William Englebert Fahrenfeld and his TV

[vts1134]

Originally Posted by tubesrule

What are the brand and date codes on the tubes and crt? It would be interesting to determine how long the set was in general use.

Darryl

I've never read date codes on tubes before. Where would I find them?

[vts1134]

I was able to find some date code info on the net. I could only find out what the first two digits of the three digit code stand for. Every tube in both the radio and television chassis, except for one, are RCA branded and coded KE5, XE1, XE2, or XE3. That means 1938, and 1939 OEM for the first two digits, does the last number indicate month? The only exception in the set is the horizontal output tube which is branded National Union. The only coding I can find on that tube is an "F". I don't have a tube tester so I don't know how well used they are, but maybe the set was used so little that the tubes are all original?

[tubesrule]

Originally Posted by vts1134

I was able to find some date code info on the net. I could only find out what the first two digits of the three digit code stand for. Every tube in both the radio and television chassis, except for one, are RCA branded and coded KE5, XE1, XE2, or XE3. That means 1938, and 1939 OEM for the first two digits, does the last number indicate month? The only exception in the set is the horizontal output tube which is branded National Union. The only coding I can find on that tube is an "F". I don't have a tube tester so I don't know how well used they are, but maybe the set was used so little that the tubes are all original?

Unless the National Union tube is new enough to be labeled under the EIA codes (247 would appear somewhere on the tube for NU) there's no way I am aware of to date it. The fact that all the other tubes appear to be original except the KE5, would suggest the set was not serviced much past the late 1940's.

[tubesrule]

Originally Posted by vts1134

I've never read date codes on tubes before. Where would I find them?

RCA codes of the era where 2 or 3 characters long. The first character was the year such as R-1939, X-1940, Y-1941 followed by the letter E for OEM, followed by the month; 1-Jan-Feb, 2-Mar-April, etc. The XE1 for example is 1940, OEM, Jan-Feb. The KE5 is 1943, OEM, Sep-Oct.