Philco Town and Country restoration
 

I was hanging out with some friends this afternoon and spied this in one of their garages. He said 'sure you can have it' so I brought it home. The front plastic bezel has been damaged, but otherwise it looks OK.
I thought it might be a Philco Seventeener, but I'm not sure.
Can anyone identify it?

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7126/7...164472f9_z.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8163/7...fc4dc86c_z.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8165/7...ab738806_z.jpg

At first I thought that it might be one of the Admiral "playmate" series but the knob placement is wrong.

Found an ad on the 'bay for a Philco "town and country":

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1961-Philco-...item4cf9d8d14c

jr

Ah-ha! That's it :) I knew I had seen it somewhere before - audubon5425 was selling one :yes:

Now, what should I do with it ? Scrap it or try to replace the damaged front :scratch2:

What is the jug? might it fit a Predicta?

jr

That's what I was thinking, but it appears to be a 19".

Bah - I just threw away the cabinet from mine.

One recently sold on epay for something ridiculous, over $150 I think.

It is a nineteen inch set. I still have the chassis and some knobs if you decide to try to restore it. Check the CRT first though, they're pretty uncommon birds.

Yeah, I figured you wouldn't still have it.
It's cleaning up OK, but it's missing trim and the plastic damage is pretty bad.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7135/7...fa09db61_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8020/7...b8b54530_z.jpg

A few of the "cool chassis" tubes have gone to air
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8165/7...07ba9b3d_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8025/7...2fd9d87a_z.jpg

I'll check the CRT in a few.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8018/7...bc4dcb2d_z.jpg

I see another "Friday Night Restoration? Coming on! What was with Philco and this low voltage high deflection angle tubes, where they all as lousy as the ones used in the Predictas?

Matt

Dunno, but this one tests very good :D Excellent emissions and life test.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8026/7...a02c5ca7_z.jpg

All the tubes are original and all but two test very, very bad. Some barely moved the tube tester needle off zero!
Someone must have really watched this set a lot but never had it serviced.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7278/7...04fe8875_z.jpg

Rejuvination attempt? lol

I went tube hunting and found either NOS or very good used replacements for all but a couple 11JE8s.
I've never encountered this tube before so I suspect they weren't widely used.
I figured I could throw in the originals just to try powering the set up, but one has gone to air so I'll just have to wait a week or so for some to arrive in the mail.

Here's a peek at the flyback. It looks OK.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8004/7...10589770_z.jpg

I dug up a good 10GN8 which is an acceptable substitute for an 11JE8.
I've got it up on the workbench and am slowly powering it up with a variac n the hopes the electrolytics will reform. So far no problems.

First signs of life. Seems either the vertical oscillator or output transformer is bad. Sound is pretty bad too.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8012/7...50b87029_z.jpg

I suspect a power problem since it looks like "several" things look subpar....no vertical, ALMOST no horizontal....and that sound problem all make me think the set is generally starving. Are you still on the variac?

From what I see, and you describe "sound" at all, looks like you DO likely have a tuner, IF, reception and at least SOMETHING that looks like HV.

Glad to see this set at least coming along. I've always been fascinated by this particular form factor with the REAL high deflection CRTS and the overall slim profile. I still own NO tube set...and will likely look for something like this as my first one. I'm in an apartment, so no room for a big 'ol roundie. Shame what happened to the front of this set.

I bet back in the day, it was astonishing to see a large screen that could sit on a book case. Sort of the precurser to the whole "flat screen" thing.

Yes, I'm off the variac. I could be that one or more electrolytics are leaky and dragging down the B+.
I need to track down the service info then I'll do a full overhaul.

There was a show in the mid-70s called "whats Happenin" and Rog's family had one of these sets. Same color too.

I had a few of these I rescued years ago, easy fixes with the usual paper cap replacements. One thing to be particularly aware of is that aquadag coating peeling off the CRT. I had one of these arcing, left the room and the CRT imploded due to the poor grounding contact. I should have been more aware and would have used one of those long springs hooked to the CRT straps.

I bet this one played until something happened that took out the 17DQ6.

It's such fun finding those odd voltage tubes these days.

[QUOTE=bandersen;3040567]I was hanging out with some friends this afternoon and spied this in one of their garages. He said 'sure you can have it' so I brought it home. The front plastic bezel has been damaged, but otherwise it looks OK.
I thought it might be a Philco Seventeener, but I'm not sure.
Can anyone identify it?
I picked up one on e*** a few years ago. It was in Niles Il. Instead of having it shipped I drove down and picked it up.
All it needs is re-capping, especially in the vertical circuit.
I thought it was one of the best looking, most streamlined portables of it's time.
P.S. The set uses one of the 11JE8 tubes as an audio output. Strange!:scratch2:

Actually those series-string tubes are quite common, although it is
true the 450-ma ones are a bit less usual. Any restoration challenge
is interesting, especially with such a good CRT IMHO. Regards to all.

Note to original poster: I can look up the 11JE8 in my big stockpile,
if I find it you can have it for postage costs.

Yes, what electroking said, I have many of those oddballs myself.:yes:

I do gotta admit that I have lots of oddball tubes, too, just none of what would go in this Philco. 13GY7 anyone?

Thanks for the offers, but I do have a few 11JE8s on the way already :) Service info too.

Thanks for the tip. I received a nice little shock every time I touched the screen bezel during my power up tests. If I can get the set working, I'll try recoating it with slip plate and using a better ground spring.

My NOS 11JE8s arrived today and wiscojim kindly supplied a scan of the Sams :)

Now that I know where to probe, I did indeed find that the 275 B+ was only around 200 VDC + 50 vRMS of ripple!

Time to swap out some filter caps :yes:

I pulled the set apart last night and finally the filter caps are accessible.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7262/7...eacfe17c_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8150/7...23e9706d_z.jpg

I like the funky silicon power rectifiers.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7112/7...5bb31dee_z.jpg

The CRT needs some new dag.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7135/7...8a71ccbb_z.jpg

Wow! They sure knew how to cram things in with this model? I'd imagine there would be quite a bit of heat generated when its running. And that short necked shallow CRT....it looks wrong! :D

I've been following your videos on this and amazing how many tubes you found that were bad and yet the CRT is good.

I recently did up a TV to use in the workshop which had being lying dormant for years and half of the tubes in it were also weak or bad but this set has had very little use due to the lack of discoloration on the circuit boards and certain electrolytics that usually fail were still ok and virtually no dry joints on the tube sockets so go figure on that one? :scratch2:Just another strange aspect of old electronics....:yes:

And those silicon diodes...they are weird.... look like caps!
Cheers Glen.

Well, if you wind up needing anything let me know. I saved the whole chassis plus the speaker and yoke.

Thanks for the offer. I haven't done much testing yet, but I definitely need knobs.

We'll see - it does use "cool chassis" tubes ;) Also, the new caps I'm using are quite a bit smaller so there should be better air flow.

Surprisingly, it's fairly easy to work on once you get the CRT output the way.
Once the ground lugs have been unsoldered, you can even work on this board without removing any of the attached wires.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8164/7...669e6a86_z.jpg

I hope the other board is as easy to work on.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7133/7...1c92d08f_z.jpg

Bob,
Those multi-resistor packs would look suspicious but I'm sure you'll have a good working set after the caps are done.

This may be one of the few TVs that literally build the chassis around the contour of the CRT. Nice investigative work so far!

Dave

All the resistors in the module were at least 20% high so I replaced them all. Not too difficult really.
The three white cylinders are capacitors and I left them alone.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8027/7...5e2e3e47_z.jpg

Almost done with this board. I'm waiting on a 0.0015 @ 1000volt cap to arrive.
Hopefully, the two hybrid modules are OK.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8281/7...b9f9ff87_z.jpg

Looking good Bob!
You do some great work with these devices! Hell you inspired me to go find an RCA Radiola 60(probably for way too much money) and go restore it like you have been doing on you Brunswick 5KR, which has bought me a ton!

I have also been doing a video series on that restoration.

Cant wait to see a nice picture form that set :)

Matt

Thanks. The 5KR sure has been interesting to work on.

As for this set, I took the plunge and unwrapped all the wires from the IF board after carefully labeling them.
It's a pain, but makes the board so much easier to work on.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7113/7...69bb761e_c.jpg

Well at least that set looks like it has decent sockets on it, on the 1956 model I'm working on the sockets are on the back side of the board and the tube pins go through the board and into the socket.

The Predictas have normal sockets so they must have learned pretty quickly.

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised to find that all the tube sockets are firmly seated with no cracked or lifted circuit board tracks.

Nice.

I didnt see many problems with the low-power handling tubes and these circuit traces when these little sets were popular. The sweep tubes, though... I made good money hard-wiring these sockets!!

Your set looks like it hasn't had a constantly 'ON' life, unlike TV's that were in my house growing up...

Bob, I saw a thread some time ago where the OP had cut the wires to the boards and installed a Molex M-F connector so that the board would be easy to service again. My only concern with that would be that it may be a problem with putting all wires next to each other, which may result in coupling of signals that should not be coupled! Sounds like a lot of work. But the first time you have to remove the board again, you smile. Maybe a couple of two or three connector ones would work. But again, that may truly be overkill.

I guess you are going to just solder the wires to the wire wrap pins?

I investigated Molex connectors when restoring my second Predicta, and decided that the drawbacks outweighed the convenience. In this article, scroll down to "Adding Quick Disconnects to the PC Board:"

http://antiqueradio.org/PhilcoH3412L...Television.htm

The boards on this TV don't have quite as many connectors, so they wouldn't get quite as cluttered as a Predicta. On the other hand, that means they are not as big a chore to remove in the first place.

By coincidence, yesterday I was in a hobby store, and as I suspected, they have a variety of teeny electrical connectors for RC applications. The only ones that looked good for this purpose are very small, round male/female connectors. They were quite expensive, of course. And they offer no real advantage over using a female Molex .062 connector as mentioned in the article.

When you service a board like this, I definitely recommend soldering the old wire-wrap leads back onto the pins.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

That is the only way to go in my opinion (for what it's worth ;)). A small loop around the pin, solder and it is every bit as good as when brand new. Wire wrap is often touted by the manufacturers as being better or stronger or whatever. Actually, it is quicker and time is money. I worked in the telecommunications industry and that is the reason we used wrap. The old solder frame took a long, long time but was never compromised when done correctly.

Just my 2¢ and of course, 2¢ won't get you a cup of coffee today (or cuppa as said in Australia). ;)