Emerson 5" color am/fm

[DaveWM]

picked up a little 5" emerson color tv am/fm off the bay. anybody here have one? opinions? think its from the late 80's

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by DaveWM

picked up a little 5" emerson color tv am/fm off the bay. anybody here have one? opinions? think its from the late 80's

I have one, similar to it! I think it's Sears branded, made by Gold Star.
It still has the old style, 12 volt, transformer power supply built in.
That's the one, I'm building an RCA digital converter into, so I don't have to carry an additional unit around.

[Sandy G]

Yeah, I was gifted one by a buddy Saturday... Mine was made in 1991. At 1st, I thought the TV was dead, turned out the power cord has "Issues". As well as I remember, they're pretty decent performers..

[DaveWM]

I thought it looked pretty neat, and will take up less landscape on my crowded desk. will post some pics when it gets here

[Electronic M]

Can't see any pics, but from the description it sounds like the kitchen TV we had when I was a kid.

[DaveWM]

I will post it up when it gets here (do an unboxing video) from what I saw it looked like a NOS.

[DaveWM]

Forgot to do the unboxing video. but it got here more or less in one piece.

It was shipped in the orig box which was not designed for shipping. The front bezel was off kilter and I could hear rattling around inside.

The power switch was off and broken.

I was able to fix the switch with some super glue (just a corner was broken structurally it was ok). The jacked bezel was fixed after I unscrewed and pulled the cover off. found the loose metal parts (glue had failed) that help retain it.

Some how it managed to get here relatively intact. I was all ready to give poor feedback BUT i did re read the post and it did say it was going to be shipped in orig container to save cost. I should have objected and paid more for better shipping but there was so much in the description that I just must have missed that.

Good news is but for the switch plastic which can not be seen anyway after the fix it works perfect, so I got lucky. will do a video later, I still have to reglue the metal parts that hold the top of the case in place (the glue would have failed there anyway from the looks of it). when I do that I will shoot some video of the insides. Its pretty cool seems to have more gutz than you would expect.

[DaveWM]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNnpDsQpLEI

and using the still analog cable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT87NL6Ldys

I added a part 3, with the cover removed to see the PCB. Pretty well made, no smt, not overly crowded, looks like it would be easy to work on if ever needed. It has a FW LV power supply.

[Reece]

I have a little 5" Emerson Black and White AM/FM that was retired as an under-the-cabinet mount kitchen TV. It had a good sharp picture but suddenly quit dead. In the pile to check some day. AC or a bunch of D cells in it will make it go.

[DaveWM]

right I think it takes 10D cells, yikes. just about could start my car with it.

Anyway not normally my cup of tea, but I was fascinated by the idea of a color CRT so small. It got a pretty low deflection angle, hence the long necked crt, prob no pincushion required. Also its rather conventional in construction (no SMT, all thru hole, variable cap tuning on the am/fm) and what really got my attention was the mint condition, I so often see these all beat to heck and covered in cooking grease, I just had to have one. I did not have enough D cells in my stash so need a couple more to test out the battery power. Think I saw 1989 somewhere as a manufacture date.

[DaveWM]

Got the D cells in, works fine. Now if I can find a micro turntable I can have nice micro combo.

[zenith2134]

Hey, DaveWM, I see the appeal of these sets as well. Stashed someplace, I have a 1986 G.E. "space-maker" TV/Radio which mounts under a kitchen cabinet. Has AM/FM/VHF/UHF and can run on 12v.d.c. Also had a plastic box which could mount to the tv set with d- or c- batteries.
It was my parents' kitchen set that they bought new. Matsushita CRT with a long inline crt neck for a 5" screen, and yes a real radio complete with vari-cap tuning, It was made after the Japs took over g.e. but before all small TVs went to shit.
model 7650A.
So many of these sets were probably victims of their operating environments...kitchens are hot and smelly spots to place an analog receiver!

[DaveWM]

with all the carrier sized sets I have, WAF is high. I really just wanted to see what makes them tic esp that tiny CRT.

I see a lot of those space makers, but like you noted they tended to live in a harsh enviroment. I watched bad news bears on it last nite. ran for the entire show on battery power. curious about the run time on standard alkaline cells.

[zenith2134]

I sometimes praise small sets for their portability..a lot of collectors turn their noses up at this era of TV set but I have a fondness for the small solid-states.

[centralradio]

I have a Emerson set similar to this one.I had to replace the voltage regulator to get it up and running.

I must have about 3 dozen or more of these small color and black and white sets scattered around the house.

About a couple years ago on vacation in NJ . I happen to find a clean GE kitchen under-shelf 5 B/W radio at the curb in my travels.I plug it into my car AC inverter and it fired up. Nothing was wrong with it except it needed a good switch cleaning.

Now they are all useless because we know why.

Dave .Your set looks great.