GE 800 and Predicta Siesta scored

[bandersen]

A few months back I met a fellow, local collector who sold me my Admiral 24A12. A real nice guy with some cool stuff Well, I heard from him yesterday and he's moving down to Texas but the collection isn't. So I went over to take a look at what he had left.

That turned out to be a Predicta Siesta, GE 800 "locomotive", a nice Zenth tombstone and a bunch of smaller 40s radios.

Mainly I was interested in the Siesta with original stand. The GE 800 has some damage to the top vent and a crack all along the bottom. The speaker is trashed too and it's a little rough inside. However, I tested the CRT and it's good so I dragged it home too.

Actually, both CRTs tested better than most, if not all, of my other tubes. That's great except now I think I need to revise what I considered to be a "good" CRT. Maybe all my others aren't as good as I though. I guess time will tell.

Here they are in the garage. Both have all their original knobs, but, as usual, the Predicta has no antenna. At least it has a nice plate to cover the hole.



I was surprised to discover that the stand is mostly wood. I had figured it was metal.




I'll know more once I bring them inside and take a closer look.

[DaveWM]

Nice, looking forward to watching the progress on both.

[bandersen]

I popped the cover off the back of the Predicta and discovered it's a 10L43 chassis. This version has a power transformer and I think is one of the more reliable versions. It appears to be 100% original - not a single replaced cap that I can see.



Normally, I wouldn't just power a set up this early in the game, but the previous owner had it running when I picked it up. No picture, but strong sound on local VHF channel 6.

I checked out the HV tube - it's a Philco and still good.


I carefully powered it up and also got good sound and with a little control fiddling got a horizontal trace.

So I went to check on the 6DR7 vertical oscillator / output tube and the frigging thing shattered as I tried to pull it from it's socket I carefully used some long nosed pliers and extracted the remains.


What's really weird is that I wouldn't have any replacement 6DR7s except that I just ordered a few to restore an EICO 369!

So I popped one in and slowly powered the set back up. After a bit more control tweaking, I can't believe it's actually working I've wanted a working Predicta for so long. Of course, I'm not going to leave it running and will do a proper recap when I find the time.

Here are some clips from an old Jack Nicholson movie I think. There seem to be some vertical linearity issues, but I'm not complaining

[DaveWM]

wow, that is amazing it it working on the orig caps, great find.

[jeyurkon]

Nice score!

[DaveWM]

and that chassis looks super clean !

[marty59]

I don't know if these transformer models with the 6DR7 are known to be as picky as the series set models for tubes in the vertical circuits....

I went through a bunch of 10DE7's to get ones that would allow me to set the height and linearity properly. The first tube that I had was a Philco replacement and it streached out the top the worst!

Fortunately I had access to a good stash and kept the best. Some folks will tell you that the Sylvania's work better and that would be "mostly" true. However, don't shy away from either Tung-Sols or RCA's either.

Your tube tester won't know the difference between them!!

[zenithfan1]

Very nice! I had a chance to get that exact predicta last summer at an estate sale but they wanted $300 for it. I ended up leaving with an ultra-rare International Harvester lawnmower,it's built by Lawn-Boy but is yellow and white with the IH name. It's almost done being rebuilt out in the garage.

[bandersen]

Originally Posted by zenithfan1

Very nice! I had a chance to get that exact predicta last summer at an estate sale but they wanted $300 for it. I ended up leaving with an ultra-rare International Harvester lawnmower,it's built by Lawn-Boy but is yellow and white with the IH name. It's almost done being rebuilt out in the garage.

I've seen a crazy range of prices for these sets. Something like $25 - $2,500. I'm sure you'll find another at a decent price.

P.S. My dad swears by Lawn-Boy

[bandersen]

Originally Posted by spudz64

The Siesta has an always-on electric clock, wired between the outside cord and the set. Based on playing with my own set, the Siesta clock controls works like this:

To use TV normally....set clock to "ON" and turn TV on using main TV controls.

To allow TV to shut itself off....set clock to "OFF" while watching TV, then dial up to 120 mins on dial.

To allow TV to turn itself on....set clock to "AUTO", set to desired channel, set time with alarm hand on clock, and be sure to turn TV on with main control.

To awake to alarm only.....set to "ALARM", set time with alarm hand on clock, and leave main TV control off.

Thanks! It never occurred to me that you could turn the set on with the alarm. Do you know what the 'alarm only' mode sounds like when it goes off ?

[spudz64]

Originally Posted by bandersen

Thanks! It never occurred to me that you could turn the set on with the alarm. Do you know what the 'alarm only' mode sounds like when it goes off ?

Its just a generic "buzzzzzz" sound.....pretty annoying actually!

How are the front clock adjustment rods? They are forked at the end to grab the knobs, and seem to always be broken off. Are the knobs ok? Do the seem original? Post pics please! thx

[Dan Starnes]

You really lucked out. Nice score!

[bandersen]

Originally Posted by Dan Starnes

You really lucked out. Nice score!

Thanks! A little bittersweet though. The reason the previous owner unloaded them to me was because he's moving to Texas to take care of his sick brother. We had a good laugh about how his thick Chicago accent would go over in west TX. That cheered him up a little

[DaveWM]

looks low time, yea that resistor takes a beating, mine was cooked. I replaced it with a sand resistor, and moved it to avoid heating up that network. Its amazing so many of those back beauties and other caps have not failed, maybe all the tar has kept then sealed well. One thing about cig smoke is it preserves metal well.

[bandersen]

The knobs appear to be the originals. The one on the right seems to engage properly but not the one on the left.

I really hope it's repairable because I recently sold a Siesta clock assembly. I'd had it for a long time and didn't think I'd ever have a use for it!