Anyone ever seen this tv?

I am new to tv's, i have started collecting console radios and found this. The tag on the front says Lafayette. I cant find out the year or if it is valuable and should hold onto it. Thanks for the help!

[jpdylon]

Looks like an early RCA clone. possibly a 630ts?

It is definitely valuable. Hold on to it and get it working! There are plently of bebmers here who can help you get it up and running. Just make sure to include your location in your user profile.

Just please, for god's sake DO NOT PLUG IT INTO THE WALL AND TURN IT ON! bringing it up from its dormant sleep with live 120v will more than likely destroy important parts. It needs to be re-capped and brought up slow with a variac.

Thanks, I thought it might be RCA but the tag says Lafayette. I have not done any restoration on any electronics so it may be over my head. I just like how these old radios and tv's look! I know it was plugged in b4 i got it, the guy had it plugged in at the tv recycling day in my town. It didnt have a picture but it was picking up FM radio somehow. Like I said i dont know how they work but i thought it was odd. Maybe you can tell me why? So it was a nice score for free?

[jpdylon]

the only FM station it might be picking up would be 87.7 which would be channel 6 AFAIK. Its a very nice score for free. I wouldn't continue to use it until the electronics have been restored.

There are others who will chime in here who have more experience with these early post war sets than I.

[wa2ise]

plugged in at the tv recycling day in my town. It didnt have a picture but it was picking up FM radio somehow. // the only FM station it might be picking up would be 87.7 which would be channel 6 AFAIK.

The RCA version of this set didn't use the modern "intercarrier" TV sound method, where the sound carrier beats against the picture carrier at the video detector to yield a 4.5Mhz FM subcarrier. Back then TV IF strips were operated around 25MHz instead of 45MHz today. So this above old RCA TV set had a separate sound IF tuned to around 21Mhz. This required precise fine tuning on the front end tuner. But this also allows one to tune above channel 6 and receive FM radio stations. So that's what was probably happening with that set being able to tune FM stations. No picture probably means the horizontal output circuit is broken.

[bgadow]

An EXCELLENT deal for the price! Many, many early sets were RCA "clones", either made by RCA for other companies, or made to the RCA blueprints under license. No doubt about this one being a clone-it is the spitting image of the 630. This will take a fair amount of work to get it working reliably but it is sure doable. (unless somebody has done it already in modern times, it will need a ton of capacitors replaced) This might be the first Lafayette TV I've seen; kinda surprising because they were a pretty big player in the electronics business.

[Phil Nelson]

It looks like a clone of the famous RCA 630TS. I just finished restoring one.

http://antiqueradio.org/RCA630TSTelevision.htm

A wonderful score. Ya done good. If you have never worked on a tube radio or TV before, you might want to find someone in the area who could act as a mentor. Here is a list of collector clubs.

http://www.antiqueradio.com/clublist.html

Even if the club is not next door, they might know someone who knows someone in your area.

Yes, I was able to receive FM radio on channel 6 when mine was unrestored. Your audio section is basically functional, but still needs restoration along with other stuff.

Plan to replace the old electrolytic and paper capacitors. Do the electrolytics first.

http://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm

Have fun.

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

Thanks for all the info ont this great tv i am thinking of giving it a shot at restoring since i paid nothing for it! When i start i will have some questions and hope you all can answer and help me out!