Tonight, I called a friend (who is into buying and selling stuff) to see how he was. He said that he had a little TV for me and he went on to explain that it belonged to his 85 year old neighbor, who had passed away, and her kids told him to get what he wanted out of the house. He said this TV was in the basement. I first thought that 85 years old + found in basement = promising. He said, "let me go get the TV and read you what it says on the back". He started off by saying, "General Electric, Portsmouth, VA, 120 volts, 60 Hz, 200 watts". I thought, "OK, 200W, must be a tube set". He went on to say that it said "10HE" chassis on the back. My next thought was, "IT'S A PORTA-COLOR!"

I don't know what version he has; but, since it's a 10HE set, it must be a later one. Didn't the HE chassis come out around '73-'74 and stay around until the end? Whatever it is, I'm glad to be getting it.

Anyway, I'm supposed to be going over there tomorrow to connect his Comcast digital transport adapters to his TV's and I will pick up the set while I'm there.

I'll be sure to post pictures when I get it.

Sure to have whisker shorted pots, the agc pot will drive you nuts. The 3, 'H' series protacraplers I have all had whiskery pots. Its defiantly worth the save and having, mostly as a novelty. They really dont have to good of a picture. They are the flagship demonstration of what could be done with the compactron tube.
Glad you got one.

Lemme know if you do need a pot for your new Portacolor. I've got a bunch (100's) of GE stuff - EP49X_ _ _ will be the part number.

As usual, yers fer postage...

Cheers,

I must've had a good one then, because it worked like a champ from day one. All it needed was a vertical tube, none of the pots were bad.

Back in the mid '90's, a friend of mine, who had an antique store, had a '76 10HE chassis porta-color as his shop TV. He used it for many hours a day for several years and it actually had a decent picture (for a porta-color). It finally died, I gave him a junker TV to use in his shop, he gave me the old porta-color, I resoldered a bunch of loose connections, and sold it for $25.

I must've had a good one then, because it worked like a champ from day one. All it needed was a vertical tube, none of the pots were bad.
Hey, Nick. It's not only a good set, it's a great set.

I've heard LOTS of tales of ancient Porta-Potties soldierin' on & on...They ARE crap sets, its just nobody told THEM that, & they just keep on a-truckin'...(grin)

OK, here it is. From the date code on the CRT, it looks to be from '74. I plugged it in and it's totally dead. When I have time, I'll dig in to it some more. I think this must be an early "HE" chassis set. The other "HE" chassis sets that I've seen had click-stop UHF tuners and the channel knobs were side by side. As far as this set goes, some of the woodgrain cabinet finish is worn on the top. Otherwise, it just needs a good cleaning.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2011_0319portacolor0001.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2011_0319portacolor0002.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2011_0319portacolor0003.jpg

That is a beauty, I wish I had grabbed one when I found some! I have a nine inch GE color set from '83, which is probably a distant cousin of that one. Hope yours is an easy fix!

I have not seen inside of the newer models before. Looks like there are some decient upgrades. I like the Horizontal Output Tube with the plate connection on the top. The CRT is different from the 11WP22 used on earlier versions, and there's additional HV regulation too?

The Porta-Colors did indeed tend to hold up very well over time. It seems largely attributable to the low B+ and narrow deflection CRT which didn't take a lot of deflection power. Everything ran pretty conservatively.
There was one all solid state version, the Porta-Color ll http://www.rwhirled.com/portacolor/GE-JA.htm which was a nightmare to keep running.
Bill(oc)

...

The later models, like that one, added a HV divider block to provide the focus voltage to the CRT. They produce a slightly sharper picture than the low focus voltage CRTs used in the earlier ones. You can see the block to the left of the HOT, and the focus control to the right of the antenna jack.

I think the major manufacturers discovered that low focus voltage CRT's weren't the answer. When those tubes got a little older, they seemed to lack clarity. Moving the focus jumper didn't seem to help much. The tubes have a perfect reading on the CRT checker.

I used to have the solid-state version of this one in my bedroom when i was a kid.

But it was slightly newer, Said "GE" and "Performance" on the front.

Also the tuners were top/bottom, and not side-by-side. Used the same CRT style.

It worked ok, but it would randomly loose focus. never did figure out why. Turn it on one day, it was way out of focus. and be that way for awhile.

Next couple days later, turn it on, perfect picture.

Eventually it died so it was tossed. but it was fully solid state, maybe even had a couple of ICs in it.

...

I used to have the solid-state version of this one in my bedroom when i was a kid.

But it was slightly newer, Said "GE" and "Performance" on the front.

Also the tuners were top/bottom, and not side-by-side. Used the same CRT style.

It worked ok, but it would randomly loose focus. never did figure out why. Turn it on one day, it was way out of focus. and be that way for awhile.

Next couple days later, turn it on, perfect picture.

Eventually it died so it was tossed. but it was fully solid state, maybe even had a couple of ICs in it.

Sounds like you had one of the "AA" chassis sets from around '78 (the unofficial porta-color III). Variations of this set were made through the mid '80's, when GE got out of the TV business.

This spammer above has been hitting multiple posts...Moderator please find and remove all!

Sounds like you had one of the "AA" chassis sets from around '78 ... Variations of this set were made through the mid '80's, when GE got out of the TV business.

Back around 1980 I had a job interview at the GE place in Norfolk VA, located near a Navy base. Job as an electrical engineer to design TV circuits. They showed me around the plant, and they had small TV chassises hanging on conveyor belts from the ceiling. May have been for portacolor type sets. They didn't take me, probably just as well as they closed up shop not much later on.