New find... 1950's Philco Console

[Charlie]

Been up at my camp for the past several days. New central air is being installed tomorrow. While being up here, I learned of a guy nearby in this neck of the woods with an old console tv. At first, I didn't give it too much thought. Went to go have a look, and found it to be a typical looking b&w 21" 1950's Philco. On the front, it's listed as a "Diamond D" which is something I've never really heard of before. Model number is UE4605T. Sams website says it's in 374-9.

After pulling the back off, I found a decent looking chassis with a little dust... not too bad. One pleasant surprise was finding that the CRT had been replaced and the warranty card was still in there from October 30, 1965. That's a big plus. Although I couldn't check it, I'm going on the notion that it's still good. The tube diagram inside lists the original tube as a 21BSP4. The new RCA tube installed is a 21AMP4. The current tube is aluminized. I'm guessing that the original tube was not.

Also, I found this set has motorized power tuning, and apparently had a wired remote. Unfortunately, the remote was no where around. There are two buttons on the top of the set... one for on/off, and the other is for power tuning. So, if it turns out tuner motor still works, I can use the button to change channels.

Looks like it's been serviced quite often. In addition to the crt, most of the tubes have been changed with various brands. I was only able to find two Philco tubes in the set that looked like originals. They had 1956 date codes on them. Also looks like a few caps on the boards have been changed.

The guy was asking 50 bucks for it, and while I normally wouldn't give that much for a typical b&w console, I decided it might be worth it considering the CRT had been replaced and it had power tuning. The guy even loaded it in his truck and brought it to the cabin for me. He was glad to get it out of his way without having to throw it away.

He told me the set was at his grandparent's lake house and he was under the assumption that either they found it at a garage sale or it was given to them... he thinks during the 70's. I showed him the warranty card for the toob. It had a local Beaumont address, but did not recognize the name. He's not even sure if they ever used the set.

Overall, the set looks pretty good. The cabinet is the fake wood stuff and needs a good cleaning. There are some light scratches on the top, but nothing too serious. The knobs and trim are not as shiny as they once were, but the set is quite presentable as is.

Since I am at camp, I don't have any instruments to test anything with. Although the chassis looks pretty decent, I'm not going to try powering it up till I get my variac from home. I might consider pulling the 5U4 out to kill B+ and try turning it on to see if the power tuning will function.

[jpdylon]

That is an awsome grab! Normall I am not too fond of grabbing pre 60s b&w sets, but that looks to be in great shape. Shame that you don't have th remote, but someone in the world may have one. There's always e-spray and cragislist.

Big congrats on that philco. It would be awsome to see pictures of your clean-up and referb process. Good job!

[bgadow]

I've got a spare chassis with power tuning; as I recall it was pretty easy to make up a remote since it just has a few wires to hook switches to. But yours might be more deluxe-though they are about the same age mine has a horizontal chassis. This is probably the model that replaced what I have. I know I have seen ads for the Diamond D, in old Life magazines or some such.

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by bgadow

as I recall it was pretty easy to make up a remote since it just has a few wires to hook switches to.

Hey, your right! Making a remote would be a breeze! Thanks for that idea!

I guess I am going to need to get some extra "basic" tools and instruments to keep here at the cabin... because I have been itchin to play with this set all day. Hell... i don't even have a volt/ohm meter here.

I pulled tubes to clean off the dust and was checking out date codes. Apparently, this set was last serviced by someone during the 80's. The damper tube was branded an Admiral with a date code of 1983 on it. All of the others were dated in the 50s and 60s.

I left out the 5U4 and plugged in the power to see if the power tuning still worked. Pressed the button on top and the tuner went thru the channels just fine... stopping at the ones it was set for. That's cool! Hope i have that luck with the rest of it.

Although the guy that had the set has no idea whether or not the remote was around when his grandparents had the set, he told me he'd keep an eye open for it. He said there were several boxes of stuff from their lake house and it was possible it could be in one of them.

[Don Lindsly]

Nice find on the Philco Diamond D. That TV came out during my tenure at Philco and I rate it among the three best Philco B & W chassis. The originals did have aluminized picture tubes. That TV will show a great picture if it's working right.

Tighten the 1/4 " hex screws on the PC boards as a preventive measure. They hold the PC board to the chassis to complete the circuit ground. Goofy intermittent problems show up if they're loose. Sound detector transformers could also be troublesome. Otherwise only routine maintenance is expected. You will be very pleased with the performance.

Good luck,

Don

[Charlie]

I couldn't stand it anymore, so, last night I decided to drive home (about an hour drive) and get some gear to bring back to the cabin so I could play with this set.

This morning, I started out with the CRT which tested fine. After that, I looked around a little closer to see if any parts looked near death. Everything looked okay, so I pulled the HO tube and decided to do a very slow soft start. After a few hours of inching the juice up, everything seemed okay. The lytic cans were a little warm, but not so much to cause concern. The B+ voltages were pretty close to spec. Looking promising at this point.

TV is extremely hard to pick up in these woods, so, I connected a dvd player and was able to get some audio. It was somewhat weak, so I went thru checking and replacing tubes along the path. No changes. I have all the tubes except one... the tuner's RF amp. The tube chart showed it as a weird number like X-155. When I jerked the tube out that was in there, it was labeled 6BS8. I'm sure i'll find that later.

After letting it run for a while like this, I decided to plug in the HO tube and see if I got any kind of light on the screen. I did get light, but only a white line going across. Tried changing both the verticle tubes, but no change. Guess I'll know where to start when I pull the chassis out for changing caps.

At least I have something to work with here... a signal and light on the screen is promising. I'm sure once I get all those black beauties out, things will start to shape up. I'll probably pull the chassis after dinner.

Stay tuned.

[Sandy G]

Good luck & BE CAREFUL, Charlie...-Sandy G.

[Don Lindsly]

The signs are good.

Keep the brightness set very low until the white line is corrected. That indicates vertical problems. Usually nothing serious. Try adjusting the vertical lin and height controls first. To find them, remove the front plastic knob cover assembley. You will note that the control shafts are hollow and the knobs have small holes in the center. The height control is down the center of the vertical hold control and the lin is down the center of the brightness control. You will need a very thin screwdriver.

There are two tubes in the vertical; a 12AU7 on the PC panel behind the controls and a 6CM6 on the chassis. There are two 12AU7s on the PC panel. Vertical is the lower one.

Tighten the hex screws that hold the circuit board in place.

The X-155 is no big deal. 6BS8, 6BZ8, 6BZ7 will all work fine. There is a 1,000 ohm 1/2 watt resistor in the tuner that has a high failure rate. If you have snowy pictures after everything else is working, and you have replaced the RF amp, look for the 1K. It is likely burned. Also make sure the range switch is in the center position. That's the little flag switch at the bottom of the control cluster.

You're well on the way.

Don

[veg-o-matic]

Anyone know what the "Diamond D" means?

veg

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by veg-o-matic

Anyone know what the "Diamond D" means?

veg

Marketing hype I think, bout the same as "Golden Grid"

[Chad Hauris]

You can use a .047 600 volt cap hooked to the ungrounded side of the 6.3 volt filament circuit to help troubleshoot the vertical circuit...hook the cap output up to the grid of the vert output stage and the feedback stage and you can see if there is any amplification through the stages or where the circuit is broken.

[Don Lindsly]

True, Diamond D was a marketing differentiation. Philco had two new console lines in '57, Golden D and Diamond D. The Diamond D was the high tier line. Transitone was revived for first year portables.

Don

[veg-o-matic]

Yeah, but "D"? I could see Diamond P, but that D just seems odd.

veg

[Charlie]

Yes, Veg, I see your point... "P" for Philco. Would make better sense.

I am currently changing out caps... lots of Black Beauties in there. Found one with a big crack under the deflection sub-chassis.

I can see why they would consider this to be the top of the line series. Chassis seems well built compared to many other b&w chassis of the time. Definately a lot easier to work on than my Predicta!

[El Predicta]

Hey Charlie,

Take a look at #5808414330. It might be the one?