Panasonic 9" B&W Portable "The Derby"

[maxm]

I found this set a few years ago at an estate sale. It appears to have been received as a Christmas gift (card was still in the box), used a few times, then put away for decades. Most portable sets tend to be beat-up and dirty. This one looks almost new. The chassis photos show it just as found, no cleaning was done.

[mstaton]

Very nice! You don't see those much anymore. Those were great sets.

[maxm]

Additional photos:

[Celt]

Excellent!

[Notimetolooz]

Nice! What year?

[Electronic M]

Speed-O-Vision, For when you want to see all characters in skimpy bathing suits...
That takes first place for funniest Instant on trade name I've seen.

You really don't see them that clean often. My ~12" panny had about 1" of dust and cig tar in it.

[jstout66]

Love it! They were good sets, but they baked themselves to death with heavy use. Plus the Speed-O-Vision (instant on) didn't help. IIRC, they were at full power even when off. Some instant on sets ran at half the power, so altho not "instant" they still came on quicker than a non equipped set.

[Crist Rigott]

Nice!

[dishdude]

Great find!

[Findm-Keepm]

11MS8, what a hard tube to find back in the 70s, despite the flooding of the market with Panny B/W sets. The 11MS8 was a commodity - swapping among shops was the only way to get them. We found an "out" - the Navy Exchange Service Center in Yokosuka, Japan agreed to sell us a sleeve of 5. When dad retired in 2008, we still had 2 left...

Awesome little sets - tubes, dirty tuners, and the vertical caps would cause trouble - swapped in dipped micas to solve most oscillator/hold problems. CRTs would die before the rest of the set.