Zenith Porthole in Long Beach CA
 

On Shopgoodwill.com

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/viewItem.asp?ItemID=2970346

I have the 12" version of that set; I bought it in about 1980 for US$15 at an estate sale in Chicago with the label "will make a good liquor cabinet". No, it won't! :)

HEY: It's sure great to see that Goodwill is finally recognizing the interest in old TVs. For years, they would not even put nonworking TVs in their stores. Straight in the bin. I hope they set an example for Salvation Army and the other major charity thrift stores.

I recall in the late 70s, my mother would take me to the Salvation Army store in Santa Monica at Olympic and (14th St?) to look for old TVs. They had 2 buildings; one which only had good later-model TVs, and the as-is store out back. It had a lot of 21AXP22-era color sets, and a ton of huge old B&W consoles. Those were the days!

Charles

I've seen a couple of these locally on ebay in the radio/phono/tv combo cabinets. I understand there is a model of the porthole sets to avoid due to the leaky CRT that is unobtanium. Can anyone fill in the missing info? I've always wanted one but hesitant should I end up with an unrestorable variation.

That model uses the metal 16EP4, and they are very scarce. I would bring your tube checker with you before you bid. If you are really ambitious, 16DP4 glass tubes are available, but you will have interference & mounting issues to work out. Metal 16AP4 will work electrically, but is physically longer. Metal 16GP4 is physically shorter, but electrically requires +10 degrees additional deflection. That set might not be able to fill the entire screen.