[Jeffhs]

I agree with the person who said a color roundie, even a table model with a handle, would be too heavy to be considered a portable. The only so-called "portable" 1960s-vintage color TV I ever saw, and then not personally (it was a picture in a DIY television repair book of the period), was a 19-inch, IIRC, Philco color set with a rectangular CRT. The TV came with a wheeled stand and, although it did sport a handle on top of the cabinet, required two people to lift it (it was much too heavy for one person to lift without getting a hernia, or worse). I'd guess that set must have weighed 80 pounds or more, because of the 19" CRT--and even more if the TV had a transformer power supply.


Sandy G.: How good was the picture on those 10-inch GE PortaColor sets? I never saw one in operation, but I would think that, if one were to connect the set to a good antenna, it would get a fairly good picture even in a fringe area, and even better in a prime area such as the suburbs of a large city. I don't know where you grew up. Was it a fringe area in the mountains? What was your TV reception like in the area?

I wouldn't try using one of these sets on their built-in rabbit ears, however, unless the set was in a very strong signal area, say within five miles or less of the transmitters. I have an aunt who used to live in an extremely strong signal area for Cleveland stations--her house was so close to the towers she could often get good b&w reception using--now catch this--no antenna at all, or with just a length of wire dangling off one antenna terminal for VHF and a hastily-fashioned loop of wire connected to both UHF antenna terminals for those channels.

Of course, for any kind of decent color reception, some kind of real antenna had to be used; her TV worked well for color with rabbit ears on the three VHF network stations, but not so well, IIRC, on UHF (Cleveland only had two UHF stations at that time, late 1960s--channels 25 and 43, the latter having gone on the air just shortly after she got her color set).

Even if the little Portacolor sets worked halfway decently on rabbit ears and UHF loops or bowtie antennas, I'd still use at least a small outdoor antenna or cable in a good signal area. Color TV demands it, which is why eight out of every ten households in this country, even in metropolitan areas near powerful stations, have at least basic cable today. I live in a small town where most folks don't even use antennas on their TVs anymore; most everyone in my town has cable, since this area is over 40 miles from the Cleveland stations. The reception on antennas is fair to poor at best on two VHF stations (5 and 8), the third (channel 3) doesn't reach here at all, but the UHF stations, all but the PBS channel, come in very well, with channels 19 and 61 coming in the best of all.