I spoke again briefly with the original store owner's grandson and he has promised a full write up of the history of his grandfather, the shop, and the television as well as he can remember/dig up. He thought he might also be able to provide photographs of his grandfather (Clayton Amerman) and of the shop where the television sat for its life. I will of course share anything I receive about the set here.

As for the set itself, I would hesitate to call it completely original and new. I put new in quotes because it was "new" to me, and "new" to any home besides the store from which it came. The finish is in very good condition, but not perfect. There are some spots on the finish that are a little dry. Adding a coat of wax helped tremendously, and I suspect if the set had been treated with some wax every few years it would have looked like it rolled off the assembly line yesterday. Also keep in mind the chassis has been worked on after leaving the factory because the postwar tuner upgrade has been performed. I was able to slide my phone behind the television chassis and I also see a few replacement capacitors. I don't know if these were done at the time of the tuner upgrade or not. All in all the set is incredible, but as with every other 76 year old television, it's not perfect.

I would very much like to find an original owner's manual for the set some day. Does any one out there have an original they would be willing to part with? I know the manual is a rare find, but if you have one I'd sure love to hear from you.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave S View Post
THAT has got to be one of the top-tier finds EVER!

You didn't ask, but here's my 2-cents: a totally original set is one of the few examples of the type of mass-produced artifacts we collect that deserves to stay totally original. Please consider leaving it 100% factory stock original, even if that means it will never work. Lots of other sets work. Stratospherically few are 100% original.

-- Dave Sica
Rest assured this will stay in its original state minus a bit of clean up here and there. There are plenty of other sets to mess around with...

Here are some interesting photos I've taken.

Under television chassis, I spot 10 postwar replacement capacitors, how many can you spot?:





Original channel frequency ranges scribbled out when they did the postwar tuner upgrade:



The shop owner and location stamped on the television chassis, Clayton Amerman Peapack NJ.

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  #45  
Old 03-16-2016, 03:30 PM
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Interesting about the replacement capacitors. Now I wonder if the set got regular use in the store during the first few years of it's life.
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