The 1965 Motorola "Cadet" Portable TV!

[drh4683]

Here is a 1965 Motorola "Cadet" 12" portable TV which uses the TS-454 chassis. This is the very first generation for this particular cabinet design with the handle on the side. This particular set is housed in an attractive "Mandarin Orange" cabinet which I have not seen until acquiring this set. I have the original 1965 Motorola product technical training manual for this set and it lists this particular model with that color name. The introductory paragraph in the manual states that this was essentially a "return" to small screen TV due to increased market demand for personal-portable sets. This is a higher end model as it features illuminated channel dials which is somewhat unusual to see on a 12" set. It also came with it's original Gusdorf stand that was specially designed for this set as it has a little factory clip on the stand to hold the set in place. I appear to be the first to ever have the back off the set. It's low hour and was in a clean home it's entire life and still has all of it's original Motorola tubes. Except for some of the tubes, this set is entirely made up of American components and the tuner used in this set appears to be an interesting Motorola design exclusive to the TS-454. The CRT is EIA code 836 and was by made by Motorola's right hand supplier: National Video Corp. Like most B&W sets, they produce sharp crisp pictures!
This set was built in April, 1965 at the Elgin, IL plant, which was just opened at that time. The Motorola Elgin plant was a short lived operation, so it's nice to have a model that came from there. The Elgin plant was opened up as a feeder plant and also B&W TV production was shifted there (and to the Quincy, IL plant) so that the main plant in Franklin Park could have more space for increased color TV production. After the color TV boom slowed down, Motorola was able to consolidate operations and closed the Elgin plant in 1970. At that time, personal portable B&W TV production was shifted over to their new plant in Taiwan which was the happening thing with most of the domestic manufacturers at that time. Here's the interesting part: Even though Motorola closed down the Elgin plant, they still had plenty of other plants in the Chicago area in 1970, so everyone was given the opportunity to take transfers to other nearby facilities hence no layoffs! So here's a nice little piece of Motorola history...


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