Airline Color Combo

[bgadow]

A couple times I have typed up a letter or flyer and mailed it out to the local thrift stores. The only thing to ever come from it was that a volunteer at one place called me one day. She ended up giving me a several BPC sets, all broken as I recall.

Then, the other day the phone rings. It was the Salvation Army thrift store, letting me know that they had taken in 2 tube sets. Hmmm. From the brief description the manager gave me, one was a standalone set, the other a combo. Could be anything, of course. In my mind I pictured a 10" Admiral combo from the late 40s. Anyway, I drove down there today.

The back room, where they keep the TV sets, was full. Great selection of 70s-80s stuff. They get loads of Wards & Sears sets. Among the nicer things there right now are a MW 19" color including the orginal remote, looks to be early 80s & built by GE, I think. Also a pretty decent 80s Zenith console. I didn't see anything tube type on the floor so I asked a volunteer, and he knew just what I was talking about.

The standalone set turned out to be a late 70s Sears console in a cheap cabinet with sensor-tune push button tuning. I had to explain, more than once, that this didn't interest me. Then they took me in the "employees only" area and showed me the combo. I knew right away that it wasn't anything great, but that I had to drag it home.

It is a Wards Airline with a 23v crt (original, made by Sylvania), the back was off and the TV chassis is loose. Several tubes are missing & the HV rectifier socket is dangling. When they moved it they knocked the crt socket off, twisting up the pins on the crt. I think it is okay, though. I need to get them straight and put a tester on it. The chassis looks like a real project. One thing I noticed is that the flyback (which looks fine) is very loose on its core. That doesn't seem right-seems like it would be noisy, if nothing else.

One mystery is, who made it? The label is faded-the only part of the model number I can read is the first three digits, which usually tells who they sourced it from. This one is "GMW". Any idea who that would be? I only spotted 3 chassis with that prefix in the Sams index, but haven't pulled any yet. The chassis is a pretty typical RCA-style.

No photos yet, maybe I can snap a couple soon. Still in the back of my truck because: I have nowhere to put it, no way to get it off the truck by myself, nobody to help me. As usual, if somebody were to show up they could have this set for what I gave the man at the SA-$15. I would really enjoy bringing this set back from the brink, but right now chances are good that this will be parted-out someday just because of space constraints. The real story here, for me, isn't so much the TV but the fact that the Salvation Army store actually saved it and called me!

[DaveWM]

I should try that at the local SA and GW. Don't know if they will do it but worth a try. you think pictures left with them would help?

[bgadow]

On at least one of those flyers I included a big photo of a color roundie. In this case the manager was old enough to know what tubes are, and since the back had fallen off this set he was able to clearly see them. Seemed like a pretty good bunch of folks working in the back. There is another SA store in another town, not convenient for me but my mother-in-law works right down the street. She called me one day to let me know they had a console radio. She gave me a pretty good description-I was able to discern it was a late 40s Zenith side-by-side combo (no TV) priced at around $75. They're too common for that price (and I know where I can get one for nothing and have passed it up so far) but I guess somebody liked it. When I finally did get over there a month or so later it was gone.

[bgadow]

Finally got this monster unloaded from the truck Friday. I needed to haul some things over the weekend, no place to put the combo really. I just cleared a temporary spot in the middle of the floor at work. Not sure where to go with it from here. Some pics:

I did try the stereo-it works, more or less. Typical noisy controls, slipping dial cord, etc.

Everyone here loves color TV control panels, right?

I don't know much about record changers, but think this one is kinda neat. 4 speed, tries to work but won't turn. Needs a lube job, I guess.

The chassis is a mess; that is exactly why I would like to be able to hold onto this, since I think it will be a lot of fun to bring back to life.

I did check the crt the other night; it came very, very close to being broken. But it survived! Blue gun is strong, the red and green take about 10 seconds to get into the "good" part of the scale. I'm happy. Still no idea who built it.

[freakaftr8]

That chassis so looks pike an RCA clone minus the 6BK4 positioning. That yoke looks slot like RCA too

[Sandy G]

The woodwork on it looks better than most I've seen/remember...Oughta be a nifty set once you get 'er goin' again...How tuff are "cataracts" to fix on rectangular sets ?

[kx250rider]

I've had the exact same set with the Bradford name. CTC-15 clone, basically. Not a bad set, I guess. Cheap at the time, as the CTC-15 was pretty old technology in the late 60s.

Charles

[drh4683]

What year is that TV? About a '67 or '68?

[ctc17]

The flyback looks like on of the silicone covered replacements. Maybe it was in the garage and the kids wanted to try popping a few of the glass things inside.

Good project though. I would be all over getting that working.

[Jeffhs]

One thing I see right off the bat, after looking at your pics of the chassis, is that there are at least two tubes missing, and the convergence board is hanging by its leads instead of mounted on a bracket in the cabinet. Someone may have filched the two missing tubes to use in some other device. I can't tell from just these pics if there is anything else obviously wrong with the set; that you'll have to find out when you have the chassis on the bench.

The stereo AM/FM section of this combo looks to me like it will run rings around any modern system, once you get it working. Any FM tuner with a scale as long as this one is probably very selective and sensitive; if you have several FM stations in your area (or in nearby towns) very close to one another on the dial (e.g. 104.1 and 104.3), this one will probably sort them out with no problems whatsoever, with the AFC off. Being between Washington and Baltimore, you might well get stations from both cities (to say nothing of the locals in your own area from Federalsburg and Salisbury) on this system using just the built-in antenna.

The sound fidelity of these old consoles can be very good, depending on the audio circuits and the size of the speakers. I saw a couple of large woofers in yours (where there are woofers there are likely tweeters as well), so this console will very likely sound great once it's working as it should.

I can't say for certain, but the record changer in your console looks very much like a 4-speed one. I doubt very much if it's a single-speed unit, as very few (if any) postwar record changers were made to play only 33 RPM records. Again, from a look at the pictures of the set, I think there is a speed selector on the changer, so unless the record changer was replaced years ago (which I doubt--even though the TV in your combo is VHF only, which incidentally identifies this combo as being manufactured in the early sixties, the changer can't be so old as to be a single-speed 78-RPM only one) it is almost certainly a 4-speed unit. Don't try to play stereo records on it, however, if the changer is equipped with a monophonic cartridge and stylus, unless of course you replace both; I read somewhere just recently that a mono cartridge will destroy stereo records in a very short time.

[bgadow]

Yep, the changer is a 4 speed. The convergence board is dangling because I unscrewed it while it was in the pickup. Looking to clues as to manufacturer. Sometimes the backside of that board will have something-there is an "M" in a circle, looks like-not a Motorola style M, though. I'm guessing it must be Wells-Gardner or maybe Warwick?

There are some loose tubes rattling around. Lots of Realistic tubes in this one, the owner must have been a DIY'er. One of the coils in the color circuit is missing and another is bent over. Maybe they will be the same as what RCA used, which would make them easy to find.

I did find date codes on several tubes and other components, all around the 30th week of '66. Earlier than I thought. There are a couple inspection tags inside from when it was new and one has a couple '71 dates written on it-apparently that was when it came in for repairs.

There were obvious HV problems. The 3A3 socket is unscrewed, the cap for it is covered in electrical tape, looks like sealant smeared on the wires entering the flyback. Fun stuff! If I had room to have it here at home, yeah, I'd be all over it!

[bgadow]

An update you may find interesting:

Today I decided to reattach the back cover, which was loose from the time I picked the set up. As I was putting in the last screw I noticed down in the corner, good-an EIA number! 772. Hmmm...who is that? I had to look it up. Last chance to guess...wait for it


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it was built by Muntz!

Which explains the "M" on the back of the convergence board. I never knew they made sets for Monkey Wards, or anybody else for that matter. Some other things: on the floor of the cabinet, under the record changer, is a date stamp of 11/1966. And, when I was looking up the EIA code, Muntz is listed in the '66 list but nobody has '772' in the '70 list. In the '72 list it belongs to Television Manufacturers of America (TMA) with the same address that Muntz had. We discussed this some a couple years back on here...I need to try and dig out that old thread.

I think it's kinda neat to have an oddball like this. I still cannot figure out where in the world I'm gonna put it.

[AUdubon5425]

Can you tell who made the record changer?

[Zenith26kc20]

The turntable looks like a Voice of Music (VM). I've serviced many of them. I remember the skinny arm and the Tetrad cartridge. Many customer knocked the rubbing blocks off of the cartridge when they changed the needle.
I remember a friend of mine playing with the chassis on one of those. He thought the 6bk4 was the HV rectifier and wanted to see the arc to his screwdriver. Before I could say, uh.. you're on the wrong tube, he was sitting on the floor rather embarrased.
Made a loud crack too!