"Lesser" brands - Videokarma.org TV - Video

veg-o-matic · #1 10-16-2003, 03:36 PM

RCA, Zenith, RCA, Zenith. Maggie, Moto, Maggie, Moto.
Is it me, of does nobody own any of the "lesser" brands of TV's? I've got an Olympic, and I think I've seen only one other on this site.
Where are the Arvins? The Airlines? The Hoffmans? Charlie's treated us to his Curtis Mathes. Surely there are more out there.
Muntz, anyone? Coronado? Capehart? Bendix? Symphonic? Delmonico?

Tap, tap. Is this thing on?

Bob

dewickt · #2 10-16-2003, 03:50 PM

They are out there, I have a Temple and a Stromberg Carlson in the not so common collection.
The Stromberg is my favorite, love the continuous tune, even has the original Dumont CRT.

Addition: Stromberg is a model TV-12, tunes 1 to 13 with FM in the middle, pulled the chassis friday night and found a dead IF tube a bad cap in the audio, has not been fully recapped, only enough to make it work.

***Eric H*** · #3 10-16-2003, 06:37 PM

Well let's see, I have two Olympics, one 10" and one 12"
A 10" Coronado floor model, a Sonora 12" tabletop, a Capehart combo 10" an 8" Airline, two Hoffman 12" and oh yes, and a late 50's Silvertone Suburbanite.

Big Dave · #4 10-16-2003, 10:42 PM

I have some off brands.

SILVERTONE 21 inch round color combo (21FJP22 based).

STEWART-WARNER 12 inch round BW.

Rob · #5 10-17-2003, 01:11 AM

I have a 1950(?) tabletop Raytheon 12" Porthole set.

I have a 1948 Olympic mirror in lid combo.

I also have an all original working, very rare 15-S-1 Sightmaster from 1947 with the original DuMont 15AP4. Picture shown as found.

Sandy G · #6 10-17-2003, 10:22 AM

Guys- I have one of those 3" Pilots from '47-48. Used to think that was really something "R@RE"-to coin a phrase-, but there are a lot of 'em out there. Mine does work, & is in pretty decent shape cosmetically, so I guess that's something. Non-collectible-TV-types are astounded by it, lots of 'em don't even know they had TV back then. Kids especially are fascinated by it, 'cause its small & kinda "cute". But even by 1940s vintage TV standards, it's very crude, obviously built to a price. I can't imagine anyone wanting to watch one of these things for very long. -Sandy G.

bgadow · #7 10-17-2003, 02:27 PM

I set a booth up a couple weeks ago at our town's annual hobby fair. I had everything from an early battery set to Transoceanic's to a Predicta. The only thing that drew much attention-nobody walked past without commenting-was my Motorola VT-71 playing Red Skelton off a VCR. Had a great time.

jstout66 · #8 10-17-2003, 04:26 PM

I have a small Delco from 1949. Haven't had time to check it out, and is my only non-working untested set.

***Eric H*** · #9 10-21-2003, 01:29 AM

Rob, that Sightmaster is waaayy cool!

Rob · #10 10-21-2003, 11:20 AM

Eric,

It is actually an early 1948. The tuner is date coded 1947 but the cabinet is april fools day 01/04/48.

I washed the cabinet and touched up some scratches with stain and she looks a lot better. I need to cleen or replace the two speaker grille cloths that is really dark and dirty. The chassis has completely shot electrolytics but with outboard caps connected with clip leads I was getting good pictures and sound that showed me that the alignment is right on. Except for 3 miniatures in the tuner and a 6AL5 this set is all octal tubes! I've never seen so many 6SN7's on a TV chassis. That is really early post war design. The chassis is actually a Transvision product, re-badged and put in a Sightmaster made cabinet. The only other 15-S-1 I have ever heard of is owned by Steve Mcvoy and is in his museum. The 15AP1 Dumont tube is a straight gun (no ion trap) yet has no aluminizing. This is just inviting an ion burn but my CRT has no smudge and measured like new right off with the B&K tester without any of the normal wait for the filament to wake up syndrome. The CRT itself is ripply glass and is scarry looking that it might blow up in your hands. I made a custom table for it out of long screw-in legs. With rabbit ears on top accenting the theme of the legs this will be quite a sight....master!

Rob · #11 10-21-2003, 11:22 AM

Here is a screen shot of the picture from a VCR with outboard electrolytics temporarily connected. The original electrolytics are very leaky so are loading the power supply causing hum wobblies.
As you can see the 15AP4 is like new.

Rob · #12 10-21-2003, 11:25 AM

Here is a picture of the chassis. Those green clip lead wires by the CRT cutout are my temporary electrolytic caps hanging off the circuit below the chassis. Look at all those octal tubes. WoW!

Dave A · #13 10-21-2003, 06:31 PM

Ok Rob, I guess I had to come out of the shadows with my Sightmaster 15-S-2 as long as this Sightmaster phenomonon is threading along. Not a great photo on short notice, but it tells the story. The story is it works and is truely one-of-a kind as Steve McVoy just has the cabinet and I have found no other complete set. Now the details.

I bought it for a princely sum on ebay in the summer of 2000. It lived all of it's life in Brooklyn and came to me as you see it. Some scuffs, but very presentable. I did a minor recap to get it going, but it still needs a thorough cap transplant and alignment.

The tube is a DuMont 15DP4A that was installed in late '55. The chassis appears to be the same as your 15-S-1 Rob with two exceptions. I have the Mallory TV/FM Inductuner in mine with an odd hand-written marking on the side calling it the "Velvetuner" and noting it is for the 15-S-2. The dial for the Inductuner also had a band marking for the AM band, but it is not on the selector switch. It also has the tuning eye tube in the bottom center of the control recess. The door is down for the photo, but it is otherwise an ordinary faux drawer cover with drop pulls. The tube sits up on some very hand-made spacers in the front and the yoke is supported by a large piece of sheet metal. The wood pins on the sides of the mirror pull out to allow the removal of the mirror frame and then the CRT from the front.

A little research in 2000 found that Transvision and Sightmaster shared the same address on North Ave. in New Rochelle, NY. They also had a showroom on 5th Ave. in NY. This set was marketed as the "Sightmaster Americana", not the common "Sightmirror" as is it is usually known. The "Sightmirror" reference applies to the glass oval over the tube. It is not a one-way glass as you may think. It is a piece of "Polaroid" glass (marked on the glass) which gives the dark mirror effect when it is off. Sure looks like Grandma's bureau to me...and about as heavy.

A very bad Xerox copy of a Sightmaster ad I have implies custom (wall-mount) installations along with this set. I suspect Transvision created a new upscale badge for their ordinary sets and made a few models as a last gasp to sell as non-kit sets.

Somewhere in this computer I have some chassis shots and I will Photoshop them into a collage for another listing if anyone is interested.

Hope you enjoy this beast. Analog forever,

Dave Abramson

Dave A · #14 10-21-2003, 06:56 PM

A minor correction on my Sightmaster listing. The tube does not come out from the front. You can remove the mirror for cleaning the CRT and the back of the mirror. The tube travels with the chassis from the back.

Dave A

Rob · #15 10-21-2003, 07:45 PM

Hi Dave A,

I remember you and me and Steve McVoy having an email exchange about that time trying to pinpoint more info about our Sightmasters. I'm glad you got your's working. Sounds like our's are very rare, your's even more so.

That is interesting that the factory of Transvision and Sightmaster address was the same. You learned that since we last communicated. That explains a lot I guess. I would definitely encourage you to post more pictures! We have a loyal following of eager vintage TV collectors here that actually read and appreciate these posts!