| The stories this box told! Flash Gordon; Oliver and Hardy; Buck Rogers in the 25th Century; Our Gang; Peter Pan; The Lone Ranger; Graucho Marx - You Bet Your Life; Mr. Peepers; Live it up up up with UpTown. My sister learned her film crafts watching Bill Kennedy's Million Dollar Movie. This is the first television set owned by my family. It is an unimpressive "economy" set that cost $250. Economy in its case meant the tube count was reduced in the IF section. The reduced bandwidth gave it a narrow video bandwidth and a soft picture. This was a minor trade off when many sources did not reach the allocated bandwidth. The set was in daily use for fourteen years and used rarely since. It was working the last time it was turned on but the picture was dim. It still has the original Dumont picture tube. |
|
| At a silent auction at the 2008 Early TV Convention I purchased a replacement picture tube. |
|
| The Sparton 5301 was UHF "ready". UHF 14 through 83 channels were allocated, but the set's tuner had only 12 channels, 2 through 13. The Sparton tuner is a large "turret" type. The channel strips on the turret could be removed and strips for a UHF channel added. For example the unused channel 5 strip could have been replaced with a strip for channel 56. According to the dealer in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1956, the UHF strips were unavailable. So this set was used with a set top UHF converter, a low cost model made by Blonder-Tongue. It was not used with the high line RCA UHF adapter shown on these web pages. |
|
| I maintained the set using the Sam's service data. It has had many tubes replaced, but no other parts that I recall. |
| For additional information on early TV visit the Early Television Museum. |
Send questions or comments on this page to David Carlstrom.