First Transistor TV ?

[anden]

Who manufactured ther Worlds first fully transistorized television ?

[Dave A]

In the US, it is the Philco Safari from 1959 or so using a 2" CRT. It had a battery pack with a built in charger or full AC operation with a selector switch. If you find one they usually work. The batteries are long dead.

[zenith2134]

Beat me to it. But, it was probably your knowledge, since I read it here originally. Those are nice little sets.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by Dave A

In the US, it is the Philco Safari from 1959 or so using a 2" CRT. It had a battery pack with a built in charger or full AC operation with a selector switch. If you find one they usually work. The batteries are long dead.

Was the OP giving us a trick question? "Fully transistorized" would imply no tubes, therefore any TV with a CRT would not qualify.

Besides the 2EP4 CRT being a "tube", there are also a pair of 5642 HV rectifier "tubes" in the Safari. www.wiwitubes.com/pic/tube/Jan5642.jpg

I believe the Sony 8-301 gets a bit closer to being fully transistorized, having the CRT as the only tube in it.

[tubesrule]

Actually both the Philco Safari and the Sony 8-301W had three tubes each, the crt and the two HV rectifiers. The Philco used two 5642 HV rectifiers tubes and the Sony used two 1DK1 tubes. High voltage silicon diodes were not yet available at the time.

Sony's web site incorrectly states that the 8-301W was the worlds first fully transistorized television, but the Safari beat it by over a year. So much for Sony revisionist history.

Darryl

[markdi]

well ?

Who made the first 1 tube tv ?

this is going to bug me all night - ha ha

[Sandy G]

Would it be the NEXT Sony, the ubiquitous 5-303 series of "tummy TVs" from '62 or thereabouts ?

[kx250rider]

Really hard to say which was the "first"... Agreeing on the Safari and 8-301 being the first "transistor sets", there was a flood of Japanese sets in the early 60s (Sony, Panasonic, Singer, NEC, JVC, etc etc). Any of those (some with solid state HV rectifier), could have been earlier than another. May we agree that the first in general, as Sandy says, is the 5-303?

There was another thread on the first American color solid-state set, and I think Motorola won that debate over the Zenith and RCA, which were hotly debated.

Charles

[leadlike]

If we are going to talk about ALL transistorized, with no CRT, which would that be? Was that odd little screen in the 80's Sony Watchman still a CRT? If not then, certainly by circa 1990 when they made Watchmen models with a true LCD.

[akent36]

Did the Motorola Astronaut use a tube HV rectifier?

[Sandy G]

I have a brown Safari that still works-BIG surprise there-Too bad it'll be useless here in about 2 weeks...Guess I'll use it for Target Practise.....








Yeah, right...

[zenith2134]

!!! Please don't haha.

Who would buy the world's first transistor TV set? It was probably very pricey, and wasn't a tried-and-true, sure-thing for tv's yet.

[Sandy G]

The 1st 5-303 my parents got me for Christmas 1962 at General Products on Gay street in Knoxville was nigh on to $300,IIRC, BIG wampum back then...Sony stuff was NEVER cheap.

[markdi]

Don't shoot the safari mister g.


I watched a video of one on youtube - looks like a really kool little tv

[Sandy G]

Don't worry, fellers, the Safari is safe as a babe in its mother's arms...The only TV I ever shot was a late-60s B/W console that had the tit end of the CRT snapped off...This was like 20 odd years ago. I DON'T execute TVs, even BPC, much less something like a Safari...