Packard Bell 3191TV

[Charlie]

I've been home from sea for three weeks. Until now, playing with anything TV related has been at the bottom of my list of things to do. Too many other things to catch up on around here, and on top of that, getting my daughter graduated from high school in a week from now.

Yesterday, I brought home a Packard Bell set. I don't have anything with the PB name, so I thought this would be interesting. The guy I got it from told me it's been moved around quite a bit since he's had it for the past 6 years, but he believes he got it from the original owner when he lived in California. He said it came from an elderly man's home that was like stepping into a time capsule.

The model is 3191TV and uses a 10BP4 that tested with great emissions and cutoff. The tube is an RCA... haven't dug around to find a date code yet (trying not to get too involved with this too fast). I don't know if PB was making their own tubes or not at that time.

The chassis on this set is quite busy!! Haven't looked at the bottom side yet, but the top side has a total of 30 tubes (not including the pic tube). Seems like a lot of tubes for a 10" b&w set. It's pretty dusty inside, but everything looks to be in good shape and looks complete.

Not only is this my first set with the Packard Bell name, but also this is the first set I've come across that has a channel 1 on the dial! I did not realize this until after I got it home. In the photo below, I removed the channel selector knob.

The cabinet isn't in the best of shape. There's lots of deep scratches all over it. The previous owner refinished it, but didn't really do a great job. Many of the scratches were simply varnished over. There's also several new deep scratches due to the moving around he's done since he's had it. It's still shiny looking... maybe even too shiny. I think it's still presentable as is, and will likely leave it that way. Due to so many deep scratches, I don't think there's a lot that i can do to improve it.

So far, I haven't found a listing for 3191TV with Sams. I hoped I'd find it in pencil on the back of the set... many guys used to make a note of the folder on the back of the set or chassis (and I salute all those TV guys from decades past for doing so)... but couldn't find anything.

Overall, I'm happy with the set. The cabinet lacks a bit, but having a good looking chassis with channel 1 and a CRT that test good makes me feel good about this find.