Scored a Portacolor WHE5255WD

[bandersen]

I spied this set on eBay described as " GE vintage television. Not working. Several of the tubes warm up but no picture. As is...maybe for parts."

Although it didn't have Portacolor on the cabinet, it sure looked like one. Luckily the seller included a photo of the tube chart which showed a 10HE chassis. That cliched it and I won it for $18. Now it just needed to survive shipping from California via UPS.

Well it arrived this evening and was treated to this when I opened the box


Amazingly, there's no damage




It's a model WHE5255WD. It's covered in Sams 1384-1. Does anyone have a scanned copy ?

[bandersen]

Here's a look inside. The 10ADP22 tested good but the red gun had better cutoff control than the blue or green.





After some poking around, I discovered the 2.5 A fast-blo B+ fuse was open.


I popped in a replacement and slowly started bring it up on a variac. So far so good.

[bandersen]

Started getting sound and a raster around 90 volts.


Finally reception at around 105


Here it is at a full 120 VAC. Boy that CRT resolution sure does stink


Let it play for about 10 minutes before shutting it down. Good thing too as the main filter cap is very hot

[radiotvnut]

Nice score and I think you have one of the later ones from the '75-'77 time period. Years ago, I had a couple of them from late-'76. I currently have a '73 model with the HE chassis; but, it has continuous UHF tuning and the channel knobs are arranged vertically.

[bandersen]

One of the tubes appears to have a '75 date code.

The picture is looking a bit better after some control tweaking.

[dishdude]

What about the hot cap?

[andy]

...

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by andy

There is a tubular ceramic cap near the flyback. Be sure to change that since it will fail shortly. It's tucked away under the LV power supply near where the HV wire comes out of the HV cage. It will overheat and blow its top, or cause the HOT to red plate.

Actually, there are up to three Elmenco white ceramic caps in these Porta Color sets that will spew aluminum foil all over if they fail. The largest is right behind the leftmost potentiomer pair (height and AGC). It is a .1/1000V cap, C268. The other is standing on end, and in my set, was a .047/400V, C409. Both are are in close proximity to each other.

My notes also show I replaced a third one, C555, a .22uf/ 400V in the degaussing circuit, and in mine, also a white elmenco ceramic. It wasn't on the board - just trace the wires off the degaussing switch to the cap. If you have auto-degaussing, it won't be in your set.

I too have an early portacolor, A WM213HWD-3.

[DaveWM]

welcome to the PC club

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by bandersen

One of the tubes appears to have a '75 date code.

Your date codes on the transformers also scream 1975, even possibly 1976. You have one of the very last tube Porta Color sets. The 10JA came out in 76, and was the last Porta Color. The AA/AB/AC sets in 79-83 weren't marketed as Porta Color sets, and had excellent CRTs.

Now, just find a GE Porta Cool air conditioner to round out the collection!

...and please - a thread on the restoration! Good reads, chap!

Cheers,

[lnx64]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Nice score and I think you have one of the later ones from the '75-'77 time period. Years ago, I had a couple of them from late-'76. I currently have a '73 model with the HE chassis; but, it has continuous UHF tuning and the channel knobs are arranged vertically.

Is that why I don't see a dot-triad formation of the shadowmask? I remembered portacolors with inline tubes that also had dot-triad in stead of the slot mask type thing like late type CRT's had.

[lnx64]

This TV looks amazing. I think I am actually subscribed to your channel, should I expect a video on this set?

[andy]

...

[bandersen]

The only Elmenco I've found so far has already cracked it's shell. It's a 0.047. Thanks for the tips - I'll hunt for others.

A video up later today

[GlensterTX]

From the last photo in #1, above:

"The attractive cabinet of this television is made of high impact polystyrene to provide the ultimate in sculpted beauty."

And people wonder what was wrong with our tastes in the 70s!