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Hi-I was the high bidder on the Westinghouse TV/phono/radio combo. I wasnt even aware of this thread until after the auction ended. I have been a very occasional lurker on this forum and figured now would be a good time to finally sign up. I basically threw in a last minute low bid, not expecting to be the winner. The price I paid was probably still too high, but I have been looking for a nice combo unit for a while and just liked the looks and condition of this one. Plus I was going to be in the seller’s area of southern NJ anyway (I live in the DC area) for an unrelated trip so I figured if I won it would be easy enough to pick up--which I did on Tuesday.
Anyway, the unit is an H-207 and is as nice as it looked in the auction pictures. While not mint, it is pretty close to it. It looks almost new with only a light few scratches here and there. I was pressed for time when I picked it up, so I didnt have much chance to talk to the seller. Basically, they ended up with the TV when they bought a house and it was in the basement. I gathered their over valuation of the unit’s worth was based on extrapolating off the auction results of a pre-war Westinghouse TV, which is obviously a whole different ball game.
The seller said everything works—not sure to what degree they mean though. The electric cord for the TV has a lot of exposed wire on it, so much that I cant imagine they actually plugged it in. All the rest of the wiring including the cord for the radio/phono appears to be in great shape. Although the radio chassis seems pretty clean, there is about 60 years of dust on the TV chassis.
I haven’t had a chance to do much with the unit yet but I hope to get the variac out this weekend and at least check out the radio and phonograph. I have a Sams photofact on the way. My intention for the unit is for it to be more of a display piece than to actually use it. My house is filled with stuff from the 1930’s-1950’s so the unit fits in perfectly. I hope to restore the radio and phono, but I doubt I am up to the task of restoring the TV from a technical perspective. I managed to get my Predicta Holiday up and running a few years ago, but I think I got extremely lucky with it. It didn’t require much in the way of repair, just resoldered some wires and resistors and replaced a few parts. Having since learned a little more about old TVs I am hesitant to try my luck again as apparently I was very fortunate to not have electrocuted myself or burn something up in the TV in the process!
If anyone has any questions or restoration tips particular to Westinghouse—let me know!
Lars
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