Picked up my first Color Tube set-for only $1!!!

[ZackN920]

I found a GE Portacolor!!! Model WM212HWD-4 with an H-4 chassis. Sorry guy's, no pictures.(I'm on my iPod) Not sure of the year, but the set dosnt have Portacolor written on it and it does not have the clicker style UHf tuner. Anyways this set's actually pretty clean, after some cleaning... No major scratches, no real cosmetic issues.
Inside it was dirty. I cleaned it up and made sure everything looked ok. It looked good, no signs of being baked or even any monkeying around either. I slowly powered it up, and other than the CRT taking its sweet time to light, it works and has no major issues. Filter caps stay cool. Tested the tubes as well and all test in the middle of the good range. For a doller and a few hours of tlc, I've got a nice set.

Now, how I found it. I've been interested in picking one of these up for awhile now, but haven't been interested in eBay prices. I've seen enough of these sets in photos to know what to look for if I saw one. Well, this morning I spotted it on an auction house(that I sometimes go to) website. Wasn't planning on goin to this auction but the back of this little tv looked interesting. Looked like a porta, but all they showed was the back. Went over there and sure enough. They all thought it was a black and white set and nobody wanted it! Oh-well!!! There ya go, doller well spent!

Anyway's what's there to restoring one of these? All I see are 2 paper caps and then of coarse, changing the lytics. Also, is there anyway to adjust focus? Just curious for now, still have other sets ahead, radio's included.

[zeno]

I would just change the few "white" caps. 'lytics should be fine.
If there is no focus control there may be a jumper but they usually
have no effect. A few screen shots may help as far as focus goes,
we may see something else.
Good catch & price !

73 Zeno

[Kamakiri]

Geeze, can't argue there! Great score!!!

[DavGoodlin]

Good Job on the rescue. No telling what could have happened to it. 1974 model I beleive

[ZackN920]

Thanks guy's. 74' huh.. Cool! I figured it'd be in that range. I just thought 71-75, because i've read that 71' was the first for the H-4 chassis, and 75/6 was when they got the clicker uhf tuner's. When did they lose the "porta"? because mine just has color written on it.

White caps, mmmkay. Those were the papers that I mentioned about, only saw 2 in the whole set. Are all the other (beside's the ceramic disks) caps in these reliable?
Also was wondering, If I leave the lytics, and use the set, what signs should I look for if they start getting leaky, before blowing something?

After watching some more, I think the focus is about as good as it will be for a portacolor. I watched the news on it this evening, and could still read the news bar at the bottom of the screen that scrolls.

Set does have a few issue's. The contrast control is very ineffective. and the picture is tinted blue. Even when the color is turned off, it has a blue tint, and if watching a wide screen program, the bars arent black. Other than that it's good. Had it on for 1.5 hour tonight at 115v. and was real stable. Get's pretty hot though. I'm suprised the plastic backs arent weak on these, and don't break when carried by the handle on the top.

Got a couple of pictures. Better one's will come later. This thing is not easy to photograph a good image of the crt, when on. It alway's looked like crap on the camera. Never had such an issue with the b&w set's. The one pic, really emphasis'es the bluish tint...wow, I got a lot of crap on that desk...

[Username1]

~WOW~ That is the exact model I had ! I was beginning to think that those flat sided
knobs were something I was remembering from a different set ! Mostly because I saw
Portacolors posted here with the same tuner setup cabinet and all, but with the round
knobs ! - Good to know the 17 brain cells that remembered the flat sided knobs are
not crazy..... My other 89 brain cells were in serious doubt..... Nice TV Good Score !

.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by ZackN920

Thanks guy's. 74' huh.. Cool! I figured it'd be in that range. I just thought 71-75, because i've read that 71' was the first for the H-4 chassis, and 75/6 was when they got the clicker uhf tuner's. When did they lose the "porta"? because mine just has color written on it.

White caps, mmmkay. Those were the papers that I mentioned about, only saw 2 in the whole set. Are all the other (beside's the ceramic disks) caps in these reliable?
Also was wondering, If I leave the lytics, and use the set, what signs should I look for if they start getting leaky, before blowing something?

After watching some more, I think the focus is about as good as it will be for a portacolor. I watched the news on it this evening, and could still read the news bar at the bottom of the screen that scrolls.

Set does have a few issue's. The contrast control is very ineffective. and the picture is tinted blue. Even when the color is turned off, it has a blue tint, and if watching a wide screen program, the bars arent black. Other than that it's good. Had it on for 1.5 hour tonight at 115v. and was real stable. Get's pretty hot though. I'm suprised the plastic backs arent weak on these, and don't break when carried by the handle on the top.

Got a couple of pictures. Better one's will come later. This thing is not easy to photograph a good image of the crt, when on. It alway's looked like crap on the camera. Never had such an issue with the b&w set's. The one pic, really emphasis'es the bluish tint...wow, I got a lot of crap on that desk...

Greyscale adjustments for the H-3 chassis - likely the same for the H-4

[Jon A.]

A dollar! Dang, that's tough to beat, nice score.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by Jon A.

A dollar! Dang, that's tough to beat, nice score.

I got my H-3 chassis PortaColor for free - a curb crawl, and it worked from the start!

http://www.videokarma.org/showpost.p...52&postcount=8

[zeno]

Brian comes through again !
Do the grey scale first & see how it works.
Contrast could be AGC setting or a weak tube
anywheres from tuner-IF-video chain. Or something else.

Trouble with these & most compactron sets is when
they get miles on them tubes get "a little" weak.
You can often change the tubes one at a time & see
small improvements as you go. Trick is to find the ones that make
a big improvement otherwise you will go broke.
Even in the day they were patched up to run again.
Making an older one work perfect cost too much.
One easy test is running the set without a signal. It should
give a snowy pix with dots ( not streaks) for snow & good
contrast. Audio should have a loud waterfall sound to it.
That can tell a lot.

73 Zeno

[Olorin67]

the best way to date these sets is to look for date codes on the tubes, my portacolor seems to have nearly all original GE tubes, and they all had '67 date codes. some other parts such as speakers and caps can have date codes also. I suspect yours is a fairly early set since the small knobs are all on the far right, and there are exposed screws on the front. the first few model years were like that, with minor color/styling tweaks. Maybe not the first couple model years, but probably 68-69-70ish. In the 70s they started moving knobs around.

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by Olorin67

the best way to date these sets is to look for date codes on the tubes, my portacolor seems to have nearly all original GE tubes, and they all had '67 date codes. some other parts such as speakers and caps can have date codes also. I suspect yours is a fairly early set since the small knobs are all on the far right, and there are exposed screws on the front. the first few model years were like that, with minor color/styling tweaks. Maybe not the first couple model years, but probably 68-69-70ish. In the 70s they started moving knobs around.

That is a very good point. 1974 is a guess based on chassis numbering, N-1 and N-2 were 16" sets just a step up from porta-color and they were introduced in 1971.

The channel knob type on this set was first used in 1966 IIRC but those flat knobs the squirrel refers to were more common on the 1970 and later 16-19" sets.

Of course Im going by a few brain cells myself, probably compromised by all those griplets I soldered on the later small-screen GE's

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Findm-Keepm

I got my H-3 chassis PortaColor for free - a curb crawl, and it worked from the start!

http://www.videokarma.org/showpost.p...52&postcount=8

That's why I said tough to beat, rather than impossible. Similarly, my Trinitron was a freebie, and was brought to me. I gave the fellow my Philips radio in good faith though because he said he likes it, and I wasn't attached to it.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

That is a very good point. 1974 is a guess based on chassis numbering, N-1 and N-2 were 16" sets just a step up from porta-color and they were introduced in 1971.

The channel knob type on this set was first used in 1966 IIRC but those flat knobs the squirrel refers to were more common on the 1970 and later 16-19" sets.

Of course Im going by a few brain cells myself, probably compromised by all those griplets I soldered on the later small-screen GE's

H-3/HC were 69/70, so 1971/72/72 is the H-4/10HD. The 10JA PortaColor came out in 1974, followed by the 10QA in 1976 or 1977. We know that 10HE tube PortaColors were made as late as 76/77 - Andy has one....

[zeno]

I goe with older date for 2 reasons. Dont remember the switch overs but
they eliminated the 3 screws in the front & changed them
to 2 in the back. Newer ones had a HV focus & and looked
much different.
I remember the N chassis. Didnt see many but never saw one
that worked right even at a few yrs old. Probably the biggest POS
ever built. Makes the portacolor look like a Rolls.

73 Zeno