I just stumbled across this badly listed very early Admiral set. He might have had a better shot of selling it if it had been listed as a TV instead of a radio!

I believe it's their first set from 1947. It looks just like the 30A125 over at http://www.tvhistory.tv/1946-49-ADMIRAL.htm.

According to my research there is no model 30A125 or 30A135. I believe that should be 30A12 S and 30A13 S.
It certainly looks identical to an Admiral 30A12 S I've seen. I'm not sure what the 'S' indicates though.

At any rate, I think is one of the rarer early Admiral consoles. Maybe someone can save it up in Elma, NY ? You've got about 5 hours :)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350361351420

(no affiliations)

All the good TV's seem to be up North or West Coast. Basically, anywhere but the South. That's a really nice looking set - and it's an Admiral! Hope someone saves it.

Not really, I'm on the road right now but when I get back home, I do have some pics to take. Stay tuned ;)

I'm going to take a shot... about an hour drive for me. Need to save it!

Cool. I really hope you do.

Nailed it! I'll post pics and details when I pick it up later this week. This one may bump some of the other projects back a little in line...

Intrestingly, someone listed the same model on CL here in Rochester just a few hours ago - but may be suspect in that they lifted the picture from another site... The asking price is significantly higher than what I paid.

http://rochester.craigslist.org/atq/1779987072.html

Congrats :thmbsp:
I picked a 30A12 recently that looks identical except that it was refinished very, very badly. All the decals are gone and I'm sure the color scheme is all wrong. Any pictures you can post will be very much appreciated.

I've been looking for one of these sets for several years and now they're popping up all over. How bizarre!

I will definitely share pictures.

What can you tell me about the 30A12? I haven't had a chance to research much, but have the Rider from earlytelevison.org.

It's Admiral's first set from 1947. 10BP4 CRT, channels 2-13, split chassis. The lower chassis has the power supply and audio amp. Easy to work on and reliable.

Here are pictures of mine: http://www.flickr.com/photos/70039806@N00/sets/72157624191905176/

Picked up the Admiral today, and it's in better shape than I had hoped. It came from the relative of a deceased antique collector who had it and used it for many years. The set is complete and appears original, although there is a screw missing here and there. It will need loads of cleaning - the owner and relative were heavy smokers...

So - maybe later I will pull it apart and inspect closer - and make a shopping list!

http://www.dygit-dev.com/images/radio/Admiral001s.jpg

http://www.dygit-dev.com/images/radio/Admiral002s.jpg

http://www.dygit-dev.com/images/radio/Admiral003s.jpg

http://www.dygit-dev.com/images/radio/Admiral004s.jpg

Congrats - that's in great condition! Especially the control decals. Looks like it's hardly been used. Neat old style tubes in the lower chassis.

Can you check model # on label near the bottom on the right ? If it's a 30A12S, then I know for sure how to refinish mine :)

I checked the label that on the tube chart and it list it as a Model 30A13S.

Hmm :scratch2: So, the 30A13 appears to be mahogany and I know the 30A16 is blonde. Perhaps the 30A12 is walnut ?

That set looks great, better than the rusty one stored in a crate for 30 years and a heck of a lot cheaper.

I pulled it apart last night to just do some quick cleaning. I think the years of cigarette smoke did a pretty good job protecting things. Although a real messy job, I was able to wipe it down and it looks pretty clean. I also put the CRT on my tester (BK 445) and there are no shorts, emissions is very good, but the cutoff is on the lower end of good. Life test fairly slowly worked it's way down. Here are a few more pics of the wiped down chassis:

http://www.dygit-dev.com/images/radio/Admiral005s.jpg

http://www.dygit-dev.com/images/radio/Admiral008s.jpg

http://www.dygit-dev.com/images/radio/Admiral016s.jpg

http://www.dygit-dev.com/images/radio/Admiral017s.jpg

http://www.dygit-dev.com/images/radio/Admiral018s.jpg

http://www.dygit-dev.com/images/radio/Admiral019s.jpg

http://www.dygit-dev.com/images/radio/Admiral014s.jpg

You're gonna be busy replacing all those wax caps. And electrolytics. I have a similar set, a 24R12. Found that its vertical nonlinearity was due to a bad electroytic bypass cap in the vertical output.

Nice complete unmolested set. Cigarette Smoke tar makes for a great cosmoline substitute.

Hmm :scratch2: So, the 30A13 appears to be mahogany and I know the 30A16 is blonde. Perhaps the 30A12 is walnut ?

I went digging through the Admiral 30A1 chassis (Rider TV3) (http://www.earlytelevision.org/tv_schematic_diagrams.html) and found the cabinet styles :)

30A12 - Walnut
30A13 - Mahogany
30A14 - Walnut
30A15 - Mahogany
30A16 - Blond

Very, very nice set. I am glad that it went to a good home. Admiral sets should be an easy restoration. You have lots of caps but when you start at one end and move along to the opposite corner, first thing you know, it is all done. No real odd ball values there either. The chassis is somewhat similar to my 26R16...

Here's a 30B15 in need of a little TLC

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150463170353

I went digging through the Admiral 30A1 chassis (Rider TV3) (http://www.earlytelevision.org/tv_schematic_diagrams.html) and found the cabinet styles :)

30A12 - Walnut
30A13 - Mahogany
30A14 - Walnut
30A15 - Mahogany
30A16 - Blond

Good info to have. Both the A12 and A14 are Walnut?

I have all the caps and parts I need for this one, but it's going to be a few weeks. I'm elbows deep in my Admiral Tele-Bar restoration.

Hi mbear2k:

I saw your Admiral posts and joined the forum right away! I was given a 30A15 yesterday, found on a street corner in an old neighborhood in Lowell, MA. Mine has channel 1 and a wafer tuner with 3 6J6's and no balun. I guess that it's the 1947 model. Uses two 11-pin keyed plugs for the power supply chassis; those are missing, as someone cut 'em off.

Thank you for the very nice photo inside the main chassis. It is helping me to identify some missing caps. Looks like the set was hacked at during some ancient attempt at repair.

BTW, congrats on the beautiful condition (mine has a bit of rust). How's the restoration turning out?

Interesting - I'd heard there was a version with channel 1, but I've never come across one.
You can get the service info for the 30A1 chassis here: http://www.earlytelevision.org/tv_schematic_diagrams.html

I have a 30A12 and 30A16 if you need any more reference photos.

banderson: Wow. That's quite a beautiful collection. I've never seen a Dumont with 2 tuners on it. That set does not look quite old enough for UHF... is that's what's going on?

FYI channel 1, here's a photo of the tuner with the channel 1 coil set at top, channel 2 showing at bottom. The design looks fully balanced through the mixer, with six coils for each channel. The shield (removed) is riveted to the IF shield, bent out of shape by some repairman/felon.

Also note the 11-pin headers on the power chassis. The recepticles and harnesses were cut off. Eleven-pin Amphenol plugs will be fun to find.

I'm a bit baffled by that ETF site. The 30A1 chassis is listed but the 19A11 comes up instead. Please tell me I've turned the wrong knob.

Cheers!

Thanks, but I don't own any Dumonts - which set are you referring to ?

Wow, that tuner is very different - all of my Admiral sets have a drum instead of wafers.

I see that your power transformer is oozing wax just like my 30A16. I was worried that it was a bad sign, but maybe it's normal ?

Yes, the ETF link does seem to be wrong. Here's the correct one: http://www.earlytelevision.org/images/admiral-30a1-rider-tv3.pdf

Oops: That Dumont was under your flickr photo favorites, now I see it belongs to matt_s78mn. Sorry.

Thank you much for the correct schematic link, I'm now well fixed to begin bringing that Admirable back to life.

Mike - congratulations on your find. I have yet to start on mine. Working on an Admiral Tele-bar first. Your set is interesting with that tuner. Let me know if you need any pics or detail that I can help with.

Mark

All the good TV's seem to be up North or West Coast. Basically, anywhere but the South. That's a really nice looking set - and it's an Admiral! Hope someone saves it.

I was browsing eBay just now, and saw a listing for a red "K-Mart" branded 12" b&w portable TV in the Detroit area. At one time in the '70s, I believe these little sets were made by Admiral for K-Mart -- the control panel looks like one I would expect to find on a '70s vintage Admiral portable TV.

BTW, I live in northeast Ohio near Cleveland and don't see too many old TVs, even in the trash. The last small portable I saw here, ten years ago, was an RCA 12-incher from about 1980 -- on a curb very near my apartment. I've seen an RCA ColorTrak console set from '78 and a couple of stereo consoles since then, but none recently. With the DTV transition in June 2009, I was half expecting to see old (and not so old) analog b&w and color sets on treelawns and curbs all over my small town, but it didn't turn out that way -- not even close.

Here's yet another one (http://cgi.ebay.com/Admiral-30A12S-Television-restoration-/380282654831)! I thought these were fairly uncommon :scratch2:

It's a bit overpriced for the condition, but all those pictures are a fantastic reference. I've saved them all to my computer.

I can't believe someone cut the umbilical cord :no:
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/7/0/6/4/7/0/webimg/418416853_tp.jpg

My cabinet was stripped down (decals and all) and refinished in a light two-tone polyurethane.
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/7/0/6/4/7/0/webimg/418416600_tp.jpg http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1298/4664446343_a6dc7461ac_m.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4005/4664446523_40162b6614_m.jpg

Looks like the tail broke off the channel knob. I wonder what that hole is for - aligning the tuner coils ?
Mine doesn't have one and neither does Mike's above.


http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/7/0/6/4/7/0/webimg/418416747_tp.jpg

One word Bob, "Sweet!"

What, my set ? It's actually kinda stinky - it had been stored in a barn for years ;)
Probably that polyurethane saved the wood. The chassis didn't fair so well - it's a bit rusty.
Electrically it's sound though. The wiring is fine and so is the CRT. I'll post more about it when I get around to restoring it.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/4664885438_b810d69869.jpg

Sorry Bob, I was talking about the other one. That one is nice. And if you don't want to go to all of the trouble of fixing up the latest one, you have parts. But if you are like me, you hate to cannibalize a chassis.