2 Sonys and a Penncrest

[Countryford]

This weekend I went to a couple estate sales and thrift stores. While out shopping I found these portable tv sets.

The first one is this JCPenny's Penncrest from 1973. I have the original paperwork and box. It works great.



This is the first Sony. Small little thing. It is missing the cord(four prong) and I don't seem to have one to try it out with.




The last one is another Sony. It has vertical issues.

[Kamakiri]

If that Sony is anything like my 8-301W, the top 2 pins are AC. I can just plug a regular new style cheater cord into mine.

[AiboPet]

Yup @ Kammakiri about the two top pins being AC.

Your second Sony set looks to be a 700U....and is very fun to watch when you get it going. You even have a good smoke shield over the CRT, which is rare...and of course the good antenna! I've had three and they ALL had vertical issues. They do well with a recap, but two of the three had really weak CRTs. I have only one now of the beige color scheme that runs pretty good. It has the vertical hold cranked all the way to one side to keep it happy, so could likely stand some more looking into at some point. I sent a box of parts to both the others (minus the bad CRTs) to someone that needed almost all the HV/HOT parts.

If you continue collecting little Sony sets of that era....get aggresive about finding any that have the power cord whether working or not. It's nice to have one around for your workbench, and MOST the small "U" sets use that same cord. I could use a standard cheater for the workbench on these, but when put back together, I don't have a cheater narrow enough to fit in there. Be good and put some sort of cover on the other two lower pins...JUST in case. They are the 12V connections, but I don't remember right now which one is pos. You don't want to put 120VAC on either of those of course!

[Electronic M]

I just learned something Penncrest = House brand of JC Pennys.

[TVTim]

Who made the Penncrest?

[centralradio]

I have 2 of those Sony's in the third photo.

I got them from the local fleamarket.

There is a Sams folder on this set.I cant recall what number it is as I post this message.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by TVTim

Who made the Penncrest?

Most of those were rebadged Panasonics.
Later models were RCA's and Goldstar. Then they were badged "JCPenney.

[zeno]

The Penny is prob Panasonic, a pix of the back would
tell the story. Post the model #, I should have the
manual & can tell from that.......

73 Zeno

[TVTim]

I know that Panasonic, actually Technics, made a lot of JCP stereo equipment. I have some JCP "MCS" stuff, still working, after 30+ years.