Great little rescue from TV massacre

[YamahaFreak]

(Apologies in advance for rotated images and multiple image posts; my old iPhone is very limited in what it can do while posting.)

While returning an application to the local thrift store, I made a horrifying discovery: apparently, once their floor/shelf space dedicated to TVs is full, all sets donated after this point go straight into the compactor. I didn't want to risk looking at the pile and being heartbroken, but in the end, I'm glad I did. Amongst 30-plus late-model CRTs in the 'TV Holocaust' I spied a tan and brown cabinet with a luggage handle and integrated rabbit ears, and immediately thought I had found a tubed set. I grabbed the little guy and rushed home, eager to analyze my rescue. What I found is a 1978(?) Admiral KMC13-100 solid state knob-tuner color portable. Aside from his AC cord having been cut and one of his antennae tips being snapped off, he's in good shape, and very lucky I came along! I wired on a new cord and the set works, but has vertical roll until warming up for about 30 minutes. (I can't find a vertical hold control anywhere inside) As I understand, this TV, along with a contemporary 19" model, were sold exclusively through Kmart stores. Once it warms up, the color is very rich. I actually really love the picture!

Photos in the next posts.

[YamahaFreak]

Photo of the TV pile

[YamahaFreak]

The Admiral right after I got it home. Note the 'X of death' that is scrawled across the CRT of all sets destined for the trash.

[YamahaFreak]

First power-up with a source

[YamahaFreak]

Here's a view of the chassis.

[YamahaFreak]

Finally, the picture after a bit of tweaking. Sorry again for all these posts!

[Jon A.]

Wow, that thing's clean, nice catch. Never saw the Solarcolor name on a portable before.

[Jeffhs]

Your new (to you) Admiral portable TV looks great, and the picture is excellent--even after 37 years. (It must not have been used much by its previous owner if the CRT is still this bright after all these years.)

It's a good thing you explained the meaning of that large dark "X" on your TV's CRT, as the mark could have otherwise been mistaken for an X-shaped ion burn, which was quite common in older rectangular b&w CRTs. (I don't know if there was such a thing as ion burn in color tubes.) However, that mark must have been made with a grease pencil if you were able to remove it as evidenced in your second picture of the TV in operation.

At first I thought it was a tube-type set, but after reading your post more carefully I found the set was solid state. Zenith had a line of solid-state b&w 12" portables as well in '78; I bought one after my trash-find 1969 Zenith 19" b&w portable gave up (gassy horizontal output tube, 22LF6 IIRC, unobtainable at the local TV shop, was throwing the keyed AGC all out of whack). My new Zenith 12" SS TV lasted me (no kidding) 22 years, from 1978 until 2000, and was still going strong when I got rid of it (no room for it in my then-new apartment, as I had brought my 19" 1995 Zenith table set with me from my old house, and had purchased a new RCA CTC-185 when I moved here).

BTW: I hope whomever, if anyone, picked up my SS Zenith after I put it out for the trash got a few more years of use out of it, as the CRT was plenty bright and the set itself worked perfectly, except for the UHF channel selector detent mechanism which broke and jammed the tuner on one channel. These days, of course, the condition of the UHF tuner is immaterial since most older TVs are used with cable boxes or OTA converter boxes, all of which have RF outputs on channel 3 or 4.

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by YamahaFreak

The Admiral right after I got it home. Note the 'X of death' that is scrawled across the CRT of all sets destined for the trash.

Thaty sort of reminds me of the "cash for CLUKNERS" fiasco...where peole were FOOLED...into thinking they could get 4k for a "clunker" (often a PERFECTLY good used car.)--to trade up on en "efficient model". Thise poor cars got a similar fate...and had a similar mark on them or the word "clunker" written on the windshield..

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

It's a good thing you explained the meaning of that large dark "X" on your TV's CRT, as the mark could have otherwise been mistaken for an X-shaped ion burn, which was quite common in older rectangular b&w CRTs. (I don't know if there was such a thing as ion burn in color tubes.) However, that mark must have been made with a grease pencil if you were able to remove it as evidenced in your second picture of the TV in operation.

Permanent marker ink is easy enough to remove from non-porous surfaces by tracing over the marks with a dry erase marker and wiping clean. This method may require more than one application of dry erase ink. I've seen permanent marker ink come off with a heck of a lot of scrubbing as well.

[zeno]

Ive always said those last Admirals were damn good
sets. Even the first AOC's were good. When they went
Solid State I could sell them without worry ( Zenith-Admiral
dealer ). The tube portables were on a par with GE !
The only bad SS set was the M10 13,17 & 19" sets that had
constant Vertical & pass regulator problems.

73 Zeno

[zeno]

Originally Posted by rca2000

Thaty sort of reminds me of the "cash for CLUKNERS" fiasco...where peole were FOOLED...into thinking they could get 4k for a "clunker" (often a PERFECTLY good used car.)--to trade up on en "efficient model". Thise poor cars got a similar fate...and had a similar mark on them or the word "clunker" written on the windshield..

One of the biggest screwing since removing freon from inhalers.
I was looking for a winter car & the Ford joint had a few Crown
Vics clean & under 100K. Couldnt sell them. That damn program
cost poor folk dearly by taking good low priced cars off the market.
Those poor CV's still had 10-20 years of life left.
And if you do the math it cost us over $50,000 per rebate.
Same with TV. How much did converter boxes cost us? Disposal ?
Energy & pollution to build 90% unneeded sets. Forced cable &
satellite due to going from over 20 OTA on rabbit ears to one
intermitant station ? Thanks for not minding your business.

Trust government to do the right thing ? ASK AN INDIAN.

73 Zeno

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by rca2000

Thaty sort of reminds me of the "cash for CLUKNERS" fiasco...where peole were FOOLED...into thinking they could get 4k for a "clunker" (often a PERFECTLY good used car.)--to trade up on en "efficient model". Thise poor cars got a similar fate...and had a similar mark on them or the word "clunker" written on the windshield..

I talked to a mechanic at a dealership and he referred to CFC as one of the bigger scams ever. All they did was jack up the price of the cars another 4 grand. People were too stupid to know that they were being had.
And some fools are going with 84 month car notes. They're upside-down on the deal in 3 years.

[radiotvnut]

I'm glad you were able to get that set without them stopping you (some of these places get real bitchy over people picking stuff out of the trash pile).

Some new electrolytic capacitors in the vertical oscillator circuit should take care of the rolling.

Admiral is a brand that I've never found much of in my area and I think yours is one of the last ones (I think the last American Admiral TV plant was closed in '79).

[YamahaFreak]

The big 'X' on the CRT was drawn with a black Crayola, I think. It's the same tool they use to write their prices on stuff. Comes off easily with a dry rag, but persists if you use a wet one.

Ditto the sentiments about C4C. One of the single most wasteful government 'programs' I've witnessed in my time on Earth. I was lucky to have not witnessed too many vehicles destroyed.

This set has a Japanese picture tube, but I don't believe it's an AOC. The back panel states it was made by Rockwell International. The other thing I noticed is the power cord appeared to have been cut long before the thrift stote got it. They may have never powered it on for test, and tossed it aside as soon as they saw knobs. Must be a dirty word in thrift stores these days. :P The only other sort of issue is the picture is moved considerably to the right, with the right-most edge cut off a bit. I wasn't able to locate a horizontal control, other than a horizontal lock, which did move the picture but caused it to go haywire if I tried to move the image to the center.