Half way to a Zenith porthole

[dano]

I have been keeping my eyes open for a porthole set for a while now, and I finally found one and picked it up tonight. Only one problem though, it's just an empty cabinet. I'm in Oregon and we didn't even have a TV station here until late '52 so there just aren't many of these sets around here. I figured I'd store the cabinet with hopes of finding a junker set locally some day, or finding/shipping the pieces needed from other collectors. This one is a 1950 model, 12" with a 23G22 chassis. It's also a combo with radio and phono, I believe it to be model G2958 "Regent", though I'm having a tough time finding any info about. Anyway, I have one thing so far that's confusing me. I checked out the Zenith tube layout stickers before I even got the cabinet loaded in the car, the radio chassis (6D20) looks to be very similar to the ones used in radio/phono-only consoles of the earily 50s, only the diagram shows no rectifier or output tubes. The origional radio bezel is still there (the TV one is missing) and it doesn't show a "TV" position, I'm assuming that somehow the radio/phono must have used the output section of the TV? I know I could just buy the Sams or get it from the library, but I hate to do that until I actually own the TV chassis. I thought maybe someone here had a little more insight into how this was setup origionally.

[Sandy G]

My Porthole is at Terry's awaiting my visit to Pay him & Spring it...Maybe next week....I can hardly stand the wait...My wife "Humours" my old TV fascination...Maybe she'll be kind...I tell her, its Old TVs 'n' Radios or a Mistress...She smiles back & sez, You're 55, balding, & Fat...What kind of Mistress do you think you could honestly afford ?!? (grin)

[Einar72]

I had a 16" Zenith roundie combo years ago, and it had a separate power supply/audio chassis, but the radio and TV audio stages were paralleled at the spealer!

[dano]

I thought this one might have been setup that way too, but I would expect to see a sticker with the tube layout for the power/audio chassis, and I also don't see anything that looks like a mounting point for one. Still that seems like the most logical explaination to me so far. So did the paralleled audio stages have seperate output tubes and transformers, with both tied to the same speaker? Could both the TV and radio be run at the same time?

[Kevin Kuehn]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

She smiles back & sez, You're 55, balding, & Fat...What kind of Mistress do you think you could honestly afford ?!? (grin)

Ouch! Talk about an ego downer, not to mention...

[cwmoser]

You have a Zenith 23G22? Download the Zenith Service Manual here:
http://www.earlytelevision.org/tv_sc..._diagrams.html

Scroll to the bottom and find "23G22". Click on it and you can download a 40 page PDF file for your TV.

The 23G22 is very similar to Brooks 24G22 that Brooks just restored and got working. Check out his thread:
http://antiqueradios.com/forums/view...p?f=3&t=181924


Is your cabinet similar to this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...vip=true&rt=nc

Love those Zenith Portholes - they are like beautiful women:-)

Carl

[charokeeroad]

I think I have a chassis and power supply for that set. If your interested PM me.

G3276Z (i don't think this one will work for you it's not listed in the service manual. Sorry)

[dano]

Originally Posted by cwmoser

You have a Zenith 23G22? Download the Zenith Service Manual here:
http://www.earlytelevision.org/tv_sc..._diagrams.html

Scroll to the bottom and find "23G22". Click on it and you can download a 40 page PDF file for your TV.

Thanks! That will help a lot.

Originally Posted by cwmoser

Is your cabinet similar to this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...vip=true&rt=nc

Love those Zenith Portholes - they are like beautiful women:-)

Carl

Mine is very similar, actually that set is about the only one I can find pictures of that looks even remotely close. Mine has different style doors but the insides are the same.

[dano]

The Zenith service manual did tell all, thanks again for the link. They used a strange setup, aparently the TV has several tubes wired in series with the heaters powered driectly off of the 120V line, and it also uses a power transformer for B+ and 6V for the heaters of a few more tubes. There is a socket for the radio/phono that connects the audio directly to the input of the power output tube, connects to B+, connects to the TV power switch, but is also disconnects power to those tubes wired in series leaving only the ones on the transformer active. The reason I'm trying to figure all of this out is because I have a chassis from a Zenith radio with no TV, it looks like I can just remove the output and rectifier tubes and connect a cable to the TV chassis and it should work just fine. Thanks everyone for the help!

[tvdude1]

I have a spare chassis for your 12 inch set. It came out of a combo unit also. 12 inch set has single chassis.. Might have all knobs also. Pm me

[tvtimeisfun]

Hello it may help if you post a picture with the doors open so I can see the lay out I have a combo with the radio and phono I have the rectangular crt in my zenith combo I will part it out if you need phono and radio if a good offer is presented to me...Timothy

[dano]

I suppose I should just take some photos and post them here, but what I have looks exactly like the set in post 6 and 8 above, if you follow the ebay link. Mine is a 12" screen though. For what it's worth to anybody else wanting to restore one of these, it looks like the difference between the '50 radio chassis and the '51 and newer style is mainly the bezel, the dial, and possibly the way the dial pointer mounts. In '50 it looks like Zenith used a Voice of Music record changer with a cobra tone arm, my assumption is that they did this short term until they could make their own 3 speed changer. In '51 they switched to the changer that has variable speeds. The metal tray they sit in has mounting tabs in different places for the different changers but I think the whole assembly will interchange. I have the newer radio and phono already, I just need to modify it for combo use (route audio and power to the TV chassis). One thing I have been wondering, though, do the '52 and newer non-porthole Zenith TVs share any chassis parts with the porthole sets, for example the flyback or Lazy Bones remote or anything? I saw a non-porthole combo at the local Goodwill Outlet a while back, but passed it up at the time as I didn't think I'd ever end up with a porthole set and couldn't really use anything other than the tubes.

[dano]

I have a radio chassis for my Zenith porthole combo, but it came from a regular radio with no TV. Does anybody have a 50s Zenith TV with the radio chassis in it? I can tell from the schematic that the chassis would have a 9 pin connector to attach to the TV, and the wiring is no problem, the only thing that isn't clear is 1) if the connector is physically mounted to the chassis or on a cable, and 2) where that connector or cable is physically attached. I was hoping someone out there might have a photo or verbal description.

[dano]

I know that this is an old thread, but I'm still on the lookout for the front bezel for a 12" 1950 Zenith porthole, and would be interested in a chassis as well (though at this point I would be happy to just make it look correct on the outside). Any pointers would be appreciated.

[jr_tech]

Have you seen this thread... several people are selling bezels as "picture frames"
http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=256426
jr