I've seen 40's and 50's consoles and table models; 50's portables with the deep 2-tone metal cabinets; Predictas; but practically never any of the large screen wide-deflection-angle black and white portables like the Philco "Slender Seventeener" or any of the other brands. Were these sets not that popular? Did they burn out frequently? Or were they just too easy to throw out when they failed?

I would love to have a set with a large sharp B&W picture in a compact cabinet.

Does anyone collect these?

I have several of these type sets. The Philco Seventeener shows up on Ebay on a fairly regular basis, so quite a few must have survived.

I am watch an early 1960s 19" RCA B&W portable as I write this.

As far as these type of sets, I have found the RCAs and Zeniths to be the best. The Zeniths have the had wired chassis and the RCAs kept the high power tubes(horizontal output, etc) mounted on a metal chassis. Motorolas prior to about 1963 did this also.

Other brands, Philco, GE, etc, mounted all tubes on the PC boards, resulting in many of them having charcoaled PC boards and being very hard to restore.

I have a string of them on a shelf-RCA, Olympic, Emerson, Westinghouse, and elsewhere GE, Zenith, Admiral. Very popular in the 60s it seems, very unloved in later years so I do think plenty of 'em got tossed. They can be decent sets.

It is correct that they can be decent sets. The quality varied a lot between manufacturers and somewhat between set models themselves.

I have models in the RCA "Sportabout" line of sets from the early 1960s. The lower end models were series string with a 6AQ5 audio output. The top of the line has a power transformer and 6BQ5 audio output. This line all has 3 IF stages, but some other models went with two if stages, usually with higher gain tubes.

It is correct that they can be decent sets. The quality varied a lot between manufacturers and somewhat between set models themselves.

I have models in the RCA "Sportabout" line of sets from the early 1960s. The lower end models were series string with a 6AQ5 audio output. The top of the line has a power transformer and 6BQ5 audio output. This line all has 3 IF stages, but some other models went with two if stages, usually with higher gain tubes.
Yeah, RCA had some 14" portables that were transformer powered. They were not much bigger than the 14" diag screens they had, but were long from front to back, with the carrying handle running front to back rather than from side to side as with later portables....Good and sturdy sets that were great--except that they were supplied with 2 pix IF stages using the pentode sections of 6CH8s (unobtainable at the time), with the triode sections serving other purposes. The IF transformers were all bifilar wound pri/sec configuration. I got one of those sets working--after a fashion. The ongoing problem seemed to be a battle of sensitivity vs banwidth. I was living in rural upstate New York at the time, and concluded that this was really a "city duty" set, and finally just let it lie as it was. A Philco Seventeener III I had at the same time could mop up the street with that pitiful RCA--performance-wise--without half trying. It is possible that I just hadn't mastered the art out of getting performance from one of those 2-pix-IF sets.... Or perhaps that's just the way they were. Earl Muntz made a killing out of marketing amazingly inexpensive sets with giant picture tubes to people living in cities, as he figured out that you don't need much rock 'n' roll going on in a chassis to get performance in urban reception conditions where you can look out a window and see the transmitter tower. But any hapless rural farmer looking for a good deal on a TV might've been disappointed with buying a set made by RCA, Muntz, Olympic, Setchell Carlson, or others using such simplified cktry....

For the record: I notice in poring through Sams files that I have seen nary a Zenith model that sported any less than 3 pix IF stages....

I would love to have a set with a large sharp B&W picture in a compact cabinet.

Does anyone collect these?

I try to, they are getting hard to find. I'm bidding on a Seventeener now {can't afford it oops oh well}, hope I win this time. I am just really cautious about the shipping on vintage sets, most people don't pack things very well. I've had a few shipping disasters but this Philco really caught my eye in the cream and turquoise. i have a nice '66 Zenith SC 300 that I use pretty often, displays that sharp picture.:yes:

The two portable RCAs that I have with power transformers are both 19" sets with three IF stages. I believe that one of the chassis numbers is KCS149. They use the 7 pin tubes, such as the 6BZ6. These are from the early to mid 1960s with the 110 degree CRTs. Both of them have worked well until recently-one has developed a horizontal sync issue. I also have two series string "Sportabout" TVs from RCA. These also have three IF stages.

The only RCA that I have with two IF stages is a KCS146 chassis set with 16 inch CRT. It works also, but has a very worn out and touchy volume control. In addition, I had to replace the vertical linearity control with a fixed resistor, the orignal was fried.

The Seventeeners(I have some of these also) have 3 if stages, but the horizontal output and damper are on the PC board, not a good idea. At least in the case of these sets(unlike later Philco sets), deep sockets were used that kept most of the heat away.

I also have never seen Zenith sets with two IF stages. Even the 12 inch B&W set that I have contains 3 if stages(and the handcrafted chassis).

I wouldn't mind a transformer based NuVista portable. I hate series string sets, so I never bid on these cause you can't tell without the obligatory back off shot...

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I've got a few
1962 19" Zenith
1965? 19" Wards
1959 21" GE (My first TV model)
1970ish 19" RCA (my second TV model)
1958? Seventeener (got two, one for parts and one nice one)

Considering how popular they once were they are scarce now for sure!
You could find plenty of them at swap meets and yard sales in the late 70's

I've got a '63 GE 17" set; the picture is quite good, but peverett is right about the tubes (mostly compactrons) being mounted on the boards (none fried in this one though, fortunately). However, it's hard to consider this thing very "portable"; drag-able is more like it.

I've found a '62 Motorola and a '63 RCA "Sweet 16" in the last couple of years at the swap meet. Got them for $5 each, and they both work quite well. More "luggable" than "portable" though as they are a little on the heavy side.


Dumont-First with the finest in television.:yes:

I recall that most of the RCA portables I encountered were transformer/parallel-filament types. The terms "luggable" and "drag-able" are approriate; some of those bad boys were very heavy.

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I used to have a 12" Motorola tube portable. it had a handle on the left side with the antenna built in. It was originally a baby blue back and white front, but it had faded to more of an avacado/banana color combo by the time I got it. I don't remember tons about the thing, it was mid 60s vintage, possibly a hybrid set. I remember it not being terribly sensitive, but it also seemed to need some attention. Best picture and best sound were not at the same point when fine-tuning the thing. It usually ended up being a compromise of some static in both picture and sound. I also don't remember what happened to it. It vanished from my possession sometime during the move 2 years ago, along with a ton of other things. I still don't know if a whole batch of my stuff never got packed, or if someone made it a point to take the truckload of "that old useless garbage" to the dump or something.