Show us your vintage B&W sets!

Hey Veg..... Thanks for the compliment on the set. I will be posting some better, more clearer pix soon. I am going to have to take it outside to get the black to show up better. This set is just killer on the looks scale. My recap kit is in the mail now and hopefully, it will be here by this weekend. I have totally cleaned and polished every square inch of the cabinet, totally lubed and greased the turntable and brought the stereo amp into the new millenium. Sounds pretty good too. Hope that with all of this hard work, that I won't have the troubles that you have had with your Olympic.

BTW - I love the nice pretty petite blonde look yours has. I think it's really beautiful. DO NOT JUNK THIS LITTLE ONE. It's just too pretty. Someday it WILL function again.

You never said whether or not yours had been recapped. If you will let me know the chassis # of your set, maybe my schematic can be of some help to you. This schematic I have covers chassis JB, JD, JF, JH, JBU, JDU, JFU and JHU. You should be able to find the chassis model stamped on the chassis down on the steel deck where all the tubes are inserted. Mine has a chassis JD. I am assuming a JDU means that it has UHF capabilities. Mine does not carry UHF. From your pix, yours doesn't seem to have it either.

Lemme hear from you on this.


Hey Eric..... I have searched and searched for any information on Olympic sets. I see an occasional Olympic radio and Olympic brand name vacuum tubes on Ebay but other than that, I don't see anything else. My owners manual (yeah, I was lucky enough to get all the original papers on this TV) sez that Olympic television was a subsidiary of the Siegler Corporation in New York City.

I think that they were their own entity and weren't just renamed from other companies. The reason I think this is because of the vacuum tubes being stamped as Olympic and I see other vacuum tubes on Ebay with the same name brand.

Believe it or not, EVERY vacuum tube in this set is an Olympic tube. I only had one bad tube in it - a 5U4GB. I am hoping that this might be a hint of how good it worked. Maybe it ran very well for a long time and no one ever tried to repair it when it finally did quit. Of course it might mean that the TV quit very early on also and no one ever bothered to get it fixed. When I took the back off, the wiring appeared to have never been touched since the day it was made - you know, tied up just so perfectly.

Thanks for chatting - Fredro

[jshorva65]

I have a little Olympic three-way portable radio from probably the 1940's, nice little low-priced set in a plywood box with Bakelite front panel and contact-paper finish with a rope handle and all Loktal tubes. Excellent playing condition on Battery or 115VDC but needs recapped to play properly on 115VAC ... yet another project that I've set aside until I find time to do more work on my own collection. Just thought I'd mention it here since the Olympic brand is being discussed.

[Steve D.]

Hey Guys,
Both those tv's are beautiful examples of Olympic's products. They look to be the same chassis.
Olympic Radio & Television Corp. was located in Long Island City, N.Y. They produced a line of radios, tv's, HiFi and combination sets from 1948 to 1971. This included both b&w and color receivers.

Well, after a recap kit for this set and some hard work on the vertical hold, I got my Olympic console to where it looks like this. The picture looks better in person than shown here.

Fredro

[Unimatic1140]

Hey guys, I just wanted to share with you my three recent acquisitions, a 1950 Raytheon, a 1947 Admiral and a 1949 Philco. I'm a bit perplexed about the Philco because it seems to have no fine-tuning knob anywhere on this set. As for the Raytheon does anyone know if this set uses the entire tube face like when you have a Zenith porthole in stretch mode or is the top and bottom of the circle simply dark with the picture in the middle? I need to find a new picture tube for the Raytheon because the bakelite end of the tube has been snapped off and there was a brightener attached.

[ChuckA]

Originally posted by Unimatic1140
I'm a bit perplexed about the Philco because it seems to have no fine-tuning knob anywhere on this set.

You won't find a fine tuning knob on these '48 -'49 Philcos. The fine tuning is through a screwdriver slug under the channel knob, through a hole in the number plate.

Great looking blonde Admiral

Chuck

[Charlie]

I found this on eBay a couple of months ago. Seems that the ones I've seen before on eBay would sell for 200 to 300 bucks. Was kinda surprised to see them go that high. I got this one for 20 bucks plus shipping. The seller said that the set was dead, and i had hoped that there was a burned filament since this set runs filaments in series. Well, when I got it, I found that all the tubes lit up... but no sound or light on the screen. Probably a simple problem in the LV power area. I put the back on again and put it aside for another day.

I think Dualettes were from 1959. Other than some scuff marks on the rear top corner, this one is in pretty good shape cosmetically. I've seen them in a few different colors. This one is not exactly one of the better colors! The antennas are both there with no damage.

[ChuckA]

Here's a set I was chasing for almost a year. The guy just kept putting me off every week when I tried to go see what it was. Finally perserverence paid off.

It's a 1949 Olympic TV-928, AM/FM, and 2 speed Webster changer.
The mirror lid stay was broke, I had a machinist friend make a new friction bolt and works like new. Maybe this winter I'll get some time to restore the electronics. It should be a bright picture as the CRT tests like new.

Chuck

[Rob]

ChuckA,

Congrats. Looks nice! I've begun stripping mine ready to refinish someday. This is my only MIL set.

[Rob]

Unimatic,

Those sets are really fine! I have the same 1947 Admiral in Mahogany awaiting restoration. The blonde is probably more rare. That large Raytheon is a nice one! I have a tabletop 12" Raytheon Porthole.

[Rob]

I have the rare (earlier I think) sibling to the 1947 Admiral that Unimatic just showed above. Mine has been fully electronically restored and makes a bright, sharp picture. The volume goes down and the picture starts to loose sync as the contrast control is turned down, a real indication of the crudeness of the early post-war TV circuits in use at the time. 1947 was very early for post war TV in North America. This is one of my favorite sets in my whole collection.

[Rob]

This is a screen shot off my 30A13. The detail is amazing, see the ice cubes in the glass? The horizontal shading band is a camera shutter speed artifact, not on the TV picture.

[ChuckA]

Rob,

I was lucky only the top needs work. I had a friend do the mirror side and I tried to match it by memory, of course I was about 3 shades off

So now I have to either get the fixed side off or take the whole cabinet over to him to match the movable side.

Have you looked to see how the chassis comes out of the cabinet? It looks like it has to be dropped through the bottom

[Rob]

Chuck,

I seem to recall that the Rider's manual says the cabinet must be placed back down on the floor and the chassis comes out the top after removing the panel and window over the CRT and controls.

I agree, it wasn't too self evident looking at it.

[ChuckA]

Rob,

I thought of that way, but there are the front panel mounting wood brackets attached to the side walls and they don't look like they are removable.

I think it needs to be laid down on the front of the cabinet and the chassis is slid towards the bottom then lifted out. Don't know for sure - yet. It looks like they built the cabinet around the chassis


Chuck