Hello,

I remember someone on this forum talking about a DuMont TV here in Italy on E*ay... Well, I bought it, it is in better conditions than I thought! I recapped the whole chassis, modified the set to take a 6CL6 in place of a 6BK5 video out (the 6BK5 had evident problems and placing an order at the place I usually buy tubes and spare parts with the minimum order cost, would likely take ages), and the set is going strong! BTW, the CRT is a 21AUP4, a 21" 72° (!!) deflection tube, with a reading close to 500 on my B&K 465 tube tester

Here are some photos:

Enjoy

Giulio Maiocco

Dukes of Hazzard...He's watching "The Dukes of Hazzard" on his DuMont...

LOL...I Love it!

Greetings, Our Italian Compatriot! All Hail!

LJB:smoke:

...by the way, what model DuMont is it? Looks about 1955-56.

Looks in Great Condition!

LJB:smoke:

Hello,

well, I like very much the "Dukes Of Hazzard", and even more the General Lee, it's a fantastic car (another thing I like to restore from time to time, me and my friend are currently using a 1969 Citroen DS..)! Too bad the show required the sacrifice of 309 1968/1969 Dodge Chargers!!

Now, next goal is to watch this show on a color roundie, as I have the possibility to transport one here in Italy for little money, the problem is to locate one at a fair price and with a good CRT:scratch2: I have already most of the crt formats (I own about 40 vintage TV sets ranging from 17" 70° to the mighty 27" 90°, but my collection lacks roundies, even in B&W), so a color one would be a very welcome news! Oh, I forgot the projector TV set made by Saba...

Cheers

Giulio Maiocco

Hello LJB,

The set is from 1955, here in Italy television started in 1954, so this DuMont is one of the first sold here. The model, BTW, is 352A Teleset.

Yeah, the cabinet (metal! A rarity here, we are used to wood cabinets!) is surprisingly in very good shape, also the electronic is healthy, all the tubes, except the 2 5U4, the 12AU7 line oscillator and the 6BQ6, are still the original DuMont branded tubes!

Cheers

Giulio Maiocco

Hello,

well, I like very much the "Dukes Of Hazzard", and even more the General Lee, it's a fantastic car (another thing I like to restore from time to time, me and my friend are currently using a 1969 Citroen DS..)! Too bad the show required the sacrifice of 309 1968/1969 Dodge Chargers!!

Giulio Maiocco

Because of the quality of the picture on your DuMont, I can tell that's an episode where Bo & Luke Duke are replaced by "Coy and Vance" Duke.

Bo & Luke (or I should say the actors who portrayed them) got big heads and started demanding some crazy salary. The TV network said "We can replace you with another set of Brunette & Blonde hillbillies." By the next season Bo & Luke were back.

...just in case you didn't know why they looked slightly different for a few episodes!

Hello,

I remember someone on this forum talking about a DuMont TV here in Italy on E*ay... Well, I bought it, it is in better conditions than I thought! I recapped the whole chassis, modified the set to take a 6CL6 in place of a 6BK5 video out (the 6BK5 had evident problems and placing an order at the place I usually buy tubes and spare parts with the minimum order cost, would likely take ages), and the set is going strong! BTW, the CRT is a 21AUP4, a 21" 72° (!!) deflection tube, with a reading close to 500 on my B&K 465 tube tester

Here are some photos:

Enjoy

Giulio Maiocco

Dear Giulio,
please to meet you,
your Du Mont is a nice tv but - if i can write my humble opinion - you are too prone to replace a lot of components (not original) and to make a savage ''recapping'' (what an ugly word...) in your TVs.
You are a nice, passionate '' TV guy '' but try to restore a capacitor, please:
the little-great history of TV-stuff will be grateful and...
...we can buy a new TV in any electronic shop.
I was thinking of write this opinion on the repair/restore question and now i take the occasion to do it in this thread, you will not complain about me:nono::D:D:D:D


P.S.:
My compliments to you for your sets!

Well, as far as recapping goes, include Me amongst the "Savages."

I didn't plug in my 630TS into a Variac until I replaced all the electrolytics and all the tube (paper) capacitors. I kept all the canned electrolytics in place and wired the new replacements under the chassis, on waferboards, nice and neat. Tube Caps were replaced by "Orange Drops."

Since all this work was done below chassis, and out of sight, I was ok with all this.

LJB:smoke:

Dear Giulio,
please to meet you,
your Du Mont is a nice tv but - if i can write my humble opinion - you are too prone to replace a lot of components (not original) and to make a savage ''recapping'' (what an ugly word...) in your TVs.
You are a nice, passionate '' TV guy '' but try to restore a capacitor, please:
the little-great history of TV-stuff will be grateful and...
...we can buy a new TV in any electronic shop.
I was thinking of write this opinion on the repair/restore question and now i take the occasion to do it in this thread, you will not complain about me:nono::D:D:D:D


P.S.:
My compliments to you for your sets!

I'm a tough old veteran of old Radio/TV salvage. And I am notorious for just plugging in an old set just to see what it can do in an unrestored condition. This is why I am nicknamed by locals here in my own stompin' grounds as "Dangerous Dave"....:D

Oh well, I've always thought that one of the greatest thrills is to plug in that old set found in the attic, and see what the ol' girl will do.

More times than not--providing the set didn't initially respond with an angry 120 Hz hum or buzz--the set would actually perform! I went into an electronics parts store about 3 years ago--a store where I had been doing business 30+ years with the father of that operation, and now with the son--and said son had collected an old console from someone's attic on one of his audio installs.

He was there when I eyed the old radio he had recently collected, removed some detritus and such as laid in the chassis by mice, and--after looking things over--just plugged it in. WTF! he exclaimed. I said "Relax; I have my winter overcoat here to slap it down if it should burst into flames."

The radio hummed a little more than one would like to hear from a fully-restored receiver, but--to my friend's astonishment--I had the radio receiving a local station, and blaring out news at a high volume for an old set.

I didn't run it for long, and would certainly not recommend doing so in any case--without replacing all the capacitors, of course.

The bottom line here, folks, is that half the thrill I get out of antique radio or telly resto is the actually seeing what it will do after simply being plugged in! :D

I know the "correct" way is to walk these old sets up carefully on a variac to allow the capacitors to redevelop their dielectric. But I know I will probably replace the dad-blamed caps anyway--so why bother....? Worst thing is that something goes pop or bang....adds to the excitement. It's at least half the thrill of exploring an antique piece of electronic gear... :D And for the most part causes no harm if one is to at least some degree knowledgeable, and on-the-ball, and keeps their hand on the plug to yank it if things turn bad.... :D

Dave, you're a man after Dick Slade's heart. He's the guy who was so kind to give me that RCA 630TS that I restored. He wanted to just "plug her in & let her rip."

I plugged her in, without the 5U4's, just to see her light up all the tubes. I didn't try to reform the electrolytics, because I figured some were beyond hope (I was right).

I did heat up the chassis, upside down, with a heat gun to chase away any condensation, heat up the resistors, etc. After that, I just started replacing all the electrolytics & tube capacitors.

Call it overkill, but the thought of wiping out an unobtainium part(s) was overwhelming...

Ahhhh. I feel better. Now, on to the Next Project.

LJB:smoke:

Great save & resto, Giulio, its always a treat to see one of these old veterans saved ! "Dukes", huh ? There is a "General Lee" about 20 miles from here-Some fool tried to jump it, & basically totaled the car. The frame is bent/broken, the whole thing kinda looks like a banana...Too bad-it was in decent shape otherwise.

Sandy

How are the doors on it look? My neighbor has a 68 that needs some stuff :D

Steve

Hello,

I totally agree with M3-SRT8, for me the old paper capacitors are just a ticking bomb ready to explode and to take precious (probably unobtanium!!) components with them. Well, I found a lot of audio output transformers with the primary O/C caused by a defective coupling or bypass capacitor! One time I just saved in time a flyback transformer from burning, well, I can rewind the primary of those transformers, no big problems, but why in the earth should I do this when a simple capacitor swap would have saved it in the first place? Italian vintage capacitors are amongst the worst I have ever seen, but this is another matter.

Also, I can't think to anything I hate more than to fix again a chassis I was in before, any fix should be done right, the first time!! If you use the TV only "once in a lifetime", then you may take the chance and let all the original parts in, but, if you use a vintage set like I do (2-3 hours every day...), then leaving original capacitors is really asking for trouble, IMHO!

About the Dukes Of Hazzard, I really love this show! Too bad for the totalled General Lee, it's a beautiful car, but here in Italy we can't have a chance to see one, the f***ing customs would likely charge you a bloody hell of money in taxes, let alone the gas (about 1.4euros for a litre!!), otherwise I would like to have one!! Restoring one is not too difficult for me and my friends, we have a place where we can do all the mech and bodyworks we need!

Cheers

Giulio Maiocco

Absolutely, Giulio.

Go through the whole Fish once and for all, stem to stern. Then, you KNOW what you have before you do all your fine tuning, etc.

LJB:smoke:

I'm a tough old veteran of old Radio/TV salvage. And I am notorious for just plugging in an old set just to see what it can do in an unrestored condition. This is why I am nicknamed by locals here in my own stompin' grounds as "Dangerous Dave"....:D

Oh well, I've always thought that one of the greatest thrills is to plug in that old set found in the attic, and see what the ol' girl will do.

More times than not--providing the set didn't initially respond with an angry 120 Hz hum or buzz--the set would actually perform! I went into an electronics parts store about 3 years ago--a store where I had been doing business 30+ years with the father of that operation, and now with the son--and said son had collected an old console from someone's attic on one of his audio installs.

He was there when I eyed the old radio he had recently collected, removed some detritus and such as laid in the chassis by mice, and--after looking things over--just plugged it in. WTF! he exclaimed. I said "Relax; I have my winter overcoat here to slap it down if it should burst into flames."

The radio hummed a little more than one would like to hear from a fully-restored receiver, but--to my friend's astonishment--I had the radio receiving a local station, and blaring out news at a high volume for an old set.

I didn't run it for long, and would certainly not recommend doing so in any case--without replacing all the capacitors, of course.

The bottom line here, folks, is that half the thrill I get out of antique radio or telly resto is the actually seeing what it will do after simply being plugged in! :D

I know the "correct" way is to walk these old sets up carefully on a variac to allow the capacitors to redevelop their dielectric. But I know I will probably replace the dad-blamed caps anyway--so why bother....? Worst thing is that something goes pop or bang....adds to the excitement. It's at least half the thrill of exploring an antique piece of electronic gear... :D And for the most part causes no harm if one is to at least some degree knowledgeable, and on-the-ball, and keeps their hand on the plug to yank it if things turn bad.... :D

Haha!!! "Dangerous Dave" , you are a bold one!!!

It was me who alerted for the existence of this Dumont in Italy. I am glad that one of us ( AKers ) now have it!

I was thinking, if dubbed into Italian it wouldn't matter if it was Coy/Vance or Bo/Luke!

I'll withhold my opinions on recapping for another thread...great job!

I've actually been about Allen DuMont's Trumpey yacht. A friend of the family owned it for a while. It was the first private yacht to have a TV onboard. Unfortunately the TV is no longer there.

Actually, here she is, the sale listing

http://www.bayportyacht.com/core/listing/pl_boat_full_detail.jsp;jsessionid=ay18qLW_zIic?sl im=broker&boat_id=1721536&ybw=&hosturl=bayportyacht&&units=Feet&access=Public&listing_id=4624&url=&hosturl=bayportyacht&

That's a nice looking Boat....

No...NO! No More Toys!

LJB:smoke:

Dear M3-SRT8, Old1625, Giulio Maiocco, Captain video, bgadow and other members who have posted in this thread without writing about "recapping",

there is a horrible misunderstanding:
i have NOT said any persons are savage, but i have wrote an expression who sounds like "savage tan" or "savage head dress" or others; i have not wanted to offend anyone, i apologize but my english is poor and some misunderstandings are possible, unfortunately.

:tears::tears::tears:

My partecipation in the threads of this forum take place in long times, so i am late in apologize ( and in a few other things ); my times, unfortunately, will not be better in a short while.

:boring::boring::boring:

I will be happy if you will post some messages, if you comprehend and pardon me, before we resume the thread of our capacitors

:D:yes::D

The bottom line here, folks, is that half the thrill I get out of antique radio or telly resto is the actually seeing what it will do after simply being plugged in! :D I know the "correct" way is to walk these old sets up carefully on a variac to allow the capacitors to redevelop their dielectric. But I know I will probably replace the dad-blamed caps anyway--so why bother....? Worst thing is that something goes pop or bang....adds to the excitement.

So am I to understand that the worst thing that can happen is the power TX will burn up or the set will catch fire? Not worth it in my humble opinion. I always resist powering up any radio or TV that has sat unused until it is thoroughly checked out. I always urge people that don't know anything about electronics to never plug an old unit such as an old radio or TV in. Just not worth the risk. By the time something goes "pop or bang", it just might be a wee bit too late to prevent a catastrophe. Just my two cents.

Gilbert

Gianni,

for me there is no need to apologize, I can easily understand your point of view...

If you like, we can discuss directly (in Italian, so we can understand each other easier), just email me: g.maiocco(at)tiscali.it...

Cheers

Giulio

Gianni,

for me there is no need to apologize, I can easily understand your point of view...

If you like, we can discuss directly (in Italian, so we can understand each other easier), just email me: g.maiocco(at)tiscali.it...

Cheers

Giulio

Thank you, Giulio, i will write in italian an e-mail for you.
What do you think of Ducati capacitors?:scratch2: