Admiral T102 scored
 

I've wanted one of these little two-tone portables for a while and one finally showed up just a few miles away. The seller has a nice collection of vintage furniture, paintings and nicknacks. He's moving to Maui so it all has to go.

There are a few chips and some worn areas, but not bad for a 55 year old set I think. All the knobs are there too.

I'm a little surprised it draws 135 watts. Seems like a lot for a little 10" set.

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Very nice. One of those are on my list of 'want to haves'.

I recently picked up a pile of Riders and Sams, but am missing this model :rolleyes:
Does anyone have a scan of the Sams or Riders for this model ?

Thanks!

I spent a few hours going over this set tonight. The front came off easily enough, but the back was stuck.
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The knobs were especially stubborn. I'll let them soak a while to clean off the gunk.
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I ended up pulling the whole chassis. It's a little dirty, but looks OK.
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National Video Corp picture tube. I hope it's good.
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Yes it is :D
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The speaker has a little patch. Could that be asbestos around that tube ?
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The bottom is nice and clean.
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Curiosity got the better of me and I slowly powered it up on a variac and isolation transformer over the course of an hour or so.
I kept my fingers crossed that the seleniums and electrolytics had some life left. None of the cans got hot.

Eventually, I was treated to a raster :)
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I flipped the clunker around until I hit 6 where we still have a low power NTSC signal.
The horizontal, brightness and contrast are all very touch, but I do get video and sound :thmbsp:
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You bet that's asbestos! I've wanted one of these portables for awhile, just of the same generic 8pt, hotpoint variety. Everyone I've found has been too overpriced. It's cool you get that copper plated chassis with that package, too.

I paid $65 for it. Dunno if that's a good price, but it was so close to home I couldn't pass on it.

I tweaked it a bit more and hooked up a converter box. Here's some Untouchables action.

Yes, I know - the seleniums and caps are likely to fail any time. I'll do a proper resto. soon.
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I wonder why only one tube has asbestos :scratch2: It's on the tuner and the other two tubes have metal shields.

Probably because it's right next to the metal cabinet and they didn't want a hot spot on the side of it.

Here's the turquoise version for sale in Kingston, WA. http://cgi.ebay.com/VERY-NICE-1957-1...-/260737501535

http://i.ebayimg.com/02/!CFzGRRQEGk~...or7hl!~~_3.JPG

I wonder if that antenna is stock ? Perhaps I'm missing mine ?

I have a couple of these, one Turquoise and White and one Two Tone Green.

The Turquoise one is the first thing I ever bought on eBay around 1998 and it was a mess, got it working and repainted it but it's still not all back together.

the Green one just needed a Damper tube and it worked, it still came on a couple months ago when I tried it last. I bought it pig in a poke from some woman who contacted me through my site I think. It's in good shape with just a little peeling paint.

Cool :thmbsp: Do they have an antenna on the back ?

I popped the CRT out and found where all the caps were hiding :)
It's much easier to work on now :yes: I used a sharpie to mark where the ion trap magnet and other bits were positioned. I hope that'll make it easier to put back together properly.
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You definitely need to do the hot chassis fix. these were notorious for the cabinets being hot despite all insulators being in place.

What's the fix ? better insulators ?

Speaker of hot chassis, there's a big 54 ohm 20W resistor running down one side to drop the filament voltage.

Here's the series wired tube lineup:

3.15 - 3BC5
4.70 - 5J6
3.15 - 3CB6
3.15 - 3CB6
6.30 - 6BA8A
4.70 - 5U8
3.15 - 3DT6
12.6 - 12CU5
6.30 - 6CM7
6.30 - 6CG7
12.6 - 12DQ6
12.6 - 12AX4GTA
6.30 - 10ABP4
----
85 @ 600mA

I plugged that into this website Reece tipped me off to and got this.

note: I used 120 for the supply voltage. If I use 117, I get 53 ohms @ 19.2 W.

* Dropper resistor = 60 ohms @ 21.6 W

* Dropper resistor with diode = 1 ohms @ 0.3 W

* Dropper capacitor = 22 uF + 17 ohms @ 6W

I like the idea of shaving off most of that wasted 20W. Has anyone tried the diode or capacitor method in a series string TV set ?