eBay: Sears Color Portable

[bgadow]

Passing time & happened upon this one, in Arizona. C.1970, solid state competitor for the Portacolor.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...177458288&rd=1

I have one of those. I bought it off of Kamakiri last year. It has an instant on CRT, which I plan on modifying so it isn't. This TV is actually smaller than the Portacolor, only 8.5", has a delta gun CRT, full DC restoration, AFC, automatic chorma, and automatic tint. Dot pitch on this set is really fine too. Mine was made sometime in mid 1972.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by tv beta guy

It has an instant on CRT, which I plan on modifying so it isn't.

I hear ya. I didn't then (in the '70s, when instant-on first appeared in TVs) and do not now like instant-on either. Besides wasting electricity, these sets could create fire hazards if anything shorted in the filament circuits. Personally, I wouldn't want an instant-on TV keeping its tubes warm while I was sleeping or away from the house, but then again that's why most of those sets had a switch somewhere to defeat the instant-on circuit when it wasn't needed or wanted. The other thing I never cared for with instant-on was the habit the instant-on diode across the set's on/off switch had of shorting whenever lightning hit near (or, heaven forbid, on) the power line the set was connected to. Since this diode was in fact in shunt across the switch, when it shorted it effectively locked the switch on. The only way to turn the set on and off with a shorted instant-on diode was with the AC cord, by plugging it into and pulling it out of the socket, respectively.

One of the best things TV manufacturers ever did, IMO, was to eliminate the instant-on feature once and for all by, IIRC, the late seventies or early eighties (I'm not sure exactly when). One other thing some people did, if they knew how to do it and where to look, was to simply cut the diode completely out of the circuit, even if said diode was still good (certainly if it was shorted). This removed the instant-on feature without disturbing the normal function of the switch (or restored the switch function if the diode was bad). Of course, when TVs went to completely solid-state circuitry as they are today, the sets are practically instant-on (I say practically because of the warm-up time for the CRT filaments, which usually is not too long--my set's picture usually appears in well under a minute after I push the power button), with no need whatsoever for power-wasting instant-on circuitry. Today's sets are never completely off anyhow, even with the power switch off (because of the remote control receiver and probably memory retention circuitry for the tuner and on-screen controls), but there is no problem with fire hazards (and very little added impact on the owner's electric bill as well--the set won't use that much more power than its maximum rating, or perhaps, even likely, the power used by the remote, etc. is figured into the total current draw as shown on the back of the set), since the memory-backup systems and the remote receiver use so little power. I don't know how much off hand, but I think it would have to be well, well under one volt DC.

BTW: I'll be darned! I thought that little set looked familiar. I remember seeing it in one of Kam's posts a while back (before you bought it from him, of course), with the same color-bar test pattern on the screen as appears in your pic of the set. Hmmm.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by bgadow

Passing time & happened upon this one, in Arizona. C.1970, solid state competitor for the Portacolor.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...177458288&rd=1

My heavens, Bryan, where do you keep all your old TVs? Every time I log on to AK, or so it seems, you have another set (sounds like Doug with all his Zeniths). Your basement must be huge.

Ya know, I kinda like that lil cutie! I wonder who actually made it, the photos show clearly that it was made in Japan.

Anthony

It was made by Sanyo.

[compucat]

I won the little Sears set on Ebay. It appears I was the only bidder. I am just nuts about small screen sets and this one looks great. I bet the chassis is tightly packed. Small transistorized sets of that era usually are. Anyway it will be fun to work on.

Congrats Compucat! Here is a pic of the insides. It is packed...

This started to make me wonder. Does anyone know what is the smallest color TV to utilize a delta gun CRT?

[kc8adu]

i have a 250xb22 which is about 7"
it has a small neck like an inline but is a delta gun.
it is from a hitachi set

[compucat]

Originally Posted by tv beta guy

Congrats Compucat! Here is a pic of the insides. It is packed...

Good golly! What have I let myself in for? I knew it would be packed but that is something else. It has been about twenty years since I worked on a set that had wirewound pots for convergence. I think I might disable the instant on when I get it. I only have one set so far that has it, a 9" orange Panasonic from the early '70s. There are both tube and transistor versions of this same set. Mine has tubes but I don't like to leave it plugged in as I don't want to heat damage the pc board. Tubes and pc boards are a bad combination.

Thanks for taking the time to open your set and show it to me. I'm always interested in such things.

[compucat]

Well, the little Sears set arrived yesterday. It is in great condition albeit a bit dirty. I was surprised to find even the antennas are straight and not broken. The cord is good and all the knobs are there. This was a well cared for TV. The set works about as good as new. The convergence is as near perfect as one could expect. The chassis must have very low hours. Perhaps this was a bedroom set. The chassis is fairly clean and there are no obvious signs of previous service. I could not find a date anywhere but it looks like early Seventies technology.

There is a very slight reduction in vertical height which leads me to believe there might be a cap going bad in the vertical section. I was wondering, should I recap the sweep and high voltage circuits as a preventative measure? I know this set is fairly new as vintage goes but since I have to disassemble it for total cleaning, I thought a selective recap might be a good idea. It is a great find, well worth 18 bucks.

[jstout66]

I would just try to adjust the vertical height control a tad. No need to re-cap if you don't have to. It's pretty packed in there. I have posted my opinion on this before, but I think re-caps on newer stuff (mid 60's and on) is a waste of time and money. Unless it is a specefic cap that failed I believe "If it aint broke don't fix it" Cool set by the way!

I had the same problem with mine when I got it. It had just a slight bit of vertical reduction. Tweaking the V. Height fixed it, and that little TV has been working great for almost 9 months now with no problems.

Originally Posted by jstout66

"If it aint broke don't fix it" Cool set by the way!

You got that wrong, it should be "If it ain't broke we can fix it anyway" ARG ARG ARG ARG ARG (Tim the Toolman sez so)

Anthony