[Dave A]

All right boys, here we go. I did visit the set yesterday and some photos follow. I took many more and may have to do a second post to add them for full viewing. I will start here with a longish presentation in the interest of research.

It is in a house being closed out as mom and dad are gone and the sons wish it a good home. The best part is how mom and dad got it. The house is from 1946. The previous owners bought the set in 1951 and sold the house in 1954 to the current owners. They left this $2k set behind because they did not want to move it. A lot of money to leave behind. All the paperwork is there including the control hang-tag to mount behind the knobs for users to follow for proper operation.

This DuMont RA116-A-1 set was the family set until the late 50's they got something smaller in another room and was not watched much after that. I found a CRT warranty tag inside from a change in 1958. It looks to be a no-name rebuild 19AP4A metal-cone from Almo Distributors, a local Phila company. Most other tubes have been changed with many mfrs in attendance. 34 tubes total.

Now the big CRT test...is it any good? The Beltron tells all. I hooked it up and it came up to .4 right away. I let it cook for 30 minutes and got it to .8 just short of the Beltron recommended .85. The Beltron life test ideal is 8-10 seconds before needle drop-off. I got 6-8 and the drop was slow. A winner. One son said that he graduated high school in 1962 and he remembers the set was not watched after that. It just sat.

As for the set. It looks to be the same cabinet as the Westminster I, the lift-out CRT version from 1948 that Chuck A has on his website. Just solid in the middle for a souped-up RA109 to be stuffed in...along with the glorified tuner, timer, tape deck and record player. The cabinet is quite good for the age. Just the usual scuff marks and age. The set is behind a bi-fold door that pulls to the left. Players are in two drawers on the left. Record storage below. A massive tuner/controls/timer panel on the right with the obligatory blank for DuMont UHF to come later. More DuMont inventions to come later.

Inside is 40+ years of dust and a few loose items laying around. One pulled focus tube and some nuts and bolts not put back in the CRT swap. The power cord is rotted. The main chassis is a wide thing that may be unique. And an added audio amp chassis for the players. The tuner/control panel is wide-open on the back with the huge focus dropping resistors mounted right there behind the front-panel focus control. No sign of any damage. The normal DuMont brass panels are quite dulled from age and are going to be a challenge to buff up. There is also a mysterious block of wood to the right of the chassis mounted to the chassis panel base. It is about 5"x5"x3/4" with a 3" hole in the middle and three smaller holes surrounding the main hole. I have no clue what it is for but it is a part of the construction.

I will let others identify the record player and tape recorder. The instructions indicate the tape deck is wired directly to the main chassis to record tv programs. The original Shure mic is with the recorder as is the eye tube.

The tuner panel is unique with the Telechron timer in place. Pull-tabs are surrounding the clock for on-off. The sons said they had a lot of fun playing with that. The tuner is the usual DuMont Inductuner arrangement with the added AM band.

On the back of the chassis is the best find. A RCA connector clearly marked for "color converter"! My Col-R-Tel wheel is 32" wide for a 10" set. How big would this thing be if it was ever made for a 19AP4A?

And just for fun, the sons pulled out a Pilot 3" set they never mentioned to show me as the first family set. They are keeping it for now as it is a good size to keep. They also showed me the original Hotpoint electric stove in the kitchen from 1946. It had the factory deep-fryer option complete with deep-fryer pot. You lifted the back left burner up and then lowered it in it's tub and it became the burner at the bottom for the pot that would drop in to the space. I had to show them how it worked. Of course the original manual is there. It does sell with the house but the new owner may want it gone. Stay tuned.

I am sure I will remember more and am glad to answer all questions as best I can. And yes, I am going to grab it and figure out the problems later. We did negotiate to a point which included them storing it for another day. We met in the middle.

This is not just a purchase, but a great adventure finding a rare item and doing the seluthing that goes with it. This may need more help from nearby AK members to finish this. My house is small and I will need the help.

Dave A