this was at a local swap meet. I was given it to play with. has at least 2 tubes that I can see thru the back, it works fine as I can get the LP uhf over the air.

Nice little TV. Maybe made to sell during the US bi-centenial in 1976?

this was at a local swap meet. I was given it to play with. has at least 2 tubes that I can see thru the back, it works fine as I can get the LP uhf over the air.

I had a brown one simular to that one. It was a GE built sears with the hybrid SF chassis. Is yours a GE?

yep GE. sorta looks AMCish to me

That is definitely a Bicentennial model. I have always liked those little sets but never owned one. How is the build quality? Can we see some pictures of the inside?

I will get some later, its out in the garage, I need to de insect it before bringing in. REAL dirty (of course). the hardest part was figuring out the channel indicator, it looks like there must have been a decal of a pointer on it at one time, since the channel is at about the 8 o'clock position (there is remnants of glue in the shape of a pointer. At 1st I thought the tuner did not work since only UHF is broadcast locally. I had the UHF on the VHF at the 12 o'clock position thinking that was where it should be.

Need inside pictures.

That is definitely a Bicentennial model. I have always liked those little sets but never owned one. How is the build quality? Can we see some pictures of the inside?



There was also a Bicentennial version of the SF tube chassis set that was housed in a case like what was used on the solid state XB chassis sets. During the '70's, the cheaper tube type SF chassis sets were built at the same time as the higher priced solid state XB chassis sets. The XB sets were the better performer and were built better than the tube SF version. I have a NOS 15" SE chassis GE (branded "packard bell") that is fairly cheaply built and has vertical sweep problems.

I had one of the other style bicentennial GE sets, although I wonder if it's correct to call it that-I guess it must have been early 70s since it was the tube chassis. I bought it when I was about 15 at a local yard sale. Had a choice of that or an Airline bw portable, I could only afford one. The GE had something that would burn after a few minutes, I can still smell that toasting phenolic if I think about it! Nowadays I would have figured it out pretty easily but not then, so it got tossed.

well I will get some pics tomorrow, and will also try the VHF and a cleaner RF feed (from a DTV box, not the weak ota UHF).

I am not planning on keeping it, I just wanted to mess with it some, it will go back to the shop where my buddies hang out, try and sell it. Its the right size and may have some customer appeal.

I don't know when the SF was discontinued; but, I think it was made through at least '75 or '76. I did have one of the later ones that was housed in a woodgrain plastic case and had a click-stop UHF tuner. In fact, the cabinet looked like some of the later solid state XB sets from around '80-'81. We all know that GE made tube type porta-color's through at least '78; so, it's possible that they built a tube type B&W that late, as well.

You should keep it. Small tube BWs are cool and they dont take up much room. I cant imagine anyone buying that with good intentions in mind.

I had that same set in my bedroom growing up. It was a freebie for my parents opening up a bank account.
Great little set with transistorized signal/audio and tube sweep circuits. CRT seems to last forever with no wear. Wish I had never thrown mine away.
Incidentally the VHF channel knob is the wrong one. It always is.
If you look at the UHF knob you will see that you turn it via a thin sliver of plastic. That inevitably breaks on the VHF knob due to the detents and someone drops on a knob with the numbers in the wrong places..
If you don't find a local buyer drop me a line, I would probably go for it.

opened it up. Must be a low time set, the PCB while extremly dirty seems to look like new on the bottom no sign of heat distress (same for the plastic inside). I was shock to find only 2 transistors, the horz osc and horz driver, all the rest are tubes. 6 tubes (not counting the CRT) and 2 transistors.

Has a tube tuner. Not sure what to do with it, maybe I will try doing some general cleaning. the tuner from the outside looks like one of those wafer switch types, not as easy to clean as the turret types with the removable strips. The crude on the pcb is really on there good. There are no paper caps which makes since for a 70's set. a single easy to get at can cap that I could replace with out even pulling the pcb. I may just go ahead and repalce it, if I decide to keep it. I was not very interested in it a 1st until I found it was nearly all tubes, I really did not expect that considering how small it is.

I will see what my buddies want for it but since its small I will prob get it. checked again, has a IC audio board.

Those are cool! Keep it!
That deserves a good home.

I will prob pull that big can cap out and check it with the cap tester, replace if it does not test like new. the dirt on the PCB is really on there to stay, so I will prob just try and clean the tuner (will pull it to do it right) clean the tube sockets and pins and leave it at that. Will try plaing soap and water to clean the plastic. I have knobs so maybe I can find a better matching pair.

That has to be GE made. You can tell every shortcut was taken to save every penny. Looks like a portacrapler on the inside. The filter should be just fine. I wouldnt even risk destroying the board removing it.

the crud comes of pretty easy from the PCB with a que tip and some super slick. So If I get bored I may take a few hrs and clean it up. Not that it needs it, I just like to have it clean.

The warm soapy water did a good job on the outside plastic. there is some left over paper/glue residue right on the top red part (not the channel indicator, looks like some really old paper masking tape, prob a price sticker from a garage sale). I put a damp rag one it and will let it sit overnight.

9vaep4 crt

Me Likey ! Can't wait to see pics of it workin' ! (grin)

ask and ye shall receive

thing has a great little pic, nice and bright and clear, not a hint of a hum bar, good sound, even the UHF pics up the local OIA better than most. I am not going to touch it other than to button it up, and finish cleaning.

the only real problem is the gross over scan of the horz. I did not see any centering rings, I will check again when I pull the back off (did not have a polarized cheater so I had to put it on to check it out). I have down to 95vac and is still over shoots the screen. My guess is that is just the way its going to be.

going to run it for a while and then check that can. but sure seems like its going to be fine. The audio is very good as well, not a hint of sync buzz even when the menu is pulled up (lots of hard contrasting text).

ask and ye shall receive

Danke Schoen !

Heres what I have been fighting with. This has to be the smallest All Tube portable ever made. Its super lite too. The only transistor is in the uhf tuner.

Sadly the vert out transformer has a shorted primary other than that its basically unused. Must have failed right out of the gate.

http://justsmog.com/Clay/gpb.jpg
http://justsmog.com/Clay/gpb2.jpg

is it an odd ball form? auto or trans former, any specs, I have a few I could check for it.

It looks like a more modern audio out transformer. Its a little circuit board mount thing. Its a regular transformer that the circuit connects together and makes it an auto transformer.
Im sure I could get just about anything to work. its the size

I can see from the pic that your are pretty jammed up for space.

I ran it for about 1 hr, the filter can was just warm, prob from the radiant heat of the tubes. Looks like its not going to need any work at all.

this is a nice little set. I like the compact all tube black and white too.
Have seen many people use vertical output transformers in audio amps... Maybe can do reverse in this situation and use an audio output, such as one of the hammond universal otx? May be easier to source.