Show us your tube type Portacolors

[Duane]

Originally Posted by dtuomi

Just a comment here and not meaning to sidetrack the thread.

The broadcast industry lost a good one when Hal passed away.I miss being able to pick up KTLA from San Diego.

[dtuomi]

Originally Posted by tritwi

Hi David, yes the Ge portacolor is an original NTSC model. I fed it with a multistandard VCR playing an NTSC tape. The picture is quite good! This picture shows my other portacolor (the european model you mention). It is a simple PAL set and it shares very little of its ciruitry with the original portacolor despite the fact both sets employ the same type of picture tube and have a very similar look.

Very nice little set. I'm surprised that the circuitry is so different though, because doesn't simple pal just display the phase reversed lines and rely on the eye to cancel out the differences? I'd think a normal NTSC set could do that, or am I way off base on how that works?

Duane:
Yes, I took that picture the night they had run tributes to Hal on KTLA after his death. Originally the image was posted here on audiokarma to go along with an announcement of Hal's death. I thought it would be nice to show a picture of what he looked like on a vintage television set for those in other parts of the country who wouldn't have seen him. The portacolor won the roll of vintage television by default since it was the only vintage tv I had at work. Still, I've gotten a lot of use out of that picture, both talking about So Cal television, as well as the portcolor itself At the time the portocolor was my official bench television. My employer has since made me remove it because it is vacuum tube based, and they aren't allowed at work. Still, when it was here I would tell people that if our signal looked good on the portocolor it was right for broadcast.

David

[zenith2134]

All I know is that these TVs made extended use of simpler tuner circuitry to ensure reliability and decent performance. The NTSC portacolor has a pretty good VHF tuner considering its age and price-point. Most early-color sets had simple circuits being utilized, and the GE is no different IMO. One good tube per tuner freq, range, paired with a good use of passive and active IF designs, and they pick up a signal right outta the trashbin in 2008 (or 2009...)

I have my '66 hooked up to a Zenith DTT-900 DTV box and a small bowtie (UHF) antenna pulls in all my locals with no issues.

Its amazing how long an old GE can go for . . .