Motorola 17T13

[bandersen]

I friend just dropped of this set he picked up down in the Champaign/Urbana, IL area. The owner ssid it had been in his family since 1952.
I don't think that's possible though since it has UHF and the inspection tag says Sept, 1953.

It's a 17" set in a black bakelite (or is it plastic ?) cabinet. Rather light since there's no power transformer.


Odd that his dad would get a set with UHF way back then. Did they have UHF in downstate IL back then or could he have picked it up from Chicago ?


It has a TS-410 chassis.


Uh-oh, that doesn't look good
Sure enough - the 17HP4 is dead


That's a shame it was replaced with a Sylvania Silverscreen 85 in 1963.

[kvflyer]

Bob, do you think that UHF may have been an added option possibly done by a shop or dealer a few years after the original manufacture? Knobs don't seem to match but who knows...

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by kvflyer

Bob, do you think that UHF may have been an added option possibly done by a shop or dealer a few years after the original manufacture? Knobs don't seem to match but who knows...

All the Motorolas from that time came with the same UHF tuner. The factory furnished a conversion kit that was the same. The knobs should be correct.
I've sold many of those sets, as they were reliable and easy to repair. The only bad thing was the chassis had to be removed to change the 1B3 and the UHF and VHF tuner tubes. Most times, the CRT face and safety glass had to be cleaned anyway.
Looks to me like the CRT neck was hit.

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

All the Motorolas from that time came with the same UHF tuner. The factory furnished a conversion kit that was the same. The knobs should be correct.
I've sold many of those sets, as they were reliable and easy to repair. The only bad thing was the chassis had to be removed to change the 1B3 and the UHF and VHF tuner tubes. Most times, the CRT face and safety glass had to be cleaned anyway.
Looks to me like the CRT neck was hit.

Thanks for the update!

[bandersen]

Thanks for the info. I guess I'm on the hunt for a good 17HP4 or equivalent.

[Glenz75]

What a neat looking set, I like it And in such good condition too, pity the CRT is dead...oh well I guess the hunt is on then

[Tubejunke]

I found one exactly like that in an antique store for $10 about 6 of 7 years ago, Of course they had it tucked away in a back corner as if they were ashamed of it. At any rate the set came to life plugged directly to wall current (no slow start) and worked well for several years until a fellow posted here all the way from Massachusetts looking for one to recreate a set from some sci-fi tv show that to this day I have never seen. Supposedly he had a hard time finding one and was such a fan of this particular show that he was willing to travel all the way to southern VA and pay me rather well to complete his project. You don't see many of them really. However, since I had that one I picked up another one that is identical (chassis), but has a wooden cabinet. I still have that one with a good CRT. Actually, even that one played well for a few hours. I pushed it to the side and it has remained there since. This generation of Motorola must have been made bullet proof! Too bad I am so far away as far as the need for a good CRT. If you travel, let me know...

[dieseljeep]

There was a lot of those sets around where was a strong Motorola presence. The one year earlier model model had a 17TP4, metal cone CRT, which was a harder tube to find.
They also made a simular model that had a heater transformer and all 6 volt tubes. It was only slightly heavier, as the transformer was small.

[Boobtubeman]

Not to beat an old horse, (or thread) but i do know the troubles of finding a good 17TP4 metal cone CRT.. Some say a GP4 will do but the focus voltage is quite different between the two.. Either way, neither seem to be anywhere near me. 95695 area...

SR

[Electronic M]

This set looks like the UHF version of the set from the SciFi series The Lost Room.

[bandersen]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

This set looks like the UHF version of the set from the SciFi series The Lost Room.

I did manage to find a good 17HP4 and do plan on restoring this set.

[Boobtubeman]

This was all the life mine had before the CRT filament went poof.. Series string set, may be scrap if i cant locate a good sub..

SR

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Boobtubeman

This was all the life mine had before the CRT filament went poof.. Series string set, may be scrap if i cant locate a good sub..

SR

Probably need to widen your search area to find anything. Replacement CRTs other than the super common 10 and 12 and 21" monochrome and the 21" round and 23V and 25V color CRT there's probably much less than 1 good spare available per state.

[Boobtubeman]

I was searching google when it showed me this thread... I think theres another topic about another 17T13 here as well concerning a 16 inch CRT.. Not sure where mine falls into all the incarnations of this set, but i do know the CRT is metal..

SR

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by Boobtubeman

This was all the life mine had before the CRT filament went poof..

Did you try reflowing the filament pins on the base?

In a related story, my dad used to carry a small tool in his pocket for fixing intermittent or dead elements on the old CRTs that used the old phenolic bases, from B&W right through the 21AP color.

It was a small rectangular piece of brass (like two inches of a wide carpenter's pencil) with a hole drilled down the center just large enough to slide down and over any single pin of the crt socket. There was a thin slice opened on one side of the tool and a handle that would fit in the slice and pivot from the end of the tool.

So dad would slide this over the wayward pin (tight fit) and flip the handle into the slot and press down. What it did was crimp the pin, and the tight fit of the tool meant the pin kept its overall round shape.

I have that tool somewhere. If I can find it, I'll post a picture of it.

John