What can one do with a watchman

[ArmyOfQuad]

Perhaps this post will just be a boring rehashing of obvious things many already know. But wanted to post some thoughts and see if anything interesting comes of it.

I went to a flea market this past weekend, and while wandering around browsing through the various things, I saw a Sony watchman FD-10A on a table. It made me curious enough to pick it up and take a look, I had no serious thoughts of actually purchasing it. I have no practical use for the thing, and my first thought is it's obviously useless as nothing transmits anything that it can receive, all it will do is receive static. I took off the battery door to check for any battery corrosion or damage, and found a set of non corroded modern looking batteries in there. So I flipped the switch and sure enough, a static filled screen came to life. Which was a bit of a thrill, to be honest.

At this point, the guy attending the table asked for an offer. Aw crap, I'm clearly interested at this point. I saw the $10 price tag on it, and threw out $5 - sure, it's functionally useless - but it's cool, I'll pay $5 for that. He accepts the offer, one less thing for him to carry back home, and now I have a Sony watchman.

But - why did I get such a thrill out of turning on a screen of static? I suppose it's funny the things that will excite us. I guess it takes me back to an earlier time, when the idea of having a TV in your pocket was cool. Up to a certain point, I wasn't even allowed to have a TV in my room, let alone a portable device that I could watch anywhere. So devices like these, when I saw them, were like the coolest thing. And so I suppose that still gives me a little thrill of holding a TV, flipping a switch - and oh my, there it is, functional TV (not receiving signal, but still) right in my hands. Which is rather funny to think that got me excited when I have a smart phone right in my pocket that can receive in far more day after day.

But, of course, there comes the question of, now what? Sure - perhaps I can find a way to rig something up to display something on the screen. But, even so, that's hardly useful, and not even all that exciting. Relying on a device to provide the signal makes this no longer much of a portable device. And really, the fun of the portable TV was, right in your hands, you can turn it on, fiddle with the dial, and who knows what you'll find? And so I'm left with a bit of sadness, that the time has gone. Now that I have the device, the opportunity to actually use it to tune in to something and enjoy some programming is gone. It's like - I wish I could give it to my earlier self, when I could really appreciate it. Sure, some of us often make purchases of nostalgia to try and recapture a piece of something. But even then, you can only recapture a piece of it. There will always be something missing.

Of course, my mind always wanders to the impractical, to the beyond impractical. Could one modify one of these devices to tune in modern TV?

Surly a modern TV tuner could be small enough to fit inside the case of a watchman. How modifiable are these things - could a small board or chip be purchased that is the tuner portion of a modern TV? Could the tuning portion inside the watchman be swapped out with some modification for a modern tuner that receives in the current range of TV signals? Sure, completely impractical given that there are better ways of watching portable content, and digital signals are going to be far less forgiving and far more difficult to tune in than the old analog TV signals were. But if it were possible, it might be cool to be able to turn it back into a device that one can take out of their pocket, turn on, and possibly tune in some signal that's live right now.

Like I said, beyond impractical - but....possible?


Also, what fun things has anyone found to do with these devices, besides stare at static and think of another time?

[Electronic M]

I've got a couple of different watchman's....I keep them mostly for cool factor. If you want to use them as a portable within 1 block of your home you can get a blonder tongue AM60 agile modulator, and cut a tuned dipole according to Shango66's YouTube video (you don't need the antenna analyzer just trim the same percentage of the total length off).

I mostly collect and watch vacuum tube and hybrid (tube and SS) signal chain TVs 1945-75 (I've got a lot of dresser sized consoles including some of the first color sets). I use my watchman to evaluate antenna performance (how far can I transmit with the AM60 cranked) and limit broadcast range (turn it down to try to make sure I'm not recievable by anyone else than the nextdoor neighbors). The blonder tongue boxes require analog composite video and audio from any older source that supplies that or from an HDMI to AV adapter if all you have is HDMI sources.
There are cheaper devices that have to be hard wired to the TV that do the same thing (but those only support CH3-4).

I think the most practical thing if you want to go full portable would be an external DTV converter box(Velcroed to the back). There are thin ones about as big as the big as the back of the set that take 12V from a wall wart (chop the wart end of the cord off the wall wart and tap it the wires from the box into the sets battery. You could probably disconnect the antenna in the set from it's tuner and stick the DTV tuner in series and have that work. IIRC I bought such a tuner a while ago with that idea in mind for my Sony or Philco Safari (those Philco's are big enough that I might be able to hide the board inside) I can't remember where I put it through.

I don't think Sony left any useful empty space inside those (especially the smaller ones) and the only DTV tuners small enough to have a prayer of fitting inside the case are USB tuners... I'm not aware of anything that can host/operate a USB tuner dongle, output analog video or RF that's not bigger than the smaller DTV converter boxes.

I've seen some people use Sony portables as clocks...they set up some computer device to output the time to a second monitor then convert that signal to analog NTSC and feed that to the set.

It's your TV and it's not unobtainably rare so you can do anything to it that makes you happy without bothering anyone.

[ARC Tech-109]

Actually I use my FD40 to maintain a mixed mode MATV system in a senior apartment complex. Its a pile of DTV receivers feeding a rack of Cabletronix RF modulators running in the old NTSC channels, most residents there have a hard time working the modern remotes and the new DTV channels. The channels are set up like they were before the switch with the "retro" channels in between filling up a turret tuner. The FD40 doesn't have the synthesizer noise so it's quite good at finding leaks and low level signals, it gets a good workout on the weekends I volunteer.

[dtvmcdonald]

Originally Posted by ArmyOfQuad

I went to a flea market this past weekend, and while wandering around browsing through the various things, I saw a Sony watchman FD-10A on a table.
But, of course, there comes the question of, now what? Sure - perhaps I can find a way to rig something up to display something on the screen. But, even so, that's hardly useful, and not even all that exciting. Relying on a device to provide the signal makes this no longer much of a portable device.

Actually I have several and they are useful, IF you have an old TV collection
and a modulator to make NTSC signals. I do. So does the Early Television Foundation.

The use is ... testing the signal from the convertor. I have only a few TVs hooked permanently connect up. Mostly I pull a long cable around to hook up the others. I need to make sure the signal is correct. To do that I simply use one of my Watchmans or other battery sets.

The ETF does have all their working sets permanently hooked up to
a modulator system. Well, all sets that are now or were in the past working. This year they asked people to help fix the non or semi working sets. I went to work one. It started out showing a raster but no picture.
I wiggled the leadin but only got a very very bad picture. At home I would have tried my Watchman and discovered the signal coming in was terrible. But they had no working (with batteries, that is) Watchman.
So I had to go to my car and get the full bunch of sgnal generator
stuff: a DVD player and a modulator, set it up, and load up a test CD.
This confirmed the signal was bad.

After fixing the TV, I noticed other sets looked like they had bad pictures.
With a Watchman I could have tested the lines easily at each one. At this point we ran out of time. Its gonna be a real pain for them to sort out where the problems are in their very complex setup.

I should add that all you need to do is touch the antenna to the coax center conductor while holding the Watchman and the cable shield, and you get a good picture.

[zenith2134]

I have one of the later watchmen's The FDL-22. It is my daily watcher. Just kidding!

These things sure eat batteries.

Quite handy for testing agile modulator field strength and DIY antenna construction.

[mr_rye89]

My FD-10 gets used as a crude satellite signal meter for my FTA satellite system. The sat receiver is hooked to the BT modulator and I can tune in and see the receiver's signal meter. I take it outside so I can see the signal meter while tweaking the dish.

[Bone Yard]

The little guys deserve love and affection, some of them are amazing tiny units that are still working today. With dead units I could see stuffing a Rasberry Pi in one like this guy did.
https://www.hackster.io/news/crt-bad...n-2e2409eb35ad

Or just having a cool display at your home or office using a Blonder Tongue.
https://stereo2go.com/forums/threads...he-radio.3389/

I'm a gadget guy so I love having a wall of cool portable TV's, I don't have room for larger ones. I'd highly recommend a box of Eneloop Batteries if you start collecting these.

[HelloVoltage]

a project under the name "scopeman" be of interest

[jr_tech]

Kitty entertainment, as shown in this old post:

http://www.videokarma.org/showpost.p...14&postcount=1

jr

[Worg]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Kitty entertainment, as shown in this old post:

http://www.videokarma.org/showpost.p...14&postcount=1

jr

Love the pink and yellow ones!