19" Emerson from '89 - didn't think any were left - Videokarma.org TV - Video

radiotvnut · #1 10-01-2021, 09:15 PM

I went by a thrift store today and saved this 19" Emerson color TV from 1989, for whatever reason, and I think it was very close to going in the dumpster.

I recall these being available in 13" and 19" versions, with the top end model (this one) being cable ready and having a remote. The next one down had a 14 button varactor tuner and remote. The bottom end model was non-remote and had the 14 button tuner.

In the early-to-mid '90's, I was seeing a lot of these and many got condemned because of a bad flyback and people didn't want to spend the money on them, since they were a low cost TV to begin with.

Some versions had an AKB board that would develop cold solder connections and cause the grey scale to go all over the place. When they worked, they had an OK picture.

The last one I fixed was probably about 8-10 years ago. A guy had one that had miraculously given him good service and he wanted it fixed. He took it to one shop and they said, "throw that pile of junk in a creek somewhere and get you a real TV." Well, that comment didn't go over too well and then someone told him about me. Anyway, I re-soldered a load of bad solder connections, replaced some worn out capacitors, and he was back in business.

One day, I'll play around with this one; but, if the flyback is bad, it's probably going to the dump because I doubt I could even find one today.

Electronic M · #2 10-02-2021, 01:54 PM

My first TV in the 90s was an 80s Emerson 15"-17" with knob tuners similar to that. Got it used in the mid 90s and kept it till around 2003 when we moved and my folks made me give it to a neighbor.

Jeffhs · #3 10-02-2021, 07:05 PM

I had one of these TVs, bought new in either 1989 or 1990; I'm not sure anymore. It worked very well for me, not one bit of trouble in the time I owned it, beautiful picture on every Cleveland TV station (cable) and video cassettes (I hooked up my VCR to it as well). I replaced it with, IIRC, a Zenith TV with electronic tuning after a few years; I don't know whatever became of the Emerson set after that.

One thing which puzzled the dickens out of me (and still does to this day) with that Emerson TV, however, was its habit of shutting off every time there was a lightning storm in the area (I lived in a Cleveland suburb at the time, and the TV was connected to an all-channel antenna in the attic). I don't know why the TV kept doing this each and every time we had a thunderstorm; the only thing I can come up with is maybe it had something to do with the HV shutdown system, or perhaps if the storm hit close to the power line the TV was plugged into, there may have been a slight increase, or even a momentary surge (!), in line voltage which could have triggered the shutdown circuit. None of the surges or momentary increases were bad enough to damage anything (the TV worked just fine after the storm passed), but just enough to cause the shutdown system to shut off the set.

I can't imagine, for the life of me, what else could have caused this since, after all, this had absolutely nothing to do with the 2nd anode voltage on the CRT (although the lightning strike could have fooled the shutdown circuit into going into failure mode); as I said, it seemed to occur each and every time there was a strong thunderstorm with frequent lightning in the area.

The problem seemed to be unique to that particular TV, as no other TV I've owned before or since that one has done anything like that. Even my present Insignia 32" flat screen does not seem to be affected by lightning striking near my apartment (I have seen some pretty strong lightning storms since I moved here 21 years ago). I may never know what caused my Emerson TV to shut off during lightning storms at this late date.

joe111671 · #4 10-07-2021, 05:43 PM

I have one of these from 1989, but it's the 13" model. I got it a couple years ago at an estate sale. The gray scale was all over the place from cold solder joints like you said. If I tapped the set, one color would disappear, then go full on with retrace lines, then stabilize back to a normal picture. It took a while to find all the intermittents but it has a pretty good picture now.

I'd like to tweak the gray scale a hair, but evidently that board does it automatically because there are no RGB adjustments in the set.

radiotvnut · #5 10-08-2021, 03:57 PM

I fired it up and the jug is a little tired; but, I think it will wake up and be usable. The jug is labeled "ORION"; but, has an 1101 EIA number and that means this CRT was made by Rauland, which was a division of Zenith. Also, the vertical sweep is a little shrunken, probably due to weak capacitors. Surprisingly, it looks to have never been serviced and I'll give it a good "going over."