Brrrr!

[TubeType]

I was able to recover the current owner's photos of his Philco Model TV-123 color set.

I understand there were about five hundred of these sets produced.
Does anyone know how many are on the survivor's list?

Caveat: I am not now, nor have I ever been associated with the sale of this television set. T.C.

[John Folsom]

The Philco 123 had a 5U4 and a 5Y3 in sockets atop the power transformer. Philco made a little box which plugged into one of the two sockets (not sure which) which contained two 5U4s in parallel. Here is a photo of the box which came with my set.

[David Roper]

John, do you mean 5U4 and 5V3?

[ggregg]

Originally Posted by TubeType

I was able to recover the current owner's photos of his Philco Model TV-123 color set.

I understand there were about five hundred of these sets produced.
Does anyone know how many are on the survivor's list?

Caveat: I am not now, nor have I ever been associated with the sale of this television set. T.C.

When I saw how "interesting" this thread was getting, I did a little research. According to what I've been able to find, it seems less than a handful are around. This may only be the third that has been out in public lately. Now what I was reading may be outdated or not accurate by now.

[Pete Deksnis]

There are two TV-123's (that's the chassis designation, the Philco model number is 22D5102) in museums and four more in the hands of collectors. This latest set makes five for a grand total of seven. At one time they were extremely rare but the queue his filled up a bit. I have one that is believed to be the 'newest' one around; it was manufactured early in 1956. Am in the process of doing my thing with mine: restore one circuit function at a time and test it.

There's been talk of a glass CRT. The AXP in mine was factory installed, and it looks very similar to the photo TubeType recovered. I can't tell for sure though if it's glass or metal.

The guy I bought it from, the original owner, a Philco dealer in southern NJ, it was about six years ago now, had made his own rectifier extension; he said the rectifiers when run in their sockets on the power transformer would melt their solder. Not likely of course, but they must have gotten real warm in those non-airconditioned rooms back in the late fifties NJ summers.

Pete

[jr_tech]

Looking at the pictures, I think that I see a pair of Helmholtz coils mounted on the sides of the CRT cover. Are these indeed coils, perhaps used for field neutralization? Very interesting looking set!
jr

Some really great pix found here:

http://www.myvintagetv.com/philco_tv123.htm

[compu_85]

I happened to have the ad open and saved it to PDF. See the attached file (for posterity's sake I guess?)

-J

[Phil Nelson]

Certainly an interesting set to read about. I see that the ETF archive includes the TV-123 setup manual, but that lacks a schematic. It looks like 22D5102 is covered in Sams, folder 349-9. I will trot down to the library to make a copy for bedtime reading.

Phil Nelson

[John Folsom]

Yes, 5U4 and 5Y3 (not 5V3).

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

...perhaps used for field neutralization? Very interesting looking set!

Yep, field neutralization. I agree it is an interesting set. Crawling through the schematic finds little in common with the basic RCA design. An exception is the chroma ref osc area, and so that's my next victim. Vertical and horizontal centering circuits are similar, but Philco engineering had a free reign it seems. Maybe it's me, but I'm not used to seeing three video amps.

Pete

[John Folsom]

OK, my bad. It IS 5U4 and 5V3, just ad David Roper said.

[Phil Nelson]

Here's the schematic and tube layout diagram in case anyone's curious.

http://antiqueradio.org/art/temp/Phi...Schematic1.jpg

http://antiqueradio.org/art/temp/Phi...Schematic2.jpg

http://antiqueradio.org/art/temp/Phi...TubeLayout.jpg

These are big files. I'd copy 'em to your local machine and view there.

I'm not going to keep these in this temporary location forever, so download now or forever hold your peace.

Phil

[TubeType]

Junior: Thanks for the link over to Chuck's site. His photos, and lots of them, are always great. Thanks Chuck!
Phil: Thanks for posting the schematics. You came through, again.
Pete: I hadn't heard about your Philco. Please post some photos.

[TubeType]

Originally Posted by John Folsom

The Philco 123 had a 5U4 and a 5Y3 in sockets atop the power transformer. Philco made a little box which plugged into one of the two sockets (not sure which) which contained two 5U4s in parallel. Here is a photo of the box which came with my set.

John,
Thanks for the dual-5U4 box photo. So, the original PS couldn't handle the load and had to be beefed up?

[GeorgeJetson]

Interesting thread,
How long was Philco in the early color tv race?
If I recall correctly Philco didn't make colors sets anymore by the late 50's right?