Philco 22d5102

[TheMegaJoe]

My 14 year old daughter bought me a Philco TV-123 and a small Realistic radio for herself at a recent garage sale. This is my first vintage tv project. I’ve rebuilt and restored around 100 arcade machines so I have some knowledge. The set was owned by the local tv repairman and has been sitting in his basement since the 70’s. I’m curious about value, should I register the set, is this a practical set to use for my first restoration?


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[Electronic M]

Early color is quite a challenge if you are new to tube gear and TV work. If you are dead set on restoring it I highly reccomend you work on a AA5 tube radio and a monochrome tube TV first to get a feel for the process and work your way up to the substantail undertaking that is an early color TV. That set is quite rare and valuable and needs to be preserved. The CRTs in these sets are prone to vacuum leaks and very expensive and hard to source (I had been looking for over 5 years to find one for another set) so it is advisable to confirm it is good with a CRT tester before sinking tripple digits into new capacitors and such.

I've been wanting to own one of these for years. I'm going to send you an email to offer you some options.

[DavGoodlin]

Welcome to VK Joe. I need to move to your neighborhood if anything in the same league as that Philco is a typical find!!!

My VK neighbor Dave A has one of these unique Philco Color roundies, its a benchful of work and I can't wait to see it for a recent HV problem.

Tom is spot-on about what a "Cadillac" this one is. I recommend practice on a Philco or RCA BW console of the same era for re-capping practice and to learn how these sets roll.

[Telecolor 3007]

How common where "Philco" color tv sets when this one was manufactured and how good/bad they where compared to "R.C.A." and "Zenith"?

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

How common where "Philco" color tv sets when this one was manufactured and how good/bad they where compared to "R.C.A." and "Zenith"?

That set was made in 1955, was Philco's first 21" color.... back then you could buy a REALLY nice used car for what a color TV cost. According to the ETF only 500 were made(which was a decent number for a color TV model then). Build quality and circuit design we're on par or better than RCA.... Zenith saw the limited demand for color TVs and did not sell any color sets to consumers until the 1962 model year.

Until the early 60s color TV sales were miniscule and the plethora of makers that had color prototypes in 1953-4 and consumer sets in 1954-7 pretty much dropped color from their lines for around 4 to 5 years till the market improved or in some cases sold rebadged RCA sets. In that time only RCA and Motorola offered new color sets... And Motorola simply made the same set unchanged from 1957 to 1962. RCA owned key patients and sold color sets at a loss for over a decade to try and build the market so they could reap royalties from an entire industry. They also over built in the beginning...The CT-100 had enough unsold surplus that many were given away to repair shops as a learning aid for color TV service.

[bgadow]

I would second the idea of starting with a mid-50's b/w set. A Philco would make a good candidate as it would be at least somewhat like this TV123, but most anything from that era would do just fine.

I have one and it's a monster, in size...and to work on! These are also rather valuable, as old TV's go. I held off buying one for years, hoping to stumble upon one like you did, but finally paid out good money. You could likely make quite a trade with somebody, if that was what you wanted to do.

[TheMegaJoe]

That sounds like good advice. I have a friend with a 1956 Zenith b&w that was on its way to the dump. Might just start with something like that.


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[benman94]

The Zenith would be a perfect set to start with for television. Relatively simple and bulletproof; a good way to cut your teeth.

After doing a B/W set or two, you should be ready to start on the Philco, albeit slowly and with a great deal of help from forums like this or ARF.

[init4fun]

Remember the immortal words of our fearless leader , Kamakiri ;

"Restoring a tube TV is like going to war , a color one is like a land war in Asia"

You've been given great advice to hone your skills on a couple B/W sets first , and to make sure the picture tube IS viable in the Philco 123 before you sink mad $$$ into caps & such .

[electronjohn]

Not only would that Zenith be a good starting point...it's pretty damn cool to boot.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by TheMegaJoe

That sounds like good advice. I have a friend with a 1956 Zenith b&w that was on its way to the dump. Might just start with something like that.


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There's 90% odds that I have the photofact for that Zenith. If you supply the model or preferably chassis number (every cabinet had it's own model but all cabinets used 1 of 2-3 chassis so it is easier searching by chassis) I can look it up and provide you with a scan or photocopy gratis.

Zeniths of that time should have the chassis number printed on the HV cage sticker that will be starting out at you when you remove the back, it should also be printed on the edge of tube layout chart that should be glued to the inside of one of the sides of the cabinet. The chassis number should be a 6 digit number something like 16LQ20... the first letter indicates model year (and will be part of the model number too).

[Steve D.]

Might be a good idea to check the CRT and see if it's viable. Also the HV components. Hopefully, you haven't powered up the set before these checks. W/O these in working order the restoration could be stalled for some time trying to source these items. Best in your efforts to restore this rare set. These tech manuals may help: http://www.earlytelevision.org/pdf/p...123_manual.pdf And the SAMS: http://www.earlytelevision.org/pdf/p...sams_349_9.pdf. Courtesy Early Television Foundation.

-Steve D.

[Electronic M]

This afternoon I made the trip to northeast Iowa to purchase this set. It is now my honor to be the custodian of this fine piece of history. Checking the original Philco branded CRT with my tester showed no heater illumination...A DMM confirmed the heater has no continuity at the base. I suspect it has lost vacuum and the heater burned open in oxygen when powered to test or operate the set at some prior date. Tomorrow I'm going to have a look at the getters and see if they have turned white if not there is the slim chance the solder on the base pins failed and the CRT might be good after a resolder...Enough good things have happened today though, that I probably have used up that luck. In any case, I have good spare 21AXPs I can populate it with even if that means a CTC-5 must do without.

IMG_20190622_222438301 by Tom Carlson, on Flickr


After purchasing it I made a stop at an Antique/junk shop and ended up making a bulk radio purchase (there was cool stuff at bargain prices)...I even found a Zenith cheater cord I've been looking for. Perhaps the icing on the cake on the way back while crossing back into Wisconsin I was followed by and given a good chance to drool over a 1941 Oldsmobile 2dr fastback...I've only ever seen pictures before so it was a real treat to see a car I've been wanting to own for years right next to me.

IMG_20190622_220835501 by Tom Carlson, on Flickr

I'm about at the limit on space so I'm probably going to stop purchasing TVs for a while. It will probably be a fairly long time before I make a purchase that tops this.