You won't find a fine tuning knob on these '48 -'49 Philcos. The fine tuning is through a screwdriver slug under the channel knob, through a hole in the number plate.

Great looking blonde Admiral

Chuck

Sylvania Dualette
 

I found this on eBay a couple of months ago. Seems that the ones I've seen before on eBay would sell for 200 to 300 bucks. Was kinda surprised to see them go that high. I got this one for 20 bucks plus shipping. The seller said that the set was dead, and i had hoped that there was a burned filament since this set runs filaments in series. Well, when I got it, I found that all the tubes lit up... but no sound or light on the screen. Probably a simple problem in the LV power area. I put the back on again and put it aside for another day.

I think Dualettes were from 1959. Other than some scuff marks on the rear top corner, this one is in pretty good shape cosmetically. I've seen them in a few different colors. This one is not exactly one of the better colors! The antennas are both there with no damage.

Here's a set I was chasing for almost a year. The guy just kept putting me off every week when I tried to go see what it was. Finally perserverence paid off.

It's a 1949 Olympic TV-928, AM/FM, and 2 speed Webster changer.
The mirror lid stay was broke, I had a machinist friend make a new friction bolt and works like new. Maybe this winter I'll get some time to restore the electronics. It should be a bright picture as the CRT tests like new.

Chuck

ChuckA,

Congrats. Looks nice! I've begun stripping mine ready to refinish someday. This is my only MIL set.

Nice!
 

Unimatic,

Those sets are really fine! I have the same 1947 Admiral in Mahogany awaiting restoration. The blonde is probably more rare. That large Raytheon is a nice one! I have a tabletop 12" Raytheon Porthole.

1947 Admiral 30A13
 

I have the rare (earlier I think) sibling to the 1947 Admiral that Unimatic just showed above. Mine has been fully electronically restored and makes a bright, sharp picture. The volume goes down and the picture starts to loose sync as the contrast control is turned down, a real indication of the crudeness of the early post-war TV circuits in use at the time. 1947 was very early for post war TV in North America. This is one of my favorite sets in my whole collection.

This is a screen shot off my 30A13. The detail is amazing, see the ice cubes in the glass? The horizontal shading band is a camera shutter speed artifact, not on the TV picture.

Rob,

I was lucky only the top needs work. I had a friend do the mirror side and I tried to match it by memory, of course I was about 3 shades off :(

So now I have to either get the fixed side off or take the whole cabinet over to him to match the movable side.

Have you looked to see how the chassis comes out of the cabinet? It looks like it has to be dropped through the bottom :dunno:

Olympic MIL
 

Chuck,

I seem to recall that the Rider's manual says the cabinet must be placed back down on the floor and the chassis comes out the top after removing the panel and window over the CRT and controls.

I agree, it wasn't too self evident looking at it.

Rob,

I thought of that way, but there are the front panel mounting wood brackets attached to the side walls and they don't look like they are removable.

I think it needs to be laid down on the front of the cabinet and the chassis is slid towards the bottom then lifted out. Don't know for sure - yet. It looks like they built the cabinet around the chassis:D


Chuck

Chuck,

I'll try to have a look at my Riders and post what I discover.

Philco 12"
 

This arrived in the mail today... a Philco 50-T1403. Got it from eBay a few weeks ago. Cabinet is in pretty good shape. Needs a little cleaning. The insides are all there and major components look okay. Might take it out tomorrow to look at the underside. The 12LP4 checks out in the "questionable" zone on the tester. Probably good enough to make a decent picture. Chassis is pretty dirty, but looks like it should clean up nicely. The set is a little larger than I was expecting.

Charlie,

Sure took a beating in transit, look the top corners have been completely rounded! :D

But seriously, how the heck can you send something like this in the mail? How do you pack it to survive? How big of a stamp do you need?

OH BTW, nice set! :) I have a similar Philco with squared corners and the 12LP4 measures like new.

The box had a $35.00 stamp on it. The packing was pretty impressive. It took me forever to get all of that packing out of there so I could get the TV out! And there was notes ALL OVER the box saying fragile, glass, and this side up.

Old TVs and cable
 

Big Dave,

You need not have all the channel strips in the tuner if you only use the set on cable (as you discovered). In fact, for a set such as yours running on a cable box, all you really need is one strip, for the output channel of your cable converter. As a matter of fact, back in the 1950s and early 60s, some people would remove all the unused channel strips from a turret tuner, leaving only the strips for their own area's local channels. I read of this in an old DIY TV repair book years ago. It was also mentioned that this dodge would save wear and tear on the tuner, as it would be possible to arrange the strips in numerical order for the channels in one's local area. One could then switch instantly from one network station to the next, without having to flip through unused channel positions. (Great for sets with remote or front panel power tuning.)

Another trick was to set your TV's fine tuner to midrange, then set the oscillator slugs in the channel strips for a properly tuned picture and sound. This way, one could flip from one channel to another without having to adjust the fine tuning. Of course, normal oscillator drift over time would require the set owner to readjust the slugs, which could be why this dodge never really caught on; most people found it far easier to readjust the fine tuning when changing channels. The only advantage I can see to presetting the oscillator slugs would be, again, for sets with remote power tuning, so the set owner would not have to get up and manually adjust the fine-tuning control when changing channels with the remote.

Here are two of my sets. On the left is my Stromburg-Carlson Classic 21. On the right is a 1954 RCA 21 T 165.

Polaraman

It looks like RCA had a theme going with the "brick wall" look of its speaker grilles for the 1954 model year. The set pictured above, a few other '54 RCA B/W consoles I've seen, the CT-100 and the RCA field test color models. I have a few books in my tech library with pictures of an RCA color field test set. The set very closely resembles the Merril with the very obvious difference being the placement of the operator controls right out on the front panel instead of being concealed behind the "pencil box" control door as on the final production model we know as the Merrill.

Here's a recent photo of my display room. There has been one other set added since this was taken.

Pictured sets (L-R) are ...

RCA 8-T-241
Fada TV30
RCA 721TS
Zenith 14-1440

Not pictured is an Admiral 19A1. I just recently found time to troubleshoot the cold solder joints in the restoration work of the eBay seller of that set and add tie points to support the junctions of series-connected 3kV capacitor pairs he had used as replacements for the 6kV deflection coupling caps. The cabinet isn't bad, but still needs some work including replacement of its non-original knobs.

I also just finished creating two VHS cassettes of test patterns. The "Indian Head" pattern is great for rectangular-mask sets, but the "WNBT" test pattern appears to have been designed with round-mask sets in mind. The main circle of the "WNBT" pattern is great for portholes.

John,

You have my old Zenith 14-1440 console! Your RCA 721TS looks great. I've had mine for maybe three years and haven't had a chance to even look inside yet. I do have it on display in the LR though!

Another 721TS
 

Here's my second 721TS with one of the strongest used 10BP4's I've ever seen. I just picked up this 10BP4 and another really good one over the weekend and decided to put it in the 721 since that set had the weakest 10BP4 of the ones in my collection. Photo taken with my cheap camera.

Same set, different test pattern.

John,

That is such an attractive looking set! Nice bright CRT too. I really must restore mine someday, just way too much on my plate these days.

Speaking of really bright 10BP4's. Here is a screen shot from my 1947 Admiral 30A13 that completely overloaded my digital camera. This CRT is bright! The actual picture is perfect. This might be a 10FP4 in there though. I'm not certain. The only repair I needed to do to make it run was replace an open power resistor on top of the chassis in the HV cage which I was able to do without pulling the chassis. I'm pretty certain this set was completely re-capped and re-tubed before I got it.

The set inventory
 

Having spent a lot of time on the very good AROL website, I am new to here via the good fortune to know Chuck A. I jumped in on the thread about “Lesser” televisions and got quite a nice response. My CTC9 and Sightmaster can be seen over there.
Ok, here is the list of sets in the Dave A. collection in SE Pennsylvania in a very small house. They have all been gathered since 1985 when I decided that as a television director, I should pay attention to the history of what pays the mortgage…and my retirement. Not all have model #’s as they are buried and the numbers are not to be seen any time soon. NW=non working. W=working.

Pre-war sets;

Baird T-5 (1936,) NW
Baird T-23 (1937), NW
HMV 900 (1936), W modified to 525 (barely)
RCA TRK-120, W (daily viewer)

Post-war sets;

Philco 48-1000, W (daily viewer)
RCA 621TS Blonde, W
RCA 621TS Mahogany, W
RCA 630TS Mahogany, W
Emerson AM/TV portable, NW
Air King 630 type, NW
Crosley 7” suitcase, NW
Philco 10” Blonde Radio/phono/TV console, W
Philco 701 7”, NW
Philco 702 7”, NW
Pilot TV-37, W
Admiral 17” Blonde console, W
Fada 730 10”, W
Fada 890 projection, NW
Sentinel 7”, W
Sightmaster 15-S-2, W
Radio Craftsman Chrome RC-200 (chassis & tube only), NW
Natalie Kalmus “Combination” 24” Radio/phono/TV, NW (just arrived)
Various RCA metal sets, W & NW
Various RCA and Philco 50’s consoles

Round color sets;

RCA CTC-100 under restoration
RCA 21CT55 under restoration
RCA 21-TMD 21” Studio color monitor, W and connected to my computer video editing
RCA CTC7 “Pensbury”, W
RCA CTC7 “Abington”, W
RCA CTC9 “Caulfield”, W (daily viewer)
Philco TV123 21” color 1956, parts set
Philco TV123 21” color 1956, not delivered yet

All the other stuff;

Zenith/RCA/Stromberg console radios, W
Atwater Kent Model 84
GE G-95 “Pianoforte” console radio (no dial), W
Assorted 20’s battery radios, W
Bendix 526C Catalin, W
RCA 19” tube color portable (last tube version), W
Assorted tabletop “All-American” radios, W & NW
Fisher 500B stereo receiver, W and restored
Peter Yanczer Mechanical Camera/Television reproduction, W
Col-R-Tel Color converter, W (not dedicated to a B&W set yet)
RCA TK-31 field B&W camera, modified for CCD image/LCD viewfinder, on loan to
Sarnoff Library in Princeton, NJ

If you noticed, most of the sets are unique for one reason or another. Having collected televisions since 1985 and radios since 1968, the one thing I learned is not to buy every/any set that came along. Old though they may be, not all of them are special. And I am allergic to vaporizing veneer and mundane mahogany. Slow and easy wins the race. The best thing any television collector can do is get very involved with your local radio club. The radio collectors want nothing to do with sets and will take pity on you and pass on all sorts of leads, not to mention hundreds of free tubes and parts that they do not want. I’ll post pix as I can find time to display the sets.

Stay tuned,
Dave A

A couple of notes on two posts I saw here this evening. The first one has to do with polaraman's two sets in his post. I recognize them both. His Stromberg-Carlson set rings a bell in my mind because my aunt had a TV exactly like that one in the '50s, except in a white cabinet. (How many different cabinet styles were there for that particular set?) The RCA rang a bell because my folks' first TV was an RCA console almost exactly like that one, except theirs had the speaker at the side of the cabinet and two small decorative metal bars (if I remember correctly) at the bottom of the cabinet, where the speakers are in polaraman's set. If not for these differences, these sets could have been twins.

I also saw the picture of jshorva65's TV display room. Very nicely done; I like it. However, I wonder. How on earth was he able to check those sets out for proper operation after repairing them? I ask this because every set in his display room is VHF-only; Warren, Ohio is a suburb of Youngstown, which only has UHF stations (21, 27, 33, 39 and 45). I didn't see UHF converters atop any of those sets. How does he know that the RF and IF stages are working? The only way I can think of he could have air-tested these sets (aside from hooking them up to cable) is to have hooked them up to an outdoor antenna and tested them on signals from Pittsburgh's three VHF network stations (channels 2, 4 and 11), or if his antenna was really good, he could also test using the air signals from Cleveland's channels 3, 5 and 8.

BTW, js, I like your avatar. I did a double take the first time I saw it, but later I realized it was a test signal generated from a color bar-dot generator, and the callsign/channel number was superimposed on it, like the color-bar test patterns TV stations used after round patterns went out of style and before TV broadcasting went full-time. Here near Cleveland we have a UHF station that still uses a color-bar pattern after it signs off, but the station's call sign, over-air channel number and network affiliation [it's the WB network affiliate for northeastern Ohio] are inserted in the black area below the color bars--not superimposed on the bars themselves. The PBS station in Cleveland used to do that too, when it signed off for the night around midnight--before it went to 24-hour operation several years ago.

Dave A,

That is a really nice collection. I copied your post over to the color TV forum where a thread got started listing everyone's TV collections whether B&W or color.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...3188#post83188

I had to do it as a quote for some reason rather than a simple move. All I seem to be empowered to do is move or copy entire threads, not individual posts. :dunno:

In this thread we really encourage posting photos of the vintage B&W tubed sets of your collection. I do hope you can share more photos with us here! :)

I feel that the Classic 21 is newer than the Chinese Classic. I have included a picture of my yellow Stromburg-Carlson Chinese Classic. It has a 19AP4 CRT. I have seen them in RED, White and yellow. Quite an expensive set in 1951. Cost about $900 fully equipped with a AM/FM, record changer and the tv. Mine has all three. All that works is the audio on the tv. I have collected all the tubes and caps to bring it back to life. Tv alone has 28 tubes.

On top of the S/C is a Crosley. (model F-17TOLU) It has both UHF and VHF. Paid a whopping $10 for it. Have yet to attempt to get it running.

On the right is a Philco. One of those split chassis sets. It also has UHF and VHF.

polaraman,

That control apron on the Crosley looks kinda cool. What happened to the CRT mask? Was there a component fire inside?

I believe the mask just got baked. No evidence of a fire in the set. I keep on looking for another one to replace it. I also posted a picture of my Stromburg-Carlson with the doors open. It is in Horizontal hold members gallery. It is under polaraman.

I got this RCA TV a few months ago, someone was tossing it at the curb. It worked (after dealing with a bad power switch) but I did a recap as a matter of course. I watched the Yankees lose the world series on it. :( But that's not the Yankees you see on the TV in the picture below! Also a picture of the chassis. No, I didn't try to dismount the circuit boards when I did the recap, I just clipped leads on the component side and j-hooked in new caps.

More old TV sets at my web site:
http://www.geocities.com/wa2ise/radios/tv.html

wa2ise

Welcome aboard! Nice pic of this classic 50's RCA. I checked your website. I like your blue bananas! :)

wa2ise,


Your set looks very familiar. My great-aunt and uncle had a TV exactly like yours in the early '50s; they used it until the '70s, when they got a color set. Their RCA worked well on Cleveland's three VHF stations (at that time), and the set itself didn't give them much trouble at all (that I was ever aware of, anyway).

Those early RCAs were built to last, which is more than I can say for the company's new color sets. My folks' first TV was a 21-inch RCA in a huge console cabinet; this set also worked very well on our area's three VHF channels on rabbit ears (we lived about 30 miles or so from the stations, so really good reception on all three with rabbit ears in the '50s was not easy to attain--eventually, when we got a new set, we put up an antenna in the attic which worked much better).

RCA once was "the most respected name in electronics", but look what's happened since then. Since the company was taken over by Thomson in the late eighties or early nineties, a lot of their TVs have been nothing but trouble for their owners. I have an RCA 19-inch color set which I bought new almost four years ago; I've already had it repaired twice for the same problem (the RF port on the back of the set snapped off the tuner PC board both times) and I know there is one defective IC (the EEPROM signal processor) in the signal circuits. (Also, I have a friend whose parents' RCA color set blew a picture tube after only two years!)

Since I live in an apartment building wired for cable (the village in which I live is 40+ miles from the seven TV transmitters serving Cleveland and is a definite fringe area), however, and my set is connected to the cable system, I have never used the set on an antenna except to test it. (The reception on all three VHF stations using rabbit ears was terrible; the only good signals were from Cleveland's three commercial UHF stations, one of which [channel 19] is now the CBS affiliate for our area, having swapped networks with channel 8 which was bought out by Fox Broadcasting in the mid-1990s. Channel 8 was Cleveland's CBS station for over four decades; 19 was a Fox affiliate from 1986 until it acquired the CBS affiliation from 8 around 1993 or so. Channel 8, now owned by Fox, naturally got the affiliation to that network).

The cable signal (from Comcast digital cable) is so good it doesn't matter that the signal processor in my set is bad and (probably) getting worse. The picture is still very good on all analog and digital channels on the system. The cable box bypasses the tuner anyhow, so even if the tuner were shot (or getting there) I'd still get a decent picture as long as the tuner worked on channel 4 (the output of the cable box), which it does.


BTW, I heard about the outcome of the World Series, although I did not see any of the games (found out from a friend of mine who is an absolute sports nut). Oh well, maybe the Yankees will win it next year.

73,

Here's my Andrea mentioned in another thread, with a better pic (I hope)

On top of the Andrea, is an RCA (like one of Eric H's) and a Philco. Can anyone ID the Philco? The model number is worn off.

I have a very similiar Andrea, but it poor condition, missing the doors. A guy I deal with in my business-a guy who is responsible for SENDING me business, had been telling me for years about these sets he wanted me to look at. I felt obliged to buy them, had to pay too much. Besides the tired Andrea there was a late 40's Magnavox console radio painted with whitewash and about 6 or 7 broken down reel-to-reel recorders. If nothing else I think someday I can make something of the TV.

Picked up this 21T165 at Salvation Army thrift store this past Saturday. Set is completely dead but has a good 21AP4. Fuses are blown in the HV section. I already have a 21T165 and this will make two!!!! I will have to get to this one after recapping my Stromburg-Carlson Chinese Classic.

Polaraman

This set is now restored
 

Don't know what I'm going to do with this one. I may STORE it or RESTORE it, I think STOREING it will be the easiest. Notice the cool blue tinted picture tube.
UPDATE: This set is now working properly. Had to get some help from fellow member dewickt on this one. He replaced the filter cap and gave me some good pointer's (plus the Sams folder). I replaced some 20 odd caps and now its time to set back and watch a little TELIVISION.

This is a cool looking vintage TV. Short depth for a "console". It looks like a portable that the manufacturer mounted into a wood cabinet, and added a big speaker below.
http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sel...es/FURNN78.jpg
http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sel...es/FURNN80.jpg
http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sel...es/FURNN79.jpg
It's on evil bay (and it's not mine) :p:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...gename=rvi:1:2

Cool! The legs are much like the Philco Predict Danish Modern. That loudspeaker driver in the bottom looks like something from Orson Wells' "The War Of The Worlds", or from Germany.

I want that! Too bad it's so far away.

That is the same GE I have been looking for but in a different cabinet. http://www.vintagetvsets.com/wanted.htm

A set just like that was used as a prop in the Movie "All That Heaven Allows"

eric. milwaukee is about an 1 hr 25 mins away from here.. that set should be shippable,looks solid..
but the odd size of that speaker..??? what is that a 17X 12"?? lol..
terry

Nice
 

I usually don't get excited over 60's B&W sets but this one really struck me. What a great, trim design. And if it looks like a portable above that huge speaker says hi-fi below. What did they use to drive that speaker. Very unique.