1979 Quasar Renovation

[TUD1]

It's a Matsushita made TV, but it was assembled in Franklin Park, IL. The tube was made in USA.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by TUD1

It's a Matsushita made TV, but it was assembled in Lincoln Park, IL. The tube was made in USA.

That was Franklin Park, IL. The plant was turned in to condominiums.
Those Quasar sets of that era were really bullet proof.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

That was Franklin Park, IL. The plant was turned in to condominiums.
Those Quasar sets of that era were really bullet proof.

Interesting that a Japanese made set would be built here in America with American made parts...

I'm guessing this was shortly after Motorola folded?

And is this a VHF only set or does it do UHF as well? because I only see one knob on that set instead of the usual two that most UHF/VHF TVs have.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

Interesting that a Japanese made set would be built here in America with American made parts...

I'm guessing final assembly was done in the US, and that some Japanese TV manufacturers avoided shipping CRTs that far because they're so heavy and fragile. I had a Hitachi console with a RCA-supplied CRT.

[zeno]

Set has Panasonic chassis. Cabinet probably US. CRT
could be anything, need the EIA code. They were good
sets.
It has UHF. All US sold sets HAD to have UHF after March 1964.
Used a one knob selector with presets for UHF. Has a
varactor tuner.

There are two common lytic failures about this time.
One was the 4.7 mfd in the 200V supply. They go on
almost every brand set from the late 70's on. Its usually
near the FBT. Causes jail bars, shading, too brite pix,
poor pix.
The other is a 4.7 in the power supply area. Its the filter for
the negative supply to the tuner for band switching.
Causes hum bars on LOW channels only (2-6) & a messy pix.

73 Zeno

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by zeno

set has panasonic chassis. Cabinet probably us. crt
could be anything, need the eia code. They were good
sets.

eia-312.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

Interesting that a Japanese made set would be built here in America with American made parts...

I'm guessing this was shortly after Motorola folded?

And is this a VHF only set or does it do UHF as well? because I only see one knob on that set instead of the usual two that most UHF/VHF TVs have.

Motorola never really folded. They just sold off the lesser profitable divisions.
Matsushita was looking for a plant to final assemble products, to avoid high tariffs. They were one of the firms charged with "dumping", that is selling products for less money than it costs to build them, to gain market share.
The set shown is a higher priced model with the 18 position varactor tuner with 6 UHF presets.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Motorola never really folded. They just sold off the lesser profitable divisions.
Matsushita was looking for a plant to final assemble products, to avoid high tariffs. They were one of the firms charged with "dumping", that is selling products for less money than it costs to build them, to gain market share.
The set shown is a higher priced model with the 18 position varactor tuner with 6 UHF presets.

So then Motorola basically got out of the Radio and TV manufacturing business and went into cellphones instead because they thought that radios and TVs weren't profitable enough for them but yet they thought cellphones would be more profitable?!

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

So then Motorola basically got out of the Radio and TV manufacturing business and went into cellphones instead because they thought that radios and TVs weren't profitable enough for them but yet they thought cellphones would be more profitable?!

The japs were under cutting prices of US companies on all consumer electronics making it futile to compete in that market, so they dropped their consumer electronics lines. They continued to make Cellphones, semiconductors, cable boxes, 2-way radio equipment and other things. All of which were profitable markets that the japs were not ruthlessly trying to take over.....It was a wise business decision that has preserved their existance.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

So then Motorola basically got out of the Radio and TV manufacturing business and went into cellphones instead because they thought that radios and TVs weren't profitable enough for them but yet they thought cellphones would be more profitable?!

It all started out with pocket pagers, then cellphones.
They quit building home radios and phonos in 1969. Televisions in 1974. They built car radios for the US car makers until about 1975.
They were still heavy into two-way communications for the law inforcement and others for a while, but seemed to discontinue it later.
Every time, there's a problem in communications for the law enforcement, the Police Chiefs always mention, "We never had that problem, when we had Motorola radios."

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

It all started out with pocket pagers, then cellphones.
They quit building home radios and phonos in 1969. Televisions in 1974. They built car radios for the US car makers until about 1975.
They were still heavy into two-way communications for the law inforcement and others for a while, but seemed to discontinue it later.
Every time, there's a problem in communications for the law enforcement, the Police Chiefs always mention, "We never had that problem, when we had Motorola radios."

Motorola's defense electronics division dried up considerably in the 90s - but they were the leader in some defense electronics programs up until then - most notably Automatic Carrier Landing Systems, where they produced transmitters and receivers for the APN-154 and APN-202 ACLS systems. Fun fact - the system was so accurate, they had to introduce a random error, else the tailhook of the arrested aircraft would almost always hit the same spot on the flight deck, banging a hole through the non-skid coating. Reliable - most failures were of external nature.

Though they did produce comm equipment for the Apollo program, they made little for the DoD - I guess they left that to Collins, Magnavox, and RCA.