Finally, a picture on the Pilot-37

[Chris K]

Crosshatch through the antenna leads. No sound yet but the audio output transformer is not original and was installed in a haphazard way. I'll deal with that later. The key to getting a signal was a change out of the 1N34 diode in the video detector just like the one in my Motorola VT-71 (although the swap didn't fix the VT).

But man, is this thing touchy. I cleaned all of the rear control pots very well but vertical roll lock is tough, horizontal is sketchy and there's top rollover and bottom vertical stretch. Fiddling with the rear controls from a baseline, I can get the picture somewhat stable but it's not watchable with a video signal. Anything underneath I should be looking at and checking to see if this could be improved? As I've said previously, I do have a Sencore 62 video analyzer if that might help diagnose and help with this.

I realize even working perfectly, these are not very good TVs. I know a restorer from the Bronx in NYC who is as good as anyone I've ever seen in getting vintage TVs perfect electronically and cosmetically and his 37 selling on eBay (for almost $1K BTW!) has a very marginal picture. This guy is amazing BTW and the prices for his pieces on EB reflect it...novavisionny. I've bought several of his pieces and they blow me away.