Picked up a 19" GE "Porta-View" tube B&W from the TV shop.
 

Well, it finally happened. A tube-type TV made it's way into the TV shop. He called yesterday to say that he had a bunch of sets for me. I'm thinking it's a bunch of modern stuff when he said "oh, BTW, I have 3 older rotary dial TV's for you among all this stuff." Then, I got to thinking early '90's Emerson's and Samsung's. He said this older lady brought 4 TV's in and asked him to fix one for her and trash the rest. When I went down there today, I found this 19" GE "porta-view" tube type B&W. After checking it, I found that the CRT is very weak and that it has vertical problems. The set also has lighted dials, a sleep timer, and is housed in a steel cabinet. As best I can tell from date codes; it was made in '67. He told me that the owner had not offically trashed the sets yet; so, please hang on to them a few days. He said if she wanted them back, he was going to charge her $25 per set check out fee. It will piss me off if I have to give these sets back after they are now in my hands. The other two sets were a 19" GE EC chassis motel set and a 19" RCA XL100. I'll do a seperate thread on them.

Nice! Hopefully she won't want them back and then you can try to find a CRT for this one.

Why would she want it back if its not working? Seems odd. I know of people around here who purposely break stuff so people will stay out of their trash piles. Moronic behavior but it happens.

The GE has the same knobs as my portacolor, FWIW.

I have also known people that will tear something up just to keep someone else from getting any good out of it. My mother has been known to do it. In her mind, when she puts something in the trash -- it's garbage. If she meant for someone to have the item; she'd give it to them. She does not like it when I ask her to stop the car so I can pick-up something. She says I embarrass her by going through someone's trash. Well, it does not embarrass me in the least. If it's out for the trash, it's fair game. I've had very few people want their old broken TV back. Every now and then, someone will pitch a fit wanting their broken TV back. They probably have the idea that I'm lying to them when I tell them it's not worth repairing. They just think I want to beat them out of their set so I can fix it and sell it for big $. I remember this one lady who brought me some POS off brand, roach infested 19" B&W TV for repair. It had multiple problems and I told her it wasn't worth repairing. When I offered to trash it for her, she pitched a major fit wanting her set back. I told her to please run right over here and get her roach infested junk out of my way! I certainly didn't want it. I was just trying to do her a favor.

I think the chances are pretty slim that the woman will want this B&W set back. I think the TV shop owner was just covering his bases on the slim chance she does a flip-flop.

Well, I couldn't resist. I had to at least see if the CRT was salvageable. It checked totally dead on my B&K 480 tester; but, it responded very well to a clean & balance. I played with the vertical controls and now have a picture. I can tell that there are probably weak tubes and bad caps. It takes the picture about 5 minutes for the horizontal to fill out fully. Also, the picture is not as vivid as it could be. Sort of looks like weak tubes in the IF and video output circuits. Anyway, I won't do anything else to it until I know the set is mine for good.

I had a GE B&W TV like that back in 1980 (when I lived in the Binghamton NY area) that someone threw out then. I remember that the vertical tube had to be replaced to get the vertical working better (seems that a less than strong tube causes bad distorted vertical deflection and such). Not much on TV in that town back then, one VHF channel and 3 UHFs was it.

Thats all there was in 1980? Wow. I was up there a few weeks ago and they have the same digital cable lineup as Queens, give or take a few channels. Bet few people use OTA anymore.

Like that GE...should be a nice set when working. Sorta reminds me of this SS 1979 GE B&W I found. It was one of those 19" 'performance series' sets....The man I got it from had a huge (massive) garage worth of stuff and had mostly fishing equipment. There were a few old tube Zeniths but they were buried and he refused to let me dig in. This GE was the only TV which was accessible (of course..) When I got it home the crt was so dim I could barely make out a raster, but it came up to like-new brightness after I ran it all day.

Pretty sure the set was in there for over 20 years.

Well, my mid '80's 19" Sony died tonight. Turned it on and I heard a pop and saw a flash and that's all she wrote. So, the GE got put in it's place until I can fix the Sony or find another TV. I notice that the GE starts rolling after a few minutes of operation and I have to adjust the vertical hold control to stop it. It seems to become stable after about 30 minutes of operation. I'm still noticing some height and linearity issues; but, it will do for now. I'll try a new vertical tube and then caps if needed. Heck, I may get used to that black and white thing and let it sit where it is.