Got a Pilot!

[Eric H]

I finally got a Pilot TV-37 3" TV
I had been watching this one all week, came home from work, logged on to eBay with 2 minutes to spare, placed a bid with 50 seconds to spare and won it!
I picked it up on my way to L.A. today.

It's in remarkable shape, came with the carrying case (which is in fair shape) and the antennas!

Don't know if the 3KP4 is any good yet but I will be powering it up very gently.

Pics to follow

Eric

[Eric H]

So it's 2:00 am, I had to know if the tube was any good.

The heater is intact but I still don't know if it will work.

Powered it up through a light bulb and something under the chassis started to smoke so I shut it down.

[mbates14]

pry them damn seleniums, or a cap.

[Sandy G]

Eric- Neat little set !! I got one off the 'Bay a couple yrs ago. Mine has the green tube, sorta works, but needs a little help. Yours should be in good cosmetic shape, if it had been in that carrying case & all. These little guys about always generate a big "Awww !! How CUTE !!" from non-teevee people. -Sandy G.

[Eric H]

Found the cause of the smoke. A 6AU6 in the I.F. section had a bad short, another 6AU6 had a missing pin! Relplaced them and the smoke went away. Under full power I got a small tickle of high voltage but nothing on the screen. I'll have to do some recapping to find out what's what.

The CRT is under vacuum, the heaters don't go up in smoke with 6.3 volts applied, however the getter on this tube is non existant! there is no trace of anything inside the glass above the getter bar. Don't know what that means but I don't like it

[mbates14]

either that, or the getter is angled downward, and the flash is on the inside dag.

[Eric H]

This is encouraging!

Replaced all the 3000v caps to get this.
the HV transformer was also arcing and appeared to have a broken winding but I spritzed some clear lacquer on it and it stopped arcing.

[Eric H]

Here's a chassis shot, note the clear glass over the getter, maybe it was never fired?

A 6.3 volt heater transformer is going to be a must on this set.

It's easy to tell the CRT heater is taking the brunt of the turn on surge, it visibly dims after being on for 10 seconds or so. No wonder so many of these have burned out heaters!

I will not turn it on under full power again till this is fixed.

[mbates14]

You are the one of the lucky few that have a good white phosphor CRT.

Thats awsome dude! the ones I have seen are green. yuck!