GE Portacolor Chassis AB-E

[kf4rca]

Picked up a GE Portacolor from the roadside chassis AB-E. Believe this is the last one made. Cleaned it up and upon powering it up, it immediately went into shutdown. Disconnecting the CRT board, I found it would power up. Checked CRT but no short.
Reconnected CRT board and disconnected HV anode, it would power up also.
Checked HV but got no HV DC. BUT, I could pull a pretty blue arc from the anode lead. How can this be with an integrated HV rectifier built into the transformer. The internal rectifier was shorted allowing AC to pass.
Checked around and a new HV transformer was simply not available and neither were any NTE replacement rectifiers.
So, I would have to go Old School and wire in a 3A3 and socket into the upper corner of the cabinet.
And it works!

[Electronic M]

If it is SS then it is a Portacolor II or III....if they were still using the portacolor name by the time it rolled off the line.

I'd be worried that the connections of the tube might be able to arc through the cabinet to someone touching the outside of the set.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by kf4rca

Picked up a GE Portacolor from the roadside chassis AB-E. Believe this is the last one made. Cleaned it up and upon powering it up, it immediately went into shutdown. Disconnecting the CRT board, I found it would power up. Checked CRT but no short.
Reconnected CRT board and disconnected HV anode, it would power up also.
Checked HV but got no HV DC. BUT, I could pull a pretty blue arc from the anode lead. How can this be with an integrated HV rectifier built into the transformer. The internal rectifier was shorted allowing AC to pass.
Checked around and a new HV transformer was simply not available and neither were any NTE replacement rectifiers.
So, I would have to go Old School and wire in a 3A3 and socket into the upper corner of the cabinet.
And it works!

How are you powering the 3A3? Using a solid state replacement, R-3A3/ECG508? An ECG/NTE513, or an ECG527a would also work - I used one on a Sharp once that too had a shorted internal rectifier in the tripler.

Not a Porta Color - they stopped that marketing with the 10JA chassis in 1977. Simply a 13" GE Portable Color.

[Eric H]

Amazing they would just stick the HV rectifier right there at the top, no shielding or anything!
I imagine the HV is low enough that X-Rays weren't an issue?
Even more amazing they were still using a tube rectifier at that late date.

[Eric H]

Wait, never mind, I see now it was your modification.
In that case you might want to consider the possibility of excess X-Rays, not sure what the HV on a PC runs at?

[andy]

...

[radiotvnut]

I think the 10JA solid state "portacolor II" was discontinued fairly quickly because it had problems and they went back to the tube chassis. The tube chassis was around until at least '77, when it was replaced by the solid state AA (and, later, similar AB and AC chassis). I don't think GE ever called these a "portacolor"; but, they are unofficially called the "portacolor III" by collectors. The AA/AB/AC chassis was used in 10", 13", and 17" sets.

[zeno]

Probably disco for being to expensive to build also. The 19"
QA ?? didnt last long either. Basically the same set but constant
yokes, FBT's, HOT's vert boards & safety cap problems.
POS but fun to fix in its own special way.
AA- AB- & AC put LOTS of beer in the fridge when things were starting to slow down. Every year some set with a very common problem
seemed to come along & save us. Every brand had its day.
Never called them porta colors as far as I know.
Ah the good ole days.

73 Zeno

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I think the 10JA solid state "portacolor II" was discontinued fairly quickly because it had problems and they went back to the tube chassis. The tube chassis was around until at least '77, when it was replaced by the solid state AA (and, later, similar AB and AC chassis). I don't think GE ever called these a "portacolor"; but, they are unofficially called the "portacolor III" by collectors. The AA/AB/AC chassis was used in 10", 13", and 17" sets.

[bgadow]

I really like that mod! Never really thought it possible. Might try that with something someday.

[Findm-Keepm]

The 10JA was the last TV marketed as a Porta Color, and some models as the Porta Color II, always in script. The tube sets (H-series, HD, HE, H-4, etc) were off the line before the JA came about. Some carryover of antennas (EP86X1 and others), knobs, and other incidentals, but GE ran the MA/MB, JA, and S-series BW lines simultaneously at the College Park (Portsmouth) plant.

Those "late" tube sets may have sold later, but they were made/out the door before the JA line came about.

Leap forward 4 years, and the AA/AB chassis were being built on the same line as the EC chassis - bad years for quality. The AC and PC/PM chassis were the last "good" sets to come from the College Park plant.

GE was all about innovation at the time the AA chassis came about - they had won their Emmy for VIR, and were pushing their consumer electronics line heavily with their "We bring good things to life" ad campaign. Personal Audio (EA) was a biggie - Sanyo made boomboxes for them, and their kitchen counter-top appliances were taking off - food processors, Microwaves, and their under-cabinet coffee makers and TVs were big.

Like some GE TVs, I too was born in Portsmouth....albeit not in 23705.

[old_coot88]

Looks like one with the infernal double-sided board with the 'grippit' feed-throughs that became wildly intermittent. Hopefully this one has undergone repair for that endemic problem.

[radiotvnut]

I remember a BC chassis that was used in some 13" and 17" sets; but, I don't consider this a real GE chassis. I think the tuner and control assembly might have been from GE; but, the main chassis board was sourced from Matsushita. Every one that I saw had a bad flyback and they usually went out with a loud BANG and a big puff of smoke. Towards the end, there was another 25" chassis that was sourced from Matsushita and it also was a flyback eater (TLF14423F was the part number for the flyback, IIRC). Then, there was the 19" MK-II chassis that was sourced from Panasonic. The biggest problem I remember with that one was an orange disc cap in the horizontal output stage that would short and burn, often taking the HOT and regulator with it. I've also seen some later GE B&W's that were rebadged Samsung and some small screen color TV's that were rebadged Goldstar. Concerning the real GE B&W's, I remember the S series tube chassis, the XA solid state chassis that was used in 19" and 22" sets, and the XB chassis that was used in 12" and 15" sets. In fact, I still have a 12" and 15" set, both using the XB chassis.

[andy]

...

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by andy

I don't think that can be true because both of my 10JAs are from about 72-73 (based on component date codes). I have a tube based Portacolor which is full of 76 date codes. I don't know when the discontinued the 10JA, but this proves they at least made them concurrently.

Edit: Found data showing the 10JA was last made in 1976, so probably concurrent with the H-4 tube Porta Color.

1976, per GE's service subscription (included in early and late 1977 data as a 1976 produced product).

Most of my GE lore comes from a GE tube/semi rep that serviced Maryland and Virginia, "Tel" was his nickname, and a lot from a retired GE plant manager, Mr Purdy, that was by "backyard neighbor" - he was there until the retooling for the last sets. His job entailed final inspection/burn-in, 36 hours for some sets (winter?), 10 hours for most. Mr. Purdy had pulmonary disease, and died in late 1999.

Why, if you can make a solid state chassis, would you go back to tubes? Makes no sense in marketing, engineering, tooling, supply chain, you name it. Too many guesses - the answer is quite clear, the 10JA was probably the last Porta Color produced.

GE closed the OEM side of the Owensboro tube plant in 1976, producing a little under 4 million tubes. US production of OEM tubes in 1976 (the last year) was 5,827,000 total, so GE was the biggest producer by far. GE continued making aftermarket tubes until they closed the plant.

GE OEM tubes have a date code - 188 and the EIA date code.

The aftermarket (replacement or renewal)tubes have a 0.185" tall two-letter date of production code, used for warranty purposes by distributors. When I worked at Cain in the early 80s, we honored only "H" codes and later, meaning a tube with a "ED" code would not be accepted for warranty, where a EH, AL, etc would.

They had two date code systems to discern OEM and aftermarket, and to prevent the two supply chains from having to mix. If your tube product failed under warranty, you took it to an authorized repair center, and they filed a claim through Portsmouth. If you bought a replacement tube at a distributor, you dealt solely with the distributor, who dealt with Owensboro. We had gobs of tubes that were technically out of warranty (and thus couldn't sell them with a warranty), but sold them to repair shops with a deep discount. (sleeves of oddball series-string tubes going for 5 bucks a sleeve, for example.)

Oh, and your GE TV made in Portsmouth? 95% of them left the plant in a railroad car. Ethan Allen sets and some promotional sets went by truck.

[wa2ise]

Back around 1980 I interviewed for an electrical engineering job at GE I think their Portsmouth location. They were making smaller color TVs there, probably solid state Portacolors. They were hung from a conveyor belt just like dead chickens. I didn't get the job. Heard they closed the place a few years later, had they offered a job they would have been a huge success...