New Member With A Vintage TV
 

I have made my first vintage tv purchase. It is a 1952 Philco console model 52-T2151. The exterior of the tv is in very good condition. I believe it was a one owner tv for all of those years. I plan on using this tv for maybe an average of one to two hours per week. When it comes to vintage tv's, I know VERY little. This is what I do know about the tv. When I turn it on , there is no picture. All of the tubes seem to glow. The picture tube filaments glow. There is no sound to speak of but a low static sound if I turn the volume knob up or down.The high voltage output tube (in the enclosed metal section (p/n) 6BQ6UA was dead ( you could see where it had shorted out inside the tube). I am going to replace the bad tube and see what happens.

Any suggestions on where I should go from here? This is a great looking tv and I hope to keep it for a long time. Thanks in advance for any advice

That's probably one of the Philco split chassis sets. I restored one of those a couple of years ago for someone else and had a surprising number of problems with it, although that can happen with any vintage TV.

Best not to power it up too much before replacing the paper capacitors in the horizontal sweep section. Many folks would also advise replacing all the electrolytic capacitors in the power supply as well before powering up (I don't happen to do it that way myself, but it's important to keep in mind that a shorted electrolytic cap can be hard on your power transformer).

You'll also want to figure out quite early in the process whether your picture tube is good. There are a couple of ways to do that: either use a CRT tester (which can often be obtained for very little money), or repair just enough of the TV's circuitry to get the horizontal sweep and high voltage sections working. Then by checking voltages on the CRT cathode and grids, and observing how bright the raster (or horizontal line if the vertical isn't working yet) you can get an idea.

Finding a replacement CRT or having the old one rebuilt takes a bit of time and money if it turns out that yours is bad. Sometimes that means that a particular set is not the best choice for restoration, depending on sentimental value, how much you like the design, etc.

Feel free to ask lots of questions here as you get started.

Wonder how similar it is to my 52-T1634? :scratch2:


Mine was easy to fix, simple recap and it's still running strong to this day.

I wonder also... I have a '51 with a 16" round tube that has a Power transformer and 2 5U4 rectifiers. My '53 17" rectangular tube Philco has only a small filament transformer, and uses 2 selenium rectifiers in a voltage doubler circuit for the B+...so what does the power supply of a '52 look like?

The split chassis is fun to work on, each side is a very manageable size, and the tube stays in the cabinet.

jr

Welcome ! Neat ol' Philco-An' I think you'll find you're amongst friends here...

Nobody has asked you this yet, but how well are you at getting around electronics? Vintage TV's should be approached with the same basics as with anything else that is of vintage plus there is a whole lot more going on and to be aware of.

If you're comfortable with tube audio and radios and have some experience then all the better, but either way you've come to the right place!

And to elaborate on what Tom had mentioned, instant on-power ups can be fetal for next to impossible to find parts so turn ons are critical at this point and should be avoided as a chassis inspection is in order. Leaky electrolytics, paper capacitors, burnt components are a stopping point and must be remedied before proceeding!

Hopefully, you have a variac or a poor man's version "Dim Bulb" tester!

Error, never mind.

From the tone of his post (referring to the horizontal output tube as the "high voltage output tube", et al.) I'd guess the OP is very new to TV repair and probably should, IMO, leave any service work on his set to a qualified person. Television repair is much more involved than radio or audio servicing; moreover, the high voltages present in a TV set, especially around the CRT (picture tube), can be dangerous or lethal if not approached in the correct manner.

BTW, my best friend's parents' first TV was a split-chassis Philco console similar to the OP's. I never saw their set in operation (I think they retired it and got a new, smaller set when my best friend and I were very small kids, IIRC--I'll have to ask him if he remembers anything about it), but I do remember seeing the set in their garage many years ago. The set is long gone by now, as my friend's parents no longer live in the neighborhood (four houses down the street from where I grew up), but the OP's mention of his split-chassis Philco 21" set immediately rang a bell in my head and sent my mind reeling back at least thirty years.

Ah, memories.

I wonder how many of those split-chassis Philcos were made, in what year, and how reliable they were. Did they have a decent picture? :scratch2: My best friend and I grew up in a far-suburban area for Cleveland TV and if I remember, there was a rather large antenna on the roof of his folks' house (the antenna was VHF only as Cleveland only had channels 3, 5 and 8 at the time, late '50s-early '60s).

Were the split-chassis Philcos' tuners sensitive enough for use in far-suburban to fringe areas? I'm not sure, but I think my friend's folks' set had a 6BQ7 or other type cascode RF amplifier tube in the tuner and at least three video IF stages. However, if it had a garden-variety RF amp tube such as a 6GK5, 6HA5 or other small-signal tube, I can see the need for a large antenna -- sets with this type of low-gain RF amp (compared to cascode RF stages) needed all the incoming signal they could get, especially in moderate to weak signal areas. I live in an area of northeastern Ohio which is located some 35 miles from Cleveland and at least 40 miles from most of the area's television transmitters; I bet there were a lot of TV sets around here in the '50s-'60s, Philcos and other makes, with cascode RF stages (to say nothing of large near-fringe-area antennas on rooftops, some of which are still standing but falling apart), as the TV signals here are nowhere near city grade, especially in these days of all-digital TV; in fact, they never were, even when TV was all analog (the entire village is wired for cable, and just about everyone here has it or satellite).

My 1951 16" Philco uses a 6CB5 rf while the 1953 17" set uses a 6BQ7. Both have 4 video IF stages... the 1953 set is noticeably more sensitive than the 1951 and was a decent fringe area/Dxing set.

jr

I do believe that my '52 Philco 52-T2151 may be a split chassis. I don't know of a vintage tv repair person in my area (norfolk va.) so would it be feasible to send one section of the split chassis at a time to someone who repairs vintage sets and have him check all of the tubes and the overall condition of that section of the chassis? Is it difficult to find a crt tester with a connector that will fit my picture tube?

Mine has all the low and high voltage stuff on one chassis (sweep chassis), while the audio and video circuits are on the other smaller one. My B+ supply has 3 5Y3GT rectifiers, high voltage is provided by a pair of 6BQ6GT's running in parallel to drive the flyback, rectifiers are 1X2's. Audio is an SE 6V6GT, and I have only the video output tube running since on air stuff dried up. I just route composite signals right to the vid tube grid, it works great.


There's a rebuild thread on ARF: http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/...014&highlight=


http://myweb.msoe.edu/williamstm/Images/Philco_4.jpg

http://myweb.msoe.edu/williamstm/Images/Philco_1.jpg

Wow, they really simplified the 52 model compared to the 51. Smaller RF/IF chassis, and the horizontal oscillator circuitry is not wired on the outside front of the high voltage cage. They probably got the cost down, and hopefully made it more reliable.

Yeah, it's really easy to work on too. Only problem I've ever had with it is the B+ supply for the tuner/audio sections- a resistor that's rivited to the chassis decided to short to ground one day, which took out the focus pot partially. I replaced it with a sand resistor, and it's been a strong runner ever since. Anyone have a replacement focus pot? :scratch2:

Only thing I'd really still like to do to it is redag the CRT, since the HT has a bit of a ripple to it. A refurb cabinet would be nice too, but the set just isn't worth anything so I guess it stays the way it is. Good thing it has a razor sharp picture and a strong CRT, I'd have binned it a long time ago. :smoke:

For grins, I have posted a picture of my '51 Philco chassis. Although these early Philcos are fairly common and perhaps not worth the "big bucks" yet , I think they are quite worth collecting! :yes:
Mine occupies a fairly choice spot in my "TV room".

jr

Edit add "Anyone have a replacement focus pot?" Strange, both my '51 and '53 models have permanent magnet focus! Indeed the chassis resistor on my '51 failed, but did not destroy any other parts...weak point for these sets?

Hi jr,

That's the exact 1951 model that I spent so much quality time with for a customer. Got it back several times to fix new problems that came up every few months after it was first restored. After several follow-up repairs, it seems to have stabilized in a good state.

The one I restored had magnetic focus too. I believe it was model 51T-1634. Nice set with a good sharp picture and a nice cabinet design.

Say, if you need to free up some space in your TV room, you can send me that one just to the right of the Philco. That would free up a lot of space for you. Pretty small screen for such a large cabinet anyway.