Older GE 15" b/w tv...

[mrflex65]

I have an opportunity to pick up this little GE b/w tv for free. I have no idea what model no. it is.Kinda looks like it has tubes though. What do you knowledgeable folks here think? Is it worth saving?


Cheers.

[radiotvnut]

It could be either tube or SS. GE used that same cabinet on their "XB" chassis solid state sets and on the "SF" chassis tube set. The "XB" solid state sets were excellent performers. The "SF" tube chassis was not as good. I notice that this set has click-stop UHF tuning and the more modern late '70's control knobs; so, if this is a tube set, it is a later one. GE made the tube type porta-color up until at least '78; so, I wouldn't be shocked to find a tube type GE B&W from the same time period.

The only thing I'd worry about is the CRT. I've had many of these 15" GE's, both tube and SS, that had weak/dead CRT's; but, it's free, so I'd grab it.

[snelson903]

i remember thoughs ,if you turn it on and there is sound no pic, wiggle the tubes around, if its ones im thinking about the circuit boards used warp real bad on asp. around the large hor/ damp tube & flyback area its been along time sence i seen one though if its b&w .

[snelson903]

yeah i think everyone i came across in the 80's had always a weak picture, if its free take it. you can use it for a learning tool.

[mrflex65]

Thanks guy's for the info!
I'm still awaiting an e-mail response from this person.
I have this funny feeling that somebody already grabbed this set it already...

[mrflex65]

Originally Posted by snelson903

yeah i think everyone i came across in the 80's had always a weak picture, if its free take it. you can use it for a learning tool.

This is my "relearning tool tv" One of the first sets i've worked on since the early '80's I just wish i can get my hands on a vacuum tube set,but their a scarce commodity these days.....

[peverett]

For some reason, GE used CRTs with the smallest possible cathode on some of these sets, so weak CRTs are common. Completely unlike their Portacolor and the early 1960s portable sets, which almost always have useable CRTS.

I have a 12 inch version that is of similar styling, luckily the CRT is good. Recently the sound quit. Mine has solid state sound, with tubes in other circuits. The sound IC is in a socket and the connections had corroded. Cleaning the connections fixed it.

[snelson903]

oh i know about that ! its getting real hard to find tube stuff. i got away from collecting in 96 because of a flood in my area ,i used to work on peoples tv's on the side for extra money in the 80's i grew up playing with tv's radios anything i could drag home , but i got a wife & a house young i needed money so i worked for oldsmobile durring the day sometimes at night to , and if people need there tv worked on or vcr i would do that to .i just couldnt make alot of money at tv repair at that time buy the 90's people just would not spend the money on tv's anymore ,they could go out and buy a cheap chinese set or japan set or what ever made it. and by this time i started my own auto repair shop so i realy had no time now . i had everything i collected since i was a kid in the basement when the flood happened i lost everything . plus i had to rebuild the west block wall 32 feet of it. it was easy finding tube stuff in the late 70's it was all around ,it wasnt nothing to find a roundie color set in someones trash ,in there garage ,sets from the 50's they would give them to you . after dragging all the stuff out of basement with a bobcat i just kinda let it go ,my shop and family consumed all my time ,but thats what i realy wanted to do since i was a kid be a tv repairman and have my own shop / store extr. but it wasnt like it was when i was growing up ,tv's like cars and everthing else today they use them and throw them out ,after 18 yrs of owning my shop i developed degenerative artheritis in my spine , now i cant work .so instead of rotting away in frt of the tv on pain meds i started playing with electronics again ,and it didnt take long how much i enjoyed working on tube stuff again, but now i couldnt find any tube stuff i know needed test equitment so started signal generators off ebay all tube stuff just to rebuild it built back up my test equitment repaired what was left from the flood ,started running a add on craigslist asking for older tv's to buy with tubes ran into another guy doing the same thing i emailed him and talk to him for a little bit and he told me about a website called videokarma and i check it out and was full of people just as tv & tube crazzy as me . i really wanted another tube set now after seeing what some of these guys have ,the first guy talked to was miniman82 and he had a tube set ,so i went and got it then another came from craigslist 55 zenith love it ,and a magi roundie 68 off craigslist so im hooked again

[mrflex65]

I'm very sorry to hear about your degenerative arthritis!
I'm pretty sure radio & tv repair will aways bring a smile to your face,well most of the time anyway!
Man,if i had now what i had then,i would be sitting on a goldmine right now...

[snelson903]

me to i lost alot ,back then it was free on the curb ,i used to a 66 olds cutlass with a big trunk, roundie picture tube's[ color ] where not hard to find ,alot of sets i drug home had already rebuilt pic. tubes in them . so i would just box and keep them along with hundreds of reg. vacuum tubes .

[DavGoodlin]

When you HAD to make money working on TV's as I did 1979-83 and 1985-88, sets of that era lose appeal to you.
Its fun to help a VK member diagnose the 1974-84 sets, especially GE MAG RCA SONY and Zenith. But I cannot get too excited about anything newer than 1972.

I let a huge bunch of 1955-65 sets including an RCA CTC5, 7 and 9 go when I moved across country for a job for a few years, asking my parents to save a unique RCA CTC12 roundie and some early 50's BW sets in a barn. I picked right back up again after going back to tech school, but nobody was tossing 1950s and 60s set by then. It was then I realized my mistake and should have rented storage for the rest of them.

[old_coot88]

As a side note, i often ran into an interesting quirk in the tube version of those GE B&W sets. The hor. oscillator would not start because it was supplied from B boost; it simply didn't get enough juice to start without boost being present. So i rigged a diode and a resistor (forget the value of the resistor) between the osc. plate supply and B plus. The osc. would start on B+, and when the boost came up, the diode became reverse-biased and dropped out, thus allowing the osc. run on B boost as designed.

These sets used low (130V) B+, so the H output would not red-plate when drive was absent.

With such low B+, apparently the exceedingly small CRT neck was necessary to allow wide deflection by coupling the yoke windings tighter to the electron beam.
The smallness of the CRT cathode often led to early loss of emission, as another poster noted.

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by snelson903

...after 18 yrs of owning my shop i developed degenerative artheritis in my spine , now i cant work .so instead of rotting away in frt of the tv on pain meds i started playing with electronics again...

I have it too - very manageable so far, but that's a big reason I'm selling off my last old car. After spending some hours bent over or lying under the car my back hurts for at least a couple of days afterward.