30" Dumont/Crosley on eBay!!

Originally posted by jshorva65
I don't see any Sola self-regulating power transformers on any of the RA-101A's chassis assemblies. Was this transformer perhaps a postwar invention? . . .

John,

It was pre-war. I found this info on the Sola web site:

Joseph G. Sola, founder of Sola electric was both a far-sighted inventor and successful business man. Internationally recognized as the pioneer of transformer magnetics technology, his inventions and subsequent refinements of other electrical equipment were considered revolutionary by the electrical industry. Sola's first transformers for furnace ignition systems and neon lighting, based on his unique application of ferroresonant principals, led in 1938 to his invention of the constant voltage transformer. This timely discovery was eagerly accepted by prime military contractors during World War II, and established Sola as a world leader in voltage regulation. Sola was awarded 55 U.S. Patents during his lifetime, including five each for constant voltage transformers, Solatrons, electronic power supplies and 19 for high-intensity discharge lighting ballasts.

[Eric H]

Wow, almost $2000 for a set with a bad CRT and in need of refinishing

[John Folsom]

Hawkeye cannot rebuild a 30" CRT, it will not fit in their CRT lathe. I am pretty sure the 30" Crosley was made by Crosley, not DuMont. The HV supply is similar to other Crosley sets of the seame vintage.

DuMont also made a scaled back version of the Royal Soverign, model RA-119B1 and RA-119B2 (UHF). My set does not have the UHF option. This version has a turret tuner, and flyback power supply, and a very conventional chassis layout.

[John Folsom]

Marlin,

Hope you get the Crosley, and if you are lucky, your CRT will be in better shape than mine. While mine is still under vacuum, there is no emission left.

[pallophotophone]

Back around 1964 , In a Salvation Army store, I remember seing a huge GE console that must have had a 30 inch CRT. It was easily the largest set that I'd set eyes on . The knobs were located on the right hand side of the CRT , top to bottom, on the front of the cabinet. I believe it had the pencil case door located midway between the knob sets.
It was working and had a very good picture.
Being that GE made a 30bp4 for replacement, I have always wondered if that set used it.
I've never encountered another GE like it. Probably very expensive, though.

Anyone else ever seen one, or better yet, have one?

[Chad Hauris]

This may have been a 27" b/w set...I have one that is a Magnavox.

[Sandy G]

According to that book I have "Behind The Tube", Dumont made a replacement run of 30BP4s in '51, but still was having problems w/them, so they offered a 27" retrofit kit, & apparently used an aluminised tube that took care of the problems they had on the 30" size. -Sandy G.

[jshorva65]

Originally Posted by wvsaz

"Paramount Pictures, who owned the controlling interest in DuMont, forced them to sell it to Sony for the cash. Sony then completed the development work, and introduced it as the Trinitron. Paramount's interest in DuMont was financial only, they were not interested in the development of television. They ultimately caused the collapse of DuMont.

That explains a LOT for me, particularly in the context of my other research regarding acts of economic Treason committed against America, largely by the owners of large media corporations. The demise of the U.S. consumer electronics industry can be traced directly to a de-industrialization plot against the United States, hatched by covert Soviet operatives at a meeting in Budapest, former USSR circa 1952. The plan was to develop industry in the Third World, particularly Southeast Asia, and simultaneously drive industry out of the U.S. to weaken America for the ultrimate goal of bringing Kruschev's famous "We will bury you!" threat to reality. Kruschev's threat is often mis-quoted by omission. The full text of his threat outlined exactly how America was to be gradually transformed into a Communist police state. Communism may be "dead" in Eastern Europe, but China and North Korea are most-definitely still Communist. Here is what I've found of the rest of Kruschev's threatening words.

"We will bury you! Your children will be spoon-fed Socialism! Your grandchildren will live under Communism!" -- Nikita Kruschev

Recent history suggests that Kruschev's threat from the 1950s has very nearly become our present-day reality. As my son observed in his high school English class during study of Orwell's near-prophetic 1984, "Orwell only missed by about 20 years." Tim said that in 2004, and he was RIGHT!

Regarding the Sola transformers that Dumont used in the RA-119 and other models, I wonder how much "pull" we AK members might have as a group toward convincing Sola/Hevi-Duty to reissue one or more of those old transformer designs for the new-construction tube audio market. A reissue of those transformers would be excellent power transformers for 100W monoblock or 50W stereo amps. Perhaps, with enough suggestions and potential demand, Sola might even consider producing a version with doubled ratings for 200W monoblocks or 100W stereo.

[Einar72]

Originally Posted by jshorva65

That explains a LOT for me, particularly in the context of my other research regarding acts of economic Treason committed against America, largely by the owners of large media corporations. The demise of the U.S. consumer electronics industry can be traced directly to a de-industrialization plot against the United States, hatched by covert Soviet operatives at a meeting in Budapest, former USSR circa 1952. The plan was to develop industry in the Third World, particularly Southeast Asia, and simultaneously drive industry out of the U.S. to weaken America for the ultrimate goal of bringing Kruschev's famous "We will bury you!" threat to reality. Kruschev's threat is often mis-quoted by omission. The full text of his threat outlined exactly how America was to be gradually transformed into a Communist police state. Communism may be "dead" in Eastern Europe, but China and North Korea are most-definitely still Communist. Here is what I've found of the rest of Kruschev's threatening words.

"We will bury you! Your children will be spoon-fed Socialism! Your grandchildren will live under Communism!" -- Nikita Kruschev

Recent history suggests that Kruschev's threat from the 1950s has very nearly become our present-day reality. As my son observed in his high school English class during study of Orwell's near-prophetic 1984, "Orwell only missed by about 20 years." Tim said that in 2004, and he was RIGHT!

Which media company? Fox, ABC, NBC or maybe the Wall St. Journal?

[jshorva65]

Originally Posted by Einar72

Which media company? Fox, ABC, NBC or maybe the Wall St. Journal?

To answer that question, ANY of the media PARENT CORPORATIONS which have essentially become media TRUSTS. The size of such corporations itself flies in the face of the INTENT of U.S. Anti-Trust laws, mostly enacted during the 19th century to prevent the amassing of too much power in too few hands. Media influence is, after all, a VERY significant form of power. Omission and/or downplaying of certain aspects of news stories, presenting propaganda as entertainment, etc., are dangers of such oligopolies. Even too much power in too many like-minded hands can exert undue influence on government policy, etc., and many among the Billionaires' Club see themselves as so superior to the rest of us as to have the right to manipulate and exploit "the masses" as they wish. Past Soviet and present-day Chinese socio-political structure have one thing in common, which is that they both have always been oligarchies in which a few people at the top lived like royalty and ruled with an iron fist to protect themselves from suffering the richly-deserved same fate as the previous governments which the revolutions they instigated had overthrown. Such "super-corporations" as Anti-Trust legislation was intended to limit also exist in other industries besides electronic and print media. Paramount Pictures, however, was mentioned by name in the story of the Dumont Chromatron aka Sony Trinitron, however, so I limited the scope of my comments to criticism of media conglomerates in my initial reply to that story. A topic would need to be created with numerous threads in the "Off-Topic" area of this forum to fully discuss the undue influence of the Billionaires' Club and the dangers thereof, however.

Back to the sub-topic of those CV transformers, another AK member has pointed me in the direction of a vendor which might be a source for new plate & filament supply CV transformers like Dumont used in many models (of which the RA-119 was one) which might be close matches for replacement use and/or good choices for powering new tube audio amp designs, particularly custom-installation "dream systems" equivalent to theater sound systems. Since the CV transformers produce an audible mechanical hum during operation, purists might prefer to have any amp powered by such a transformer mounted outside the listening room, much like the massive Western Electric amps used in theaters had been rack-mounted in theaters' projection rooms. Any 60Hz power transformer rated above 0.5KVA, however, will likely produce a soft but audible mechanical hum, as it is difficult to prevent the strong magnetic fields which such transformers produce from producing some mechanical vibration at the line frequency and/or harmonics thereof. Such a massive transformer of any type might even couple its vibration to the amp's chassis via its mounting, causing the vibrations to be amplified a bit by the chassis structure just as the bodies of acoustic string instruments (violin, guitar, etc) function as mechanical amplifiers.

About the Dumont and other 30" sets, I wonder how many were fitted with the subsequent 27" rectangular tube retrofit due to reliability issues with the 30BP4.

[Captain Video]

Originally Posted by pallophotophone

Back around 1964 , In a Salvation Army store, I remember seing a huge GE console that must have had a 30 inch CRT. It was easily the largest set that I'd set eyes on . The knobs were located on the right hand side of the CRT , top to bottom, on the front of the cabinet. I believe it had the pencil case door located midway between the knob sets.
It was working and had a very good picture.
Being that GE made a 30bp4 for replacement, I have always wondered if that set used it.
I've never encountered another GE like it. Probably very expensive, though.

Anyone else ever seen one, or better yet, have one?

I remember seeing a 1951 electronics magazine that had in it's cover a GE set that matches the description you made. It had people around it watching it. I was kinda surprised, because I never thougt of GE making that kind of set in 1951.

[Eric H]

Just a friendly reminder, Politics are not allowed on AK not even in the Off Topic Forums.


This hasn't gotten out of hand so I haven't edited anything but please stick to discussing TV collecting, repairing, etc...

Thanks,

Eric

[Chad Hauris]

The Sola transformers were used in solid state Zenith, Magnavox, Quasar, and Panasonic sets of the 70's/early 80's.
I don't know about use for HI-FI audio as the transformer produces a squarewave which is harder to filter out and may introduce more noise.
Probably an electronically regulatated power supply such as using a 6080 tube would be better for that application.

[jshorva65]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

The Sola transformers were used in solid state Zenith, Magnavox, Quasar, and Panasonic sets of the 70's/early 80's.
I don't know about use for HI-FI audio as the transformer produces a squarewave which is harder to filter out and may introduce more noise.
Probably an electronically regulatated power supply such as using a 6080 tube would be better for that application.

I remember seeing the CV transformers in some of the early Zenith solid state chassis. The last Quasar set I serviced was one of the old drawer-chassis hybrids with a mostly solid-state modular signal path and tube sweep circuits. That was a while ago, like 20 years, so I don't remember if that model used the Sola CV transformer. I don't recall seeing the characteristic large capacitor on that chassis, but I also don't remember the repair being much more than working on something in the "drawer" area.

In my 2x50W EL34 amp, I use a pair of 6080/6AS7 tubes controlled by a 6AU6 with its cathode voltage held constant by a 150V 5W Zener diode. The input to the regulator is the rectified and filtered output of a Sola CV transformer.

[Whirled One]

Speaking of 30" sets, here's a mystery that I've wondered about from time to time. Perhaps someone here can identify what this TV could have been..?

Back in the mid/late 80's, I came across a weird early-50's-era-looking antique console TV at a big antique show/flea market. All I remember is that it was *really* big, and had a *huge* unmasked round CRT (just a big round frame around it). Despite the 'porthole' look, I am pretty sure it was not a Zenith-- at the time, I didn't think to see what brand it was (or I forgot), but I recall that the styling didn't seem very Zenith-like. I seem to remember that the back cover of the set was made of metal and full of small round ventilation holes, but I could be mistaken. I don't know for sure if it was a 30" set, but it was *big*, and defnitely bigger than a 19" B&W round tube. Back at the time I saw it, I might not have been able to correctly identify if it was a color 21" set, but I've never heard of a 'porthole'-style color roundie, and besides, the screen looked bigger than that, so I'm thinking it was likely a 30" B&W (did anyone ever make, say, a 27" or 24" B&W round CRT..?)

Anyway, I never saw another set like that again. However, sometime perhaps about 10 years ago, I happened to be flipping channels and stumbled on _Mister Rogers Neighborhood_. At that moment, Fred Rogers was just leaving to go to someone's house for some purpose that I don't recall. When the scene switched to that neighbor's house, however, a great big round-screen TV was briefly visible in the living room, and I immediately made me think it was the same model as that one I had seen at the antique show.

Anyone else here ever see an odd looking big 'porthole'-style TV like this? Or am I just imagining the whole thing..?