Odd Sears Color on eBay

[veg-o-matic]

Unfortunately, all I have right now is the SAMS! I'm betting it's going to take a looooooong time to get to MD from Canada.

Okay, we've got it all settled that it's a Sanyo set (thanks, Andy!) All I'm going by is the pictures of the chassis. I believe there's one transistor in the UHF tuner, but the rest is all tubes.

According to the seller, the set gets a raster but I think that's it. I can't remember if they said there was sound or not.

Does anyone know when Sears stopped using "Silvertone"? I notice that the set is marked Sears, but that's all. At first I thought it might be because the set was so low-end, but now I'm wondering if the Silvertone name had just been phased out by then.

Anyone happen to have a Sears catalog from the say, '69 to '71 era that might have a picture of this set?

Thanks!

veg

[bgadow]

Silvertone survived into the seventies but these imports seemed to stick with just plain "Sears". I have seen a number of them that way. I guess it is like how they sell Craftsman tools but then also cheaper versions under the Companion or just Sears name. Didn't want to tarnish their "premium" marque?

[Chad Hauris]

The real top of the line sets were the "Silvertone Medalist"
Sometime in the mid 80's the Sears electronics were branded "LXI" but I don't even think there are Sears private label sets any more.

Sometime in the mid 80's the Sears electronics were branded "LXI" but I don't even think there are Sears private label sets any more.

My first TV I had since I was 8 (still have and use it) is a 1990 Sears (Sanyo) 20". It is labeled as a Sears TV on the instruction manual, but the TV itself actually does not have any name on it anywhere... all it says is 'remote control' on the front, heh.

But yeah, I haven't seen any Sears branded electronics for several years now.

[kx250rider]

Let's not forget the other Sears house name from the 80s & early 90s; SR3000, wasn't it? Not a model #, that was the name on the front.

Charles

[bgadow]

Were there different numbers, like maybe SR1000, SR2000? I did have a small boom box in that series, which I was quite proud of. It had a defect and was being sold as-is at the store. One of the channels didn't work right. Had detachable speakers and both decks recorded.

I have a friend who is a retired Sears tech...tickles me, always talking about how lousy a tech he was, how he couldn't really do much after things went solid state but they kept him on until early this decade. Heckuva nice guy.

[veg-o-matic]

Okay, I'll come right out and admit it: I'm geographically challenged.

I thought the set would be coming straight down to MD from British Columbia. Huh. Turns out BC is on the *left* side of Canada. Tracking shows the set has made it to Portland.

If this gets here in one piece, I'll be surprised.

veg

[peverett]

I have two Sears Sets from a TV shop that I cleaned out that are either very similar or exactly the same as this one (without the stand). These are in Texas.

Other than determining that the CRTs are good, I have not gotten around to restoring them yet.

[veg-o-matic]

Progress.

According to FedEx tracking, it was delivered this afternoon. Can't wait to see what kind of condition it's in...

veg

[veg-o-matic]

Well, the set arrived Monday and I unpacked it last night. It was in absolutely perfect condition! The seller sure packed it right--I don't think I'll ever manage to clean up all the flying packing peanuts!

Being the impatient soul I am, I fired it up last night, just for a bit. The good news is that it does indeed have picture and sound! A bit of fiddling with the HHold knob brought the picture in.

So far I can only pick up UHF stations, but that's with nothing at all attached--no antenna, no cable, no DVD.

The problems I noticed so far: Wavy vertical lines which means I'll have to recap it. Dang. The convergence is WAY off--distinct red and green outlines everywhere. I'm hoping the static convergence just got knocked out of whack on the trip over. Adjusting the brightness control seems to affect the size of the picture. The CRT bias switch is in the 3 position. I know I'm going to have to fiddle with all the controls before any final decision is made, but does that mean the CRT is on the way out?

Off to order some caps!

veg

[captainmoody]

Wow, i'm glad it made it ok! Kudos to the seller on a good packing job. As far as the crt, If you can get a halfway decent grayscale on that set don't worry. Get us a screen shot after you touch up the static convergence.

[riffer]

I was really worried about the packing on that one too.

[veg-o-matic]

It's been a while since I've done this, so bear with me.

I went to tubesandmore.com and found some of the caps I need, but it looks like I'll have to be only approximate with some of them.

Can I successfully substitute the following caps?

Specified What I could find
60@450/ 100@450
30@450/ 33@450
50@450/ 47@450
2.2@450/ 4.7@450
220@315/ 220@350
140@450/ 100@450
3@300/ 4.7@350
100@100/ 100@160
22@25/ 22@50

Now that I look at my list, I realize that I only found 2 exact matches out of 19!

Thanks!

veg

[bgadow]

For the 140 I would parallel a 100 & a 47. That's easy & gets you right where you need to be.

100 in place of 60 isn't ideal but is problably okay. If you look around I think you can find some 68 mfd caps, maybe from justradios or radiodaze.

I think everything else is plenty close enough. Heck, one day I was in need of something like a 150 @ 25volts & I stopped in the CB repair shop downtown. He gave me a 1000 mfd cap and told me it was close enough! Maybe for him...

[veg-o-matic]

Well, so it's one step forward, one step back.

The good news is that I did the grayscale adjustment last night and got some pretty good color! The convergence still sucks, but I did the static conv. and at least it improved a little bit. Oh, and it worked just fine with the bias switch at 1 instead of 3.

The bad news is that I no longer have any sound at all. Dunno what happened--I had sound when I turned it on the other night. Now I don't even get static.

Other bad news is that I still can't receive VHF channels at all. UHF works, so what the heck?

I don't think this set got much use. It looks like all the original Sears tubes are in it (though there are a couple I couldn't see easily.) The picture tube has a date sticker of April (I think) 1970, which pretty much answers my question of when it was made.

Here are a couple of pictures I took last night. They're not great, but they're a lot better than when I first fired it up!

veg