Cool lil set :) . Missing the top handle for some reason, but she fired right up with snow on the screen :yes:

Ironically, I got it on the way home from the dealership with my new 2009 Scion xB. What a way to break in a new vehicle appropriately :D . Is this indeed a Portacolor?

Neat TV! Ge's are portacolors. What is the model number? Someone here may know what it is.

I really don't think it's a portacolor in disguise....I'd think that they were capable of building their own color sets, even the smaller ones...I of course may be wrong though.

It's a nice looking one and ya can't beat the price!

wow look at that! metal chassis and all. Solid state IF?

Don't think its a Porta-Color, but I like it ! Maybe Admiral's answer to the Porta-Potty ?

This was a genuine Admiral; I have a couple of them badged as Airlines. Both of mine are from Admiral of Taiwan; I don't know if they ever built them here. This looks very similiar. I haven't been able to get a good picture out of either of mine. (pretty poor color and pincushion issues) That doesn't at all mean I don't like 'em, though! The CRT is slightly larger than the GE sets, as I recall. Might be a 12".

I know Philco-Ford sold a rebadged Portacolor, and I'm pretty sure someone here has a Packard-Bell version. There were store brands, too, of course. I don't think any other major manufacturers in the US sold them, though.

That is a great rescue. You don't see many tube sets on the curb anymore. I wonder what year it was made. I'm guessing early to mid '70s.
I hope you enjoy your xB. I just got an '09 Xb this past March. Fun little hauler.

I had one of those that was also made in Taiwan. IIRC, I had to replace an open coil in the video circuit. It had a watchable picture. Not great; but, watchable. I think it was still better than a GE portacolor. I think these were made druing the early-to-mid '70's and I think they were also sold under the K-mart and Truetone names.

Holy Crap! I've been looking for one of those since the 90s!

Wanna sell it? :D

Ya can't get a better price on the portables, but occasionally one can find someone who will pay ya to haul away a console that has been cluttering up their digs for too long.

Nice score, I bet you will enjoy it.

Tom C.

Kinda looks like a Toshiba - from the HV box right down to the stickers.

Holy Crap! I've been looking for one of those since the 90s!

Wanna sell it? :D

Sure :) send me a PM

I'd rather the set be in the hands of someone who longs for it rather than it sit on the shelf here....

iirc toshiba design built in taiwan.whats the eia on the crt?
Kinda looks like a Toshiba - from the HV box right down to the stickers.

I'd tell you if I knew what an eia is :confused:

I worked on one of those sets several years ago. It was still USA made. The CRT was Admiral made. The circuitry is totally different than a GE. They also re-badged that set for Motorola. 1968 model year.

Why does the convergence yoke have only two coils?

Convergence was for an inline gun CRT (If memory is correct). Fun with compactrons!

I'd tell you if I knew what an eia is :confused:

Electronics Industry Association. THe major American manufacturers had 3 digit codes to place on tubes and such, when they didn't want to be obvious about it. IIRC GE was 188, RCA was 274 or such. Companies like Packard Bell, Steelman, Emerson didn't make vacuum tubes, but they wanted their names on tubes, so they'd get the tubes from the real tube makers, and have their logos printed on the tubes. The 3 digit code tells insides who made the tubes.

I've got this set now. I came across one of these back in the mid 90s when you could actually find this stuff around southern california in abundance. I didn't think much of it, but went to get some money. When I came back it was gone! I was around 11 years old then and just getting into this sick hobby :D

I plan to do what I can to restore it. As I recall the color reproduction was nothing stellar - but for me is all about the memory and nostalgia...

Thank you Kamakiri! :wave:

That's kinda what VideoKarma (and AudioKarma) is all about, really. After searching all these years, who'd have thunk that I would find one in the trash on the other side of the country while test driving a used car? :)

For the history books, the set was found at the curb on Getzville Road between Sheridan Dr and Snyderwoods Ct on the West side of the street in Amherst NY. When I went to pick it up, a motorcycle cop (VERY rare for this area) pulled up behind me and said, "just so you know, you need a permit to do that, but honestly it doesn't make any difference to me"

And there it is in your hands!

USA-for sure. No yellow steel on this one. The chassis was used in other (larger and "portable") sets Admiral made, look at the holes stamped out for all the unused pots! There is a cahssis number these used like "14K10" or something. RCA's smallest "Porta color" was the CTC 22 that used a 15" CRT.
Nice save!

neat score! always glad to see another one saved from the trash. and btw, when it comes to curbside finds, no car is too nice to stop for something. a few days after i gotmy cherry lexus ls400, i stopped for a horrid magnavox console full of dust and roaches! had it hanging out halfway out of the trunk with a bungee cord driving 80 mph home on the highway haha. seriously i dont care where i am, who im with, or what im driving, if i see something, im gunna stop for it, thats just all there is to it :D

oh and btw, those 50s cars are great for scooping consoles of the side of the road, my 55 pontiac had the little short stubby fins, i could throw a old console on the back deck and the fins would keep it from going anyware :D i probubly dragged 50 or so consoles home in that car like that and never lost one to the road before i wrecked it! haha

You should be beaten bloody for the way you wrecked that car. Just sayin ;)

You should be beaten bloody for the way you wrecked that car. Just sayin ;)

yeah u are absolutly right. i dont disagree with you at all. but hey i was a 16 year old kid that just got his licence, and really didnt know how to handle a car yet. that was 10 years ago and i still feel like crying everythime i think about that car.

I have a friend at my college that also is into tube era electronics. He wrecked a newer (like 80's-90's) sports car (maybe a camero) doing something like 90MPH and rolled it in to a corn field not too long ago it seemed. Once I get off my a$$ and get a license and eventually save for a vintage car (I love the styling of most 40's cars so I'm probably going to get one, or a 58' Impala) I plan not to try to push the speed limits unlesss the conditions are great and I know every bump in the road I try speeding on. I don't want to dammage my folks car or my car ever if it can at all be helped.

the best was on halloween of 05 iirc , gunnin' my '02 maxima 3.5 v6 SE along roads in nyack and wherever else and knocking off mailboxes
hey i've got a 6-4 impala for sale
anyway it was dumb but fun.

Old cars will last and run for a long time, if they're cared for and not abused. Once they get operational, they get used to being treated a certain way, and if you've got a gentle hand and a light foot, they'll be faithful old friends.

Within the next couple years I plan to get rid of my 2009 Scion xB (only 4 more years to go on payments....yay) and go off the newer automotive grid. I've been searching for what I'd call the perfect car....something made of durable materials, simple to work on, and if needed be, I can tear out the engine and transmission in a couple hours.

My plan is to rebuild the engine and trans, and freshen up the rest of the car to make it ready for daily service for a long time. We'll see what I come up with as time goes on :)

I seem to remember some b&w portables marketed by K-Mart, and rebadged with their name, were built by Admiral. One that sticks in my head is a 12"-13" portable with a single-knob tuner for VHF and UHF; the UHF dial was visible through a tiny (!) window in the VHF knob, between channels 2 and 13. The VHF fine tuning knob had a clutch that activated when the knob was set to the UHF position; the former then tuned UHF channels. Unfortunately, these clutch arrangements wore out and became unusable after a few years, sooner if the TV was used a lot on UHF stations, and those were changed frequently; this was probably very common in areas with only UHF stations, such as Fort Wayne, Indiana, Youngstown, Ohio, et al. Sears Roebuck's Silvertone b&w portables used a similar arrangement to tune UHF channels, and yes, the clutch arrangement wore out quickly on these as well. We had a 17" Silvertone portable TV on which the UHF drive clutch wore out unusually quickly; it got so bad that we had to remove the VHF fine tuning knob and rotate the orange UHF tuner dial manually.

Jeff, both of my older brothers owned the 9-inch version of the "K" Admiral B&W TV in 1974-76. Theirs were from S.S. Kresge, the Woolworth's competitor that later became only K-Marts if I remember it right.