1981 Montgomery Wards Portable Color TV

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

It's probably a Sharp built set. Still a good save!

The first part of the FCC id code, the grantee part (A7R) comes back as Orion... would that make sense?

I used:

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/repor...ericSearch.cfm

put in A7R in the first box and hit search.

jr

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

The first part of the FCC id code, the grantee part (A7R) comes back as Orion... would that make sense?

I used:

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/repor...ericSearch.cfm

put in A7R in the first box and hit search.

jr

After I saw the picture of the nameplate, it seemed that Wards used the GEN prefix on a lot of non-Sharp products, as well as Sharp. The set does say "Made in Japan".
Orion and Funai were originally Japanese firms.

[Captainclock]

Yeah I used the FCC ID Reverse Lookup page and typed in the FCC ID on the bottom of the unit and it returned nothing. It would make more sense that it was maybe a Sharp built unit rather than a Funai or Orion built because I don't think those companies made TVs that early on, plus the "Made in Japan" sticker on the bottom seems to point to Sharp (not that Funai or Orion weren't Japanese firms as well but like I said I thought that they didn't get into the TV business until the mid 1980s more whereas this TV is from 1981.)

Like I said this TV is I belive a low hours set and has the unusual feature of having the 300 Ohm External Antenna Terminals on it which is nice because one can easily hook up a converter box to this TV without any special cables or adaptors.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

The first part of the FCC id code, the grantee part (A7R) comes back as Orion... would that make sense?

I used:

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/repor...ericSearch.cfm

put in A7R in the first box and hit search.

jr

I did look up the A7R code and the furthest back the code goes with Orion is 1982, whereas my TV is from 1981 so I'm wondering if maybe the code belonged to someone else prior to 1982, but then Orion got the code in 1982?

Also I have been trying to leave this TV on for about an hour or 2 at a time to try and "wake up" the picture tube but it doesn't seem to be helping it any, it still has to have the brightness control turned all the way up in order to get a viewable picture, otherwise the picture is so dark that you can barely tell that the TV is on, the contrast and the color is good yet, just the Brightness sucks for some reason, and I'm hoping that the Picture tube isn't about shot because that would be a little strange for a low hours TV like this one was, unless the picture tube they used was known to go bad prematurely, then that would be a different story, but still disappointing none the less.

[compucat]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

I did look up the A7R code and the furthest back the code goes with Orion is 1982, whereas my TV is from 1981 so I'm wondering if maybe the code belonged to someone else prior to 1982, but then Orion got the code in 1982?

Also I have been trying to leave this TV on for about an hour or 2 at a time to try and "wake up" the picture tube but it doesn't seem to be helping it any, it still has to have the brightness control turned all the way up in order to get a viewable picture, otherwise the picture is so dark that you can barely tell that the TV is on, the contrast and the color is good yet, just the Brightness sucks for some reason, and I'm hoping that the Picture tube isn't about shot because that would be a little strange for a low hours TV like this one was, unless the picture tube they used was known to go bad prematurely, then that would be a different story, but still disappointing none the less.

Small screen CRTs generally last a long time. You might see if there is a sub brightness or brightness range control on the board somewhere. Even a G2 control (often located on the flyback) may help to increase brightness. Just watch for retrace lines. It may be a low hours set because the brightness range was never set quite right from the factory and it didn't get used much because it was so dim.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by compucat

Small screen CRTs generally last a long time. You might see if there is a sub brightness or brightness range control on the board somewhere. Even a G2 control (often located on the flyback) may help to increase brightness. Just watch for retrace lines. It may be a low hours set because the brightness range was never set quite right from the factory and it didn't get used much because it was so dim.

That's would make sense. I'll definitely check those things out.

[zeno]

If the pix is just dark but otherwise good & sharp with good
B&W try moving the G-2 ( a.k.a. screen ) control a little first.

G-2 is on CRT socket. Circuit simple, flyback pulse rectified by
D604 ( apx 300 VDC ) goes to one end of control. Other end
a 1 meg R681 to ground.
CRT pin 8 should be abt 250 VDC.

The 3 cathodes pins 1, 6, & 7 should be abt 75 V. if they
are much higher you have a video problem.

73 Zeno

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by zeno

If the pix is just dark but otherwise good & sharp with good
B&W try moving the G-2 ( a.k.a. screen ) control a little first.

G-2 is on CRT socket. Circuit simple, flyback pulse rectified by
D604 ( apx 300 VDC ) goes to one end of control. Other end
a 1 meg R681 to ground.
CRT pin 8 should be abt 250 VDC.

The 3 cathodes pins 1, 6, & 7 should be abt 75 V. if they
are much higher you have a video problem.

73 Zeno

I just wonder if the board has the low value 'lytic in the screen circuit, 10mfd @ 315vdc, that might be bad. I don't know if the cap is on the CRT board or on the main board.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I just wonder if the board has the low value 'lytic in the screen circuit, 10mfd @ 315vdc, that might be bad. I don't know if the cap is on the CRT board or on the main board.

I don't know either, what would the capacitor do exactly and what circuit would it be associated with? I'm asking because I could see if I could locate it by looking around on the different circuit boards for it.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by zeno

If the pix is just dark but otherwise good & sharp with good
B&W try moving the G-2 ( a.k.a. screen ) control a little first.

G-2 is on CRT socket. Circuit simple, flyback pulse rectified by
D604 ( apx 300 VDC ) goes to one end of control. Other end
a 1 meg R681 to ground.
CRT pin 8 should be abt 250 VDC.

The 3 cathodes pins 1, 6, & 7 should be abt 75 V. if they
are much higher you have a video problem.

73 Zeno

I took a look inside the TV and there didn't seem to be a screen adjustment control anywhere to be found in the TV, I know usually with the Bigger (13" and up) TVs the Screen ("G-2") adjustment is part of the flyback but the only adjustment I see on the flyback that is also adjustable from outside the case is the focus adjustment control. I know the Horizontal Size control was replaced with a resistor instead of a variable rheostat like normal, and yes other than the picture being too dark the color and the sharpness is really good yet on the picture and the black and white is still good, its just that the brightness control has to be turned up all the way in order to see the picture fully otherwise if you turn the brightness control all the way down you have no picture whatsoever, and at halfway the picture is barely visible, it has very good contrast yet, but the brightness is the only thing that's not working right.
So since the Screen adjustment doesn't seem to be associated with the flyback on this unit where else would I look for the screen adjustment?

And when I had the TV apart I did see that the pix tube did say Orion on it, so you were right it was made by Orion, although what confused me was that on the bottom right hand corner of the pix tube paper label was printed the Matsushita emblem, which to me would indicate that the pix tube was apparently made by Matsushita for Orion (kind of like how GE and RCA made pix tubes for other companies here in America for years.) Does that make any sense?