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Old 03-22-2003, 12:08 PM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fairport Harbor, Ohio (near Lake Erie)
Posts: 4,035
Re: Golden Grid tuners

Eric -

In answer to your comment about the meaning of the term "Golden Grid": This referred to the tuners in top-of-the-line Philco TVs of the 1950s, which were designed with what were known as "cascode" RF stages (generally using 6BQ7 and/or 6BZ7 RF amplifier tubes). These tubes were actually two tubes in one envelope with, in Philco sets using this type of tuner (if I remember correctly) gold-plated grids. The cascode tuner, with its 2-stage RF amplifier, was designed for extra signal amplification in television fringe areas, far from the nearest TV station. (In the early 1950s, television stations, which were mostly VHF at that time, were not nearly as powerful as they are today, hence the need in fringe and even some suburban areas for boosters and other methods of signal enhancement such as cascode tuners).

Philco also produced a line of TVs in the 50s it dubbed "Microgrid 390". (I had one of these sets about 30 years ago, which worked well until the CRT gave up; then I moved and it went out with the trash.) If I remember correctly, these sets were extensions of the Golden Grid series, using the same type of tuner. What the 390 stood for, however, I couldn't tell you.

BTW: You have done an excellent job of restoring your set's cabinet; it looks wonderful in the picture. I wish my old Philco, and several other old wood-cabinet consoles I had in the late 1960s-early seventies, had looked that good!

Good luck. I sincerely hope your Philco gives you many more years of enjoyment. I'd hold on to that set if I were you, since Philco is out of business (has been for some time) and no one makes TVs (or anything else, for that matter) like that anymore.
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Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002

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