New '60s Philco Roundie

[Tony V]

That's awesome news! Congrat's!

[Electronic M]

Sweet! Looks like it is only an evening of adjustments away from a good picture.

[zenithfan1]

Nice!

[Hagstar]

It looks like the set was fired up in a basement or garage with the copious dust I removed on it plus some moisture from a quick warm up. It had some latex paint rings characteristic of a Garage Period. My TV mentor Keith Park killed a TV once powering it up as a kid in the garage- an arc from the anode hit the cold glass.....boom.

John H.

[Hagstar]

Odd symptom- high voltage takes 90 sec to appear at all, then over next minute or so builds but only to 21 kv. I am replacing 3.8 and 1000 ohm resistors under rectifier.

Interesting to note this was built at the factory with a rebuilt CRT. Philco got a lot of flak for this as I recall.

[Hagstar]

Thankful today for this forum- our little corner of the world for our bizarre specialty.

Does anyone know WHY Philco put over 100 volts on the early transistors in my set- in a signal chain where such voltages are dangerous and not needed it seems?

[Hagstar]

Clues appreciated on the add warmup problem here- see video notes- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLD2...ature=youtu.be

[Hagstar]

Electrolytics are all OEM in this set, no heat or current excess but I will now replace them.

[Hagstar]

Well after months of head scratching and breaks for other projects I finally solved the slow start and AGC issues. I did a full 'lytic recap but I think the starting issue was a cold solder joint or two, fixed a few. After checking everything else replacing the pulse gate transistor brought back AGC voltage even though it seemed to test fine in place (this set is solid state front end, color and sweep all tubes). An NTE123A as OEM however did not last long in circuit- this transistor is where the hybrid part happens- the noise inverter tube provides a static 160 volts across the transistor with 35 volt peak sync pulses so it has a hard life. I swapped it out for a video driver NTE 128 transistor and voila, almost normal picture and proper AGC action.

[Steve D.]

Just found this Philco roundie ad from Aug. 1967. Promoting it's under $300.00
color TV.

[Hagstar]

Built December 5, 1966

Success! The Philco stereo phono/AM/FM receiver section is in and sounds great relatively speaking of course. Also last week I managed with the invaluable help of Chris Cuff's videos to clean and tune up the Philco badged Voice of Music record changer model 100C. The receiver's volume issues turned out to be simply dirty pots. I remembered low voltage modern circuits are like that. Either adding metal cabinet extension speakers (it has RCA jacks for them) or adding better speakers would be good as the 4 GE2 transistors manage to overwhelm the speakers which appear to be 2 oz magnet single 8" cone. The TV just uses the usual little speaker and can't play thru the hifi, could be arranged with some sort of switch box.

I had to repaint the top of the main tuning cap housing due to rust but otherwise I just cleaned it with brake cleaner, DeOxit for the pots, bits of lube for pot shafts and dial drive. Oh and a resistor and LED tuning light was added to replace dead OEM bulb (lower left).

December 5, 1966 (Monday)
In a case frequently cited as an example of the phenomenon of spontaneous human combustion, Dr. John I. Bentley, a 92-year old retired physician and surgeon, was found dead in his home in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. An Associated Press report noted only that he was "found dead in his Potter County home Monday, apparently the victim of a fire" and that "His clothes and the floor were partially burned." [17] The facts were more gruesome, because a meter reader found only a pile of ashes, and that the only identifiable portion of him was "his lower right leg, still clad in its bedroom slipper, and his walker, which strangely enough suffered little damage", as seen in a famous photograph of the death scene.[18] Some authors have blamed spontaneous combustion [19] Other authors point out that the leg as "lying at the edge of a hole about two and a half by four feet that had burned into the basement" and that Dr. Bentley was a pipe smoker who had previously been burned from dropping matches, or hot ashes, onto his clothes. A plausible theory was that Bentley had accidentally ignited his robe, attempted to douse the flames with water from a pitcher, ignited the linoleum floor the hardwood flooring and wooden beams beneath it.[20]
The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Julian Bond had been improperly denied a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives after winning two elections to the state legislature. The Court concluded that the basis for the disqualification Bond's criticism of American policies in the Vietnam War) had been a violation of Bond's right to free speech. "Legislators have an obligation to take positions on controversial political questions," Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote, "so that their constituents can be fully informed by them," and added that the denial of the seat "violated Bond's right of free expression under the First Amendment".[21] The House would, reluctantly, administer the oath of office to Representative Bond, along with all the other members, on January 9, 1967.[22]
The successful musical I Do! I Do! opened on Broadway, at the 46th Street Theatre, and would run for 560 performances. The entire cast was limited to two actors, and only one set, as the play followed the course of a 50-year marriage. Mary Martin and Robert Preston were the first to perform the roles of Agnes and Michael Snow.[23]
Buffalo Springfield's self-titled debut album was released.

[Electronic M]

Look at tube heaters as it does it's warmup cycle. I had a RCA set that lost green during warmup and intermittently with long cycle time. It was a bad socket...Also reflow solder on ground stakes on the PCBs...They get flaky and are heater and signal/B+ ground so if one or more open even temporarily they can cause REAL odd problems

[DavGoodlin]

Ah yes, last of the US-built solid state radio chassis. Philco would later shift this work to Taiwan, still a decent product but not so easy to work on. Nice work.

[Hagstar]

I noted in my Philco manual that later hybrids used a low voltage not high voltage transistorized TV AGC system- I bet they had plenty of trouble with the pulse gate transistor.


Still odd the used video output tube works but a new one creates only a very dark picture. This chassis controls brightness via the video amp.

[BigDavesTV]

Here's a few shots of my '67 Philco Roundie, that I bought from the original owner. He bought it new and put it into service in November, 1967. He had a custom laminated glass cut and edges polished, for the top of the set, to protect it's finish! The way I have it displayed, is the way I found it, with a "condensed operating instruction sheet" under the right-front corner of the glass, with a note written on it in his pen. This TV was still connected directly to an outdoor antenna (no D/A converter box at all), so it must have had occasional use up until the 2009 changeover, as we have no analog stations on UHF, or VHF whatsoever, here. Every tube in this set was the original, I had to replace, IIRC, 3 color circuit tubes, I believe all three were 6GH8A's (no surprise. New 3.58 crystal, new Vert. HT. pot, to replace the broken one that he likely tried to adjust, at some point, with the wrong tool! CRT is original 21FJP22A Philco, and I had to perform a mild gun-cleaning restoration, it's cataracted and somewhat "tired" but will do for now.