Ge 802

[bandersen]

I picked up this beast last Thursday.

It's a 1947 GE 802 like the one leadlike is working on. When I contacted the seller, it quickly became clear he knew nothing about vintage sets. At one point he asked if all the hold should have fuses in them ? It turns out he meant if all the sockets should have tubes in them I told him yes and he sounded disappointed as it's missing about half of them.

He was just heading out of town for a while so I had to wait. 10 days later I got a call and arranged a meeting. It was about 90 minutes each way, but we had a record high in the low 80s that day so I didn't mind playing hooky from work for a while I brought along some test gear and that really worked to my advantage. HE originally saw a set sell for big bucks on eBay and figured his must be worth 1,000s. A local antique dealer deflated that told he it was worth maybe $250 but wasn't interested in it. He tried his luck on eBay next, but no takers. On to craigslist where he relisted several times. The description was poor so my usual searches didn't find and I only found it through a friend who stumbled across it.

By the time I finally got out there he seemed really motivated to get rid out it. I pointed out all the missed tubes, missing knobs and weak CRT, the price came way down and I took it.

Here it is arriving at my place.

I removed the CRT and chassis. Good thing too - that CRT strap was very loose. I live up on the 2nd floor and brought along a friend to help carry it. I took the chassis and fogot to tell him to wait for me. Being a helpful sort, he decided to carry up the CRT. I turned around to find him swinging it around by the neck with one hand and freaked out a little. Luckily, no damage was done. With the chassis out, the cabinet wasn't too bad and we got it up the stairs.

Here's the chassis. It looks to be all original except for maybe the flyback. No components appear to have failed.