Porta-Color on You-Know-Where...

[Old1625]

Originally Posted by mr_fixer

Wow! You blasted the short with a car battery?

Yep!

Originally Posted by mr_fixer

...Did you put anything in series with the battery to limit current?

Noop!

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by mr_fixer

Wow! You blasted the short with a car battery? Did you put anything in series with the battery to limit current?

WOW! I had no idea this could be done, I guess 'ya learn something new everyday.
Does anyone know the year of the porta-potty? It looks to me like a '72?

[MRX37]

Interestingly, the picture is dated April 3rd 2008... This can only mean one thing... THERE'S BEEN A TIMEWARP AND THIS AUCTION ISN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN FOR ANOTHER MONTH!!

or they had their date stamp wrong...

[bgadow]

The deal with compactrons is that they may be a whole lot easier to find now than they were 25 years ago. A lot of that stuff has come out of the woodwork. I know I've got quite a pile of 'em, though I don't know specifically about the ones used in the Portacolors. I remember a few years ago I was working on one of mine and broke the horiz.output tube; seems like I had several NOS on the shelf.

[zenith2134]

I have a pile of them too, from sets I picked up on trash day and were too far gone. Lots of the early 70s GE color tabletops had bad crts it seems. I always pull the compactrons since I have one 1966 portacolor and one GE SF-chassis portable.

My portacolor has a dim CRT but is in mint shape otherwise.

[andy]

...

[Old1625]

Originally Posted by andy

I blasted a short out of a tube once before. One of the grid wires was shorted to something else. A car battery is massive over kill, but it will work if it's a dead short. A 5A bench supply is more than enough.

Had a fairly decent supply at the time. But not a working isolation transformer for the set. Not trusting the inherent isolation of the power supply, and mindful of the delicate circuitry of the rest of the set, the car battery seemed like the magic at the time. Just power the set up and wait for it to misbehave, and have the alligator leads at the ready...

BTW I have nothing against overkill if the resources are there, and it doesn't tax 'em too much.

[radiotvnut]

The set in question just sold for $70! Did anyone here get it? I saw that final bid and I thought about all the ones I used to sell as a kid. They would bring anywhere between $20 and $40, depending on how well they worked. That was in the early to mid '90's. I would like to find one of these again; but, not bad enough to pay $70 for it.

[zenithfan1]

Hey guys! I won the set!! I'll post pics as soon as it arrives {in one piece I hope!}

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by zenithfan1

Hey guys! I won the set!! I'll post pics as soon as it arrives {in one piece I hope!}

Glad to know it's in the Audiokarma family. I do think that's about a '74 model. I had a '76 once that had the same control layout but had newer style knobs.

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Glad to know it's in the Audiokarma family. I do think that's about a '74 model. I had a '76 once that had the same control layout but had newer style knobs.

Thanks for the info, I'm pretty excited,I've never owned a Porta-Color before.I have those other two GEs but they're 19 inchers. This one I can take with me! I am determined enough that when the death of analog comes, I'll bring the converter and powered antenna wherever a portable set goes....unless it's a battery powered portable, unfortunately, those sets will be mostly crap then

[Sandy G]

Glad you got it ! I have 3 Porta-Pottys, a toob one of uncertain vintage-I NEVER have learned how to "mouth" one- & 2 SS models from like '84. The SS models aren't strictly Porta-Colors, but they still use that sort-of round coarse CRT & have a complete lack of "modern" features-so I guess they sorta count.

[andy]

...

[zenithfan1]

Yup, 70 bucks was too much, I put my high bid in like that because I wasn't around a computer when it ended. I didn't expect to pay that much! It does work, however it needs a lot of attention, tubes are good, CRT is questionable which is kinda uncommon for these. Found mold inside and some rust. Good news is: The cabinet is mint, and the problems are not too hard for me to fix. Nothing I haven't seen before. I am just a little disappointed with the description of 100% working but thats the way it goes on the bay, they will say anything to sell sh*t for the highest price. I have pics and will post them tomorrow.
Mark

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by zenithfan1

Yup, 70 bucks was too much, I put my high bid in like that because I wasn't around a computer when it ended. I didn't expect to pay that much! It does work, however it needs a lot of attention, tubes are good, CRT is questionable which is kinda uncommon for these. Found mold inside and some rust. Good news is: The cabinet is mint, and the problems are not too hard for me to fix. Nothing I haven't seen before. I am just a little disappointed with the description of 100% working but thats the way it goes on the bay, they will say anything to sell sh*t for the highest price. I have pics and will post them tomorrow.
Mark

I think a lot of epay sellers simply just don't know better. They are untrained in electronics and just want to make a fast buck on the latest item they dug from a dumpster or bought at a yard sale for $1. They think if an electronic item lights up or makes some noise, then, it's considered to be working. I buy (or, try to buy) a lot of old radios, record players, etc. on epay and they rarely work as good as the seller would have you to believe. What's really sad is the fact that some of this so called working crap will bring more than the same item from someone who has obviously restored it and knows what they are doing. I now bid on most items as if they do not work regardless of what the seller says. If I get outbid, then, so be it.