Look what the dog dragged home

[NoPegs]

Originally Posted by Paul Knaack

This is what I had at that point. Contrast control was terrible and picture bad.

Bad? For original parts, and only a vague idea on the usage/repair history of the set that's a damn fine picture!

Can't wait to see what it looks like after it gets some prodding with a hot soldering iron.

[DaveWM]

looks like some hum or maybe ground loop effecting the pic. what is the video source?

for snow look at cleaning the tuner, removing the shield and q tips with contact cleaner. work carefully, you dont want to break wires to the tuner, nor do you want to just soak it. Some tuners have wafer switches others use the strips on a turret, those are easier.

Snow can also be a weak RF tube in tuner of a blown balun.

turn the color down or get some black and white programming on, observe the quality of the pic. check for color fringing. check focus, little things slowly make a better pic.

get a cross hatch and check for linearity, use dots for center converge, cross hatch for edg convergence.

weak contrast can be a weak video out cathode bypass cap, but it looks pretty good to me. I would focus on proper setup (grey scale, degauss,linearity,purity, focus,converge). Don't expect it to get a lot better, hard to tell if the focus is off.

[Marco-nix]

that's better hey !

[Sandy G]

[QUOTE=NoPegs;3125013]Bad? For original parts, and only a vague idea on the usage/repair history of the set that's a damn fine picture!

Uhh, YEAH...These Bad Boys are 40 + years old....Maybe closer to 50 than they are to 40...I doubt if they were ever INTENDED to last this long, "El-Cheapo SMALL console" or not...

[Electronic M]

Since it appears you are using a computer as a video source I'd recommend installing VLC media player. It gets rid of that annoying under scan mode on video cards if you play the video full screen.

I agree on that being a decent picture for a set that has just been woken up. The vertical linearity/size might be off too far for the controls to compensate, but aside from that, honestly I think that set is only a bunch of knob turns away from running as good as new...

[BigDavesTV]

That's a cute little "Admir-a-ble" console, great score! Very nice picture for beginning, looks like a decent emission CRT, as well, congratulations, and best wishes on your restoration!

[tvcollector]

Great work.. I love the picture so far.. A screen with Brian Williams in it, always makes for an excellent picture

[old_coot88]

Oh waao. That is amazing. A virtually 'working as found' time-capsuled set.
There's a quick-and-dirty check that can assess the overall condition of critical tubes, the "7 seconds off" test.
With the set running and warmed up, turn it off for about 7 seconds, and then back on. Watch for slow width fill-out, slow H sync lock, slow vert fill, slow color lock-in, slow clearing snow etc. Borderline weak tubes will show up.

One question. Is the 6KD6 is holding steady at 200 ma., and not rising with brightness increase?

The reason for asking is - if the current does go up with brightness, it means the set uses Admiral's pulse-feedback HV regulation which historically was very trouble-prone.
But if it uses the traditional 6BK4 shunt regulator, no problemo.

[drh4683]

Very nice find.

Just to touch base on the mentioned Motorola CRT in this set: Motorola had a very short lived color CRT operation going in Franklin Park between 1966 and 1970. When the CRT plant opened in early 1966, it was only to supplement CRT supply from National Video Corp who was Motorola's exclusive supplier at that time. NVC couldn't keep up with Motorola's production demand during the big color TV boom years between '66 and '68. By 1969, color TV sales slowed down (a trend that continued through 1971). National Video Corp, also in Chicago had dissolved in 1969 and Motorola's CRT operation also became unprofitable compared to other purchasing options. By April, 1970 Motorola closed the Franklin Park CRT complex as they were now able to purchase complete CRT's from Sylvania for much less than Motorola's production costs. No big deal for the 2000 workers at that plant, they were all given options to be transferred to either of Motorola's numerous huge production facilities in the area at the time. How nice things were...

Motorola only entered the CRT business to be it's own OEM supplier, but seeing that Admiral was the little guy in town compared to Zenith and Moto, it would make sense that they helped supply Admiral with some CRT's. I'm sure Zenith was asked to put in a bid too...but the cheapest guy always wins.

[sampson159]

makes sense.saw several of these admirals from that era.the moto crts put out a very good picture.yours looks good.when finished,it will be outstanding.great,great score

[Paul Knaack]

I checked tubes in tuner, the 6lj8 was shorted. I also cleaned the tuner. I can't believe the picture this thing is making now!

https://vimeo.com/user36278910/albums

[DaveWM]

looking good, crank that color down a smidge.

[old_coot88]

Nice. Does it use a 6LE8 demodulator tube? The knock-your-socks-off reds sure looks like it.

[sampson159]

excellent!again,a 21 inch console admiral is a major score.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by drh4683

Very nice find.

Just to touch base on the mentioned Motorola CRT in this set: Motorola had a very short lived color CRT operation going in Franklin Park between 1966 and 1970. When the CRT plant opened in early 1966, it was only to supplement CRT supply from National Video Corp who was Motorola's exclusive supplier at that time. NVC couldn't keep up with Motorola's production demand during the big color TV boom years between '66 and '68. By 1969, color TV sales slowed down (a trend that continued through 1971). National Video Corp, also in Chicago had dissolved in 1969 and Motorola's CRT operation also became unprofitable compared to other purchasing options. By April, 1970 Motorola closed the Franklin Park CRT complex as they were now able to purchase complete CRT's from Sylvania for much less than Motorola's production costs. No big deal for the 2000 workers at that plant, they were all given options to be transferred to either of Motorola's numerous huge production facilities in the area at the time. How nice things were...

Motorola only entered the CRT business to be it's own OEM supplier, but seeing that Admiral was the little guy in town compared to Zenith and Moto, it would make sense that they helped supply Admiral with some CRT's. I'm sure Zenith was asked to put in a bid too...but the cheapest guy always wins.

I replaced a CRT in a 1968 Motorola TS918, that had an Admiral sourced 25ZP22. That tube was really sick. The Admiral CRT's weren't really known for their longevity.