motorola vt-71 and three radios

[Paul Knaack]

I had a good weekend, one night last week I spotted a craigslist ad for three radio/phono combo's and at the bottom of the pile was a Motorola tv. I emailed the seller and I offered to send him money to hold them till Friday. He said don't worry , he would hold them for me and he removed the ad instantly. Friday after work I took an hour and fifteen minute drive and picked up my purchase. Some of you may know this seller from ARF his name is Will Callaway, he's a great guy and has an impressive collection. He has many more radios and some TV's for sale. Heres a link to one of his ads. https://wausau.craigslist.org/clt/5241706198.html


Here's what I got.
http://imgur.com/a/4pi6m/all

[bandersen]

Nice score! The VT71 has the back, a complete set of matching knobs and the finish is in good condition

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by bandersen

Nice score! The VT71 has the back, a complete set of matching knobs and the finish is in good condition

And to add to what Bob has said, it is basically unmolested and is blonde. Most of the sets that I see are Mahogany. I have one blonde set and look forward to restoring it.

Good on 'ya, Mate!

[Kevin Kuehn]

That VT looks very nice. Appears darker than blonde in the picture, but I see it has the lighter color knobs.

[ZackN920]

Nice! You also got a Philco 46-1201, cool set! Just slide those 78's in like a cd and close the door... Yours actually looks a little better than mine, wanna trade? LoL kidding.

[Paul Knaack]

Thanks everyone,
I have been looking for a vt-71 since I started collecting TV's. I never thought I'd find one this nice within driving distance and a price I could afford. The cabinet definitely has a darker gold or honey color to it than my blonde Zenith. The cover on the bottom is missing as is the mask but I can make a cover and it looks like the mask is available. Picture tube filament has continuity and the ballast resistor checks okay too. I placed an order with Allied Electronics for the hv and electrolytic caps and am looking forward to getting started on it.
I restored a Philco 46-1201 for a friend a couple years ago and wanted one of those ever since, so that will be fun too.

[decojoe67]

Great find! That's an exceptionally nice blonde VT-71. I used the "Golden Oak" Howards RAF on mine and it worked great. They're great sets but usually finicky performers. You often get what's called "pie-crusting" with the picture and a difficult situation to remedy. I had it on the two VT-71's that I've owned over the years.
BTW, be aware that the antenna connections are on the top and bottom of the terminal. The middle is ground.
Get that repro mask while you can! I got one for mine and it really finishes the set off nicely.

[Paul Knaack]

I recieved my capacitor order from Allied Electronics and did a recap , cleaned the controls and checked the tubes. It's working pretty decent. It's not real good in a brightly lit room, but not bad in dim light . I think the tube woke up after i played for about a half hour as the picture got better the longer it played. There's a slight ion burn in center of the tube, and the sync is a little touchy but I'm very happy with it as is and I've only checked a few of the resistors so far so I think it will still improve once I go through them.



https://vimeo.com/145944913

[decojoe67]

Nice work! I've only had one of these Motorola's that had a real crisp picture on it. My current set, and others I've had, have that "sizzling" or "pie-crusting". Not bad from a distance, but up close rather low definition.

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by Paul Knaack

I recieved my capacitor order from Allied Electronics and did a recap , cleaned the controls and checked the tubes. It's working pretty decent. It's not real good in a brightly lit room, but not bad in dim light . I think the tube woke up after i played for about a half hour as the picture got better the longer it played. There's a slight ion burn in center of the tube, and the sync is a little touchy but I'm very happy with it as is and I've only checked a few of the resistors so far so I think it will still improve once I go through them.



https://vimeo.com/145944913

I wonder if that little set ever showed CLoumbo...during it's 'day"?

[Paul Knaack]

Originally Posted by decojoe67

Nice work! I've only had one of these Motorola's that had a real crisp picture on it. My current set, and others I've had, have that "sizzling" or "pie-crusting". Not bad from a distance, but up close rather low definition.

Thank's,
This is the first one of these sets that i've seen play, so I'm not real sure how much to expect, It would be hard to imagine it as someone's primary tv back in the day, but I do get a kick out of watching it. I still need to pick up the Howards Golden Oak restore a finish as I think it'll work good on this one also. Thanks for that tip.
rca2000
Quote:
I wonder if that little set ever showed CLoumbo...during it's 'day"?

LOL ,
The ion burn adds to his five o'clock shadow.

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by Paul Knaack

Thank's,
This is the first one of these sets that i've seen play, so I'm not real sure how much to expect, It would be hard to imagine it as someone's primary tv back in the day, but I do get a kick out of watching it. I still need to pick up the Howards Golden Oak restore a finish as I think it'll work good on this one also. Thanks for that tip.
rca2000
Quote:
I wonder if that little set ever showed CLoumbo...during it's 'day"?

LOL ,
The ion burn adds to his five o'clock shadow.

That's about as good as they get. Most of the early post-war electrostatic 7" sets are not particularly impressive players, but, as you say, are fun to watch.
Yes, the Golden Oak Howards really enhanced my blonde cabinet:

BTW, Columbo looks like a haggered wino with the ion burn!

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by decojoe67

Nice work! I've only had one of these Motorola's that had a real crisp picture on it. My current set, and others I've had, have that "sizzling" or "pie-crusting". Not bad from a distance, but up close rather low definition.

Joe-

Were all of your VT-71s sets with the TS-4D or earlier chassis? (Your blonde set lacks the fine-tuning knob, as do both of my TD-4Ds, and I don't know which version first had it.) Your comment about "sizzling/pie-crusting" sounds just like the issue that Jon F and I have both had in our early VT-71s, as discussed here:

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=262502

I will post a picture in that topic to show what I have seen as well. Thanks.