little tv with radio
 

in the 80's my mom and me went to safeway store and entered a drawing for a little tv with radio and i won the tv i would watch tv will in a tent my friends wore ticked off

Welcome, Fred! What kinda set was it? I think I'd have been on the top of the world if I won a TV like that.

i think it was a ge i do not have it any more

There were dozens of brands at the time of combo B&W (And sometimes color) televisions with radio. The tuning was usually vernier in nature rather than bandswitch; cheaper--and more compact. Some sets had a continuous tuning of chs two through thirteen, by using some kind of micro switch to change positions to switch the two separated bands at the point the dial went from "6" to "7" on the dial.

While these sets might be something on which I'd normally listen to the ball game the picture was small, and of low enough quality--particuarly on the color sets--that I never took them that seriously. If I'm gonna watch a movie then that set is not for me. Unless I want to watch a movie in a tent while camping out, and ignoring the bear that is trying to box at my rations tied up in the limb of an adjacent tree...

GE made several models of what they called "Porta-Color" back in the day. The problem with them is while they were a neat novelty the phosphor dot resolution for their tiny screen was the same as for a 25" set of the day, raising havoc with resolution--picture definition.

But they had their cult following. And I had a good friend that had one that he liked. It was loaded with those dad-blamed "compactrons"--which were even back about 30 years ago when I worked on this set made of unobtainium.

I've posted this story before--I'll admit--but a synch failure after warmup I traced after heatup to a control grid-to-cathode short of a triode in one of these miserable--and unavailable--tubes. You could almost set your watch by the precision of the timing of failure.

I hunted high and low for a replacement of that tube. This was back before the magic and connectivity of internet. No dice on a replacement. Argghhhh! (Stupid Pirate expression--sorry for that!)

I called the owner with the tale of woe. "Isn't there anything you can do? I like that TV!"

In a fit of frustration and rage, I went out to my car, removed the battery, and rigged it up on my bench with heavy-duty electronics-bench jumper cables. And waited for the set to go out of synch, and roll and spin its picture. Connected the cables with negative to grid and positive to cathode.

POW!

Tube repaired--end of story.

That set is prolly dumpster fodder at this point; this was close to 30 years ago. But it worked for a long while after that radical measure I took--as far as I know....

I've got one of those, Emerson, 5" B&W, AM/FM, VHF/UHF, AC or battery: I think it takes about eight D cells. It had an undercabinet bracket that it would slide in and out of and did kitchen duty for many years. I retired it and it worked at the time I took it out. If anybody wants it it's yours for postage.

Reece
Cleona, PA

Speaking of Emerson tv/radio, i have a 1950s version sitting in the garrage with no knobs.. See a nightmare on emerson street thread

SR