Rescued a Pilot TV123

[DavGoodlin]

I found this last Friday after it was posted on the local CL. I posted in curbside and Bob Anderson noted it was rare, unlike the popular TV-37.

After a reply email, the "seller" called me right away, and said he was about an hour north but would meet me and wanted this set to have a good home.
This is how it should go for all the VK'ers. We already have enough trouble deciding where to put these treasuresand what has to go to make room.

We met at a parking lot and he had it resting on a fat piece of foam rubber in the back of his pick-up.
I was immediately relieved that, although the back cover was long gone, the insides looked clean and un-molested. I noted the 12LP4 was a GE with a date code 0-08.

I inquired where the set was brought in from, since Pilots were made in Long Island City, like the good old Swingline Staplers
he said it belonged to his father-in-law, who got it in Brooklyn.

This set has an FM tuner kind of like a poor man's Dumont, three 12AT7 in the tuner and four IF stages.

The built-in antenna is THE most engineered I have ever seen, with an external "tuning knob" and a wire from the end of the bow-tie element plugs in at the
HV cage as seen in the second photo above.
Maybe this is due to the fact this antenna's dimension is electrically "short" for all but UHF.

[Electronic M]

I've seen similar antennas in early 50's Philco spit chassis sets.

That Pilot looks like it is going to be an interesting project for you.

[Sandy G]

Kewl save ! Didn't know til a few months ago that Pilot made anything but those l'il TV-37s..

[M3-SRT8]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I've seen similar antennas in early 50's Philco spit chassis sets.

...and those look like Philco knobs on the Pilot. Coincidence?

[Eric H]

There was one of these on the Los Angeles Craigslist a couple weeks ago but I think it was $150 and I didn't have room for it so I passed.

[Phil Nelson]

An interesting set! If you can get your hands on the service manual, perhaps someone could arrange to have it scanned and posted in the ETF archive, where kibitzers like me could get a look.

Regards,

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[DavGoodlin]

Thanks for the info, I think the only schematic source is Riders 3-10. Chuck A has a TV 125 on his web page.
But Philco knobs , mmmm. that is interesting.

I wonder if there was any other set this age with a continuous tuner like the DuMonts.

[Bill Cahill]

Nice tv. Wish I had it. Needs re finnish, but, looks like a pleasure to save.