I had a Philco "Briefcase 19" portable in the early '70s, a trash find. Don't know if it was the Seventeener's predecessor or successor. :scratch2: Since I had a color set (RCA CTC12 clone Silvertone roundie) as well at the time, I didn't use the Philco much, until the Silvertone developed a serious problem in 1973. Used the Philco until mid-1975, then I moved and trashed the set shortly thereafter, IIRC. VK, or the Internet for that matter, did not exist at that time -- if they had, I'd have tried to save both sets, or at least the Philco; the Silvertone was too big and heavy to move, and besides, I didn't know enough about TV repair (beyond tube switching) at that time to even try to repair the problem, a large crack in a video PC board. :no:

The 19" tubes of that era were about the size of the earlier 17" versions, but with the corners "squared off". In similar fashion, the 23" CRTs were "squared off" but otherwise similar in size to the earlier 21s.

Found an ad for the Philco "briefcase 19" ... looks very similar to a "Seventeener III" except for the corners of the CRT.

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...v-television-1

The predecessor to the "Slender Seventeener" was the much deeper "Seventeener" as shown at the bottom of this ad:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1957-Philco-...item3caef5b772

not affiliated,
jr

Thanks much for the info. That Worthpoint ad shows a set exactly like my Briefcase 19 (now long gone), only it shows the set in a slightly different color cabinet (mine was, IIRC, green and white) and the TV in the ad has all its front knobs, whereas mine was missing the channel selector and, again IIRC, the fine tuning. (Perhaps some kid filched the knobs before I got to the set?) I was able to use on the Philco a channel knob from another old TV I had scrapped some time earlier. I don't know exactly why I trashed that Philco in 1976 or thereabouts; the set probably would have been a collector's item today, although both elements of the built-in "Scantenna" handle antenna on mine were missing when I found the TV. No matter; I used rabbit ears with it until I got rid of it, and the set worked perfectly -- both in the Cleveland suburb where the TV replaced my Silvertone color roundie, :no: and in my old neighborhood when I moved back there in 1975.

BTW and a bit OT: I was looking through the ads on eBay.com, looking for a similar Philco Briefcase 19 ad, but didn't find one. However, I did see one ad for "The Seventeener", which looked somewhat like the Briefcase 19, except of course for the CRT, which in the Seventeener was two inches smaller.

I also noticed that, while searching the eBay site for "Philco tv", I found absolutely no actual Philco televisions for auction -- only Philco magazine ads and service info, much of the latter being Sams Photofacts. Are there no more antique or vintage Philco b&w or color televisions left in this country anymore? I realize folks are replacing their old CRT sets with flat-panel digital ones when the former go bad, but I cannot believe all the old Philcos (except those which may now be in the hands of our members here at VK) are gone.

.

A number of vintage Philco TVs on eBay, as well as tons of ads and service literature:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=....c0.m270.l1313

jr

Here's another batch of sets I've picked up over the last year.

Admiral 30A15
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8338/8...6b2f618c_z.jpg

GE 21C2465
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8096/8...ca0752bb_z.jpg

Hoffman
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8296/8...5a16620a_z.jpg

Motorola 9L1
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7210/6...4b11fd42_z.jpg

Motorola Y14P3-2
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8288/7...a75d4638_z.jpg

Philco Predicta Tandems
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7114/7...082822b2_n.jpg http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5276/7...1dcdaf5a_n.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8078/8...a0b4bbf6_n.jpg

Philco Town & Country
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8286/7...a12b28e4_z.jpg

RCA 630TS
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8084/8...be71e4cf_z.jpg

Stromberg Carlson TV-12
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8328/8...1cae7dfb_z.jpg

Westinghouse H-196 & Sonora 302
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7252/7...7a41cfdf_z.jpg

That's quite a haul over the past year. I like the Westy.

Here are my current vintage TV sets:
1946 RCA Victor 621TS:
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...psb5335e85.jpg
1946 RCA Victor 630TS:
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7ce00e1e.jpg
1948 Motorola VT-71:
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0779dfd4.jpg
1948 GE 800:
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...ps51977012.jpg
1949 Pilot Radio TV-37:
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...7/DSC00281.jpg
1956 RCA Victor 8PT-7032:
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5986238d.jpg
1957 Admiral T-103:
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7ca9e006.jpg
1958 RCA Victor Deluxe:
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...psb90b2307.jpg
1958 Tele-O-Master 8T-58:
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...ps027476da.jpg
1959 Philco Predicta "Debutante":
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...psf2d0226b.jpg
1959 Philco Safari:
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...ps432464ff.jpg
1959 Philco Seventeener III:
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...psdf8dbd2d.jpg

[QUOTE=decojoe67;3063215]Here are my current vintage TV sets:
Ahhh HATE Yew...-Yosemite Sam, Esq.... Seriously, THAT is a collection I'd give my EYETEETH for...(grin)

[QUOTE=Sandy G;3063217]Thank you. I've been into the vintage radio/TV hobby since my early teens. My interest in the history and the sets themselves only grows as I get older. The collection has constantly evolved through the years - selling and trading due to space limitations. I once had about 12 vintage TV's, mostly early post-war 7 incher's. Now I have mostly 1930's radios - displayed with lots of art-deco items!
Joe

My Dumont Doghouse RA-103 ready for (final?) assembly!

Brian,

Beautiful restoration. Great addition to your collection.

-Steve D.

Picked up a Craigslist 58 RCA portable
 

I just returned from a short road trip to pick up this two tone RCA 17", 17-PD-8096 I think it is, I already have one just like this but for $40 with a stand I couldn't pass it up.

It was about 100 miles round trip including a couple side trips for lunch and Coffee, the home was a 5500 sq ft mini-mansion in a gated community in Chino, A million dollars if it's a penny. :eek: even in So Cal that's a nice house.

Anyway, the set is in decent shape and came with an age appropriate stand, not an RCA part but perfect for the set, it's missing one small knob and the gold V emblem on top is broken but I may have a knob and I do have a V so that's not a big problem.

Powered it up and the tubes light but it's totally dead otherwise, no sound or light.

I'll pull the back and check the CRT next but even if it's bad I have a NOS spare for it. :thmbsp:

Good news, the CRT checks like new!

This is a series string set with an 8.4 volt CRT, my luck withe them has been 50/50 but this one checks 95/100, even with the heater reduced to less than 6 volts it stays at 95! Cutoff is good too.

Good going Eric,

Looks like a nice clean example w/a good crt. And ez to transport. That knob should be fairly easy to find, although that is not a common color.

-Steve D.

I just had to tell this story if I haven't before about transporting one of these. As a latch key kid I was put on an airplane every summer to spend time with my mom. One summer around 1981 I found one of these while yard sale hunting with my mom down in Alabama. I think I gave $5 for the almost mint working set. Almost meaning that it had a tendency to get vertical roll.

In those days 50s sets were quite common and sort of considered junk for the most part. But this space age rocketship design to me was 'over the top' and I loved it. So I could not allow myself to be separated from it upon going back to old Virginnie. So on the day of my flight home I carried that RCA right on that plane! There was even enough room in the area above the seat to hold it! I sure did, and I remember someone helping me get the thing up on the cargo shelf and oddly I don't remember getting any hairy eyeball looks. Of course in those days I think people still didn't look at television as some sort of birthright; actually it was still more of a small investment worth repairing. Certainly not a throw away item; not yet. And for sure we didn't carry them around in our pockets like everyone is doing these days.

Anyway, in today's paranoid air terrorism scene I just bet this scenario would raise every red flag in the book in an airport. Heck, the security people probably wouldn't know that it's a TV first off. Just the built in rabbit ears would certainly be the makings of a bomb and rightly so. You could probably make a deadly weapon out of an old set in a hundred ways. Seems I didn't keep the set very long and it developed bad sync issues and at that young age I was pretty much limited to drug store trips to test tubes. It wasn't a tube so I think I took the set apart for practice. A lot of now great sets were donated to me self educating in a doomed career path.....

I guess I was lucky, the last TV that I bought ( a 1957 8 inch metal portable ) I brought with me in an airplane. The airport people were nice enough to me to recognize that it was safer, for the TV, to be transported with me in the passenger area than in the cargo compartment.

Yeah, that was the basic idea for me carrying mine. Hey. it was called a portable!!

It's be-yooooooouti-ful! (And a ways down the road, restoration wise). Gift from another VK'r..

I really love that Hallicrafters.

Here are the B&W sets I have at home, I'll have to wait for a 'color set' thread to show the others :D

http://www.stellar-tv.com/images/tvhome1.jpg

This one sits on the workbench. I finished recapping it a few weeks ago and have not found another suitable place for it. :)

http://www.stellar-tv.com/images/tvhome2.jpg

GE Locomotive, Crosley, RCA, and GE portable on top of an Admiral.

http://www.stellar-tv.com/images/tvhome3.jpg

'53 Motorola in the bedroom. This one gets nightly exercise when Alfred hits the air at 11. :D

The equipment tower was a piece that my father built in 1977. He came home from working offshore and bought a brand new 19" Sony Trinitron TV (to the tune of nearly $3000 at that time.) This was built to house his turntable, stereo receiver, TV, and record collection, along with a pullout drawer for his top-loading VCR. Over the years to TV area was hollowed out larger and larger as my family got larger sets and finally I ended up with it. The Moto was a perfect fit..... after hollowing it out one further, final time.

StellarTV, what a beautiful collection!

That bedroom Chrysler building of entertainment is awesome!

That is a nice cabinet, and collection.

Then I'm definitely a weirdo!

I think you were replying to my signature line. Yes, I am a proud "fringe weirdo" as well. :)

Here's my latest set - a GE 21C3461 from around 1960 with wireless RF remote. It's in great condition and works but unfortunately, I don't have the remote control :(
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3950/...331254f1_z.jpg

Here's the RF receiver and giant coaxial speaker.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5609/...659c51cd_c.jpg

Here's a portion of a 1960 GE TV ad that shows the remote.

-Steve D.

Cool. There have been a couple remotes on ebay over the last couple years but I missed out on both.

how is the sound on your ge. i have one of those large oval speakers but i have never hooked it up.

Lots of bass but a little odd since it's so close to the ground.

Rca9t-246
 

Heres my latest project. I picked it up from craigslist a few weeks ago. Recapped and installed new grill cloth, I couldn't find anything like the original but this looks okay, It plays excellent. http://i.imgur.com/GC4EOI1l.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/QskEv5hl.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/YVk2gG0l.jpg

Very Nice! And I think that cloth is an excellent approximation of the original.

I think that cloth looks very good!

I haven't been very actively repairing sets lately but I did manage to get this Admiral Bakelite Tabletop running recently, took several months off and on.

I noticed after I reinstalled it in the cabinet that it needs some new rubber bushings under the CRT to bring it in alignment with the mask.

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1448758998

Thanks Kevin and Eric, the cloth got a nod of approval from my wife also, so I'm happy with it. Sure looks better than the ratty torn faded stuff that was in there.
Eric, that little Admiral sure has a nice picture. Cool little set.http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/ima...s/beerchug.gif

Here are a couple of my late '40's RCA sets: A Canadian 8T243 10" circa 1949(note the rounded picture tube mask used on Canadian sets) and a 1949 9TC275 using a 16AP4 CRT.

Terry