A bountiful day!!

[Eric H]

Well I had a great Monday!

A local collector friend wrote me this weekend and asked if I was interested in buying some sets, well I don't really have room to move much less room for more sets but some things are too good to pass up and i now have five "new" sets!

First off is this 12" slightly trapezoidal whatsis?

The chassis and knobs are Raytheon but there is no name anywhere on the set and I haven't been able to identify it as a Raytheon model.

If anyone knows what this is please tell me!

The set is complete with a back and a "Stratoscope" antenna.
CRT came up to very good after a short 8 volt cooking.

It had also been used as a mouse house for a long time
When I pulled the chassis about a pound of nut shells and apricot pits fell out.
There wasn't much damage though other than a couple transformers that ave been gnawed on and ruined, possibly the audio output and maybe the vertical transformer, don't know for sre, will have to check.

[Eric H]

Next up is this Motorola VT-71, a common set but in uncommon condition. This thing is clean, the CRT also seems to be in great shape, it was nice and bright when I hooked it up to my working VT, I'll have to clean the mask gunk off to be sure though.

The only big cabinet defect is the channel numbers, as you can see thay are not right. I see that radiolaguy.com is now selling a set of repro decals for this set so I will probably pick up a set.

[Eric H]

Here's a Philco 7" in brown Bakelite.

This set is in need of some help, the tuner shaft is bent, the knobs and back are missing, the CRT however is very strong!
I have another one of these in black with a weak CRT so this may be a parts set.

[Eric H]

Next up is a Teletone 149.

The chassis in this set is missing parts, the back is also missing but the CRT is pretty good and I have another chassis so maybe it is worth fixing up.
The knobs are common RCA stuff so that's not a big problem and the cabinet is decent.

[Eric H]

This is probably the nicest set of the bunch, it's a beautiful little 10" Hoffman complete with a stand that may or may not be factory but is very nice in any case!

The CRT came up ok after a little cooking, it may not be good as new but it should work fine.

Since it looked like it had been stored well I decided to go ahead and plug this set in, it didn't explode or anything, in fact it had strong static in the speaker and sounded like it would probably tune a station if I had an antenna, there was no hum, there was no light on the screen though so I will have to check and see if the HV is working.

[Eric H]

Lastly this brand new Raytheon CRT arrived at my work today!
Shown here next to the set it's going in.

I bought this from a guy who has a bunch of CRT's listed on the Early Television Site. http://www.earlytelevision.org/info_wanted.html
the listing is a little more than half way down, just use "Find" and enter "Cathode Ray"

I was reluctant to buy something from someone I didn't know but it turned out fine so maybe if you need a tube on his list you can work a deal.

[Steve K]

Eric:

That first set you pictured looks like it uses the same chassis that I used in my color wheel project. It may be a Coronado made by Gamble-Skogmo (or at least sold by them). Mine has a variable tuner and the small knobs in the front are left to right, brightness, vertical and horizontal. Check Sams 145-5 to see if it is the same chassis.

Steve

[polaraman]

Only 5 sets? There were more to be had and you did not buy them?


polaraman

[vintagecollect]

These all look like great sets, beautiful hoffman!! Keep us posted on restores!!!!

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by polaraman

Only 5 sets? There were more to be had and you did not buy them?


polaraman

Well... actually... yes!
I passed on a GE Locomotive in nice shape and a Bakelite Teletone with a small crack. There was also a Motorola VK-101 that I would love to have but the cabinet was in bad shape, the feet were also missing and they would be hard to repro.

The Hoffman has a date penciled on the bottom of 5/80! Someone was having this set repaired as late as that.
That probably is why it's in such good shape.

I got it working somewhat by cleaning the HV cage, it was arcing under the 1B3, also HV doesn't make it to the anode unless I bypass the resistor and doorknob, did this by jamming a screwdriver in under the 1B3 .

A little shrunk but not bad considering.

[mbates14]

well, nice score eric!!

looks like you gonna have to start replacing the caps.

[Eric H]

I just noticed the channel selector on the Hoffman has the call letters from KNBH (now KNBC) on it. (this set was built Jun 15 1949)

It also has KLAC and KFI on it in the channel 13 & 9 slots.
These are (still) radio stations so I don't know why they're on a TV dial unless you could tune them on the TV?

Re KNBH: I found this on http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/KNBC

"This station went on the air on January 16, 1949, as KNBH-TV. In the mid-1950s, KNBH changed its call letters to KRCA-TV. The station was originally located out of the NBC Radio City studios on Sunset Blvd. and Vine Street in Hollywood. KRCA changed its call letters to the present KNBC-TV in 1960."

[3Guncolor]

KFI tv channel 9 was owned by the same man that put KFI am 640 on the air.
KFI the same blowtorch talker that is still on the air in LA.
KLAC I believe was channel 13 before they tuned into KCOP.