I got bored tonight and started looking thru my Sam's in attempt to find the last tube TV covered. Of course, it would help if my Sams were complete. Here is what I found.

1587-2 from 8/76 on a Truetone (Western Auto) model ADM4621A-67. This uses a 19VATP22 CRT and has six other tubes. This set was built by Admiral and the 67 suffix tells me that the set is from the 1976 model year.

1593-1 from 9/76 on a Sears model 528.44040500/501. This uses a 25VAFP22 CRT and nine other tubes as well as plug in modules. This is a Warwick built set and looks like a lower end 25" table model.

A long time ago; I thought I remembered a Sams from '77 covering a tube type 12" Sanyo B&W set. I guess I can't count it because I couldn't locate it tonight.

Anyone got any higher numbered Sams covering a TV using at least one tube beside the CRT? I'm talking about a real photofact. Not the filler "special equipment data" that Sams often issued as part of their photofact sets.

Like I said, I got bored tonight.

When I got my sams, the place I got them from had them through about 2300 or so (with many gaps - they had maybe only about 2/3 of the folders). When I quickly looked through them I didn't see any tube sets after the 1400s, I only took up to 1500.

I do not know if a Sams exists for these, but I have a GE portacolor from 1977(date label on the set) that is tube type. TVs were still being made(at least by GE) at this time that were still vacuum tube based.

I think I checked on that GE 10HE portacolor chassis and the Sams was dated '74 or so. As we know, that chassis was around until the end of the portacolors. I wish I could find one of those late '70's Portacolors.

Look for a Midland 9" cheapie B&W set from about 1980. That's the newest all-tube set I remember seeing. I don't know if it was in Sams, though.

Charles

Drifting a bit off-topic, but I've always wondered why TVs stayed in the tube game so much longer than other electronics. From what I can tell, outside of a few specialty houses like McIntosh, tubes were gone from the audio world by '68, if not earlier.

I think the TV manufacturers had tons of the tubes lying around and just wanted to use them up. Also, it was such a tried and true technology by the 70s that they could be built fairly cheaply compared to the newest, all SS designs.

Also, it was such a tried and true technology by the 70s that they could be built fairly cheaply compared to the newest, all SS designs.

The horizontal output tube, and damper diodes, were fairly hard to substitute cheap SS for. Lots of high voltage spikes and such, which tubes are quite tolerant of, much more than SS is. Took a while before cheap and reliable SS that could handle it came out.

The horizontal output tube, and damper diodes, were fairly hard to substitute cheap SS for. Lots of high voltage spikes and such, which tubes are quite tolerant of, much more than SS is. Took a while before cheap and reliable SS that could handle it came out.

The Zenith 4 tube hybrids come to mind here. The only tubes were the horizontal output, damper, horizontal oscillator, and vertical output. The rest of the set was solid state, including a solid state HV tripler.

The horizontal output tube, and damper diodes, were fairly hard to substitute cheap SS for. Lots of high voltage spikes and such, which tubes are quite tolerant of, much more than SS is. Took a while before cheap and reliable SS that could handle it came out.

Makes sense. I'm curious about TV electronics, but I have almost zero experience in the area.

High voltage & silicon didn't mix so well in the early days. A few landmark TV sets which claimed "solid-state", in fact had a high voltage rectifier tube. The 1960 Philco Safari portable battery-powered TV had a pair of submini HV rectifier tubes, and even the Sony Trinitron KV-1200-1220 models had a 3A3 HV rectifier.

Even today, most blow-outs of TV sets involve the horizontal output transistor.

Charles

The first Motorola Quasar solid state works in a drawer color set and the RCA CTC40 color chassis used an HV rectifier tube. I've also seen a few 9"-12" AC/DC B&W's from the mid to late '60's that were SS except for the HV rectifier.

Speaking of blown HOT's, I think they should have stuck with the old metal TO3 cased transistors. It seems like the plastic cased HOT's fail more often than the old metal ones.

A few years ago I junked a Taiwan-built Philco-Ford 9" bw set. Solid state. While parting it out I found that the hv rectifier tube was soldered in place, no socket used. I think it was a 1V2 or something similiar, and from the markings looked to be an older stock Philco part.