TV repair books

[kx250rider]

The RCA Pict-O-Guide series is very detailed, and simple. It discusses TV on a circuit-by-circuit basis, and has schematic drawings for understanding throughout. I don't know how many there are, but I have a late 1940s edition, and also two mid 50s to late 50s editions with color.

A much more in-depth, but still geared toward the basic electronics tech who wants to go into TV in the 1950s, is the Video Handbook by Morton Scheraga & Joseph Roche. It is basically "the original" TV repair school textbook.

And for the benefit of anyone reading this thread who is not a general electronics tech already, I strongly recommend any book by Art Margolis. He wrote about a dozen TV repair books for the household do-it-yourselfer and the novice radio hobbyist in the 1950s & 60s. He had a few (slightly) more advanced editions with a little more technical theory and explanation, but his best for the beginner in repairing old TV sets is probably "Professional TV Repair Secrets". It's about 1960.

Originally Posted by DaveWM

The one thing I have not tried is to clean the grounding points of the PCB to the chassis (a 63 magnaox)

I had that problem in a Magnavox; a vertical snaking with dark hum bars moving up through the picture, but not exactly like a filter cap. It would pause and be OK in between "cycles". That was a 21" round color set. I had a terrible time finding it, and I couldn't see it on the scope either. It was, if I recall, the ground points! That set is actually still in use, and I did that job for the owner about 10 years ago. I really don't remember the details, but it seems to me it was on the video & chroma board, near the demod tubes. I may be way off on that memory, though. I'd just pull it and resolder all of them, as they're notorious for those cracking. You can probably get away with murder and just superheat and solder from the top of any of the ones you can't reach from below.

Charles