Anybody Collect 5" Portable TVs?
 

Hi there. I just discovered AK about a week ago and laved reading all the TV collecting posts. I love the '40s sets but am glad to hear people are collecting right up through the '70s. I was wondering if anyone else shares my enthusiasm for '70s and early '80s 5" portables, black and white or color. I dont just mean Orbitels or those Sharp robot style sets. I like the more "everyday" ones too. They were marvels in their own right with small CRTs built-in radios, self-contained batteries and so truly portable. Many were very well designed such as the Sharp Sidekick I am working on now. It is the larger 5" not the 3" with the oval screen mask. Am I the only one interested in these or are there others? I would love to hear your thoughts and see pictures of your sets.

I like the smaller little guys, but have a few 5 inchers. Still looking for a nice Trinitron 5". My very 1st TV ever was a 5-303W Sony from like 1962. There is something kinda neat about these bigger "little" guys...-Sandy G.

Sony 5-303W
 

I have one of those too. It is in very pristine condition but needs servicing now as I suspect the selenium recifiers finally gave out. It is a great TV and super well made. Not that bad to work on either with a little patience. I even have the luggage style carry case , earphone, antenna connector and indtruction manual with it.

There are a couple of 5-303's on ePay right now, along with this ancient device http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

Sony 8" TV
 

I never liked that model. It seems to be rather fragile as almost all of them are missing knobs, trim, etc. :thumbsdn:

The 5-303W is a much sturdier set judging by the amount that survive in good to excellent restorable condition.

There's a friend of the family that has one of the 5-303's (or a similar set). As a kid I used to marvel at it....a similar favorite of mine from Sony was the early 70's Trinitron smaller sets, around 5" to 9"

Anthony

I've got a small collection of them, a few Sony's, a Delmonico/Nivico I just bought, one of the Longines Symphonettes, a "mod" style RCA clock tv/radio. Hard to say no when the price is right, considering they don't really take up any space. I'm glad to hear the Sony's are not such a problem to work on, I have one that I bought (bartered, actually) when I was a kid in the '80s, and the audio always had a bad buzz. Last time I turned it on the audio was dead so maybe a cap finally let loose. Thats been several years ago & I kept putting the repair off, figured it to be a can of worms.

I have a KV-5100 5" Trinitron and an 80's TMK 5" color set. I also have a few Watchmans (or is that Watchmen?). Two are B/W sets using Sony unusual flat CRT and the other is the FDL-310 which was Sony's first color watchman. It uses an active matrix screen unlike most of Sony's current crappy hand held TVs.

I might actually bid on that 8-301W. Despite its poor condition, it has all the parts I need to make mine almost perfect (the channel knob number strip, fine tuning knob, antenna, sunshade nut, and external antenna jack lebel).

The Sony flat tube, they made them for Magnavox and called it an Escort, very good B/W picture.

Calling Dick Tracy.....Dick Tracy, come in--over

Sony Flat Tube
 

I found the Sony version FD-42A mint in box on ebay a few years ago. It's a beautiful set and a very good picture. Zenith also had a rebadged version of that set. It seems that Sony has gotten out of the miniature TV business but that's a subject for another thread.

There's a Zenith on ebay right now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MakeTrack=true

Am I the only one who thinks the 4" sets look like they were built upside down?

I agree, they always seemed upside down to me too. Stupid design.....it would've cost them nothing to have flipped the picture electronically but I suspect that Sony wanted to make it more unusual.

Anthony

Due to the slope of the tube the best viewing picture is looking straight at the screen, slightly down into it. Turn the set over and you would have to look up into the screen, I set mine on the table when I use it thus the viewing is at the desired angle to the screen.
It's like the design was hardware driven...

Here is one of the mini-tv's we have at the shop, a Sony FD-2A. We got this from an estate sale for $10.00.

Here is our other mini-tv, a color kv-4100. TV works good, cassette does not. Also bought at estate sale for $10.00.

I've got both the KV-4000 & the 4100, the cassette on mine doesn't work, either. I think the belt on them little guys checks out after 25 years or so...I also have a 4" GE AM/FM minicassette/color TV combo from '82 that works, but the controls are dirty. The star of my show, however, is that color 1.5" Panasonic from '84-I've had it from new. People are astounded by that l'il fella.-Sandy G.

Sharp Sidekick
 

Here are some pics of the 5" Sharp Sidekick I just finished. This is a well designed set and a great performer from back when they still cared how they were built. Open up a new $25 5" set and it wont look anything like this.

It's amazing how much STUFF was in those early transistor TVs-I have a Singer 6" that has almost an expanded metal case,you can see inside fairly well & it's crammed full. Nowadays, you've got the CRT, a couple boards w/a few pieces of fuzz on 'em-and that's it.-Sandy G.

I guess I was 12-14 years old, I used to hang around this little antique store in town (well, there really wasn't much else for a nerdy kid to do in our no-stoplight town) & the owner was a semi-retired cash register salesman. When LCD sets first came out he got a Seiko, since he sold their registers. They probably gave it to him. He was always showing it off, and boy, did I want that thing! I always secretly hoped he would give it to me, after all, he never really used it, the thing just sat around. Well, he did give me a couple old table stereos, an Arvin & some 70s foreign junk, but I never did get that LCD!

Talk about things being crammed inside......I took apart a dead 8mm Sony camcorder....holy moly fatman....the circuit boards were arranged so that they overlapped each other like some sort of crazy puzzle.....they were chock full of large chips and pounds of SMD's. You literally needed a microscope to do some repairs!

Anthony

Camcorders, oh what a pain! It seems like almost all of these things from the 80's and early 90's are dead because of bad caps. The old tube type home video cameras from the 70's and early 80's seem to be more durable though.

Was lucky enough to get a 1995 RCA VHS unit from the Goodwill which actually still works...it has a very small color viewfinder which is probably an LCD.

I got this out of the Tv shop I helped clean out. It is a Candle TV made by Tokyo Transistor Industries.


polaraman

Here's the ultimate collectible 5" TV. Only 2500 were made.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MakeTrack=true

Is something like this of any interest/value? It is an RCA b&w manufactured in 1982. Been in my closet for years.

Ct-101
 

One of those Panasonic 1.5 inchers, LNIB!
These are CRT sets right?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...175373895&rd=1

Yep. Little CRT's about the same length as a good-sized ink pen. This one should go high, prolly close to $500. But I can't imagine ANY of 'em having MUCH use-they're simply too little to watch much. Mine might have a dozen or so hours on it-and that's 20 years of "use"-Sandy G.

1982 Rca
 

I must say that is definitely on the higher end of the 5" scale. Is that a battery set or a table model? Too bad the brushed aluminum front panel always seems to get scratched on those. It is a nice set though. I think I saw a version of that set on Ebay once with a digital clock in it, an excellent bedside television with or without the clock. Thanks for showing it.

My Next Project
 

Here's what I'm working on now. It is a 5" Quasar B&W set that was made by Matsushta. You'll notice it resembles the panasonic sets of the same era. there seems to be several cabinet styles of this same basic TV with and without radios. This one does not have the radio and the tuning knob is a thumbwheel on the front rather than the knob on the right side which is more common. It works great, just needs some general servicing and the cabinet cleaned and polished.

Is there anything made now with the Quasar nameplate on it? Panasonic and Quasar are the same company. I think Quasar was the "value priced" end with Panasonic being the higer end.

Do they even use the Quasar name any more? It's been a few years since I've seen anthing new withe the Quasar name. I know they got rid of the Technics name for all audio equipment except DJ stuff.

I think there are a few VCR/Combo units out (probably made by Orion) I remember a glut of 19" Quasars TV's and quite a few of the combo units hit the discount stores in our area I think in 2000. I wish I would have kept my Technics dual cassette deck. It seemed to be pretty high quality.

IIRC Matushita is/was the parent company of Panasonic. Their Technics brand was originally a high end audio line. Don't know how they have ultimately marketed it though.

Anthony

that would look right at home next to my tr-001