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  #1  
Old 03-14-2008, 01:21 AM
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Hoffmann Colorcaster......Alive and well!

Some of you may remember this set. It was on the old swap forum. This past weekend I picked her up in Denver and brought it home on Monday.

I have included the pictures that were put up by Nick (HColorcaster). I will post new pics as soon as I get some done.

Nick said that the last time he saw the set work, the picture was really faded. This set had the "instant on" feature and we all know that is a CRT killer.

So I put the crt on my B&K 467 tester and sure enough, the all three guns were weak on the very low side of weak. Since this crt (25BP22A) is not all that uncommon and since I have a spare, I figured I would give it some voltage and see what happend.

I ran the tube at 8 volts for a couple of hours to see if this had any effect. It did bring the tube up to the high side of weak but still not good enough to track or focus well so I ran the clean/balance procedure. This brought the crt back to life! All three guns are in the high side of the "good" range and the life test shows that there seems to be a good bit of life left in the tube.

Ok, so my next thing was to see what kind of shape the chassis was in. The chassis is definitely an RCA clone. It looks a lot like a modified CTC-16 or it could be a 17 but I am not sure and haven't tracked down a sams for it yet. The audio board is not transistorized so I know the chassis should be based on a pre CTC-21.

I turned on the vacation switch and slowly brought power to it on the variac and all the filaments came up as they should with no problems. I pressed forward, this time bringing up the set slowly to a full on position. Woohoo, I had a beautiful picture! The crt needs some deguassing but aside from that, the color was perfect, the crt was nice, bright and clear and, aside from dirty tuner, worked very well. I was amazed at the picture quality and how well the set worked. The set shows very little evidence of technician work (all screws and interlocks are still with the set too) and judging by the amount of dust and gunk on the set, it does have a good number of hours on it but appears that it has the original crt (an RCA HiLite Tube) and I it's exciting that it is in such good working condition. This one could easily be a daily watcher once restored and I am thrilled!

I am so glad that it didn't get tossed to the trash. It almost was sent there.

While regtangular color sets are not my preferred "antique" tv, I now have 5 rectangular sets (RCA CTC21 (my family set), a Sylvania 23" (my grandparents set), a RCA G2000 (cuz its cool), a Zenith Chromacolor II (cuz it too is cool) and now the Hoffie). This Hoffie is one of those "oddity" specimens and I am sure glad to have her. It would have been a shame for this one to go to the landfill, especially with so much life left in her.

Roy
Attached Images
File Type: jpg hoffman 1 copy.jpg (92.9 KB, 97 views)
File Type: jpg hoffman 2 copy.jpg (104.6 KB, 41 views)
File Type: jpg hoffman 3 copy.jpg (94.3 KB, 102 views)
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Old 03-14-2008, 01:41 AM
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Roy,

Glad you were able to save that Hoffman. Can't be too many of those around. Interesting that Hoffman still used the "Colorcaster" name for its color receiver line. I think the color icons on the controls are very cool. Nice job bringing the pix tube back to life.

-Steve D.
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Old 03-14-2008, 09:23 AM
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I too am glad! That set is SWEET! and very unique, this being the first I've seen besides a few '50s ones. I am very happy for you Roy!!
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Old 03-14-2008, 11:34 AM
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Really great that you could grab it. I had been wondering if anyone got out there. I don't think we'll see anymore examples of this one.
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Old 03-14-2008, 10:17 PM
peverett peverett is offline
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What are you "preferred" antique TVs? I live in Austin, Texas, have a surplus of TVs and come to Oklahoma several times a year(My mother lives there, not to far from OKC).
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Old 03-15-2008, 12:16 PM
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Quote:
peverett What are you "preferred" antique TVs? I live in Austin, Texas, have a surplus of TVs and come to Oklahoma several times a year(My mother lives there, not to far from OKC).
Shoot me a PM. I would love to hear what ya got. I frequently go down to Ft. Worth. I am going down there on the 29th for an engagement photo shoot for a couple whose wedding I will be photographing in May. And my Aunt lives in Burleson so between seeing her and my line of work, I get down that way several times a year.

My preferred anitique color tvs are of course, the CT-100 but in a more realistic mode, roundies. But I seem to have enough of the CTC-16 which seems to be a VERY common chassis. There is one on the bay that I would love to have because of the cabinet but I have bid up to $175 on it and just don't want to crazy with it because it is a 16. Especially now with the purchase of the 9 in GA. I also have another 16 table top model waiting for me in MO.

But the roundies are the coolest. Funny, as a kid, I didn't like them. They were "too old fashioned." Of course, I had my family's CTC-21 so at the time, anything older was junk.

As I got older and wiser I have learned to appreciate the roundie and kind of fell in love with them. I would love to get a Philco or a nice Zenith roundie. Certainly a CTC-7 or 5. Sets that get me closer to the origins of the technology. To get an Admiral would be just awesome and those don't show up much whether rectangular or roundie.

The main thing whether the set is rectangular or a roundie is there should be something unique about it (like the Hoffie). That Hoffie is the first one I have EVER seen in my entire life and I lived in Los Angeles for 13 years. It seems the West coast was where the Hoffies were distributed most. This one lived in Denver all its life.

The real and most special thing about the roundies CT-100 through 9 and maybe even the 16 (although I am not so certain) is that these sets were pushing the envelope of the technology very hard and it seems that by the 17 and definitely by the 21, the technology was much, much more stable becoming more typical than the unusual. Even the G-2000, which, in my opinion is a super cool set, while it pushed the envelope in many, many ways with basic computer circuits and a 100% solid state chassis, it is basically a souped up 21 with LOTS of add ons. It wasn't all that far of a reach as a CTC-5 technologically. It was just freakin expensive to produce for the time.

But I have to be really picky these days, just flat out running out of room. But I will make room for something really cool!

So there you have it in a LOOOOOOONG winded thread.

Roy
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Old 03-16-2008, 02:01 AM
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I tried to locate the SAMS for this hoffie but it doesn't register anything to the model number of the set.

So far I haven't found a stamp with a chassis number on it. All I have at the moment is the model.

Any thoughts as to which Sams or Rider would match this set?


Hoffman Model: W-7320SL

Thanks!

Roy
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Old 03-16-2008, 02:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RCAkid View Post
I tried to locate the SAMS for this hoffie but it doesn't register anything to the model number of the set.

So far I haven't found a stamp with a chassis number on it. All I have at the moment is the model.

Any thoughts as to which Sams or Rider would match this set?


Hoffman Model: W-7320SL

Thanks!

Roy
Roy,

I believe it's SAMS set #904 folder 2. Chassis 913-00366. Model #W7320.

-Steve D.
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Old 03-16-2008, 09:43 AM
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No Hoffman's in South bend

Although I've seen ads and pictures of sets on AK forum, I can't remember ever seeing a Hoffman set in our area. We had Packard Bell's but No Hoffman's or Olympia's......must have been lack of distribution in our area.
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Old 03-16-2008, 02:36 PM
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Quote:
I believe it's SAMS set #904 folder 2. Chassis 913-00366. Model #W7320.

-Steve D.
Thanks Steve!

It's funny, I eventually found the Sams on the Sams site with the chassis number you gave. I did find the 913-00366 on the chassis. It was weird, on the Sams site, it couldn't find the folder for it using the search on the chassis number. Just weird. And yes, I took out the dash. I finally just put in a partial number and searched through the records and poof there it was.

I am ordering it today so I can eventually restore the old girl.

Thanks again!

Roy
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Old 03-16-2008, 10:47 PM
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I've found that the online index misses some stuff that is listed in the printed ones. A little while back I got a call from a friend of a friend who had found a certain model set at a live auction; I frantically searched the net for information as the friend couldn't offer many details. There was no listing for the model # on the Sams site, but when I got home and pulled out my paper index from '86 it was right there.
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