1973 Motorola Quasar II estate sale find!
 

This weekend at the estates I picked up a nice 1973 Motorola Quasar II console set. The Quasar II is the tube/hybrid chassis and was priced a little cheaper than the regular "Quasar" which was all solid state. This is the TS-934 chassis and it was built in the 271st day (Sept. 28th) of 1973 at the Motorola TV complex in Franklin Park, IL.

This one comes in an attractive higher end Mediterranean cabinet with the red cloth speaker grille.

This was another unique situation in which the TV was just never used and remained unplugged. At the sale, I tried this one out expecting some sort of defect, however, it worked with a bright picture on channels 6 and 48. Due to the layout of the house it was in, I am led to believe that it was always in the basement which was nice and dry.
Typically, the ERO caps in these sets are always leaky or shorted causing a plethora of issues, but somehow the ones in this set have survived the test of time.

The original owners were WWII generation Italian Americans. They took very good care of their home and furnishings, which I typically see this with the Italian, German and Czech owned homes here in my area.

Here are some more photos for your enjoyment.

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Additional photos:

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That is really neat looking ! ! !

Works in a drawer....

neato looking convergence instructions on there......

I wonder if customers ever messed with them.....

looks way too clean in there........

Doug must have a time machine too.........

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As in New England. The best kept stuff was always in the Italians houses,
even when dirt poor they took perfect care of there sets & homes.

Seems to be your week for super clean rarities. I did a ton of
the hybrid Mot / Quasars 14-19 but dont remember the console chassis.
Nice find !

73 Zeno:smoke:

Beautiful!

I remember when UL changed their ratings on PC board substrate and the old brown phenolic gave way to the yellow boards you see.

Another thing you may not have thought about - all that inter-module wiring that looks somewhat random is exactly per engineering specs. The assembly line had a prototype chassis inside a transparent plastic box, and if there was any question on wire routing, they were to duplicate the prototype precisely.

Outstanding catch Doug. Looks just like new. Congratulations.

Nice ! Looking forward to the video of it !

Very true on the Italian comment.
Us italians take great care of everything ! :)

wonderful ... amazing what it out there!

I see its "one-button color" feature is called "Insta-matic". It is a good thing that Kodak did not make TV sets; Motorola would have got in big trouble. :)

That is only slightly older than/different electronics wise from the one my folks had in the early 90's (cabinet is completely different though). One day I or someone with less reason to want it will find the exact chassis/model/cabinet that we had, and I'll again have one.

So is this a similar model....?

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/ele/4647150507.html

He posted pictures with the back off, and all the metal on the side with the knobs
is shaped just like the floor model on this page......

This set is in chicago, and just $10.

hello.......

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Hey Doug, BTW, do you have any plans to refill your YouTube new video's well going forward? Seems like it's been a little dry lately. I think most folks enjoy your productions.

Tom(PK)

Nope. If you want to see it, click the 'what I want' link in my sig and then click on the first youtube link...Someone out there has one so they do exist.
That 10$ set is tempting, but I really don't have much room at the moment, and I'd still be looking for 'my' WID set even if I bought it...Maybe in a week if I can reorganize my basement and show the 'war department' that I have room...