G.E. Porta-Color

[Opcom]

Someone offered me a tube type G.E. Porta-Color and I accepted. It comes on and lights up, has sound, but the raster tells me it needs filters.. who knows what else. It's a 9" or 10", nice small set. Not the most popular set but I like it. Lots of Compactrons.

[DaveWM]

I recently got one of those. did not need any parts replaced, had a color demodulation issue, would not produce greens (but the B&W grey scale was fine), I used a vectorscope to align on of the color coils, and it works perfect now. its was the HC model IIRC from 1967. I would get another in a heart beat, very cool.

[Sandy G]

Porta-Potties take a lot of ribbing from some quarters, but, dammitt, they WERE the 1st portable color sets, they were one of the LAST Tube-type consumer electronic devices made in this country-Maybe up til 1980- and they have a LOT of heart. Its not unusual to find specimens STILL working after nearly 50 years now...No, they DON'T really have good pictures, but they WERE "Portable Color Television sets" when THAT in & of itself, was really something.

[ctc17]

I have 3 of them an non of them needed any capacitors. All of them had whisker shorted pots, mainly agc and vert size.

They do have have a safety cap in the horz circuit that will cause no high voltage. Check that first, its the big tubular one in the back.

Its going to require some troubleshooting, I seriously doubt a cap replacement will get you anywhere.

They are a fun little set.

[Opcom]

I'll have to get the scope after it and dig out the Sams. It's too old to have the little compartment with the schematic and it has been almost 20 years since I cracked one open. Maybe it will clean up nice.

[KentTeffeteller]

The Porta-Pottie was also the first inexpensive Color TV most low incomes could afford. And easily the most reliable color TV General Electric ever made.

[DaveWM]

My 67 is going strong completely orig except for some tubes

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by KentTeffeteller

The Porta-Pottie was also the first inexpensive Color TV most low incomes could afford. And easily the most reliable color TV General Electric ever made.

That set was out about a year when a lot of the Japanese imports were starting to hit the stores.
IIRC, Allied Radio started selling a Sharp-built Midland 14" color set for under $200 in late 1967. All three Milwaukee area stores sold out within six hours. The picture quality was a little better than the GE.

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by KentTeffeteller

The Porta-Pottie was also the first inexpensive Color TV most low incomes could afford. And easily the most reliable color TV General Electric ever made.

Lets raise a collective toast to that statement.
GE owes alot to Earl"Madman" Muntz, who showed how to do TV with fewer parts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntzing

While I could always troubleshoot and even get parts, my only beef with GE was that thier damned tuners really sucked in fringe areas. Sarkes-tarzan or something, I thing Mags used them too.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

Lets raise a collective toast to that statement.
GE owes alot to Earl"Madman" Muntz, who showed how to do TV with fewer parts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntzing

While I could always troubleshoot and even get parts, my only beef with GE was that thier damned tuners really sucked in fringe areas. Sarkes-tarzan or something, I thing Mags used them too.

I think that Muntzing thing is a well-worn urban tale. It's a well known fact that every TV manufacturer bought sets from competitors and reverse engineered them. Then they built up a prototype and jockeyed the design around enough as not to get into a patent war. They generally did that on their lower end products.
Regarding distant reception, the tuner is only part of the chain. A well designed IF strip and keyed AGC is equally important. Sarkes Tarzian tuners aren't one of my favourites, but the circuitry was simular to the rest of them.

[ctc17]

What cost $250 in 1968 would cost $1589.08 in 2012.
Think a low income family could afford that today?

Every time is see stuff like this i get all depressed at how this country is fading faster than a weak crt....

[Phototone]

Originally Posted by ctc17

What cost $250 in 1968 would cost $1589.08 in 2012.
Think a low income family could afford that today?

.

The PortaColor when introduced was not only the first truly portable color TV, but was also the least expensive. Color, of course was a premium product, as compared to black and white. I remember just a couple years before the PortaColor GE offered a very nice little 12" b/w set (available in several case colors) that also used very few tubes, as they were all (mostly) compactrons. I had one of these, and it produced a very nice picture. My dad made me sell this before he would get me a PortaColor which I still have.

So, while $250 was a lot of money, it was still the cheapest way to get a brand new color color set.

Why does "portable color TV" come up as a link to ebay? above? Not my doing.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Phototone

Why does "portable color TV" come up as a link to ebay? above? Not my doing.

That is an automatic ad-link system used by the forum's owners to help keep this forum free (or donations-only) to use.

[mstaton]

Aint that the truth!

[Opcom]

The later ones might be had free/cheap as 'dead' if they have the rivets. I don't remember if they had them or not. The rivets were a money maker in the shop days. some solder an a piece of wire to permanently fix.