Got this from Another member today. Adam was kind enough to trade this for my nice looking portacolor.

The cabinet was quite scuffed up, but it cleaned up fairly nicely.

It needs some TLC, but I should have it working fine in a week or two. It seems to have some HV regulation problems by the looks of the picture when i powered it up.

Weighs in at about 85 pounds, has a wood cabinet, and is called the "Viking"

That's a nice looking ancester of some of my relatives tv sets :D

That must be very rare.
What is the year model? I'm thinking '70 because seems like those older Jap sets used to look older than they were, exception being the Sony stuff.

I can't find much about this set. Supposedly its from around 67-68, but then again I am not 100% sure.

I'm gonna pull the tubes today and test them. Along with a visual inspection of the chassis. Tomorow Its going on the bench to get it back in shape and working properly.

That set have radio?

I never saw one that old before... wow. Nice score :thmbsp:

Panasonic made a too-cute tube 9" set around then,too...Would like to run acrost one o' them...I'd give it a very good home in its old age...-Sandy G.

Are you talking about the early Seventies black and white model that used to come in colors like bright orange, avocado green and white? I have one of the orange ones. It gets a great picture, as good as a new set. There was also a solid state version of this same set. Mine has tubes. Is this the one you are looking for?

When I first got this set I looked up the number in my Sams index, I don't remember the number, but I do remember it is a '68. The cabinet looks good, a big improvement on the left side, what did you use on it?

Some shots of the chassis. I cannot find a focus control on this thing. I'm guessing its the coil scrapped to the side of the HV cage.

What are the PCC and EHT controls? I'm guessing the PCC is PinCoushion Correction.

25 tubes in this thing, its a dual purpose TV. Space Heater, and television :D

I think the model is TQA-956

Yeah, what the title says :D

. The cabinet looks good, a big improvement on the left side, what did you use on it?


Scotts Liquid gold, some rubbing, repeat 2 more times.

Good stuff!

That damper is cute. Never saw that on a US made set...

Interestingly, they used a 6BK4 shunt reg. Was there *any* other type out there? :)

Yeah, what the title says :D

That’s similar to the ones I ran into.
Definitely have some odd heater voltages.
9AQ8, 15DQ8, 29KQ6 weren’t exactly
run of the mill tubes.

Panasonic liked that damper/HOT combination. Even my early 70's 12" uses those. That's definitely a 60's Panasonic. The chassis construction is very similar to my 65 Panasonic stereo radio.

EHT is another name for the HV.

EHT is the European/British term for HV, I think it stands for Extra-high tension.

Thanks for the heads up on the EHT guys. I'm kinda new to foreign sets. Any ideas on where the focus control may be on this set?

There is a coil mounted on the side of the HV cage with no label, but I'm thinking its probably the efficiency coil. Don't want to test my luck, as the fly looks to be in good shape.

That set have radio?

The UHF looks like an FM tuner from a distance, but up close its the UHF band. Upon turning the VHF knob to the UHF, the fine tuning becomes the channel selector and fine tuning for the UHF tuner.

they used a 6BK4 shunt reg. Was there *any* other type out there? :)

I don't know about panasonic, but one of my zenith sets uses a 6HS5 Shunt Regulator...

There are probably a few others, I just haven't seen them.

Man, that sets a keeper! This was Panasonic about to be making it to the bigtime. I didn't expect to see that hardwired chassis. I've seen some of their magazine ads from that time, for similiar color sets. I like this better than other Japanese stuff I've seen from that era, including the Trinitrons which don't do anything for me.

Good to know Bryan. I definitely think this was a keeper as well. I drove 150+ miles and back to get it. All I had to pay for was gas and a well working portacolor in trade. i can't wait to see what it looks like finished.

There are a few dead tubes and two shorted (to the point they don't work).

16A8 (audio out) --5% emission, audio was distorted
9AQ8 (color demod) --dead (would explain weak colors)
15DQ8 (Burst amp) --short
6BX6 (1st video amp) --15% emission
9AQ8 (vert amp pin correct) --dead (explains bowed-in picture)

Amazingly the original HV regulator and Rectifier were in really good shape. Most of the time I expect that the HV tubes are always worn or dead from all the juce flowing through them. I guess this didn't get much play time.

6HS5 I believe is not a shunt regulator, it's a "pulse" regulator that acts on the primary circuit of the the flyback and not the HV directly...however I think Zenith may call it a shunt regulator though even though its really not.

I have a GE TV which has a 12-pin base shunt regulator on the HV, it's like a 6BK4 with different base. can't remember type though.

It's good to see this set finally being repaired properly. After I changed the HO tube and got it to work at all, I never got back to it, there was always another set I would rather be working on. This one was just being used as a stand for my 83 25" Zenith space command set, its definetly better off now. Those tubes are going to be hard to find though.

The portacolor is still working good, I used it for some time yesterday. :thmbsp:

good to know your enjoying the portacolor. The tubes aren't too much of a bother to find. Antique electronic supply got me the 16A8 and 15DQ8, and a local TV supply shop got me the two 9AQ8 tubes I needed. The 9AQ8 was 10 bucks a pop for brand spankin new old stock. The 15Dq8 was cheap only 50 cents a pop at AES. The 16A8 was about 7 bucks

The only thing I haven't been able to find is the 6BX6.

The search continues....

6HS5 I believe is not a shunt regulator, it's a "pulse" regulator that acts on the primary circuit of the the flyback and not the HV directly...

Now that I look through my TSBs and notes, you're 100% correct Chad. I must have been thinkin of another set I worked on.

6BX6's were used in a lot of early Australian TV's (1956-1960) prior to the use of 6EJ6 & 6EH6 in the video IF & sound IF stages.

Try the following links

http://www.tubedepot.com/nos-6bx6.html
http://store.triodestore.com/6bx6ef80.html
http://www.vacuumtube.net/nos-6bx6.html
http://www.dc-daylight.ltd.uk/Valve-Audio-Interest/Valves-for-sale/Valves-for-sale.html

Good luck, It would be great to see this old panasonic working again...

Thanks for the links Daro. I will definitely look into that.

vacuumtubesinc has your 6BX6 at $3.00 I've used them for years and have had no problems. The tubes are NOS and waaayyyyy cheaper than other places. Here's the link to the tube page. http://www.vacuumtubesinc.com/new2.html

My needed tubes should be on their way soon. And I finally got my 6BX6 from another member here.

Most excellent. My set will be up and running soon! Thanks to dogscanskate!

Got my tubes today, and double-checked everything before powering up. Let it sit for a bit, did a re-size, convergence, grayscale, and color touchup, and BINGO!! We have a beautiful picture.

The CRT is a bit tired, as its dim and a little fuzzy when first turned on, but after 5 minutes it clears and brightens up. HV checks out at a stable 23 KV.

Sorry if some of the screen grabs seem blurry. My hand was not as steady on the camera as it could have been...

This time I fired up my N-64 and played some Super Mario 64. I find this game to be entertaining, as well as a great test for color sets be cause of its vivid color palette. For a set of its age and condition, it has very good color circuits, very little run off or bleeding.

The HV is very stable on this set. The DC restore circuits do a great job. Even on a picture with 90% white, the text and colors remain clear and not dark or washed out. The Japs knew what they were doing with this set.

Again, some may appear blurry, but its me holding the camera, not the TV.

Wow, those colors are really deep and rich on that set. Contrast looks great. Great job :thmbsp:

I love Mario 64 as well, especially on old TVs. Sometimes if I just felt like watching and not playing, I made a few 6 hour VHS tapes of several N64 and SNES games for playback.

I think that's how I became obsessed with old TVs. In the mid 90s, my friend had a late model Chromacolor II we played NES, SNES, etc. on and that just fascinated me how a TV older than me works as well as it does, and the fact that is still worked period.

Excellent work Jordan,it looks very good for it's age.Nice color pallette.

"Viking" was a brand that was used by the now defunct Eatons department stores in Canada for their own line of appliances.
They would contract their products to manufacturers like Matsushita. Later, Panasonic used to make special models only for Eatons.

Interesting information. Perhaps this set came from our northern neighbor:scratch2:

I originally got that TV last summer from the same thrift store, and during the same week as my RCA portable I know to be Canadian, so it would be very likely.

great picture!!
:thmbsp:

That's a keeper. Maybe one of there first OR FIRST color TV for maker?? A Japanese color tube set, must be somewhat rare. :yes:

I've only seen Japanese hybrids from the early 70's. I have a Panasonic 12" and a Sanyo 15" that are about 50/50 tube/SS. They're a little different, but not bad sets.

I've been sorting through a pile of Sams lately & if you go through them you'll find all sorts of oddballs in the 60s. I suspect they were pretty rare back then & much moreso today. The oldest Japanese color sets I've seen were JVC hybrids from about 1970, and an MGA (Mitsubishi) that was just a little newer.

...
Weighs in at about 85 pounds, has a wood cabinet, and is called the "Viking"


...
..."Viking" was a brand that was used by the now defunct Eatons department stores in Canada for their own line of appliances.
They would contract their products to manufacturers like Matsushita. Later, Panasonic used to make special models only for Eatons.


Yep, I second that, 'Viking' was the brand name used by Eaton's department stores.