Hallicrafters T-54, 1948

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by DavidGoncalv

What did it terminate with? A terminal block? A pair of spades?

Rider apparently copied the original instructions and they show a 300 ohm twinline stub that was supposed to be soldered onto your antenna.

Go to the Early Television Foundation schematics page and see the second half of fold-out Hallicrafters TV-54 page 1-21, 22 for an illustration:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/tv_sc..._diagrams.html


On most of the sets that you see today, someone has cut an extra hole and added a normal-for-the-era two screw terminal.

My UMS set came with a cut and stripped vintage 300 ohm wire and no extra hole.

The first privately owned TV in west Tennessee was a Hallicrafters and it was purchased almost a year before WMCT then Channel 4 in Memphis came on the air on December 11, 1948. The owner hoped to pick up St Louis, MO, on a single channel yagi on a 18 foot tower on top of his two story house. He only saw a few ghost images, and was never able to lock in a picture except for a few moments and never could hear any sound.

Once WMCT came on the air, he received it very well. When I first saw his set in 1954, it had a small flat plastic fitting on the end of the 300 ohm antenna wire from the set. It has one pin and one socket and was shaped like and slightly wider than the twin lead. The house antenna had a matching pin and socket. The connector was slightly larger than the hole in the back. I assume that he added the connector, but I don't know if it came from Hallicrafters or not.

He said the factory had told him back when he was still attempting to pull in St Louis, that it was best to not splice the antenna and to bring his feed line into the set and then solder it directly to the tuner.


My serial number AB-125404 United Motor Service Delco says to your Hallicrafters,
"Howdy, assembly line neighbor! I was made one day later."

James.

[DavidGoncalv]

Haha!! You're supposed to solder it?!? Wonder what that's all about. Probably not so much a concern now with the signal coming out of converter boxes. Thanks for the info - it makes more sense now.

[wa2ise]

As others have posted non TV boatanchor (SW) Hallicrafters, here are a few Hallicrafters radios that are not boatanchors

[DavidGoncalv]

Originally Posted by earlyfilm

"Howdy, assembly line neighbor! I was made one day later."

That was Tuesday and Wednesday of that work week. Latent F-ups should be at a minimum.

Photos of chassis removal next week once I get back from my business trip. Can hardly wait to get a close look at this 7" CRT up close and the inside of the HV cage.

[DavidGoncalv]

Was not able to find knobs (need one large, one small). So, I am going to mold some using black resin.

Are there other folks out there who have interest in new replacement knobs for their Hallicrafters 7" TV?

[Eric H]

I bought two sets of repro knobs for my Hallis about 10-12 years ago, one Black for theT-54 and one Brown for the wood version, I can't recall right off who the guy was but he was well known for Repro knobs, maybe someone will remember his name, not sure if he's still in business.