Are the 30" tubes all glass, or metal/glass? Either way, I bet that tube is a SUPER rare bird as poduction/sales had to be pretty low on the Royal S. I thought I read that Hawkeye was shutting down. I hope I'm wrong because that may leave the option of a rebuild as an impossibility for all of us. I believe they are the last c.r.t. rebiulder. Not good..

The 30" was metal (30BP4). They were only used in the Royal Sovereign, and also in a Stromberg-Carlson set, I was told.

As far as Hawkeye, I haven't heard this.... But it wouldn't surprise me with the economy so bad and getting worse for the small & medium businessman, and with the limited demand for CRTs. The government still uses a lot of CRTs, and there are several rebuilders and manufacturers who do CRTs for the government only, but I believe Hawkeye and VDC are the only "open to the public" rebuilders. Gone are the days of TV repair shops with a CRT oven in the back...

Charles

I think the knock-off Sovereign was a Crosley? Same tube and huge cabinet but less elaborate guts.

courtesy of TVHISTORY.TV

the 119

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1952-Dumont-RA119.JPG

and the 109

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950-DuMont-RA109A2.jpg

Gosh! The Royal-S must be the motherload of the television hobby. To me it would be anyway. I once owned the RA-109A and thought that it was some sort of monolithic, expensive, SUPER well built set. Unfortunatly, it weighed too much to be practical under the roof of my 3 bedroom, single level, ranch stye home. I gave it away, and have missed it ever since. And it is a dwarf next to the Royal Sovereign! The big Dumonts are simply fascinating I think. Too bad so many are plaqued by c.r.t. trouble.

I just can't imagine trying to lug around one of these Royal-Sovereign sets. I sure would love to get to tinker with one, or at least see some good pictures of the chassis and c.r.t.

If you can ever get to the ETF museum, let me tell you, it's worth it just to see that DuMont! Seeing it operate-it's just amazing. It really dominates a room!

That would be great. I can't see the museum letting that thing play all day, several days a week. Perhaps they have good a stock of those 30" c.r.t.s.