Sony Watchman FD-20

[compucat]

I just acquired two of these sets. One has a cracked cabinet but a working chassis and the other appears to have seen very little use and is in excellent condition. The good one says Honda on the front and the story is that it was a performance award for Honda dealerships at the time. I have always liked these small CRT sets but got rid of all the ones I had before the digital switchover. Now I find I want them again regardless of the limitations of using them as designed. This model seems to be the most plentiful on Ebay and the prices are reasonable. I opened this set up although it is working so I could clean and polish the plastic cabinet and adjust some of the internal controls. I measured the high voltage out of curiosity and discovered the 02JM 2" picture tube requires 3.5 kV at the anode. The flyback is in a tiny metal box mounted to a circuit board.

I noticed the build quality is quite good considering these are from the eighties. In this model at least there are lots of metal brackets to which parts are mounted. Even the screen cover can be removed for cleaning without disassembling the set. Later Watchman TVs did not have this convenience. Here are some pictures.

I am getting th bug for these little sets again and am considering getting an FD-210. Can anyone comment on the build quality of that model? I am also looking at the FD-30 with the AM/FM radio which is more useful in today's world. I had a mint condition FD-230 that I bought new and used for years. I regret selling it now and will likely try to find another. Does anyone have the FD-250? That is another interesting looking unit.