Early tv techs faced color challenge

[Chad Hauris]

I do think that when the sets were "younger", tube related problems were the most common, as other components had not aged enough.
Usually the biggest problem today is age-related problems like bad capacitors, bad wiring, etc. and tube related problems are fewer as the sets have been idle many years and have not been using the tubes.
TV sets seem to be often designed right to the edge of tube capabilities and when the sets are run for 10 or 12 hours at a time every day, some tube failures seem to happen after about a year or so of this kind of use.

[oldtvman]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

I do think that when the sets were "younger", tube related problems were the most common, as other components had not aged enough.
Usually the biggest problem today is age-related problems like bad capacitors, bad wiring, etc. and tube related problems are fewer as the sets have been idle many years and have not been using the tubes.
TV sets seem to be often designed right to the edge of tube capabilities and when the sets are run for 10 or 12 hours at a time every day, some tube failures seem to happen after about a year or so of this kind of use.

But conversely today's components don't fail as much as the solder connections that hold them together. Back in the day it was pretty unusual to find cold solder connections, today it's not that uncommon at all.

I do agree that back then most of the problems were 1st echolon problems such as tubes, crts, dirty tuners and controls. I don't expect that the designers had a clue some of these guys would be alive and kicking today.

[dtuomi]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

I do think that when the sets were "younger", tube related problems were the most common, as other components had not aged enough.
Usually the biggest problem today is age-related problems like bad capacitors, bad wiring, etc. and tube related problems are fewer as the sets have been idle many years and have not been using the tubes.
TV sets seem to be often designed right to the edge of tube capabilities and when the sets are run for 10 or 12 hours at a time every day, some tube failures seem to happen after about a year or so of this kind of use.

I'm not sure. I think its probably dependent on a lot of factors. My experience is that its always a bad cap, almost never the tube. In fact bad caps blow tubes. Rarely the other way around.

I've got a little Portacolor on my desk at work that I bought from Adam over a year ago. Its sat there running everyday for 14-16 hours a day and still operates the same as when I got it. I use it to monitor the station I work for. But, other than snickering from some fellow employees I have had no problems with it. So I guess millage will vary.

David



-And no, I don't work for KTLA, I made that picture from a broadcast commemorating a local news anchor passing away.

[peverett]

It has been my experience that component construction, especially capacitors, improved greatly after around 1960. The "orange drop" type capacitors, etc began to appear.

This is probably one reason that the little Portacolor keeps on going. I also have one, a 1977 model, the works fine after clearing up a carbon trail in one of the adjustent conrols.

(GE was kind of strange when it came to CRT construction-I have seen some of the CRTs, from the Portacolor and some B&W sets with huge cathodes-these tubes seem to last forever. I have seen other B&W crts from them with little tiny cathodes-these are almost always very weak).