[bgadow]

Well, gang, I got it! This worked out real well. The scoop:

The seller has been agressively advertising in the local market for tube equipment. It turns out our interests compliment each other. He is into tube audio while I am interested in older radios & any tube tv sets. Luckily he is like me in that he can't stand to let something go in the dumpster. I was able today to work out an even swap. I think we both feel we got the better end of the deal! He got pretty much all of my "better grade" audio stuff (all fixer uppers) & I got the TV, the Scott, plus a pair of speakers from some c.1930 radios & a pair of NOS 6BG6's.

There are some interesting stories on this tv. First: there was a gentleman here in my small town who was an avid radio collector. He had worked long & hard to set up a museum but his health failed & he passed away several years ago. His family did not share his interest & so has been slowly selling things off. The first time I talked to the man's son he told me of a tv he had just sold, an unusual upright console with a small screen. From the way he talked he sold it cheap. I had visions of this being a prewar set & this had me wondering for the last couple years. Well, it turns out THIS set was the one he was talking about. So, its back to it's old hometown! I can't say if it was originally from this town but the radio push buttons are from this area. The seller today informed me that it was one step away from the rolloff dumpster, as was the Scott, when he saved it!

The set is not in great condition. The cabinet is rough, in need of a total redo. It was full of leaves & there are signs of mice. Many of the tubes are missing. Other than that, its all there. I'm going to save it. (I will admit that if I had a good table top cabinet for this machine I would have to think hard about swapping it out) I tested the picture tube-its a GE 10BP4A, and it showed very strong right off the bat. Now, here is something odd: the sticker on the chassis doesn't read RCA, but Crosley/AVCO! The model # is 9-408, serial # 628. I know that early Crosleys were relabled RCAs (from what I've read anyway) so I can guess that either someone swapped this somtime way back or maybe it was a factory screwup. I'm sure its the former. Lots of original looking RCA tubes in the set, anyway.

I still don't know what year it is. The '6' would sure seem to indicate '46; the ETF website says '47, and thats hard to argue with. Morgan McMahon's book "Flick of a Switch" says '49. The schematics I dug up were not published until 1950. All else I know is that it has channel 1 & the tv chassis # on the tube chart is KCS-25A.

As for the Scott, its the first one I've ever had my hands on. Missing the tuning eyes but otherwise seems to be complete. I think the chrome on the chassis will polish up okay but that on the 'cans' is peeling in places. Apparently the cabinet was pretty well shot.

It may be awhile before I dig into the 641 but I will be sure to post when I do. At some point I want to get this inside but something has to go to make room. We'll see.

One more thing: I want to thank rldtv-01 & Sean for posting the auction. Otherwise I would have never known about it as I don't check ebay all that frequently.