Early Portacolor dumpster find

[Whirled One]

Funny, I've "rescued" two PortaColors from the trash in the past two months... The first was a later 10HE chassis from ~1976 in really *terrible* shape; it will probably end up as a parts set for my other PortaColors. While I've already got about four later-version Portacolors, I'd been keeping an eye out for an early one for a while. Well, a bit ago I found another one sitting forlorn and lonely on the ground by a dumpster full of trash... Poor lil' fella.
Turns out it's certainly an early PortaColor at that-- it's in fact the very same model (M213BWD) that Consumer Reports reviewed in their article (published in Feb. 1966) on this first portable color TV.

Overall, it's in fair-to-okay condition. The vinyl(?) fake wood finish is worn and peeling from the cabinet in many spots, and the front facia is a bit scratched up, but at least all the knobs are present, and (most amazing) the original antenna rods are still intact..! (those always seem to be broken on these things) I checked the chassis for obvious problems and cleaned it up a tad, then tried soft-starting it, and lo-and-behold, the darn thing works!
As others here have mentioned before, old GE TVs tend to be rather a mixed bag in terms of reliablity, but for whatever reason those Portacolors seem to be the equivalent of the Energizer bunny-- they just keep going and going and going... Seems like almost all of them that I've encounted either functioned okay, or had what appeared to be fairly simple problems.

One thing I found odd about this set though-- this is the only 60's-era PortaColor I've ever seen that didn't actually have the identifying term "Porta-Color" anywhere on the set; the name plate on the front just says "GENERAL ELECTRIC Color" (with "Color" in the same style script as in the "Porta-Color" logos. While I know GE referred to this TV design as the "PortaColor / Porta-Color" from the very beginning, perhaps they didn't start actually using that name on the sets' nameplates at first..?

One other thing-- I can confirm CU's observation about the relatively coarse dot pitch of this set. The 11SP22 picture tube used in this set is definitely coarser than the later dot-phosphor CRT that GE started using a year or so afterwards. However, it's still probably about equal in resolution to the stripe-mask CRT that GE started using in the 70's.

Real nice find there! Looks to be in good shape overall from the pictures. I'd like to score an early Portacolor myself as mine is a 1976 model.

Congrats on your find.

[polaraman]

I found three porta color backs in the shop I am helping clean out. I will look to see if any are in pretty good shape. I will let you know.


polaraman

[Bill Cahill]

Hi. My father in early 60's worked at JL Hudons. My mother followed suit after he died. He used to work in the luggage dept. on 3rd floor. Near his dept. was the tv section, which I visited alot. The set you have is very early, but, actually, it's their second model. The first, also an 11", had a plain white plastic case. Knob set-up was the same, but, slightly different in style. That model didn't last long in sales because of all the problems they were having, not the least, was poor reception. Hudsons had their own antenna system, and even there, the reception was lousy. I believe that set only had 2 video I F tubes.

Further notes, you're lucky to have it. It didn't sell well, either. Later ones were improved. I have a late 60's pair. One has circuit board problems, and other worked until flyback gave out. Now hv arcs loudly. Dang hard set to repair. That one had poor connections, an open I F resistor, and tube sockets, and one of the color controls kept popping.