The stand bolts into the side of the cabinet, so, it allows the tv to tilt up and down. You can actually turn the tv upside down.

These sets were designed this way so that they could be sold in Australia too :naughty: :lmao:

Anthony

Two mint, never used 1953 Philcos.

Yow

Linky (http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/MRT/PhilTwin.htm)

Man! Who's got those babies? Talk about an undisturbed time-capsule!

Fess up, that's photoshopped! LOL Really, that's too cool! What's the story behind them?

Anthony

They are from this site: http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/MRT/misc.htm

This was discussed on the Antique Radio Forum recently http://antiqueradios.com/forums/Forum6/HTML/001696.html

He no longer owns the sets but they were found in a closed up TV store some time back.

I have been to this museum...it's in an old school house in Huntington, West Virginia...it has a wide variety of stuff including TV, old radio, broadcast equipment. It seems odd that a museum would sell something unless a private owner merely had these sets on loan to the museum and chose to sell them.

Or unless they either really needed the money or were made an offer they couldn't refuse (visions of a horsehead sticking out of a Predicta)

Anthony

I stop in the museum when I get out that way, one of the better ones I've seen. One time I was in there they had an RCA that I think was a projection set, kinda rough shape, and there always seems to be a pile of stuff in the front room (the old gym) that I think is saved up for an auction, not sure if its yearly or? Last time I was there one of the new things in the tv display room was a CTC-11. It would seem like they would have saved one of these for the museum to display.

Maybe they are a "museum" in the same sense as a certain radio "museum" in St. Louis. :scratch2:

It is from 1960, sams #506,and is chassis #15e1. It is a cold chassis, with a 5u4, mounted ABOVE the transformer, on a little shelf, not attached to the transformer itself(guess this was done for beter heat dissipation). The chassis is pretty nice, with 14 tubes plus the CRT. It is in real good shape, with all knobs in place, but missing the antenna.

The cabinet is metal,kind of a tan color, wit a silverish front. and there is no UHF, and does not appear an option for it.


I took it in the house, gave it a while to warm up, and opened it up. after some preliminary checks, I decided to "fire 'er up".

SHE LIVES! I have a crt, that is in quite good shape, and not the original(it has an RCA silverama tube I am not sure if it has a date code of 64 or 66, 'cause I think the number I saw was "646something"

I have a decent picture, and pretty good reception. fly is good, and does not get hot after 10 min.or so. The caps are marginal, as the vertical started creeping up from the bottom, after about an hour(proabbly the cathode bypass cap).

All in all, it is a good find. Best off, the price was right-- FREE! A garbage find, right on my own street. I ALMOST missed it, it was between a garbage can, and another bag, and looked from the side to be a box. But somethng kept telling me it was not, so ,I went back to check, and saw the knobs on the side. At first ,it looked like a Zenith, then, after I got it home, I discovered It was an Admiral. No matter.

This is the second week in a row, i have found an old tv, near my house, in my own neighborhood, and it has been a LONG time, since I found much of ANYTHING, in this area.(see my thread on the Sony kv-9000, to find out about tonight's find) And, this was ONE house down, from where I found the MR-71 tuner, 3 years ago, that I sold on the bay, for $600, that same year.


I took a couple of pictures, but I still have to reload my camera software into my computer, after my loss of my hard drive, earlier this month. I'll get them up, soon.

Just experimenting with a new Digital Camera so thought I would post a few pictures. These photos were taken with the Nikon 5200 in the "Sunset" mode.
The video source is from a DVD I bought for a dollar at a Dollar store.
Jim

Don't you love those dollar DVDs? Most of the good old shows are available, though I've only seen two volumes of The Dick Van Dyke show.

Don't you love those dollar DVDs? Most of the good old shows are available, though I've only seen two volumes of The Dick Van Dyke show.

Where are these $1 DVDs available? There is a Dollar General store in my hometown; I wonder if that's where they are. I have a subscription to Netflix, but if I can get classic TV shows on DVD for a buck I'll jump at the chance.

BTW, the picture on classicradios's Zenith Great Circle console (aka Porthole) is great--I don't care if it is from DVD! I don't know what vintage that set is (late '40s or '50s), but no matter. It's a Zenith, and all Zeniths made during the pre-GS era (late '40s to late '80s) were good--excellent, even. I once had a Zenith 23" console which I rescued from a trash pile, minus the tubes. Retubed the whole set (except the 1J3 HV rectifier and the CRT, which were still in place) and was rewarded with an excellent picture on Cleveland's three VHF network stations at that time. We moved three years later, so I had to get rid of that set. Nearly broke my heart to do it, especially after all the work I put into getting it going again. However, in 1977 I found another Zenith SC300 portable on the curb some distance up the street from my home. It worked well for a year, then the horizontal output tube went gassy, throwing the keyed AGC system out of gear (I'll say--the picture on all three VHF stations was so weak and washed out I couldn't watch it). Couldn't find another HO tube (one of those oddball novar tubes with a non-standard filament voltage) locally or anywhere near where I lived at the time, so the set was relegated to my basement and eventually put out for the trash. The next day I bought a new Zenith 12" solid-state b&w portable, which lasted 22 years (and was still working amazingly well when I got rid of it a year after moving to my apartment--I already had two color TVs, one of which is a Zenith which still works, and well, after almost ten years, so I had no use for the small portable any longer). Oh, I suppose I could have found someone who could have used the set (even though the UHF selector was jammed on one channel), but I had too much else going at the time.

I've gotten the dollar DVDs at Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart. I think Target has some in their dollar section in the front of the store.

I have gotten them at Big Lots, but the quality has been iffy, like they did not worry about focusing the projector in the transfer process.
Marlin

I was checking up on this thread yesterday when a delivery man walked in: "Is that a TV? Wow! That thing has got to be worth a lot of money!" He just couldn't get over it!

For Christmas I got a Dick Van Dyke DVD; Last year I bought my wife an Andy Griffith DVD for a few dollars at Dollar General. The Food Lion had them during the holidays pretty cheap, but not $1. I might have to buy a cheap second player for use in the tv room. Too much hassle to disconnect the one in the living room everytime I want to play with one of the old sets.

Just experimenting with a new Digital Camera so thought I would post a few pictures. These photos were taken with the Nikon 5200 in the "Sunset" mode.
The video source is from a DVD I bought for a dollar at a Dollar store.
Jim

Jim, that is a sweeet looking Porthole! I love that cabinet style with the smooth wraparound corners. :thmbsp:

Jim, that is a sweeet looking Porthole! I love that cabinet style with the smooth wraparound corners. :thmbsp:

It is a great console TV, By far my favorite. Many many sets have come and gone but this one always remains. Eric, Do you still have that metal cone 12UP4 CRT? That You mentioned in the other thread. Sure could use it to finish up the tabletop version Porthole set I have. (Same model year as my console)

I've only seen the dollar DVD's at Wallmart and a few Dollar stores. I bought Jack Benny (3 episodes on the DVD) and TV Detectives. I also have the TV connected to Tivo so when TV Land broadcasts something decent I record it and play it back on the vintage set. TVland has been quite a dissapointment lately with shows like Wings, Macgyver, etc... When will they bring back the Honeymooners! or more 1950's shows. Oh well, I have plenty on DVD now anyway.
Jim

Jim, I haven't heard from anyone wanting it for the $25 Porthole yet, so unless someone let's me know real soon that they bought that set and want it, it's yours.

Eric

Eric:

I'm picking up the $25 porthole set tomorrow. I wanted to test the crt first before I gave you a call. I do have a good 12LP4 that might work in that set with some slight modification.

Steve

Here's something different, A 3D photo of my Zenith TV and 1922 Victrola. Of course you'll need Red/Cyan 3D glasses to view it in 3D. Thought I would post 1 picture in the off chance any members had 3D glasses, I'll post more 3D Photos if there is any interest.
Jim

Still trying to find my 3D glasses... I know i have a pair around here somewhere. That's a pretty cool idea... your digital camera has a setting for 3D?

3D?? I just thought it was my hangover!
Marlin

Still trying to find my 3D glasses... I know i have a pair around here somewhere. That's a pretty cool idea... your digital camera has a setting for 3D?

I use a gadget I bought off ebay called Photo3d. You connect your digital camera to it, Take a right eye image and then a Left eye image then use the included "Photo3D" software to create a 3D image. As you can see in the photo the camera connects and slides horizontally and gives the correct distance for the 2 shots. Really easy software to use too.
Jim

Here's a color 3D Photo I made.

Here are some shots of the RCA 648PV that I restored in 2001.

This set looks beautiful and performs flawlessly.

My wife and I often watch old B&W movies from our CED and laserdisc collection on this TV.

-Matt

Matt:

Welcome to AudioKarma. What a beautiful set and restoration. I have the RCA projection set from 1948 without the radio and phono that I recapped a few years ago and the picture is nowhere near the picture on your set. I even put in a NOS projection tube.

Steve

Bravo Matt!! :thmbsp: What a great tv! Gives me hope on restoring one of my '49 RCA projectors.
Marlin

Matt,

That set is extrememly impressive! I've never seen one in person... only here on the internet. In any case, I've never seen one of these projection sets put out such a sharp, clear picture like yours does! You definately get 5-stars for that job!!!

Matt:

Welcome to AudioKarma. What a beautiful set and restoration. I have the RCA projection set from 1948 without the radio and phono that I recapped a few years ago and the picture is nowhere near the picture on your set. I even put in a NOS projection tube.

Steve
Steve,

Thanks for the welcome!

In addition to re-capping, I found that I had to replace quite a few resistors in the video and HV chassis. I also performed a complete alignment. The radio was a nightmare, but that's another story....

What do you feel is better about the picture on my set? Is it the resolution brightness? If it's resolution, how do the mirrors look in your set? Any apparent cloudiness when viewed in bright light? How much light escapes through the spherical mirror? If the mirrors look fine, do you feel that you were able to obtain satisfactory results during the optical setup? I got a lot of practice on mine, as I disassembled it each time we moved (the 648PV is extrmely heavy). So with each successive re-assembly, the optical setup turned out better and better. I now feel that all aspects of the optical setup, corner to corner, are as good as they can possibly be.

If it's the brightness of the picture, that may be due to the fact that I installed a NOS 5AZP4 CRT in place of the original 5TP4. I don't really know how much of a difference there is between these tubes. John Folsom may want to step in here and fill us in (hello John).

-Matt

Matt,

That set is extrememly impressive! I've never seen one in person... only here on the internet. In any case, I've never seen one of these projection sets put out such a sharp, clear picture like yours does! You definately get 5-stars for that job!!!
Charlie,

Thanks!

I like your site. I'll be spending some time there.

Truth be told though, my wife Janet is the reason that this set works as well as it does. She was able to put up with the endless stream of incoming Zenith Trans-Oceanics, but when I lugged this thing home, that was another story. It was too big to fit in with the radio collection, so it had to be placed in the living area of the house. And in order for that to happen, it better be able to carry its fair share; ie: it had better work and work well! Which of course, directly dictated the amount of effort that I would have to expend on this restoration.

-Matt

Bravo Matt!! :thmbsp: What a great tv! Gives me hope on restoring one of my '49 RCA projectors.
Marlin
Marlin,

Thanks.

I see from your site that you have lots of hobbies too! My other vice is trucks. In particular, an early 1930 Ford Model AA stake truck that is going through a ground-up, frame-off restoration.

Let me know if I can be of any assistance when you begin the restoration of your set.

-Matt

Matt, that set is awesome!! The picture is excellent, how big is the screen??

Eric

I took the 621 I got a couple weeks ago apart and took some pics. :)

First one is the top of the chassis, looks like 58 years worth of dirt!
Second one is a front shot of the chassis with the CRT in place.
Third is a message from an ancient Service Tech!
Fourth is a shot of the chassis underside.
Fifth is how you remove the safety glass.

Hokey smokes folks, do you realize this thread has been viewed over 22,000 times!
It might just be the most viewed single thread on AK!

That's got to be a glitch....the photos in message #535 have only been viewed about 5 or 6 times each, so that kind of confirms my assumption.

ASSUME

Ass (out of) You (and) Moi

Anthony

Matt, that set is awesome!! The picture is excellent, how big is the screen??

Eric
Thanks Eric!

Quoted directly from the RCA 648-PV sales literature: "....bright, clear, steady television on the big, 15-by-20-inch screen.... nearly as large as a full-size newspaper page."

Today we'd call it a 25" diagonal.

-Matt

That's got to be a glitch....the photos in message #535 have only been viewed about 5 or 6 times each, so that kind of confirms my assumption.

ASSUME

Ass (out of) You (and) Moi

Anthony

? I was talking about the "Show us your B&W TV" thread, what are you talking about?

One of the neatest looking devices in the 1940's RCA projection sets (aside from the optical barrel) is the horizontal deflection chassis, which of course contains the HV section. If you've never seen what's under the cover of this chassis, please take a look at the attached picture.

-Matt

Smoky- Oh, damn !! You done went & did it NOW !! Doncha know that stuff's magic, & not supposed to be shown ?!? I can only imagine what awful things will befall you if Gen Sarnoff's minions find out about this !!! <grin>-Sandy G.

Matt, where's your time machine? that chassis looks brand new!!

Matt, where's your time machine? that chassis looks brand new!!
Eric, I got lucky on this one. I'm only the second owner of the set. It came from the estate of a fairly wealthy Detroiter named Walter Briggs. He founded Briggs Manufacturing, a company that made, among many other things, bodies for Ford and several other automobile manufacturers from the early 1900's until the 1950's. For you antique car people out there, yes, this is the same Briggs that is referred to in regards to the Ford Model 'A' Briggs Fordor or Briggs Town Car. Briggs built a large percentage of the Ford "Woody" station-wagon bodies.

Briggs also owned the Detroit Tigers baseball team from 1920 (with a partner until 1935 when he took full ownership) until 1956 (which, due to the time it took to settle his estate, is 4 years after he died). He of course was the Tigers owner when they won the series in '45. He built Detroit's first real baseball park, Briggs Stadium (renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961).

Because of it's unique owner, radio buffs may be interested in the radio call letters assigned to the radio pushbuttons on the set (see attached picture).

The set was pretty clean when I got it. However I did disassemble it completely during the restoration process. Every component that was not replaced was cleaned. I now wish that I had re-plated the chassis. Oh well! Maybe in my next life!

-Matt

i must say that charlie's SYLVANIA is one of the most beautiful sets i've ever seen!!

The history of this set is VERY interesting to me as I personally blame Briggs for a large part of Packard's ultimate undoing.....he convinced Packard's management that he could sell them bodies for less money than they (Packard) could build them themselves.

At first the prices WERE below what Packard could build them for, but within a short time the prices were raised and raised again till they exceeded what Packard could build them for. At this point Packard had scrapped their tools so they were stuck with having to continue buying from Briggs.

Then after the war old man Briggs died and apparently hadn't drawn up a very good will as the family was faced with ruinous inheritance taxes which forced them to sell the company (Chrysler bought it). In short order, Chrysler informed Packard that they would no longer continue to supply them with bodies.....Packard then scrambled and spent huge money on getting back into the body building buisness.....this came at the same time that they had tooled up their automatic trans and V8 engine, along with the new torsion bar suspension system. And the topper is that they lost their Korean war contracts......less money coming in and lots going out.

Trouble is that someone at Packard should've looked harder at the deal Briggs first presented them.....if Packard couldn't build bodies for less than a firm that was in business to make a profit for doing this, then why should Packard even be in the car business in the first place? I suspect that greed played a big part in this decision......one which lit a very long burning fuse.

Anthony

This is what I can add to the Briggs story, in appreciation for those great RCA TV pictures!

Here's a photo of the old Briggs factory located at Mack & St. Jean on the east side of Detroit. The Photo was taken in 1994, just before the plant was torn down. However, if you notice in the right corner of the picture, you'll see some modern Chrysler signage. That's because Chrysler built a million-square-foot addition to the plant in 1974 (This plant was also known as Mack Stamping.) The older parts of the plant fell out of use in the 70s, until the old section was eventually walled off.

In the early 90s, Chrysler was looking for someplace to build a new "niche" car, with a team concept. This car was the Viper, and I was part of that original team. The "new" mack ave. plant was spiffed up, (we actually called it New Mack) and used for this purpose. The new section is to the right, outside of the picture. Viper production moved out in 1996, and into a much smaller factory. The old building was actually "ground-up" into cement dust, and used to build a modern factory, known today as Mack Engine I (home of the 4.7L V8).

As you know Briggs was a body-builder for many different manufacturers, but by the 50s, mostly Imperial, Chrysler, Dodge, DeSoto, Plymouth and Packard. In fact, my grandfather who retired from Chrysler in 1981 after 34 years began working for Briggs at this factory after returning from WWII. During WWII, my grandmother worked in this plant, riveting airplane wings. My grandfather is in this picture,

When Chrysler purchased Briggs, they also received the rights to the LeBaron name, and the rest is history.

http://imperialclub.com/Yr/1965/Jefferson/BriggsPlant.jpg

Thanks Carmine. Me, Sandy G and you (along with a dog named Boo) are probably the only ones here who give a rat's patootie! LOL

Anthony

Thanks Carmine. Me, Sandy G and you (along with a dog named Boo) are probably the only ones here who give a rat's patootie! LOL

Anthony

Anthony,

Not true. I care. I've been on both sides of the automotive fence, Big 3 and now parts supplier. There's no doubt that Briggs was a controversial figure and could and should be considered a scoundrel! But the U.S. auto companies got even with the suppliers long ago. Today, suppliers are asked to reduce costs by 3% to 5% per year. And many times they're asked to do it up-front; ie: if the value of the contract is $50 million over the next 3 years, they want $2 million, in cash, up-front, right now. The continuous push for unfounded cost reductions have forced a major consolidation of suppliers and has run many out of business and most into bakruptcy. Something's got to change. There are only so many ways that you can make a widget, and many of us have knocked almost all of the labor and capital eqpt. costs out of a part and we still can't make any money on them. Plus, we look forward to several more years of 3% to 5% reductions.

To be sure though, I like the auto industry. That's why I stayed in the Detroit area. For all its shortcomings and heartaches, it's still what's near and dear to my heart. Most of my friends work for the Big 3. About half of them are members of the UAW and the other half are in middle to upper management.
In fact, Carmine, it wasn't that long ago that I was in the Mack 2 plant, looking at the coolant system installed there. OK, time to get off of my soapbox.

Back to that TV set. The TV chassis' were pretty easy to get back in shape, but that radio, man, that was a different story all together....

For what its worth, I find all this fascinating. The automobile is my bread & butter. That TV, a very nice piece to begin with, is a treasure thanks to the connection. And clean-it couldn't have been that clean from the factory!

From working on cars I can see that a major difference between makes is in the components. Work the climate control knobs on the cheapest Honda, then try a Pontiac or Saturn or even a Galant. How much more did Honda pay for the cc assy? But whatever it was, it was worth it. Not the component makers fault, for sure. They have to do whatever it takes to keep food on the table, and if they don't sell to one of a handful of automakers who are they going to sell to? Refrigerators don't have turn-signal stalks & bathrooms don't have tachometers.

This constant pressure on prices is why we get cars with great antilock brakes, fuel injection, etc with crappy plastic wheel covers, plastic door handles and crappy aluminum/plastic radiators.

I have both kinds and my experience is in at least these items(radiators, door handles, and wheel covers), the 1970s and older cars are superior to modern cars.

I now understand why I see kits for antilock brakes, fuel injection, etc. for old Mustangs and other cars.

Gimme a dual quad Packard 374 bored and stroked out to 440 and shoe horn it into a 59 Lark coupe and junk all that modern crapola that passes as cars nowadays LOL!

Anthony

This constant pressure on prices is why we get cars with great antilock brakes, fuel injection, etc with crappy plastic wheel covers, plastic door handles and crappy aluminum/plastic radiators.

DING DING DING!!! :banana:

Give that man a cigar! :naughty:

All the cost is put into "tech", an very little is left over for the "proven" basics. In fact, in this day & age of computer modeling, we can now predict exactly when some mundane part like a door hinge will fail, and design it exactly to a specification.

In the olden days raw materials were fairly cheap, and nobody concerned themselves with weight, so if a door hinge was functional at 1/4" thick, make it 1/2", just for a good margin of error. (Look at the door hinges on a 60's Imperial as an example.)

That's why you see guys like Chip Foose, and other custom builders adding tech-items to older cars... Best of both worlds.

To get back on track, it's a similar thought process to put a modern TV in an old wood cabinet.

The sad part is, most people, especially if they're young, have grown up to think that plastic hubcaps, door handles and black-cube TV sets are "modern and good", while steel car parts AND maple TV cabinets are "old and bad".

The manufacturers need to start asking the consumers if they are willing to pay for things like wooden TV cabinets (have you noticed they're not even black anymore? Silver now seems to be in vogue).

Like cars, the technology of TV has improved many-fold. Televisions are extremely cheap. Granted HDTV sets are more expensive, but you can get a decent 42" DLP HDTV for under $3000, which is $1500 less than a 1965 RCA 25" rectangular color set indexed to today's prices (they were $750 in 1965 dollars). I know that if they were available, I'd spend the extra money to get a better looking set.

Price pressure is a good thing in many respects. It instills competition, usually provides the consumer with better value for their dollars and best of all, it drives innovation.

I know that if they were available, I'd spend the extra money to get a better looking set.

Smoky, I so agree with you! And I think that the number of people in Birmingham that junk perfectly good "white" kitchen appliances for stainless-steel would back this up. (Not me, I still have coppertone! :yes: ) But one reason I still have the 1965 Coldspot is because I'm not about to pay $1500 for a fridge with a plastic interior when I have one that's porcelain now; low-carbon faux stainless veneer or not!

But in the mass-market, the Wal-Mart factor is so strong. This applies to cars/houses too. It must be the throw-away culture... You hear so much about how "bad" GM/Ford/Chrysler were in the 50s/60s/70s by changing platforms every three years, and trim details EVERY year. (Planned obsolesence) Yet it seems that our culture, with regard to new=good, quality--be-damned is WORSE nowadays than ever before.

Here's an example: How nice would it have been for the new Chrysler Hemi 300C to feature a black/red annodized aluminum grille (ala '59 300E) while the "standard" V6 300 carried on with the plastic-chrome-plated sewer grate it wears now? Don't tell me it's price, there's so much fat/profit on the "C" than an extra $10 per car could be either eaten, or added directly to sticker.

Here's my guess: Ralph Giles, who designed the car is 35-years-old. After reading a number of interviews, I'd argue that he equates an actual metal grille with "old and bad". The designers of the new "Charger" :thumbsdn: speak of the '68-'71 versions as cartoonish and say the front end looks like "an electric razor". So they've given us another uncreative, fat, truck-looking sedan... Thanks a lot jerks!

Give me the designers of old, like Virgil Exner and Chuck Mitchell who openly admired, and were insprired by those who came before them (Exner's classic era Imperials, and Mitchell's Duesenburg/Stutz-like Pontiacs).

[/rant]

Carmine- The '68-71 Chargers WERE cartoonish lookin'-that was the point. And I think that's why a lot of us liked 'em-and the Mustangs & Camaros/Firebirds- they were "easily-doodle-able" in 6th grade history class. I know you don't particularly like the new 300c-I kinda do, but think it looks a lot like "The Car" in that horror-TV movie.Giles prolly grew up watching "the General Lee" on TV-a '68-69 Charger-& if that wasn't cartoonish, I dunno what is. But yeah, I like the the designers of old-Mitchell, Exner, Harley Earle-the cars may have been a bit cartoonish for the pecksniffian Mr Giles, but a lot of us ate 'em up. Still do...-Sandy G.

Yes, price pressure is good to the point that it properly improves competition. However, this same price pressure is driving jobs out of the US to take advantage of other countries cheaper costs. These same countries have no health insurance for their workers, no retirement for their workers, and few if any safety regulations for their workers.

This same effect is reducing wages, health coverage, etc for many American workers. A side affect is that less money (due to lower paying jobs avaiable) is put into programs such as Medicare and Social Security, worsening the problems with these programs.

This kind of thing benefits only the most wealthy, not the rest of us. Is this what we want?

I believe that a good start would be to insist that retailers who buy out of the US (Walmart, etc) and manufacters that move jobs out of the US provide the same kind of health, retirement, and safety benefits to their workers that are available here. I would rather pay more and know all benefit, not just a few.

Well said. I actually had a statement regarding the lack of a global level playing field when it comes to outsourcing. I didn't want to toss that political hot potato, so I removed it. But since it's already been done.....

I've been to the other side of the globe, to the largest country on earth. No health care, no social security, $0.25 to $0.65 an hour wages, government subsidized loans. We can't compete with that and we shouldn't have to. We make a big fuss about "children" working in sweat-shops and boycott those products. However, we have no qualms about driving those same childrens parents into the ground, working under unsafe and unhealthy conditions.

What has to change is the mindset that some of us use when making a purchase. You can't just shop on price. We have to insist that the things we purchase here are made in countries that provide the same kind of health, retirement, and safety benefits to their workers as we do here.

Also, for those that believe there is a technology answer to this puzzle lurking out there, or possibly improved productivity or better efficiency, here is an example: One of our facilities manufactures several components for a tier 1 automotive supplier. The material already comes from that big country I just mentioned (this is driven by the customer and not our choice). This work has now been placed on open bid by our customer (the whole world can now bid on it), and our favorite big country has gone to our customer with finished prices that are equal to what we pay for the material alone! No magic answer there folks! This battle has to be fought by the consumers. We have to insist that this type of content be kept out of products like the automobile. Sure the cars will be cheaper, but it won't do any of us any good if no one can afford to buy those cars!

Sure the cars will be cheaper, but it won't do any of us any good if no one can afford to buy those cars!

I've been saying this for years....whenever I hear of another company moving production overseas with their lame excuse of "that's what my competition is doing and I need to remain competitive" I always retaliate with the above statement.

What will it matter if Cadillacs get down to $500 retail if no one can afford them because there are no jobs here?

Here's a frightening thought......just heard that THE major bearing manufacturer just moved ALL their production to china. What was the number one target in Germany during WWII? Right, the bearing factories. In other words. excect for machine tools, the main thing needed to make products are bearings....this means we're totally and completely fucked for the future. I cannot believe that this country has given away our hardcore manufacturing base. WTF are we going to do in the future? How can we survive being totally dependent on other countries for the most basic of machinery?

Make no mistake, while I may sound like a reactionary you must really ponder on the points I've made......even Martha Stewart would agree that this is NOT a good thing.

Anthony

It goes even further than this. Every one thinks that the Japanese car manufacterers big advantage is quality. As they are opening quite few US plants, it seems that they are essentially US manufacturers.

While their quality is one of their advantages, they have another that is probably as large. Their workforce is just being hired and they have no retirement benefits to worry about for years. GM and Ford have enormous disadvantages (and costs) in this area. I will admit that some of this problem is a direct result of their and the United Auto Workers actions, however, it is a problem that could affect all older companies and their workers.

I have no idea how to handle this, other than beefing up Goverment retirement such as has been done in Europe. I honestly do not know an answer for this one other than save all you can and hope that 1929 does not repeat.

Interesting discussion guys but it's getting way off topic and starting to turn political.
Can we get back to TV's please :D

Whatsa TV and how do you spell that?

Eric,

Thanks, I was wondering when you were going to put the brakes on this discussion. Please excuse the automobile medifore. I love vintage autos and political discussions as much as the next guy. But lately it seems that many of the threads get sidetracked by our other interests.

-Steve, vintage radio & tv collector, (And 30+ years member of the Studebaker Driver's Club.)

Yeah, you mention cars, & off I go on a tangent..Sorry...Y'know, it musta REALLY been something to have been, say, 25-35 yrs old after the end of the War & to have seen all this stuff-TVs, Hi-Fis, all the incredible development in cars-come about. Those people had known nothing but 1st, deprevation & then war all their lives. The boom times of the twenties were so much ancient history to them-just like the '60s & '70s are to the kids today.Imagine what the typical young guy who was technologically "aware"-kinda like WE are about things- thought when he first saw a TV in the furniture store on the corner...-Sandy G.

I just scored this today, which makes puts my count at 18 sets (not counting Archie watcher RCA). The cabinet just needs cleaned. I haven't opened this up yet, nor have I soft started it. The same pic here will be put on my site, with a few more details.

Nice Dave, very nice! Is that a Bakelite cabinet? :thmbsp:

It's metal. I haven't looked at it closely, yet. This will be on the back burner for a while.

Wow ! Cool set ! It fairly screams "1950s"-and I DON'T mean that in a bad way-kinda like a '55 Chevy says the same thing-I think it's quite attractive.-Sandy G.

I have one similar to this in my garage with a 17" screen and metal cabinet. I have not gotten around to resoring it yet, but as it has a rebuilt CRT in it, I have high hopes.

The only thing that I wish is that Motorola would have used the barrel type tuners instead of the crappy wafer ones!!!.

And the winner is: polaraman


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6152606984&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOAB:US:6

And the winner is: polaraman


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6152606984&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOAB:US:6
Congratulations! Great looking set polaraman!

Bendix - a great name to add to any collection.

It looks to be in pretty good shape cosmetically. Plus the fact that there is any raster at all indicates that restoration won't be a real hard road to travel.

And the winner is? POLARAMAN! This will be his second Tv of the night. :banana:

Acceptance speech: I really liked the looks of this television! Thank you!

polaraman

Hey! Isn't that Arnold Ziffel's TV set? :scratch2:




:D

Somebody stop him, before he buys them all!!!

I've got that same model RCA. It had been bought new by one of the wealthiest men in our small town. A smart looking set.

It is a neat looking old set. We WILL wanna see pics when you get it going...-Sandy G.

And the winner is: polaraman


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6152606984&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOAB:US:6

Coool! I like the cabinet on that set :thmbsp: CRT looks good and bright too.

dave,that motorola looks like the one i saw at the antique mall on high street here in columbus the other day (too small for me)

That's the one.

A little ways to go yet

Nice! What kind of guts will be in your Kinet? You're pretty much at liberty to put in whatever, though making it work at all won't be original....

Nice! What kind of guts will be in your Kinet? You're pretty much at liberty to put in whatever, though making it work at all won't be original....

The Kinet was to be a add on monitor to a TV down the hall.
It was a 9 inch screen. Never have found a 9 inch round CRT,
5, 7, 8 and 10 but not 9. So it has a 9 inch monitor in the top
and maybe fake controls in bottom, but power and video cables
come up from bottom hidden behind the 1/2 round wood on the sides.
Audio will be in bottom and there is room for a tv tuner but dont know
if Ill add tuner. The older monitor can be set to Kinet orignal 441/30 standard
but then has to be run off a scan convertor which I have but will keep
it at 525/30 I think.
Will add a newer PIC, has stain and finish on wood now. Just need to do final assembly.
Close to retire, got started into wood working. This is first of many different
TVs?

This thread has been quiet, so here's my latest "house anchor".

It's a 1948 Maganavox Imperial Windsor, 12" CRT, AM/FM/SW + 2 speed phono, 45 watt amplifier driving a 15" woofer and a multicell horn, all contained in a 7'3" high bookcase. I received all the documentation including a letter from Magnavox dated 12/2/48 thanking the buyer for selecting a Magnavox product.

Oh yea, this one came out of a 3rd floor apt in Manhatten

Chuck

Wow! I never knew that those monster vertical consoles Maggie sold in the 60s/70s could trace their lineage back that far! Has got to be a very rare set.

That bad boy TRULY is a "Magnificent Magnavox"...How much of it still works? You really MUST get it going...I think it would be a cryin' shame not to do so...That maybe the only one in the whole world left...Certainly its in the best shape...Congrats on an UNBELIEVABLE score !!-Sandy G.

Sandy,

Surprisingly the set is fully functional, it hasn't been restored recently as far as I know. When I get some time I'll pull the chassis' and check them out.

Chuck

Awesome set, Eric H. !!! , I have a panther for top of my TV, I always wanted one of those coool Clocks, must get. One of the best B/W sets I've seen. :D

With a little help from a local AudioKarma member, I was able to restore this late 50's Zenith Space Command. It worked when I got it..just had to replace all of the caps, check a few resistors and swap out some tubes.

My 1958 Soviet made "Rekord":
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=48335

Got this Philco recently.

Neat looking style! I guess it probably had legs originally?

It does. I am using it as a tabletop due to lack of space. I have the legs and crossbrace. The CRT checked good. I also have the owners manual and a factory schematic. This is most likely the next on the list.

My Porthole!

This was actually the first "small-screen" tv I owned. Found it in an antique store in Baltimore, sometime in 1991-92. For me, at the time, this was a major find, though my then-girlfriend didn't think too highly of me spending 85 bucks on this instead of her! As found it had audio but I could never get any sign of hv. Back then all I knew was tube swapping & that didn't help. Later I handed it to a tv repairman who said he would check it out, but he never did. By the time I got it back, about 5 years ago, I was more adept at fixing things like this. I finally got swapping caps & resistors (and there were a ton of bad resistors in this machine) & finally got a raster, but this coincided with a loss of audio. When I later tried again I had lost the raster again! That was a year ago. Time to try again. I found that I had hv but on the low side (7900v) & I just could not find a reason for it. It ended up being really dumb. Awhile back I had put the tube tester on it & found the bottle very weak but after rejuvanation it worked fine. Well, when I tested it again it was back very weak. I ran it for a little while at 8v and when I dropped it back to 6 it was worse than before. The tube is just shot. I was able to finally get a dim raster, visible only with the lights off. Well, I had never reinstalled the 10BP4 in my 721TS (another long term project) so I popped that in-and had a perfect raster in short order! The sound still wasn't working but that got better with a screwdriver alignment & cleaning the volume pot. Its great to finally see (and hear) this Zenith. Now I need to find the contrast/volume knobs (I thought I had them when I got the set, which means they could be anywhere around here) and I need to find another crt to put in the RCA.

FYI, this is model 28T925R, chassis 28F20, from 1949. I need to do some research and see which President this one was named after! (that seems to be what all the porthole models were named after)

Bryan,

I think this is your porthole set in the lower right of this ad. Sorry no model name.

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/TV/TV08/TV0845-72dpi.jpeg

And, the top of this ad:

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/TV/TV08/TV0846-72dpi.jpeg


-Steve D.

Good Show of TV's & more . plase keep them coming....

Hi

Here are two photos of my 17" Radioson (Magnadyne) Italian TV from 1959


BTW, I know someone in this forum likes very much projection TV's.. Well, I have one in working conditions, it's a Saba employing 23 tubes and a MW6/2 CRT.. Just let me know if you like to see some photos of it, just remember that I can supply photos of the cabinet, but without the projected image, because I haven't an antenna in my garage and I have to move it indoor to have a good picture

A real variety here, thats for sure!

I dug in the service manual I have & found that my porthole is the Mayflower, for what it's worth.

Picked uo this nice Admiral yesterday. As you can see it has a record player and no radio. The record player chassis is separate from the Tv chassis. Tv chassis is 20E6C and the stereo record chassis is 4C3. It is in really nice shape. I have to take it apart to clean out the mouse nest. I think I got a good deal for my $25.00.

polaraman

That's an elegant set Polaraman. I think that's the first tv-record player combo w/o a radio I have ever seen.


-Steve D.

I liked the set because it was not the normal square box. The set is an all wood cabinet. It is very heavy. No oil board on this set. It must sound good because of the 4 speakers. I looked it up in SAMS and it is number 431. That would put it at 1958 or 1959.

There were two televisions for sale at the antiques show. The other was a wood cabinet 10" Admiral. They wanted $70.00 for it. It was missing the knobs and the front bezel was missing the control cover. I did not feel it was worth that much.

polaraman

I just found this site, and I am so happy to find out I am not the only man on earth who collects and restores old televisions. I started about seven years ago when apartment life no longer allowed the space for working on old cars. Since then I have recieved many an odd look when asking for tubes or 400 volt electrolitic capacitors in electronic stores, as well as from my friends who can't believe that I actually prefer to watch a black and white set. Here are some of the details of my older B&W sets.
- two 1959 magnavox consoles, The first was my great grandmother's set, the first tv I ever fixed. I had to replace most of the tubes and capacitors, and there was an unuasually large number of burnt out resistors in the horiz sync circuit. The AM/FM radio also works well, as well as the record player after I took parts from the other magnavox to make one good one. The CRT is a bit weak, and I am often tempted to swap CRT's in these sets as this one has the nicer cabinet while the other one has a newer CRT (I think it was replaced some time in the 70's). The second 59 magnavox console I got last summer. This set was completely workrd through sometime in the 70's (judging by the writing on the replacment tubes). It has a new CRT, vert output transformer, yoke, etc. It worked as I got it with the exception of a bad power cord and a loose wire on one of the speakers. The record player was broken, as I stated before, I now have a record player in it I took out of a 65 mag. color console I junked a while back. (It dosen't work that well either, I stink at repairing record players)
- A 1959 Olympic console set. This one was out in the rain a long time and the cabinet was really awful. I painted it green, which I have been regretting for some time. This set required a complete recapping as well as alot of new tubes.(I think someone tried to turn it on when it was all wet. But it works well now(except for the speakers which need replacing, water damage again). The AM radio works ok, the record player motor was completely fried, so I put an old Zenith cobramatic in it, which works except for the record changing.
- A 1959 Stetchel Carlson. This set took me over a year to finally fix. The power supply wasn't putting out enough juice to get enough vertical size even after I had changed the electrolitics and the two diodes (both of which were bad) so I had removed the two resistors in it first thing as I began working on it. Afterwards there was a 'wavyness' on the right side of the screen and it would not hold vert. sync for long. Convinsed this was actually in the vert. circuit I replaced every component in it. I finally got a scope, and when I looked at the power supply I could see that it wasn't completely filtered, so I put the resistors back in and found that to be the source of my problems. I still could not get enough vert. size though. The culprit turned out to be a 22k resistor inside the tuner connected to chassis ground which was supposed to be 220k. Somebody had messed around with the tuner, the fine tuning disks were bent, and the coil to which the antenna leads was broken in a couple of places. I did what I could with it, and the set works good now (the power output was still a little low so I just reduced the value of the resistor feeding power to the vertical a little to get full vertical size), except for some slight buzzing in the audio. At the moment I am attributing it to the messed-up tuner.
- A 1961 Zenith. This set has a 23" B&W tube with the outer glass glued to the CRT. This is a great set, these early Zeniths are really a pleasure to work on. This set had a burnt out resististor in a section of the power supply that seems to only feed the video output portion of the chassis, it took a few other resistors with it. But the only other problem with this set was a slightly weak horiz. oscillator tube. I recapped the sync circuits, as I planned to watch this set often and didn't want to keep having to take it apart.
- 1963 Admiral console (record player only, broken record player. aargh...)
Bad caps in the vertical were my only difficulty here, could use allignment upper vhf stations are just out of reach can get picture only with the fine tuning all the way to one side)
- 1956 Philco metal cabinet, the set I am currently working on. This set had weak IF tubes and bad tubes in the tuner. The electrolitics are bad, but I am having difficulty finding new ones as the only store in the area that carries them just closed. Anybody know of a good source for these somewhere around LA?
- sets with bad flybacks: 1958 Hoffman, 1956 Bendix
- sets I haven't started working on yet: 55 Westinghouse, 57 Emerson
I also have a number of late 60's early 70's B&W "portable" tube sets and hybrids, and some tube color sets
I hope somebody enjoyed reading about my televisions, I can look around to see if I have any pictures. Again, I am so happy to know there are other people as crazy about preserving old tv's as I am.

Adam, I don't see any pictures?

I think the only pictures I have are sitting on an undeveloped roll of film in a bucket of power transformers in my closet. If this is correct (I don't know as I am not home now) I may have some in a few days. I don't actually have an operational camera.

Welcome, Adam! :wave:

Glad you found us! Don't worry, there are plenty of us crazies around here restoring these old sets... and we're proud of them! :yes: You'll find that we've got quite a crowd here with various backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge. Seems we a constantly learning something new everytime someone makes a post concerning they're current project.

Hope you enjoy viewing all of our previous threads and posts... there are a lot of them here! And we look forward to hearing about your experiences and seeing your photos (when you get them together).

You'll probably find there are several collectors near you. We're spread out all over the country, and also the world!

Welcome, Adam! Wow, this forum is growing by leaps & bounds! As for sources for capacitors, I guess most of us get them mail order. There are a number of good sources: justradios.com, radiodaze.com, mouser, AES, etc. Look forward to hearing/seeing more of your collection!

Adam, thanks for joining the forums...we find at our shop that justradios.com is a very good source for caps. We have had to go pretty much to all mail order for parts now...we bought out all the caps at the local distributors, which mostly have not replenished the stock.

Thank you all very much for welcoming me to the forum! I've been looking around and look foward to learning alot about televisions. I didn't realize there were so many operational old sets out there. I am particulary surprised to see so many of the round screen color sets.
Here are some pictures of some of my sets. They didn't all come out too well where I tried to take a picture of the tv on for two reasons. First, the flash made the picture look dim. Secondly, I think the camera actually took the picture in less time it takes a tv to scan through the whole screen (this is my theory anyway), so the entire picture on the tv screen is not visible. I have seen pictures of working tvs, is there an adjustment on some cameras to make it take the picture slower?

I don't think I put them back in the proper order, but anyway this is the last of what I have on this computer. The TV only seen from behind is my Philco.

I think the camera actually took the picture in less time it takes a tv to scan through the whole screen (this is my theory anyway), so the entire picture on the tv screen is not visible. I have seen pictures of working tvs, is there an adjustment on some cameras to make it take the picture slower?

Set the camera to 1/60 of a second, or 2/60th, 3/60th, etc. The vertical scan rate is 1/60 sec, so any multiple of 1/60 sec should work. Best results if you happen to start the exposure during a vertical interval and end it at the next vertical interval. Else you may see a light or dark band in the picture. It's pretty much random timing if it's a handheld (or tripod) camera with your finger on the shutter button though....

Hey Adam...

The Olympic you painted... that don't look half bad! In fact, it's kinda funky! :yes: I think one of our other guys has one similar w/out the radio and in blonde.

Yes, the flash will wash out your shots of a set operating. Turning off the flash works well for me. I also open windows to let outside light into the room.

Rich,

Cool looking Admiral. It reminds me of the blonde Silvertone in the tv shop attic that had the record player w/out radio. You're right... looks interesting not being a typical square box. Good luck with restoration.

Hey Adam...

The Olympic you painted... that don't look half bad! In fact, it's kinda funky! :yes: I think one of our other guys has one similar w/out the radio and in blonde.

That would be me! Heck, if I didn't like the blonde so much, I think I might be tempted to paint mine, too.

Those are some tasty sets you got there, Adam. Is that long console a Magnavox? I'm definitely diggin' that.

Welcome, and hang around. The guys here have enough experience--and share it--so that even I have managed to do some stuff!

veg

Those are actually two different Magnavoxes, same year same model.
Heres some of mine back.

hey,i LOVE this thread!! where's the pictures??
frank

All of AK's photos were lost a couple of months ago when we had server issues. Not sure of the details, but, they are working on trying to get them back. The photos you currently see were posted after we switched servers.

Hi,
Anyone have a "DUMONT" B&W tv for sale?

Johnny.

I have a late fifties 21" console looking for a new home, but I'm on the wrong coast.

Hope We get the Pictures back that was the best part of this forum... Picture is worth 1000 words even in B&W......

I have a late fifties 21" console looking for a new home

This is always a problem for me. If I see something I would like to get I have to get rid of something due to space, or lack there of. Problem is there arent that many folks looking for a vintage TV. If there is someone I wouldnt know where to find them. Right now I know where there is a 1947 RCA roundie console that has my name written all over it. A bit over priced at $75 (but will take $50) but I have an 8T-243 with a good crt and the same chassis. I should be able to get something working between the two, but I hate to sacrifice one for another. I mean butchering one to fix another. I have to move the following before I can sink my soldering iron in the neat RCA.

I have a late 50's Airline 21" console in original but non working condition. The set is in very decent shape and I wish to give it to a good home. I also have a 1958 Zenith Space Command with I believe a 24" crt that drove me nuts last winter trying to recap and get rid of the symptoms of hum for sound with no signal and no vertical sweep. Thats the way I bought the set and after replacing nearly every capacitor and all bad resistors I wound up with the same exact problems. I put it aside out of agravation. I had high hopes for this beautiful set that looks as if it was hardly used, if at all. All tubes were period stock and the chassis and crt were very clean. No black sut on the crt and inside the HV cage. I wondered if maybe the thing had a factory defect and has always been set aside. I guess it needs a good home as well. Someone with more technical knowlege than I could fix what is likely ONE single short and have a set that will last a lifetime with little trouble. Sorry but I really cant GIVE this one away as I have sank a little in the caps and resistors. Plus the Space Commands are kind of special being early examples of remote control sets. I could break even at $50 if anyone is interested. Come get both! If anyone has a 21ZP4B CRT in good shape we can swap.

Sorry for being long, thanks for reading.....

Hi, I'm new to this forum, so please be gentle.

Interesting discussion! Here's a pointer to my meager assortment of restored B/W sets:

http://antiqueradio.org/televisions.htm

Most of them still mostly work most of the time :-)

I'm more of a radio guy, so at this stage, my TV skills basically consist of [1] knowing how to replace capacitors, [2] avoiding electrocution, and [3] knowing how to ask for advice from smarter people!

Hello Phil, Welcome to AK!

You may be new here but I'm sure many of us know who you are from your Site.

Hopefully you'll like it here enough to hang around and get to know everyone. Lot's of good people here. :)

Eric

Welcome Phil! Glad to have you here! You've got some great sets there! :yes: Seems I recall a discussion here about your Scott combo. i remember that shiny chassis! Perhaps it was back when it was up for sale.

Hope you enjoy yourself here!

PHil, your site is GREAT! Love the multiple pix of the guts of each set, and intend to add your site to the links list on mine - www.bretl.com

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b122/55Bill51/DSCF00323.jpg

Anybody want to see this? :banana: :yes:

How about this? It's a 1949 RCA Victor 16" tv I am restoring. RCA calls it Oak, but, actually, it's more like blonde mahogany.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b122/55Bill51/DSCF003212.jpg :thmbsp:

This is an early 60's brazilian Invictus TV set from my little collection.

My collection of old sets started about eight years ago with the bakelite Admiral, which I bought for $15 at a yard sale. I have been slowly gathering more sets since, with the latest additions being the Admiral Imperial 400 and the Sylvania portable, which I got last summer.

Can anyone here identify this 10" Emerson? Except for the tube layout chart there's nothing else in or on the cabinet or chassis.

Chuck

Chuck, it's a 571

http://www.vintagetvsets.com/emerson571.htm

Thanks Eric, I figured someone here would know. Couldn't let it sit at the auction this morning.

Chuck

I know there is an early and a late version of this set.
I think it's the early version that uses the 5 25Z5 rectifier tubes and ballast. also the knobs are different between the two, RCA knobs like yours on one and the Emerson knobs on the other.

In Australia it is really rare to find an old 1950s B&W TV set. This arvo when I was driving home from work I picked up a 1950s HMV B&W 625 line TV set whic is cosmetically in good condition. Don't know of its working order yet as I've not plugged it in but it would be a great project for me to work on with help from mates. Haven't taken down notes of the model of the set but it looks to date around 1956/57 maybe as late as 1960 as it has a port to put a cord remote into it. Anyhow here's the pic below:
http://1970scountdown.atspace.com/Image034.jpg

Cheers
Troy

Thats the 1960 and 1/2 Inviso-Vision Model 0. Extremely rare!! Very hard to find!!

Just kidding... I had to do it. No pics mate.

ok,i'm gonna try to post some pix of my set...here goes nothin!
i'm especially proud of my TV topper collection...an old panther,an old antenna that had a cool atom logo on it and an old art deco timer thing that i thought looked too awesome not to put on it lol
frank

I'm sorry but whet kind of TV & Stereo do we have here Hot Rod Chevy ?... Thats what I thought Magnavox...What size screen ? What year for the TV & Stereo ? Do You have a 54 Hot Rod to ?

Nice looking Magnavox, HR!

I remember we had one of those panthers when I was a kid. Don't know what happened to it... I'm sure it probably got broken.

I'm sorry but whet kind of TV & Stereo do we have here Hot Rod Chevy ?... Thats what I thought Magnavox...What size screen ? What year for the TV & Stereo ? Do You have a 54 Hot Rod to ?

yeah,that's a 54 magnavox.the CRT is a 20 incher so with the mask it's probably around 19.the stereo i'm not quite sure about.it appears to be a 60s RCA hi-fi..and that's all i can tell you about it..compliments the TV well in my opinion.yeah,i got a 54 chevy 2 door with a 68 327..that's why i was so drawn to the magnavox..it's the same year! :D
frank

A nice shot of my Andrea and Philco.

Here is my 630, which I obtained earlier this winter in trade for some audio tubes. I am surprised (knock wood) how easy this set came back. Aside from a recap it required a 6SK7 (wouldn't stay in sync) & a 1B3 which was killing hv. I also had to replace the horiz. lin. resistor which was open & causing the left side of the screen to spread. I am very pleased with the stability & overall performance of this tv. It needs a top cover (missing when I got it) so if anyone has a spare please let me know.

Bryan, I think I have a top for a 630 but it's in pretty poor condition.

I'll look for it tonight and let you know

Eric

OK, I found it and it's actually in good shape, needs refinished is all.
It's yours for the cost of shipping.

Send me a P.M. if you want it.

Eric

PM sent!

Bryan,

I'm very jealous of your working 630TS!

Jonathan

Here is a set I've had for about 12 years. My then-girlfriend had a friend who inherited her grandfather's house and this was in the attic. I think I gave her $25 for it. I had a better back in those days, I guess, because I hauled this down by myself. Kinda neat as the house and tv were the same age and I could really picture this set sitting in the living room.

The cabinet is pretty beat up. One neat thing is it has a tag on the bottom, just like old Emerson radios, "Cabinet by Ingraham". As found the set worked but barely. The cheater socket had been bypassed and the fuse was replaced with a length of solder! I decided a couple weeks ago that it was time to do something with it. I replaced the electrolytics but only part of the paper caps. I expected a hornet's nest of black beauties but there were only 2; mostly it uses those ceramic-tubular Elmencos. I recapped the vert & horiz and things work fairly well. There was something intermittent killing the hv but now things are right. The crt is a 21FP4 (as I recall), the unusual cylindrical face 21" tube. Unfortunately it is on the weak side; I added a brightener which helps. After awhile I may take it back off and see how it does.

I recall someone else has this set. I need a close-up of the tuner knob. What I have on there now is wrong; the picture in the Sams is to hard to make out.

I have a similar model with a 17 inch tube. I have not yet restored it, but the CRT checks good.

Hi Bryan,
I have the same set but in the 16 inch version. I have a couple of used spares for your tuning and volume knobs. Just PM me with your addy and i'll dig them up and get them out to you.
Tony

I've been trying to tackle some of these sets which I have left half finished. This one I just wrapped up so I'll share. I bought this about 8-10 years ago from a local fellow who also had a Predicta. I bought the pair for less than $100. This set was in working order (I only needed to clean the tuner) but it soon developed an intermittent in the vertical. Then the vertical went out completely. At that time (2-3 years ago) I replaced the electrolytics & recapped the vertical circuit, to no avail. Now, with more experience, I dug back into it. At first I suspected the osc. transformer but I found a spare & swapped them with no change. Then I did the trick of running a cap between the filament & the grid of the vert osc. tube & there was no drive. A check of the vert output transformer showed the primary was open. I posted on here and Charles (Kaye-Halbert) came through. With the new part installed I had deflection but poor sync. This took some investigating. It seems that when I recapped the circuit I included a pair of mica caps. Luckily I had saved them. With no schematic on hand I couldn't know for sure but checking the color codes I saw I had messed up. What I thought was a .068 was a .0068 while a .047 was installed in place of what I think was a .00047. It doesn't matter what the values were supposed to be-they were wrong, I had the old micas, so I reinstalled them and the vertical looked right again.

The remaining problem with the vertical section was more dumbness on my part. When I unclipped the old transformer I forgot where the B+ line was connected. The likely places were a line at 290v and another, B-boost, at 400. I finally found a schematic for another set using this same transformer which showed a voltage of 275 so that set me straight. I still wonder if I chose the right place. The set has a hum in the audio which seems to be connected to what the vertical is doing. It's not real noticeable except with the volume down. When I finally get a copy of the schematic I'll know for sure.

One more odd thing-reception had always been good with this tv but when now I could barely pick up the signal from my vcr tuner. I knew the vcr worked okay because the Emerson a few posts back is being fed from it. This took a few nights to figure out and it was a new one on me-the matching transformer was defective! Yeah, just one of those cheap 300-to-75 ohm thingies. If I undid one leg it pulled in the signal clear. Into the garbage it went. This set is now a reasonably good performer again.

Here are 2 "Rekord" tv's like the one I got in an "Romarta" shop in Bucharest, aprox. in 1957-59:
http://forum.softpedia.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=103090

I jut got me an B&W Soviet roundie!!! called "Temp" 2
http://oldradio.cz/temp2.htm
http://www.fonar.com.pl/audio/katalog/temp2.htm
I'll try to take some pictures of my own tv, and scan some pages of the instruction manual.
With all that they say that that set was manufactured untill 1956, in 1957 it was still in prodcution.
Mine is manufactured on April the 29th, 1957.
I isn't in quyte qood condition; it layed in a humyd apartament block basement (in that basement are rats too) for 20-30 yrs, and the contcats from the elecrtonic gun are brocken.
The form whic I bought the set sent a "Rekord" in Italy!
Both "Temp" 2 and "Rekord" have C.R.T. with 70 degress dflexion angle and F.M. radio (64,5-73 MHz/Mcs).
"Temp" 2 was the 1st set sold in Romania (in 1956, before tv boadcasting was started for the audicence - December the 31st, 1956) and it was the only roundie sold in Romania! :sigh:

Hi,
I picked this up at a garage sale 10 years ago or so. It worked then, but I haven't had a chance to go through and refresh it, so right now it's more funiture than anything else.
I wish I knew more about it- Zenith, 1949-1952??? Any information would be appreciated.
Jason
[edit- sorry about the low quality pictures!]
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/jtsjf/tv2.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/jtsjf/tv.jpg

A real beauty! Your time range is right...at least one other member here owns one like this, and could answer more questions. I don't think the early Zenith sets are the easiest to work on-a lot of stuff piled in that chassis, and lots of bad resistors to go with the bad caps that everything has. If you haven't already, find out if the crt is any good. There were problems with the larger round tubes and replacements can be tough to find. Good luck!

Thanks Bryan, the case is in superb shape- only a couple nicks and scratches that are barely noticable. We tried to find out the year, but I was told that all the early Zenith records were burned in a fire ???
I believe the CRT is ok (it was replaced in the '60s I think).

I have the exact set, restored, which was not easy. It was made in 1950. I paid $100 for it in 1992 . It showed up here in North Texas. I have the original owner's manual and would be glad to send you a copy. You'll see one of the unusual features up front near the bottom of the picture tube, a slide switch. To make a "rectangular picture" you slide it one way, the other way the picture is full-screen, or round!

Wow- I didn't know about the slider- that's cool! Thank you for the confirmation on the date of manufacture.
I would be much indebted to you if I could get a copy of the owners manual. I'll send you a PM with my address.
Jason

Jason here's a 1950 Zenith ad that might be of interest to you.


http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/TV/TV08/TV0824-72dpi.jpeg

-Steve D.

Jason,

Here's another ad. I believe your "Waldorf" model, if I read it correctly, is in the bottom left. Pricey set in 1950's dollars.

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/TV/TV03/TV0344-150dpi.


-Steve D.

My "Temp 2": :yes:

Another pic from the back; a guy who helped me to carry the set took these pictures with a cell phone on the day that I picked up the set (March the 26th) - the picture was taken in the front of the aparatments block where the guy from I bought the set lives.

Hi TELECOLOR 3007. I really like your Russian roundie! Hope you can get it operating one of these days. A very interesting set. I like that they masked the CRT into a rectangular format. Very few US made roundies did this.

My "Temp 2": :yes:
A very interesting project. Did you checked the capacitors? What is with the picture tube?

Well, one of the capacitors which filtred the anodic current blow up (after this the lines oscilator stoped working); I don't know how to repayr a set, an the teenager guy who look at it dind't found the problem (I think it's a poor contact, or a small capacitaor or ar a rezistor that it's brocken); some one will have a look at the set in the next days.
I found an unsed lines final output tube (G-807), but it's quite expensive.
In 1956 Sovites made rectangular pictures tube too! I don't think the picture tube is the original one; on it apears 19 Apr. 1967 (and on betwen the coils and the C.R.T.'s neck it' s a pice of paper). And the end of the C.R.T. the component that get the wires in the pins falled (on of the wires that got out form the neck got brocken 2 times). It's almast imposible to find an 40LK1B C.R.T. in Romania - people trhou them - a woman throu 3!!! "Temp" 2.
I hope I will make the set working in the next few days;

I hope you get it working. Maybe , when it works you could post a photo of it working with the TV show "Get Smart" playing. That show had a funny representation of the KGB they were code-named "KAOS". Don Adams is great in that show. I want to get that show on DVD. Remember when they have to talk secretly and those clear domes come down on thier heads?

Here's a photoshopped preview of Max Smart of "Get Smart" using his secret shoe phone on that Russian TV. An early version of the modern cell phone...

Just got this one home after winning it on evilbay. Cabinet is very sweet. Tv still works, but I need to have it recapped and checked out. Admiral Model C2256 built July 2, 1954. 19".
Thanks
Dan

Here is my favorite. I'll have it in August. It's a scarce 1950 RCA Victor model6T74. Been searching for that set for over 30 years to replace our original family tv. :banana:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=18862

And here's the front view with doors closed. Polaraman has it, and is going to deliver it to me in August. Thank you......
http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=18863

Cahill, Congratulations on Your find. I also am looking for 27 inch Kaye Halbert TV & Our Forum member Kaye Halbert also as well. They built them in Culver City Ca. in the 50's.We still had our set till 1965. I hope all of our collectors could have some of the first sets our family had it makes our colections more personal. Its fun to meet new people when we are looking for sets we want as well... G.B.

I'll say that set is hard to find. The last time I saw an RCA round-tube B&W set like that was over 35 years ago. Slightly different cabinet style than the one pictured in this thread, but I think it used the same chassis.

Watch TV on a lot of different TVs.
Tried to make top bezel on my RCA 621 project 4 times and failed, too many curves, nothing is straight so took vacation from that and put this together
in less time then one fail. Had chassis in it but took out to seal and finish cabinet.

My name is Doug Peel and i live in southern california, I want to post this message and attach photos of part of my tv collection. Hope to hear some feedback and meet some great collectors!

I will send two more photos shortly!

Doug P.

Here is my last photo, again I hope to meet some grest collectors and get some feedback!

Doug

It's always good to hear that there's more old TV guys down here in southern California. Those are some nice sets.

Doug,

It is always good to see a pile of TVs. I note that you have good taste, there are some choice sets in your collection. Now you need to start restoring some (or all) of them to wroking cndition... that is half the fun! Or maybe Steve K could help....?

Here's some feedback:

oooooOOOOOOOoooooooh!

veg

Hi Doug! Welcome to AK, bout time you joined us. :D

I have seen Dougs collection first hand and it's amazing! :yes:

Hi Doug:

I agree with Eric, FINALLY you joined us! You certainly do have a great collection and I enjoyed our visit yesterday and the chance to see you new (old) sets. I have all the parts in stock to restore that TT-5 and the Westinghouse so feel free to bring them over so I can get started. You can't just have them sitting there not working!

Steve

Doug is a most welcome addition to AK. He has an outstanding collection of vintage sets and is a really nice guy to boot. Great photos Doug.

-Steve D.

Welcome Doug!

Haven't seen you in awhile... Heard that you moved away from Ontario?

Charles (with the former rental garage full of old TVs that you came to in Van Nuys a few years ago)

Its nice to hear from you so far! I have been on the websites of you that have sites and enjoyed seeing your collections! I have recently picked up a "Halbert" table top 10" set from about 1948 or 49 not to sure but I cant find info. on. Im assuming its pre "Kaye Halbert" but not sure but it has a very radical stepped up middle section with very pronounced shoulders. The name tag is below the screen and its metal and it just says "Halbert". Im sorry i dont have a photo as the cabinet had some damage and its at the refinisher getting repaired and refinished. Any info. would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome Doug!

Haven't seen you in awhile... Heard that you moved away from Ontario?

Charles (with the former rental garage full of old TVs that you came to in Van Nuys a few years ago)
Hi Charles!
Long time! I live in Upland now and sold my home in Ontario and bought a condo in Lake tahoe though im not living there but nice to visit! I bought a "
Halbert" tv not a "Kaye Halbert". Its a table top with a 10" screen and very radical stepped middle section and very prnounced shoulders. Maybe you know about this set as I know nothing....maybe pre-Kaye Halbert?? The cabinet is getting re-finished right now so I dont have a picture of the set. Talk to you later.
Doug Peel

Thanks for the welcome Steve K. and Steve D. it was nice seeing you both on monday!
Hi John! Thanks for your welcome....love them color sets of yours!
Hey Eric! Thanks for the welcome! How is your collecting going? Any recent aquisition?
Lets see more of your sets out there!

Hi Doug,

Long time no see. I know first hand what great sets you have. I'd always admire your collection on the various occaisions we met at your place. Say, when did you get your CT-100? Does yours have a good tube? Looks like you thinned out the many the larger sets, except the blonde CTC-5. I still have the Packard Bell with the 27" round glass metal tube (remember the spare tube!- it was good and was just what was needed to replace the original tube which was gassy). I restored the electronics and the set works extremely well.

It's a predictable crowd here on AK and can sometimes get rather entertaining. Lots of great technical tips being shared too.

Welcome aboard! :thmbsp:

Tom

[QUOTE=Tom_Ryan]Hi Doug,

Long time no see. I know first hand what great sets you have. I'd always admire your collection on the various occaisions we met at your place. Say, when did you get your CT-100? Does yours have a good tube? Looks like you thinned out the many the larger sets, except the blonde CTC-5. I still have the Packard Bell with the 27" round glass metal tube (remember the spare tube!- it was good and was just what was needed to replace the original tube which was gassy). I restored the electronics and the set works extremely well.

It's a predictable crowd here on AK and can sometimes get rather entertaining. Lots of great technical tips being shared too.

Welcome aboard! :thmbsp:
Hi tom!
Good to hear from you! Im glad to hear that the Packard bell set is still around and now working! I was not too sure about the spare tube but glad it worked out! I had thinned out some of my collection, mostly the large bulky consoles and some of the common "bland" sets. I got my CT-100 back in the beginning of this year however the CRT is down to air....how typical! Did you restore that RCA "Director" CTC4 set? I really like that model and wish my "Director" was in good shape! Thanks for the welcome!
Doug :banana:

I brought this Pilot back to life a few weeks ago. Now that the server has breathing room I thought I would post a pic. This was the best screenshot I could come up with. Someday a 3KP4 will show up. Soon I will repost some older pictures in this thread, ones that dissappeared in awhile back.

Got this a while back and after much work (and help), got this up and running great. Picture is awesome - can't see it with the flash but the picture is "Your Hit Parade". Cabinet has a few issues with the top of the left door but the top was always covered with glass so it's perfect. I might try to touch up. Another AK member had this in black...this is the jade green version. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

But I can remember seeing thousands of them as a kid. Crosley was a big brand around here (Toronto).

My parents had a Crosley about this size, but the bottom was a drawer that held an AM FM (yep, FM, years before the band was in use here) plus a record changer. All finished in blond wood, a real beauty.

This was kind of hiding behind an ugly old couch, and may have been repainted, but all the knobs are still there and it was in (almost) one piece.

But I can remember seeing thousands of them as a kid. Crosley was a big brand around here (Toronto).

My parents had a Crosley about this size, but the bottom was a drawer that held an AM FM (yep, FM, years before the band was in use here) plus a record changer.

Toronto isn't that far from Buffalo, New York. People who owned FM radios before there were FM stations in Toronto could likely get stations from south of the border. Also, many AM/FM radios (and three-way TV combos) were sold to folks living in areas miles from the nearest FM station; the radios in these were likely used only or mostly on AM, which resulted in the FM oscillator tube eventually failing to start or starting intermittently.

Crosley was popular in this country as well in the 1950s. My folks had a blond Crosley "Super V" 21-inch transformerless TV they bought used, IIRC, in the early sixties; we had it until the early '70s, and it was still working well even then. I'll never forget watching that set one afternoon when I was seven years old. During a commercial break, one of the Cleveland TV stations ran a Conelrad (the United States cold-war era emergency broadcasting network, now replaced by the Emergency Alert System) test. Seeing the old "CD" symbol (a triangle inside a large black dot with the letters CD, for Civilian Defense, in black in the middle, themselves overlaying a red dot when viewed on a color set--on b&w TVs it was all black, white and shades of gray) as big as life on that 21" TV screen used to scare the daylights out of me--I thought for sure the Russians were going to blow Cleveland, northeast Ohio and every place else within 100 miles in all directions (!) off the map any second. :yikes:

No TV sets, but still vintage electronics. 2 reel to reel decks (a stereo playback mono 4 track record Sonora, and the 2nd a Viking), a bunch of test equipment with the family cat (Eico o'scope, a TV FM sweep generator, emission tube tester, and I think a Hickok VTVM and a radio tuner. Another is my mom and grandma preparing Thanksgiving dinner next to an Admiral AA5 radio in the kitchen, and a Rec-o-kut turntable in a homebuilt base. Last picture is a shortwave radio project my father built, here he is selecting placement of some trimmers (he finished it and it worked fine). All these were taken around 1960 or so.

I wanted to share some of my recent finds. Yep, stuff still comes out of the woodwork, even when you don't look too hard!

The first 2 are from a weekend getaway we took recently to Pennsylvania. The others I got from a local tube audio collector who I often swap with.

1) This turned up at the Zern's Farmers/Flea Market, not too far from Pottstown (Douglasville?). An indoor vendor had this for $10. An attractive color, I feel, and a brand that doesn't show up much (my first): Olympic. Someone posted a similiar set earlier this year, but I didn't search enough to find it. I don't know if the other one was an Olympic but the thing they have in common is that they are made in Japan. Very American in design. Heavily built with a wrinkle finish on the metal portion of the cabinet. UHF seems to be an afterthought but at least it's there. The set powered up but with only a partial raster & nothing but static for audio.

2) This was at an inside booth at Renniger's Adamstown Flea Market. Wow, what a place! The best one we hit. The vendor was gone but luckily his neighbor was watching the booth. It is an Emerson with a solid bakelite cabinet, paint-speckled but in good overall shape. The crt had a brightener-it tests just mediocre after a good warmup. Worth the $20 I paid, I would say.

3) This is a CBS Columbia 17" table model in a metal cabinet, in good overall condition. My friend who found it said it initially sold at auction for an unbelievable $150. Shortly thereafter it showed up in another auction house, where he was able to buy it for just a few dollars. That shows the fickle nature of this hobby, I guess. Nothing real exciting about the TV except perhaps the label on the back. No surprise that CBS would be pushing its system like that. There is a socket on the back & additional label (let me know if anyone is interested in a photo of it); there are a few wires running to that socket, which has a cap over it.

4) My first Olympic, my first CBS TV, now my first Setchell-Carlson. An odd way to make a 19" portable, for sure, but then S-C like to do things different. The cabinet is a little beat up and there are some scratches in the CRT face, so this won't be a "museum piece". I thought this was early sixties but then I saw the address on the back has a zip code so I guess they made these later on.

I suspect that pink Olympic to be extremely rare in such beautiful condition.

That sticker announcing the color TV adaptor is the most interesting to me. That must be the rarest thing of all to find in that area of stuff. I suspect that 3 color sticker was at the bottom left of the picture tube when new and someone put it in the back? Does anybody remember seeing one on a showroom floor?

Been lurking here for a while. Glad to see so much interest in restoring these old TV's. I just finished an Admiral 20X1. For any interested the restoration is documented at:

http://www.radioremembered.org/admiral20x1.html

Great job !! Welcome to AK ! There are all sorts of vintage TV 'nutz" here...You're in good company..

Been lurking here for a while. Glad to see so much interest in restoring these old TV's. I just finished an Admiral 20X1. For any interested the restoration is documented at:

http://www.radioremembered.org/admiral20x1.html

Chimes,

Just want to compliment you on an outstanding site. Great job of documenting your restoration of the Admiral and the other sets.

-Steve D.

Thank you very much.

Bill

Hi Bill,
I'm glad you finally chimed in and joined us. We have some radio nuts here too so your in good company on both points. I've enjoyed your site since you first posted it on the Antique Radios Forum and your advice has helped me out on more than one occasion. These are a great group of guys and i'm sure you'll enjoy your visits here too. Welcome aboard!
-Tony

That's a cool avatar! Now if we can just set-up so the chime tones sound every time you log on!

You might find this interesting, a history of the chimes.

http://www.radioremembered.org/chimes.htm

Bill H.

Thanks!

I'm sure you've been following my thread in the TV Swapboard...what's that, you haven't?! Well, darn, how am I supposed to give away any TV sets if you don't check it out! Anyway, I wanted to post one of the "keepers" from that find. This is a Philco from the early sixties. I haven't done any research on it yet, but no mention of Ford, no UHF. One interesting thing is that the sticker on the crt states plainly, in big letters "6 volt filament, 250 ma". I wonder if this was meant to telegraph that this wasn't one of those lousy 2 volt crt's that they used in the Predicta? According to the emblem above the control panel this is the "Woodstock". Kinda neat looking set, I think. Before you can ask, yes, the cabinet is all plastic.

Hi Everyone,

I have been a member for a while and just lurking. I am so busy I don't find much time for my old tv's. I currently have 12 sets 1951 or earlier, with round crt's that I intend to eventually restore.

I just finished my first restoration, a 1951 Hallicrafter 820. It was badly damaged in shipping from NY to Milwaukee. CRT neck broken off and the bulb was floating around inside the cabinette. Did a lot of damage to the chassis, both physical and electronic. Did a full recap, replaced vert oscilator blocking trans, and various tubes and resistors. Hope you enjoy the photos,

Bob Galanter
Milwaukee

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=33544&stc=1&d=1165966108

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=33545&stc=1&d=1165966263

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=33546&stc=1&d=1165966263

Welcome to AK, ohohYoda. Beautiful set you have there, excellent screen picture you took, too.

Is that Halli an 820? Nice restoration.

Thanks AAGE,

Yes Dave that is an 820. Just like yours. I sent you a private message. Guess you didn't see it yet.

Bob

It hasn't come throught yet. I'll be looking for it.

aw man... i want that set

Wow! You did a nice job on that set Bob! If the rest of your tv's turn out like the Hali then your going to have a house full of happy sets! Welcome to AK
-Tony

I picked up this interesting mid-50s portable 8" RCA at an estate sale this morning, here's some pics.

Hey, I have that same set. Mine is red. Only problem is that the fool who sold it to me didn't packed it, he sent it to me by mail loose inside a cardbox with no protection at all. The result: a broken CRT, and a very ugly dent on the left side.

I knew a guy that had a CRT for one of those a while back, I wonder if he still has it?? I think he lives in Oregon.

I contacted Eric H months ago. He has this CRT. Shipping from the USA is expensive for me right now, so, I am considering other options. I am trying to find out if there's still someone near me who rebuilds those old tubes. One thing that I find amazing is that the guy who sold this said that the TV belonged to his grandfather, and that his grandfather carried the TV around all the time. And he treated something that was part of his family History like that, with no care at all. Oh well...

Hey Captain Video, sorry, you asked me a question about that a while back and it completely slipped my feeble mind!

The tube is an 8DP4 in that set, I never did figure out the exact cost of shipping on that tube, if you'll PM me your address I will check and see if there isn't some way to send it that won't break the bank.

Eric, I sent you a PM.

Rob:
Boy, that is opening a can of worms! Do you want them cronologically or alphabetically! Allright, how about a 7" Emerson. Ummm, lemme see if I can do this.....

Marlin

I bought a 9" Admiral b/w new when I was fifteen (1966). It still works, and looks great. There's something about tubes vs. solid state. The old sets that used tubed electronics look nicer that ss units today, they also smell great when they warm up. Naturally I'm an audiophile and use tubes.


John

Welcome on Board John. I wish I had kept my first set that I got when in High School back in 1964. It was a CTC4 that I recaped. It had a great picture. I sold it to a friend in 1971 for $25 after I bought a new Zenith. I have been trying to acquire a CTC4 for about 3 years now with no luck.

Anybody know where I can buy a CTC4?

Well here is number 2. A 12 inch Zenith Porthole as you can well see. When I got her the 12up4 had an open filiment. Took a while to find a good crt, but I got a real good one and she shows real bright.

Full recap a few marginal tubes replaced and a lot of TLC to refinish the cabinette with many coats of clear lacquer. Stripped the solid brass control door and re-polished it, then re-lacquered it. Same done to the brass trim rings aorund the On/Off/volume and chanel knobs. Took the Die cast picture tube safety glass frame and cleaned it real good and gave it a couple coats of lacquer so it looks like new.

Runs real nice and gets a nice picture except for a horizontal linearity problem that has me stumped. As per John Marinello's suggestion I may try to fiddle with some capacitor values in between the Horizontal discharge tube and the grid of the horizontal output to see if I can get the trace to be more linear. Right now the picture is streched on the left and compressed tightly on the right.

Question... does the scan start on the left and end on the right or vise versa?

Also have another question. The filiment winding that feeds the 1B3 which wraps around the core of the flyback, dosent do a complete loop all the way around the flyback core. It just does a 180 sort of like a u-turn. Is this the way it is supposed to be? I have always seen 1 complete turn, a full 360 around the flyback core on all the sets I am familiar with. Can someone who has a set like this verify if the winding is to be a horse shoe sort of 'U' turn or is it supposed to be 1 full complete 360 loop around the flyback core?

So here are the photos... Enjoy!

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=35782&stc=1&d=1168061986

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=35783&stc=1&d=1168061986

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=35784&stc=1&d=1168061986

I wonder what Zenith and Raytheon did to expand the raster to fill the entire viewing area without it being out of proportion. The other round crt sets with double d border show the vertical blanking signal just outside the viewing area.

I would think that just expanding the picture with the linearity and size controls would cause way too much height.

I don't know what was done in the old porthole sets, but in the ZOOM feature in some later Zenith color sets, they increased the retrace time. So, the scan started just beyond the edge of the faceplate, but it started late and ended early. I imagine the porthole sets may do the same thing. If you can put a scope on the deflection coils, you could measure this easily. Watch out, thouhg, the retrace pulse voltage may be quite high (several times as big as B+)

On my porthole, the switch simply causes an increase in the verticle voltage to the deflection yoke. It does not alter the horizontal width at all. IN essence what happens is that you get a stretching of the verticle and as a result the picture IS distorted. If you watch the picture in normal position you get a 1 inch black area at the top and bottom of the crt and you can see all the digital data in the top 3 or so traces.

This gets at something I've been wondering about, on all b/w sets (atleast those using the same standard) I thought the frequency at the yoke coils for both horiz. and vert. and the number of lines on the screen always stay the same. So inorder to have a larger picture, something has to give, so is there more space between each line on a larger screen, are the lines thicker?
Secondly, inorder to increase the deflection angle, is the voltage at the yoke increased over what it would be on a set with a lesser deflection angle while maintaining the same frequency, or does it have more to do with the size/ shape of the yoke?
Thirdly, in the case of longer and shorter tubes, would not different distances between the gun and the front of the tube cause problems due to different amount of times it takes the beam to travel from one to the other?
I know if you increase the vert size, you're increasing the voltage at the vertical half of the yoke, but the frequency remains the same, now the picture covers a greater area and the deflection angle increased, but the number of lines is the same, so there must be more space between the lines. Also in some sense the vert. has to oscillate faster, because it now has to go between 2 higher voltages in the same time it used go between two lower voltages, this is why when you increase the vert. size alot the vert. goes out of sync?
And if I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, let me know.

In the early '70s I had a Majestic 16" round-screen b&w set whose picture did not fill the screen when the chassis was outside the cabinet. However, with the chassis in its normal position inside the cabinet, the top and bottom of the CRT were covered by the mask, so the picture looked round. (Round-screen b&w RCA and other sets also used this dodge to create a round picture from the original rectangular scan.) The raster only covered about the middle third or so of the CRT (again with the set out of the cabinet), so one could see the vertical blanking interval and its test signals (which also gave an indication as to when the station went from network to local programs--the test signals would disappear from the vertical interval during local broadcast time and return, of course, when the station rejoined the network). I don't know if TV stations and/or networks still use these signals in this age of microwave studio/transmitter links and network-to-affiliate satellite feeds but, IMHO, the test signals were fun to watch while they lasted (if you knew what they were and what you were looking at--most non-technical viewers didn't, and may have found them the devil of an annoyance if the picture shrunk due to weak tubes or other problems in the vertical sweep system).

BTW, the picture-size switch in the Zenith Porthole (a.k.a. Great Circle) TVs worked well when it worked, but the switch often caused problems with vertical sweep when the contacts tarnished or oxidized as the set aged. Many technicians simply bypassed or cut the switch out of the circuit when it acted up; my best guess is it wasn't missed that much by viewers, as it was just a frill anyway (another selling point for Zenith Great Circle TVs of the period). I doubt that most set owners even knew it was there. However, the TV worked just as well without the switch as with it.

I have both a Dumont and a Hoffman that use the square opening, round tube scheme. The Dumont uses a 12LP4. The Hoffman uses a 19AP4 which is weak (and very hard to find).

Basically your understanding is correct. What is essentially being done is increasing the verticle height adjustment.

Actually the lines stay the same thickness, but the space between the lines gets wider. The thickness of the line is determined by the diameter of the electron beam from the gun, and the divergence of the beam which is related to the distance from the gun to the screen.

As for the Yoke issue. We are talking about only increasing the height about 1 inch on top and 1 inch on bottom. So an increase in voltage causes a stronger magnetic field and thus a stronger deflection upward and downward. I am not sure if the Yoke has any special charastics over a yoke in a conventional set. My guess is that it's nothing special.

If there is any relationship in the length of the tube and timing it would be so small as to not be significent. Electrons travel at the speed of light.

Verticle oscilator frequency does not vary. It must stay at 30 frames per second to sync with the broadcast from the network. What varies is not the duration of the ramp waveform that drives the verticle section, but rather the peak positive and negative values of the voltage comming out of the verticle output transformer, (which is driven by the verticle output amplifier tube) which drives the verticle coils of the yoke. A simple analogy would be when you turn up the volume of your stereo, you don't change the waveforms of the sound or the durations of those waveforms. You only change the verticle amplitude of the waveforms and thus the loudness of the sound.

The verticle output section of the tv set is very much like a vacuum tube audio amplifier. A ramp waveform (the input signal) drives an output tube which in turn drives an output transformer (to obtain an AC positive and negative voltage) which drives the verticle coils of the deflection yoke (just like you drive the voice coil of a speaker to make it move forward and backwards).

Look at it this way. The verticle voltage driving the verticle coils of the deflection yoke is driven by a sawtooth ramp waveform. When the ramp voltage is at it's positive peak, the verticle voltage at the yoke is at it's max and the electron beam scans the top most line of the picture. When the ramp wave drops and crosses the zero axis, the voltage at the yoke is zero and the electron beam scans across the middle of the tube. When the ramp wave reaches the bottom of the cycle it is at the most negative value and the voltage at the Yoke is at it's most negative value and the scan line is at the bottom line of the picture. By varying the peek voltage of the ramp waveform comming out of the verticle amplifier tube, you vary the maximum positive and negative voltages applied to the yoke via the verticle output transformer.

The the verticle waveform driving the verticle output amplifier tube, is a ramp because at the end of each frame of the picture, the voltage needs to instantaneously return to the beginning of the cycle and start scanning a new frame at the top of the picture with virtually no time delay. As the value of the voltage on the ramp waveform drops from highest to lowest value, the electron beam scan lines move from the top to the bottom of the screen in a corresponding fashion.

Hope I haven't confused you too much, but basically you had the right idea.

There were several late 1940s TVs which featured some form of magnification or zoom. Most designs simply increased the vertical height, as discussed earlier in this thread.

But Westinghouse took the concept to its logical extreme in the Model H-605T12. This 12 inch table set has a front panel control labeled electronic magnification. When in the normal position, the CRT was masked off in the conventional "double D" format; that is a round CRT with the top and bottom masked off and the sides left rounded, to approximate the 4:3 aspect ration of the trnasmitted image. When the control was moved to the magnification position, two things happened. First, two mechanical shutters at the top and bottom of the CRT moved outware to reveal the full round CRT. Second, both the vertical sweep height and horizontal sweep width were increased to completely fill the round CRT, while maintaining the 4:3 aspect ration of the inage. The magnification was accomplished by switching in two separate vertical height controls to set the vertical height, and the B+ voltage to the horizontal output stage was switched between 2 values to cause the width to change.

In a conventional flyback type horizontal deflection system, changing the B+ voltage would have drematic effects on the high voltage as well as the width. Westinghouse avoided this complication by implementing a RF type high voltage power supply, which operates independently of the horizontal deflection circuitry. This HV supply is a souped-up version of the RF high voltage supply commonly used in 7" sets of the period. It was relatively uncommon to use RF high voltage supplies in sets employing CRTs bigger than 7 inches. The horizontal deflection circuitry of this set used 3 7A3's in parallel to drive a conventional transformer coupled deflection yoke. This set can be found in Sams #97-19.

WOW John,

I just acquired a Westy like the one in the photograph. I did not do anything to it yet except test the crt. I had no idea that there was a shutter attached to the magnification control or any of the other very interesting features of this set you mentioned. I will have to look more closely at it as soon as I have a chance. I already have the Sams for it. The cabinette is in pretty bad condition but I think it can be restored. Chassis looks unmolested from what I can see.

Thanks for this most interesting information ont he Westy.

Fully functional T-54 and SX-62A

This little one I scored this weekend, in trip to a small town near me. It belonged to a guy who was a TV technician in the old days. He is also my wife's uncle. I paid US$ 10,00 for it. It's a Semp ( a brazilian brand ) from around 1967/68/69. He said it worked last time he plugged it. Right now the cord is separated from the TV, but I will test it later. The TV was in a room he has that is full of old stuff ( the old fan seem in one of the photos came from there also ). Sadly, he said that he had more old sets that went to dump recently. The one I saved was the last.

"Hope I haven't confused you too much, but basically you had the right idea"
It makes sense to me now that I know the space between the lines does actually increase. Thanks for the info.
Here's some pictures of a Zenith I've been working on, I got it working, it just needs some work done to the cabinet before I put it back together.

I kind of started this whole vertical size thing with the portholes. In the meantime I realized that the RCA TC-127 that I recently restored has a WIDTH selection switch. Kind of strange I think, but I'm glad its there. I had a bit of shrinkage on one side and that switch took care of it.

zenith with @PHONEVISION
http://www.chicagotelevision.com/pay.htm

Regarding the 1B3 filament winding, the number of turns required to get the 1.4V needed by the tube filament depends on the design of the other windings of the flyback transformer. A specification called the Turns Per Volt Ratio is determined by the ratio of the number of turns in the primary winding to the AC voltage applied across the primary winding. Voltages induced in each secondary will be determined as a function of the Turns Per Volt Ratio. A transformer with a TPV of less than 1 is not uncommon, so a 1/2 turn secondary winding producing 1.4V is not unusual. Many color sets had low-ratio flyback transformers and produced 3.3V for the HV rectifier tube filament (3A3, 3B2, 3AT2, etc.) with single or 1-1/2 turn secondaries while deriving focus rectifier filament voltage for a 1X2, 1V2 or 2AV2 from a 1/2 or 3/4 turn winding.

Hello,

On the web I have found an old German advert for Graetz radio and television sets from the 1950's.

Go to

http://hrc2.macalester.edu/German/German366/Rendezvous/Graetz.html

Kind regards
Eckhard

error

Hi Eckhard,

I couldn't open the movie...the space where it should appear remains "blank" in my computer.

Meanwhile, as I have shown my Semp TV set from the late 60's here comes an older model: a newspaper ad from January, 25, 1954 with the new 17 inch model from Semp.

Hi Captain Video,

try it with this link:

http://hrc2.macalester.edu/German/German366/Rendezvous/Graetz.mov

It is a Quicktime video.

Eckhard

Very cool. Nice TV sets they made...is this factory still in operation?

I will have to show this ad to my wife. She has German ancestors, and she actually speaks German. The only German word that I really learned so far is "schnapps" .:D

Hello There.
I just joined this Forum and i'm looking forward to talking about our old sets.
I own a few.
I have a Motorola VT71 and 3 50's vintage RCA B&W sets and an RCA CTC5 color set.
Also I have the Garod mentioned above which I have mostly working but TV sound is weak but I need to find a knob set for it.
I'd like to add a pic of it but there seems to be a problem with scripts on this page.

Anders

Hi. Usually if the pics won't load it's because they're larger than 195 Kb or 900x900, if you shrink them down it might work.

Here's my third RCA 721TS to date. First one, I sold on eBay after recapping and aligning. Held on to the second one and plan on holding on to this third one a while. This one has an electrodynamic speaker as every other 721TS that I've seen, but has a PM ion trap. I haven't recapped it yet, but have installed the safety devices and re-formed the electrolytics. Shown here is a flash photo of the set displaying a test pattern and another without flash.

Next two pics are of my Fada 799. The first is just the cabinet on display while the chassis is partially disassembled and waiting on a shelf for its repaired tuner to be reinstalled and recapping. Last pic is the set on display before disassembly.

Any tips on photographing sets with non-aluminized CRT so the flash won't wash out the picture and / or cabinet shows up well without flash?

Welcome to AK, Anders ! Nice t'have ya here !! quite a few of us who share the peculiar affliction for ratty-and otherwise-old TV sets...<grin>

Boy sure do enjoy those pics!!
Dan

Some of my Italian-made B/W tube sets

1) 1963 Philips, made by Philips' Italian plant, this set uses a 23" CRT with a contoured bonded lens and a transformerless audio output, with high impedance speakers hooked directly to the output tube's plate circuit.

Seems that European CRTs with bonded lenses don't suffer from PVA deterioration and cataracts like many American CRTs do

2) 1961 CGE, this set uses a 17" 110° CRT and an one-piece bakelite cabinet.

3) 1964 Phonola 23", this set uses the world's first CRT (the Philips A59-11W) with the modern "rimband" type of integral implosion protection, the screen is the actual face of the CRT envelope

i also have an Italian-made Emerson, i'll post a pic of it ASAP

Francesco

The 1963 Emerson Forrestal, with wired remote and motorized tuner and volume control

Here are some pictures of my Sentinel 424 from 1951!

A vintage photo of some test equipment for TV and radio work. And a radio chassis. Photo taken in the early 60's. And that's the family cat, named "Silky". An Eico 'scope (which was little more than a toy compared to the Tektronix scopes I've used in my jobs as an electrical engineer), an Eico TV signal generator(?), Hickok vacuum tube voltmeter(?), and a simple emissions tube tester.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=51461&d=1181614793
You can also see the entertainment center (upper left of the photo) my father built. And here it is later on with different equipment: http://www.geocities.com/wa2ise/etcentr.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q26/IsakAlexander/Div1009.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q26/IsakAlexander/Div1008.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q26/IsakAlexander/Div1011.jpg
:scratch2:

Not something I'd normally bother with but it's kind of neat looking, no doubt the word "Deco" would apply on eBay. :scratch2:

I thought it was some kind of kids chair at first but then i noticed the wheels.

It's probably deep enough for a color set but this Zenith fits nicely on it.

Though not a collector (yet), I picked up a 1949 Arvin console tv from a friend. It doesn't work, but my father is optimistic he can get it going (old tube tv guy). Its in pretty good shape for 60+ years. I've thought about refinishing the cabinet, but probably won't. Its a 12" round set. Don't know how much the old Arvin sets are worth (don't see many). I paid $5 from a friend for it and he paid less than that. What's neat is I live in the town this was made in. In fact, it was purchased at a flea market in one of the older Arvin factories, I think where they had a TV line... talk about coming full circle.

If I get approval from domestic management (wife that doesn't understand...), I'm trying to aquire a newer Arvin table top model (looks like about a 19" square tube) that I think does work.

Man! Some guys have all the luck!! That Arvin is a REAL nice looking set! Where is MY piece of the pie? What a way to start a collection.....

Man! Some guys have all the luck!! That Arvin is a REAL nice looking set!

thanks. It's not quite as nicce in person. The console is pretty scratched up & is on the edge of being refinished. however, I would have a very hard time trying to match the finish (I really don't want to disassemble the whole thing and risk screwing it up). It does fit in nicely with the 1950's wooden exec desk & cool flourescent desk lamp (60's?) I have. Sad thing is I used to have a mint Admiral console stereo that would matchc perfect. Had to rehome it when we remodeled the downstairs. I still regret getting rid of it, but it did go to a good home.

Good catch on the Arvin! I see there radios but the TV's don't show up much. I have a few different Arvin stereos. They're a long way from high-fidelity but there is something about them that I like.

Here's the beautiful Motorola 17T13 I bought from Tubejunke !! It is one sweet set !

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1030153/TheTV1.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1030153/TheTV2.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1030153/TheTV3.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1030153/TheTV4.jpg



:banana:

This is one I bought on eBay several years ago and have just gotten around to restoring.

Most of the 'lytics showed good ESR, low leakage, and were within tolerance. Those that didn't meet the test criteria got re-stuffed with new units. For replacing the paper/wax caps, I used Mallory "150's" tubular axials, as I've gotten a good performance / price balance with these. Still needs hooked up to the scope/sweep/markers to check the RF/VIF/SIF, and video amp response curves. If it needs alignment at all, it will clearly need only the procedure shown under "touch-up alignment" in the 630TS service manual. The set is now protected by a 5A fast-acting AC line "pigtail" fuse (beside the filter caps), 1A main B+ "pico" fuse (under the front 5U4 socket), and 250mA B+ Boost "pico" fuse (under the 5V4 socket).

Final assembly will be after response-check and (if needed) touch-up alignment, but here's a screenshot, underchassis view, then the cabinet. Note the cardboard shield which protects the "unobtanium" electrodynamic speaker until the chassis is safely inside its cabinet.

This one isn't my personal set, but it's a beautiful example of my recent work. It got all its 'lytics checked for ESR/leakage/tolerance, one single-section (cathode bypass) 'lytic flunked and was replaced. Swapped out 45 bumblebee caps, cleaned everything up, and changed some weak tubes. HiFi is in the drawer below the TV.

Thanks to Steve McVoy for the referral. Working on an RCA metal portable for the same client now and will post pics when finished.

Wow, that Curtis Mathes makes the "single wide" color one in another topic seem small! :)

I love the small CRT you have for the Fada project. And, "unobtanium electrodynamic speaker"... I have a 630TS that had been converted to a video monitor at some time, and a video-level control or something was mounted through the speaker grille cloth. I tried some kind of speaker as part of my repair attempts around 1980 but got no sound. Now I think I know the main reason why. I will have to look at the Photofact manual closely at some point and figure out how to make a PM speaker work in there. I do not remember if the audio-output transformer was even still there.