Philco Safari Help

[jshtulman1]

Hello everyone,

As you can probably tell, I am new here. However, I have been repairing tube radios and various other audio equipment for the past few years now. But, it was only today that I picked up my second vintage television set and my first real restoration project. That is where the Philco Safari comes in. This so called "portable" set weighs almost 15 pounds! It is certainly a lot bigger than it looks in pictures. Unfortunately, me being my usual stupid self, I plugged it in right away. I ended up getting snow on the screen and static coming through the speaker. YAY! IT WORKS APPARENTLY! I am going to hold off on replacing the electrolytics since I read on this forum that they are unusually reliable. Now down to the problems.....there is no antenna. What would be a suitable replacement? I have never replaced an antenna on television before, so how would you do it? In addition, the little springs that hold the hood up are gone. How would I replace those? Any replies and suggestions are greatly appreciated. I know I've dragged this post out long enough so I'll stop here.

[Don Lindsly]

Is there anything left of the original antenna, ball, broken rod, spring, etc? Some are repairable, others need a complete new unit, depending on the damage. You may be able to use a universal repair kit.

You are right about the electrolytics. They are reliable. I recommend leaving them alone unless you are sure they are defective. That set won't need much except tuner and control cleaning.

Do not clean the optical components without reading the service information. They scratch very easily and will not recover. No paper towels.

[Electronic M]

Unless you are worried about the antenna for cosmetic reasons, there is really no use for it anymore since the DTV transition killed off all transmitters of the NTSC standard which that set is meant to receive.

To use that set to watch a program on you will have to get a DTV box, cable/satalite system, VCR, DVD player, etc to use as a signal source.

[Don Lindsly]

The Safari has no provision for an external antenna. A radiated signal is the most practical way to get a signal to it. That would require some kind of antenna on the TV.

[Electronic M]

But without a comercial transmitter or personally operated agile modulator what is there to receive with an antenna?

[jshtulman1]

First off, thanks for the great replies. Now that the USPS has delivered the set, I can go more in depth about it. Everything seems to work fine, and I repaired the antenna. I used a coax to antenna converter and held one of the prongs to the monopole. The set delivered an extremely snowy picture with equally distorted sound. The picture is watchable and the sound is understandable, but I would like the picture to be crystal clear. What would be the best way to connect the antenna to a signal source without using a transmitter?

[drbock]

Have not had much luck with a hobby restoring old Sonys. So, I have tried my 1st Safari. Actually, I broke the rules and powered it up. Actually, everything
looks ok with source. Slight pullin at bottom. Otherwise screen looks undamaged. Case very good shape. I have located a 50 mw tv transmitter which hooks up to my Direct Tv composite outputs. Works very well. These units have popped up before and were ruled illegal. Now, they are back. At least limited back. They get around Safari lack of ext. Ant jack. You don't have to mess with leakage off a UHF convertor blonder tongue tuner. Anyway, the antenna pulls out of ball. Ball rotates fine. Ant. Has no kinks. So, how do you fix it? Help. I am trying to get parts set in silver. Would like to repair ant without going into Safari. Any repair kits? Otherwise, how do you do ant exchange? I heard caps are better then nightmare Sonys from 60's. Is this true. Last thing any old batteries out there to take out cells and rig in sub c cells? Help please. I have one Sony wiping me out with tip to restore shop. Can't handle the Safari right away. I am retired and I had to pick tv restore. I really regret not looking harder for a RCA 21" color