Is this Set Tube or Solid State?

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by Magnavox300

Was Olympic ever a good name in televisions?
This is the first I ever heard of them....

Frankly, Olympic was generally an el-cheapo brand. They started out in the 50's mostly making inexpensive TV-radio-phono combo sets; some of their advertising pushed price as the main draw-- i.e. you can have a combination console for the usual price of a TV by itself! Later on, they seemed to move away from combo units.

One semi-infamous Olympic model was a (I think) 17" B&W set which sold for the then-blistering price of only $99 list. Why? One reason was that it had only *one* IF amp stage! This might be the model Dieseljeep referred to in his post. I think even Mad-Man Muntz managed at least two IF stages in all of his TV sets. Consumer Reports did a "Once Over" on that Olympic set, and, IIRC, they indicated that the contrast control and AGC were really unnecessary in that TV, because it always needed the contrast control set at maximum!

Speaking of Consumer Reports, in their 1960 round up of "minor brand" TV consoles, they indicate that while Olympic's top-of-the-line chassis did have 3 IF stages, none of their sets had keyed AGC (which was not exactly a high-end feature in 1960). As such, even that set was overall rated below their lowest-rated "major brand" set that year, an Emerson. [...but at least it rated better than the Muntz tested...]

Sorry to sound so disappointing, but Olympic B&W sets really were pretty low-end in general. I think they used a "clone" chassis in their color line, though, so those probably were better. On a more positive note, I doubt there are very many "surviving" Olympic sets these days-- I'm sure sets like yours are rather thin on the ground! I've never seen an Olympic portable before, and it's always interesting to see minor-brand sets like that. While it might not be a great performer, simple sets like that can be easier to deal with from a repair standpoint.

Good luck and have fun!

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

I remember working on a few Olympics. All of mine were series string tubes, and I usually didnt have spare tubes on hand for them.

I've only seen one color Olympic, and it was an RCA clone.

The first Olympic color set I saw, had a genuine RCA CTC15 chassis in it.
The other one I worked on, had a color circuit simular to a Motorola or Admiral, with the 6LE8 color demod. Their own chassis.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Magnavox300

Was Olympic ever a good name in televisions?
This is the first I ever heard of them....

I you look at the old Sams and Rider's, they appeared to be fairly good circuit-wise.
They were made in Long Island City,NY, so they were more common, out East.
The firm was in business for quite a while. Originally was Hamilton Radio Corp.
They were bought out in the 50's by Lear-Seigler, who also owned Bogen.

[Magnavox300]

Thanks for the info on Olympic...
I actually live very close to Long Island City, cool to know sets were made there at one time...like everything else in the U.S.
I still have to get the schematic for this set so I'll check it out.
This set hasn't even shipped yet, all the photos I have shown are from the sellers listing.
I told them I was concerned about the set getting here safely, and just sent more cash for packing supplies. They offered to change shipping from UPS, to Fed EX.
I hope Fedex ships safely, I remember UPS told me I needed to have everything packed to withstand a 4 foot drop!

The only set I have had shipped so far was the Philco Transitone. It took forever, but did get here safely. It was very light though, this Olympic looks heavy....


Magnavox300