Philco Seventeener III
 

This is the other set I picked up recently. When I saw it arrive in a really beat up box, I expected disaster, but only one corner of the back cover was cracked, and I've fixed worse.

This set, like the RCA I just got, only gets snow and static when hooked up to the dvd player. But at least the picture filled the screen... initially. After a minute or so the horiz width started to shrink and I spotted a burning resistor, so I unplugged it. And like the RCA I just picked up it could be a while before I get back to fixing it.

This uses the 17DAP4, a 2.6V tube, like in the Predicta, and unlike my RCA, it's good, not great, but ok. And I always like to find pre-1964 sets with a uhf tuner. Everyone makes such a fuss over the Predictas, but of the Philcos I like the Town & Country and the Seventeener III the most.

Yes, I had this TV in a yellowish color. The IF strip needed an alignment since the sound was way out, but the CRT was still bright enough. I sctually used a B&K 465 to run the heater at slightly higher voltage and that's what brought it back to a usable state.
The antenna in the handle is a nice touch. This is 1 set I wish I saved from the floods.

Makes me miss my moto 17p6 :(

SR

Nice set :thmbsp: It looks very similar inside to my Town and Country.

I scrapped one just like this recently.
I kept the chassis and CRT to fix another one with the remote chassis but I gave the cabinet to the thrift store.
I'm not sure how good the back was but I don't think it was cracked.
Never fails, when I toss something a need arises soon after.:sigh:

I just recently found one of them myself. It's the late version with the basic handle and the Predicta antenna mounted on the right side.
[IMG]http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...psdf8dbd2d.jpg[/IMG]

I made some progress on this. I did the usual recap, and had to replace a few caps and resistors that were taken off the horiz/vert board and never put back. And when I tried it I got ... nothing. But after poking around I found the trouble was the horiz osc tube socket. After resoldering it to the board, I got a good picture with both horiz and vert sync, and sound with lots of buzzing in it. But the picture only fills the middle of the screen because the HV is way low, around 7.5kV. Then, yesterday I turned it on and the filaments burned out in that same horiz osc tube. I didn't have one, so now I'm waiting on a 9AU7 to arrive in the mail.

And I found the small piece that broke off the back by digging around in the box it came in.

I also finally got around to putting together this little 8" RCA, that I had already basically finished fixing 2 years ago.

Nice RCA. . That must be the only portable under 14 inches made at the time. There is one in a book I have that shows a small tilted tripod stand for it.

Yes, those RCAs were sold with or without the stand. I ended up with three of them -- one restored and the other two waiting for their turns.

Phil Nelson

http://antiqueradio.org/art/RCA8-PT-7030FirstLook.jpg

The little 9inch GE is from about the same time period, but not nearly as well made as the 8 inch RCA... perhaps fewer survive today. :scratch2:

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...2&d=1278180606

jr

Nice GE! I think one with a Hotpoint badge also available.

There's the Admiral 10", as well.
The 8" Emerson used the same type CRT as the RCA.
The RCA and the Emerson also had a full power transformer and voltage doubler. I liked the Emerson because of the AM radio and phono jack. Add a record changer and you had a complete home entertainment center. :D

IIRC, the Motorola 17P6 was one of their first sets to use PC board construction and a lot more reliable than the Philco. As in the Philcos, the tuners were a little funky. It was Motorola built tuner and not one of their better efforts. Odd-ball tuner tubes, 5EU8 and 4ES8, European sourced tubes.

Wow Adam, nice job on the little red RCA! That's got a really sharp picture! :-)

Yep, My 17p6 was a DX-ing wonder even on the rod antenna. A close friend gave me one when i was 12, it had a bad H-output tube and a cracked restistor. My dad encouraged my repair interests and bought me a Weller iron and some hex tools and we got it running :)

Sometime later, it developed a bad fly and i reluctantly gave it up to a neigbor tv shop that fixed and sold it.. Saw one on Ebay once, (too far away) go for $10. Havent seen one since.

Next to the 17p5 Snelson sold me, this is a sentimental TV to me and my search continues...

SR

IIRC, the 4ES8 was a Cascode type RF stage. The set had keyed AGC, so it was good for DX-ing.
Did yours use that odd horizontal output tube. A 12EG6? I don't remember if it was replaceable by a 12DQ6.

Mine had the 12GC6.. Got the plates hot a few times before i gave up on it..

Wished ide known better, ide still have it... That and the packard bell radio/tv/phono console i had.

High school days brought electronics class and access to lots of tubes and test equipment, not to mention piles of chassis for student hacking :D

SR

I guess I got the numbers slightly wrong. It's not that common of a tube.

Not that common of a tv im starting to think, Having one heck of a hard time finding one :D

SR

Thanks for the positive comments about the RCA. That set I basically had working two years ago, but for the contrast control, which first of all had too much resistance across a portion of it (I put a resistor across it in parallel with that portion of it), and was worn out in spots (cleaning was no help, so I put a resistor in series with the control to lock the good part of the control in where the contrast was at a good setting).

I like these RCAs too, basically for the reasons already stated, being one of the few portables from that era to use a power transformer, and they seem to be good performers. I have a few of these late 50s metal cabinet RCAs, a white 8" (also without the stand) that I fixed several years ago and have used quite a bit since then with little trouble. I also have the 14" version of this set, which I got working and had to do some bodywork on the cabinet three years ago, and still haven't gotten around to painting yet. And a cool looking 17", which needs much work (and I don't think uses a power transformer like the 8" and 14") but is a really neat looking set, two tone light and dark blue, with gold fins on the side. And a nice working black RCA from '59 in the flatter cabinet with the wider deflection angle 17" CRT.

As far as the Philco goes, I replaced that bad 9AU7 horiz osc tube and still have no HV. I did find that no B+ was getting to the anode of the 2nd triode in the 9AU7. There's a big one of those units that have several resistors and capacitors in one component, that I've narrowed down as the cause. Also the B+ seems to be about 100V low throughout the set, whether a short in that unit is the cause or if I'm looking at a 2nd unrelated problem, I don't know yet.

I had to look up the Sams on the set. The horizontal output tube has a different pinout. The cathode is on pin 5 and G1 is on 8. :scratch2:
The main PC board is made to slip out of the chassis frame by means of a card-edge connector.
It has to be around 40 years ago, since I repaired one.
The Sams is dated, June 1960.

LOL! thats as close to purchasing this tv that i have gotten so far.... I managed to buy the SAMS folder for that model :D

SR

I finally mostly got this set working. And it had several weird and hard to track down problems (I'll post more about it later). I still have to do a few things: I have a 5BR8 as the osc tube in the tuner where it takes a 6BR8, a few resistors where I just have something close clipped in there and still have to get the exact value, and it was buzzing badly, so I just did the audio IF alignment quickly by ear and should go back and do properly, and I still need to go and fix where the cabinet was cracked,...

This is my only philco tv right now. I haven't had too many philco tvs, I think this is my 4th. I've had many more philco radios, I just fixed up a nice hippo last week, the 49-900.

Looks good. The late 50s - early 60s Philcos had great support close to home. as well as RCA and GE, which needed more frequent service than Motorola, Zenith and Admiral sets IMAO.
I think Philcos were more popular in areas AWAY from the midwest, mostly because there were so many equally good manufacturers there.

I restored an RCA 8 inch portable a couple years ago which turned out really well except for an issue with jail bars on the left half of the screen which I never was able to resolve. It's possible to make them less visible but they're always there more or less. It's a nice TV but working on it is a challenge between the split chassis and the fact that it's built in three dimensions - RCA used every cubic inch of the chassis to make it as small as it was. Also, the fact that the horizontal output tube and damper are under the flyback seems like a bad design from a heat perspective, mine had a bit of wax dripping out of it but seems to work just fine.

Philco products had a large presence in Wisconsin.
It seems that most of the pre-war console radios, that still show up, today are Philcos.

The weird problem with this tv was the socket for the 9AU7 horiz osc tube. One of the pins for one of the filaments was not making contact, and all the current was flowing just through 1 of the 2 filaments in the tube, so after I started the set up a few times, that one side of the 9AU7 would burn out. I burned out 2 new 9AU7s before I figured this out. I bent the contacts in the socket back in a way that it worked (only after burning out another 9AU7 testing it out). But tonight I turned it on and the same problem reoccured and took out my 4th 9AU7. This time I kind of screwed up the socket worse trying to bend it again so it would make a tighter fit. I finally jammed a bit of wire in the socket along with the pin of the tube not making contact to make a tighter fit, and this seems to work. But I'd like to come up with a better solution? But for now I'm not moving that tube until I get more, it being my last 9AU7.

Pic shows my messy looking sweep board where I had to replace one of those "component combination" units.

I know it's a hassle, but I suggest replacing the tube socket. The metal in the sockets Philco used are fairly thin and a common point of failure.

Are the sockets that will fit in these philco circuit boards available? I would have replaced it already if I had one.

I got mine from Surplus Sales of Nebraska. They are a perfect fit for Predictas, but made from thicker metal. I was worried they might run out if word got around they work in Predictas, but I see they have 28,000 in stock ;)

They're on this page - (TUA) 751V504C06
http://www.surplussales.com/Tube-Soc...ubeSkts-2.html

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8316/7...f3c5bd8c_z.jpg

I ordered some tube sockets. I've now got everything done on this set except replacing that tube socket, and fixing that broken corner on the back of the cabinet.

Added pic of the fluffy cat helping me look for more 9AU7s...

I stayed up all night and made some progress fixing that broken corner on the back of the cabinet in addition to fixing that weird piece of rca remote control test equipment. But I still need to repaint that gold stripe around the edge.

Nice job on that corner repair. I hope fluffy cat found some 9AU7s :)

Nice work on the Philco sets. Keep kitty away from the grill cloth, I put window screen under any new cloth I install.

Your set is the earliest model of that series. I only saw one that used the 2EN5, horizontal AFC tube. The rest, all seemed to use dual selenium diodes.
It's been ages, since I worked on one of those dogs. :thumbsdn:

I replaced that tube socket today, it took me all day. But it worked after I put it back together first time I tried it.

The bad news is I knocked that same plastic piece on the floor two nights ago breaking the other corner. (But I have it mostly repaired already.) I'll have this set all fixed by either tonight or tomorrow, except for repainting that gold trim around those plastic pieces. I don't think the paint will go on too well in this cold, so I'm going to wait to do that.

I am finally getting this set back together. I painted that gold trim on the front and back piece, but put another coat on the front piece today, so won't take the tape off that until tomorrow.

I saw a picture of a newer 19" model and saw that that unit on the sweep board I replaced was instead made up of discrete caps and resistors mounted on a piece of circuit board sitting perpendicular to the main sweep board. (I wonder if these units were a common problem - for philco to quit using them) It looked much neater than what I did, and if I ever have to take that board up again, I might redo it like that. But these boards are such a pain in the butt to take up and down, I'm not doing it unless I have to because something else breaks.

Well, I'm finally done with this set. There's some scratches in the clear plastic over the tube I couldn't get out, but otherwise it looks pretty good...

This month I also hope to fix three other b/w sets: that 1961 19" Zenith with the SC300 I was posting about last night, my 1961 RCA 19" b/w with the mechanical remote (which also is getting a new CRT), and a '59 or so Admiral 17" b/w with a remote I just bought which hasn't arrived yet.

Looks good!
Did you triy sanding the scratches first then buffing them out?

I use a headlight buffing kit on Predictas and have removed some fairly deep scratches.
The kit starts with a 3000 grit disc (wet sanding) then works down to a softer disc then to rubbing compound then polish. Have also used it on the plastic tube surrounds and they look like new afterwards.

If it's too deep of course you can wind up with distortions but surface scratches usually aren't a problem.

There were a lot of minor surface scratches I already took off first sanding with 600 wet paper, then using some polish. But I was hesitant to really start removing material from the lens to get to the deeper scratches. Now that I know it can work, I might try starting with some 400 or 320 wet sandpaper or discs.