Blessed by the God of collecting

[TUD1]

Yeah, that's probably true. I'd like to find an electronically restored RCA Victor from the late 50's. Those are my favorite. I wonder how much that would cost? I really only want to have one nice vintage TV.

[Electronic M]

A decent unrestored CTC-5 will probably run you $250-600 from someone that knows what it is.....Restored probably in the $400- ~1000 range. Roundys pre-1960 did not sell well back then and are not easy to find, thus the rarity makes them sought after and valuable. Unless you know how to test a CRT for gas don't buy one with it's original 21AXP22 unless it works enough to light the screen....Gassy CRTs test GREAT for emission, but will not display a picture (ask me how I know).

I'd recommend a CTC-7 or later for a first set. Cost and scarcity is lower and they use the all glass CRTs which are MUCH less likely to be gassy.

Don't think restored is a way to get around working on them. I've restored several sets and the ones that see regular use need at least annual maintenance.

[TUD1]

Okay, thanks for the advice. I have no problem with the CTC-7, 9, and 10 sets. I'm obviously new to the vintage (pre 1970) TV community, but a few years back, I collected 70's and 80's sets. My daily driver is a 1989 Zenith.

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

IIRC your a radio guy. If that is so, you will want to work on a monochrome set before you even touch a tube color set to avoid opening a can of worms you are not ready for. Also CTC-5s are fairly rare....In the South unless you happen to live in a good area for vintage TVs you may be lucky to find any round screen color set.

Yep...Around here, up til the mid '70s, anyway, a LOT of people were POOR... A Color Set was just about an almost UNIMAGINABLE Luxury... I remember going to my mothers' cousins place in the Sixties, because Johnny & Caddy had a COLOR SET... It was a sort of funky olive-green metal cased Zenith, IIRC. They HAD color broadcasting there in Kingsport, but I don't think their color set had ever been properly set-up, the screen was sort of a funky purplish/green color on B/W stuff..

[wkand]

Absolutely right Sandy!! Even up here on the left coast, before Seee-attle became a hip place people were losing their homes in the late 60's early 70's. My dad did not have a good job for 3 years, and dad was willing to not eat vs. not having TV.We kept our Zenith roundy as our only set from '65 through '75. we got a lot of snarky comments from neighbors because we had color and they did not. Our backup set was a '54 Admiral BW metal set.

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by ohohyodafarted

Thanks for the link Daryl.

I decided to work on the Porta-Color this afternoon. These little GE sets were very reliable, and I was surprised that it did not work when I first plugged it in. I powered it up on the variac, but I did not get any filaments to light. Testing the input voltage confirmed that I did have power to the set. Darn series filaments. Pulled each tube starting at the left rear (left being opposite the tuner) and worked my way toward the tuner. Of course the last tube tested, (4LJ8) in the tuner had an open filament. Murphy's Law! I searched through the tube inventory and found a good used replacement and popped it in. The tubes lit up and I got a raster. I let it sit for about 30 minutes to stablize and then did a few adjustment and was rewarded with a very nice picture. I dont know why the photo has so much grainyness. Screen looks much better in person.

Bob,

I'm sure you're aware that the early GE Portacolor sets used the same size dot pitch as their large screen color sets. This produced a somewhat grainy picture on the small screen, lacking the sharpness you might expect. I recall buying, from the GE distributor, a GE Portacolor set the first day they went on sale. I noticed right away the lack of some detail in the image.



-Steve D.

[ohohyodafarted]

I figured it was something like that. I also think I zoomed in to close with the camera. If I had taken a more wide angle shot and then cropped the photo it there would be less detail and it would probably have looked better.

[Tom S]

I have the Same GE Porta color set. Great little performers