scored a Packard Bell roundy today
 

Me and a friend took my suburban to Chicago to make a TV run. The one he wanted was a bust thanks to a lazy seller (we did find some other stuff he wanted), but the Packard Bell I wanted turned out to be a winner. I've only seen pictures of these sets before. They are built like a Zenith from an alternate universe where Zenith never gave up on the upright doughnut chassis that techs hated in the mid-50s. Somehow the set works more or less decently as is. I need to retest the CRT...I did a crude field test of it in the burban with my tester on an inverter, and the results were kinda weird....Meanwhile my friend was freaking out over the suspicious characters wandering about in the crummy neighborhood where we were waiting for the flake that never showed up... Glad I wasn't the one that suggested going there.

Edit: after some techinical confision here are my dim smartassphone pics of the variac results. :D
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/786/2...dd0922ae_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/901/2...a2612609_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/783/2...132c5b5a_n.jpg

Wow, great score, Tom! First of that Pack Bell that I have ever seen, very nice, and uncommon.

For sale? :D heh

Thanks Dave.

Tim, I wanted this set bad enough that I did not bother to test the CRT before paying (I'd find it one if it needs one), also went to get it after a week of mind-numbing all-day meetings, it is not impossible to get it from me, but it'd take one hell of a trade (or maybe wad of cash, but tubes are more exciting than paper).

I've seen pics of these here years back and thought the bezel was cool, also heard they built them like Zeniths which pegs the curiosity meter.

I'm planning on taking better pics later this evening and retesting the CRT.

In burban test on Saturday indicated the CRT was sleepy(and ended weird)...Today it started out bad on all but the green gun. Now it is all green except the blue gun which is not coming up much over %40 at 6.3V...It is only passing color gun tracking if I increase heater to 8V. Maybe some more on time will get blue back into green (or I could mess up the purity for the same effect :D ).

That blemish in the wood below the CRT was a result of me walking backwards and forgetting there was a step down in the middle of a landing at the place I bought it (thought I was going to die for a second). :stupid:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/867/4...5df2999d_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/819/4...c41a0297_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/890/4...31aa2b3c_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/815/4...029eb89d_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/899/4...97d2688b_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/894/4...0e0aa75e_n.jpg

Beautiful!!

Thanks for posting the extra pictures, Tom, what an interesting set. Not often at all, to see a Roundie with a vertical chassis. It's really nice to see un-common sets! This is a beauty.

On Wednesday I dropped a used rebuilt light engine (CRT) into the Packard...Nappa was out of 21FBP22s but luckily my Sylvania dealer came through. :D The Packard's old light engine was the original numbers matching bulb. The packard may not be numbers matching anymore, but now I don't have to turn the lights off to watch it.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/981/4...0eb0ebe5_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/905/2...238447c5_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/960/4...4b60d272_n.jpg

Taking it apart for the CRT swap heightened my appreciation of the engineering/design that went into this set. They designed the chassis so that the mounts on one side are hinged so the whole chassis can swing open to reveal the passive component side. The "computer lights" tuning indicator is also a very cool touch. They basically had one light per tuner position and a big rotary switch to activate them. I've only seen that type of channel indication once in tube era gear and that was in a Conrac rack-mount TV tuner (designed to tune OTA and spit out audio and video for a monitor). It was working fine on the original caps, but I decided that while I had the entire chassis out for the CRT swap I may as well change all those blue tubular caps, the tubular lytics, and the doubler lytics as preventative maintenance. The original CRT was dated 13th week of '64 so this was probably among the last VHF only PB roundys made before the IIRC June 1964 UHF mandate. Enjoy some more pictures and a link to even more pics.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/905/4...9304ae2c_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/978/4...80ba7615_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/911/4...1790b20f_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/951/4...ff8b7f69_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/908/4...d727b45c_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/944/4...7859bf2c_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/910/4...64a78570_n.jpg https://www.flickr.com/photos/137849...h/41128762895/

Great set Tom. P-B's were very rare in the NE, only saw one or
two a year if you dont count the relabeled GE 18" they sold at
the end. Very well built even after they started using PCB's.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

I only saw one when I was in TV repair (in the late 60's). The shop owner said they were popular on the west coast.

saw 1 packard roundie in my life.well built with a really strong crt.made a fine picture.tuner was dirty and i got the old eraser out.beautiful set,glad you saved it

very nice chassis layout ,i like how it makes everything accessible nice...

Don't know about the West Coast, but in our little burg (Globe, AZ), there was a Packard Bell/ Setchell Carlson dealer, Cody James Electronics.

There was also us (L&T Radio & TV), dealer for RCA/DuMont/Emerson,

Globe Electric, dealer for GE/Magnavox,

Burnett Electric, for Zenith/Philco,

Bill Stevens Electronics for Sylvania (Motto was, "We sell the best, Service the rest".

There is something about seeing these "independent" makes up and running and producing a great picture that I really appreciate. I get the same feeling when I see an old Studebaker or AMC driving down the road: look at that, this company danced to the beat of its own drummer and came up with a product that could hold its own with the "big guys".

I've never seen a P-B TV in person. I've had a couple of their radios, one of which I brought back from a trip to Kentucky. I did pull a P-B branded 23v crt out of a TV shop attic once.

Vertical swing out chassis much easier to service, no extender cables needed.