In 1971 I was stationed in Vietnam with the 45th Engineers, my wife was home and very pregnant, so in order to get home to be with her at the time of our son's birth , I took a short re-up for 12 months and extended my tour for 2 months so I could get the bonus and take a re-up leave. On my way, our plane stopped at Yakota Air Base and while there I went to their PX for a bit of shopping and purchased a CROWN Television/AM-FM Radio. It was much more compact but did run on AC/DC taking a bunch of C cells or plugging into a car 12 volt system, or had an AC adapter that replaced the battery pack. It was much more compact then yours but she served me well on my last 7 months in Vietnam. When I got home and plugged it into the 110 volt power it blew a resistor. I took it to the on base repair center at Fort Bliss but they could not repair it as the model was never sold in the US and there were no schematics on it. So I took it home and found the bad resistor, or what was left of it, no bands left as she blew, and I just wrapped a bit of wire around the two leads and the little set ran just fine for the next few years. I finally sold it to a fellow who worked part time as a security guard driving his car around some warehouses, he mounted the set under the dash of his 65 Chevy and used it to watch TV on the job. She was still working last I talked to him in 74 when I transfered up to DC to be a ceremonial soldier with The Old Guard.

This is so cool! I've been thinking of buying one of these to fix for a long time. Just haven't done it yet. Anyway, great find and great video!

This is legendary! The repair apart this ought to go into the Guinness Book of World Record. Playing the PS5 on a 1978 portable TV. Much respect 🙏 This an engineer retro lover's dream

I used to own a lot of arcade machines, and I always HATED working on the CRTs (which was a pain really because most of the machines needed re-capping!) - still it was very satisfying when I fixed them!

The satisfaction of bringing a piece of equipment back to life is so rewarding ... I spent 25 years as a field service engineer repairing all sorts of office equipment around the U.K. so I know the feeling of getting any type of object back to life. You follow a sound path in fault finding thats for sure as many people jump here there and never follow a tried and tested format as you do ... also you have patients which is a must ... really enjoyed this video ... congratulations on the repair.

1 hour video!? Glad we're back to classic Vince length videos. I can't wait to watch

That compartment was to store the mono earpiece so you could watch/listen in private, Great video, I miss old tech that actually worked when you wanted it to !

Had a similar one to this in the 80's. I used to watch Dangermouse on it in my Dad's office after school, lol. Nice video Vince - really enjoyed the process on this one.

You should do a live stream of these repairs. The viewers could give tips.

Hi Vince. Coincidentaly. I bought one of these last year on ebay, exact same colour and model. It also had the exact same issue, no power on. So while watching this video I got mine out (it was already opened up) and I cleaned the same switch you did, and now it works. What are the chances eh? lol

All the power connectors have built in switches (mains, 12v barrel jack) so that when a power source is connected it disconnects from the battery. Often the internal switches in the sockets go bad. The CH Radio/TV switch is a charge switch for rechargeable batteries. When in CH position it isolates the power to the Radio/TV.

I think that huge noise that you got on RF is because you forgot to solder stranded wire ground on the prong end of the switch 33:12

These repair videos are so good that over the last week I have had a binge watch and decided to subscribe. I only subscribe to quality channels and this channel is quality. Massive respect for the education and enjoyment. I love old gadgets and electrical equipment.

Bit of a testament to older tube type technology. Wonderful work Vince!

Great job! On radios and TVs with string tuning mechanisms, although the drive knob will slip at either end of the travel, the important bit is getting the displayed frequency to match what the tuner is set to. For radios you can set them by tweaking the pointer mechanism when you are tuned to a known frequency station -ie slip it along whilst not allowing the tuning capacitor wheel to move . You'd have to do the same for the TV in the days the signals were still being sent out.

Your patience and perseverance never fails to amaze me. What a cracking little telly and great video as always.

Wow this brought back memories of when my dad bought the exact model and we were amazed how small and portable it was , we had it in our kitchen/ dining room

I remember my grandparents had one of those when I was a kid around the late 90s/00’s and they’ll have it on the front porch watching tv. Watching the video of you fixing it brings me my childhood memories going over there and watching my grandmother watch her soap opera shows while smoking and having her tea outside. 😅

You sir , have the patience of a saint. Roll on the next video and 1 million subs.

Nice repair, Drill a tiny hole in the powders cap, then you can add small amounts of powder by tapping the bottle. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 Thank you for the mention😊

Just be sure to connect the ground to the tube if you decide to turn it on, in this case it was those prongs I'm guessing. Lots of noise. Might have to be with the lack of grounding on the signal cable you re-soldered. The braid seemed not to be connected.

I think EXT is 'External' as in external antenna,and not 'Extension', and rod is the telescopic.Brilliant video btw,I was engrossed the whole time.I love watching folk using their hands and know-how to renovate things and get them working again.

I got one similar to this mini tv And used to watch “the young ones” on it It was my pride n joy for many years

Gosh, this takes me back to my parents' old Hitachi TV that needed a good minute to warm up after being turneod on. The image would slowly fade into life while the audio was there immediately.

A fantastic restoration of a rare retro piece of kit there Vince! Great job!

The CH-ON /TV-RADIO switch on the side is actually to permit charging of NiCd cells fitted in the battery compartment (someone will probably have beaten me to this). Used to be common on battery/mains radios back in the 1970s.

Hi Vince, great repair. The large wheel with the spring is attached to the tuning capacitor, it is that which is turned to tune the radio. It is the position of the indicator strip relative to the position of the large wheel that's important. The other wheels simply provide a path and means of tensioning the string. The tuning capacitor assy is the clear plastic housing that can be seen on the opposite side of the PCB to the large wheel.

Mr. Vince you're a wild man, heading into any unknown territory. Nice to watch your vids.

That superglue job was phenomenal. You practically just threw those broken pieces onto the spindle and they placed perfectly. I figured you were gonna spend 20 minutes fitting those pieces together.

This so cool. It almost makes me want to tear up. It reminds me of my childhood when my grandfather drove Semi. I remember sitting in his Semi watch the football games with him.

Crown was never a premium brand, but it's nice to see that all of the faults are due to usage rather than component failure. Wear and tear faults mean that it was used and very much enjoyed way back when it was actually relevant. I expect it was a caravan dweller and amused the family on rainy days, which in the UK, was probably all of them. Pity it's now obsolete as a TV, but that's progress for you.

Nice fix very retro always wanted one as a kid, probably would benefit from a recap to reduce noise, they have done well for forty years well done for saving another piece of tech from history.

I really love watching you Vince

Very nice done, Vince! Your patience at these Objects is incredible. And it's a very cool outcome :D

These repair videos are pure ASMR for me. Especially parts where you try test the connections and voltage.

When I was a kid back in the 90s, we had one of these for when we went on camping holidays. It got good use and was great back in the day.

Very cool! A elderly lady who was a youth leader at my church brought one of these and instantly hooked us kids' attention! :D .. after our lesson I remember watching the Wonder Woman tv show on it. Great memories!

Been watching this m8 since 2017 never gets old keep at it Vince

I had one of these in the day, fitted it under the dash of my mgb roadster on a switch that turned off, when the ignition turned on to keep it legal. so I could watch the TV when parked. Worked great at the time.

You make this look so easy! Excellent as usual...

Just found your channel yesterday - superb! Binging now!

The first connector (with the 4 wires), for the tube you were concerned about is the connection to the deflection coils on the tube, they will not hold a charge from the tube, although when powered up can give a fair walk. A B&W tube of that size is only about 14KV whereas a large screen colour is nearly 30K. With older CRT sets, best not to start twirling any preset pots as you have what’s called the B+ voltage and if that is too high, the tube can emit x rays!!!. Other risks of CRT is knocking the back of the neck off.

Wow thatt make's me feel old Vince . Its crazy how big that was, and now you can watch tv on your smart device, thanks for the video

Absolutely brilliant!, I really admire your determination and analytical skills! Made my day and week and month!1 thank you soooo much!

This was such a satisfying one! Well done!

When my girlfriend (now wife of 38 years) first moved in together we used one of these as our main TV for several months! That would have been 1982.....There's a chance it's still in a box in the loft... We had it on a fairly high sideboard and used to draw our 1960s bucket chairs as close as we could. Happy days.

This is really neat. And somehow really relaxing watching you do these. Maybe it's the nostalgia.. maybe.

This is so cool, as a child we had a similar unit in our family van and had our NES hooked up to it for road trips

awesome fix Vince that fault finding is becoming fantastic to watch and see you do :)

The switch on the side you cleaned first is for CHARGE. A battery charger is built in, and a lead acid battery was available for this model which sat in the battery compartment and positive was connected to a pole in a small recess. When in charge mode, tv and radio was inoperable. Lovely little set, I got mine in 1980 and it still works!

Great video. I had a JVC equivalent (I think - this is a huge ask for memory). What people now do not realise, is that I could be the only person watching Wimbledon in the garden or the snooker final. You soon gained friends travelling to park with one of these :-)

excellant repair i remember having a mini tv radio in my kitchen when i was married haha love taking things apart to figure out how they work hence why i am a mechanic now thanks for sharing new sub here.

The worst shock I have had and probably was the closest to electrocuting me was from an old CRT monitor I was working on. It had been years since it was plugged in and I stupidly assumed it would be discharged.... NEVER ASSUME. In the words of Dr. House "You know what you do when you make an assumption? You make an ass our of you and some guy named Umption."

Keep up the good work fella and stay safe!

Superb work vince and the tuner thing worked ot well .

Great job, as always. Congratulations

I have one just like it, I had 2 but Dads one is still in its original box- from Dixons, probably 1982. Dads was less used than mine but both us were ‘campers’ and our one was in our tent!

Very nice fix, we had a portable color tv when I was a kid that we'd hook the nintendo up to sometimes depending on where we wanted to play

I really like these old units. Brilliant.

Man that's nuts running a pre 2020 PS5 console into a 1978 portable TV - radio system. Both timelines couldn't be further from one another in the concepts of time and progress here. But in a rare form they're aligned here for all of us to see. These TV - radio systems were still sold in the 1980's via Tandy/Radio Shack among others although not as big/sturdy built. Get some mates to play your PS5 like this and it'll be the talk of the town here. That Radio TV system is as old as me and is a sheer piece of electronic ingenuity as well. Nice fix.

you can use baking soda as a super glue activator, and also use it to build up a areas by putting super glue and sprinkling baking soda on, and repeating until the gap is filled in. much cheaper and just as rock hard. and you can sand to shape it, and paint it if needed.

Love the channel Vince 👌 I'm sure you don't need to say "I'm not an expert anymore".

Don’t ever sell yourself short my mate Vince if I ever had something that I needed fixed and it was a matter of life or death I would put my trust in you as you have a never give up attitude and are very knowledgeable 👍👍

Nice long Saturday Video before work tonight Cheers Vince 👍❤️

I have one of those AM/FM VHF/UHF B&W set that was given to me at work back in 2000. I knew right away what novel thing I could use it for -- spinning through the analog dial tuner in the high UHF range to pick up cell phone conversations!

Great fix, it looks so good. I was a bit nervous for you with the crt high voltage thingy. Q-Bond worked really well for me when I repaired quite a big chunk of cast aluminium on a cam cover…

Wow. I used to have one of those! Great vid. Thank you.

Good job Vince Mate.

My mum had one of these, used mainly on holidays but she also used it for her video work as a small monitor and she produced quite a lot of videos on the thing. Its use came to an end when I built up a PC for her that could handle full video input and she hooked a jogger board and second monitor to it and the poor old portable got chucked in the end as it was pretty knackered by this time.

That is nostalgia, that is awesome!!

What a nice machine for those times.... nice fix and save from the bin again Vince. Next up a broken C64 perhaps? Keep up the great videos

Mine had a tape deck too you have so much patience Vince well done 👍👍👍

I think yous call them 2 in 1.very nice vince.my dad you have one 3 in1 with tv radio and tape

Simply Beautiful and a delight to watch.

I had one of those, used it to play ps1 games when I went to uni in the late 90s. I've still got the ariel from it!

Cool stuff...good job

Hi vince awsome fix and i really like the content you provide us with keep it up 😀

I have something similar to this made by Radio Shack in the late 80s. I used to carry it in my work truck when I worked emergency service and was on standby with nothing to do. It still works, but the TV side can't pick up digital signals obviously.

My sister had one of these, I think its brand was Panasonic. Black and white video. The picture was crazy grainy. Still, camping it kept us from running off in the woods for a few minutes. Until the 10 C cells or so died! When the batteries started to die I remember it would loose v sync, you could still get another couple minutes out of it by messing with brightness and such. Then another couple of audio only.

Growing up, my dad was working on a 19"CRT TV, and told my that high voltage side had enough volts in it to kill you for three days. I thought that's not bad it's only for the days then I would be fine. LOL

I had one of these back in 1983, it was the TV I used with my Zx Spectrum. No colour for me just glorious black and white.

That tube was actually a tube, it's a CRT, so it is a Cathode Ray Tube. It works by heating up a filament to emmit electrons that are accelerated towards the front of the tube using high voltage cathode and focused into a ray by an electromagnet (that big coil of wire arround the CRT) and the TV signal is an analog signal that it's split into a signal that modulates the strenght of electron ray to make a brighter or darker point on the screen and a signal that controls the sync of the electromagnets that divert the electron ray into a scanning motion left to right line by line. There is a phosphoros coating in the glass that emmits light when it's hit by the electrons.

1st class video to watch thank you take care kind regards from me kenneth

I am pretty sure that EXT on the EXT / ROD switch stands for "external" rather than "extension". Also, as mentioned, you may want to investigate where the shield of that little coax that came off is supposed to go.

I still have my NTV one from 1982, it has extra tech on it, red LED clock on it lol, been by my bed since then, only use it for the clock and radio, I tecently hooked up a SEGA megadrive on it, brilliant.

That brings back memories for me. I had the superior JVC model which also had a cassette player in it.

Love the "***" on the repaired little 1978 Crown portable TV/radio haha! And in case anyone's wondering, yes, you can get smaller "dedicated" RF modulators than a VCR :P I've got a Goodmans Quadro 905 5" B&W portable TV/clock/radio/cassette but the cassette door is broken, and judging by a photo I just saw online of one with it broken in the same way it seems to be a common problem.

Very cool device and fix :)

Loved watching this.....

𝙒𝙊𝙒 ! 𝙄 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤 𝙑𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚, I loved these miniature telly's when I was a wee boy, always wanted one, to the extent I bought a Casio Watchman not long ago, knowing full well I'll only be able to watch 'snow'. Please keep em coming. 👍🏻

i remember using one of these as a kid to watch startrek next gen in the 80s .... i had fun learning about electronics and getting a nintendo to run on it etc.. one thing i do remember is that it was heavy

For 1978 this was very very ahead for it’s time😁

Well done 👍

Vince to the rescue to save my night. Greetings from the EU!

I love the way you over play the "High Voltage" danger, on a set that hasn't been turned on in years! You are correct when you say you have little experience in the electronics field. But it seems you do in the field of overkill and drama!

Lovely fixes Vince =D

Use SERVISOL for switch cleaning, not IPA. IPA washes grease out of the switch and its needed to lube the clamp in the switch. Also get two household paint brushes, one Black bristle cheapo and a quality fine brush to clean out stuff from dust.

Just wearing those surgical nitrile gloves can make a difference in getting shocked - they won’t protect you all the way, but will be enough to keep your conductive skin from any live contacts

Hi Vince. great and interesting repair. to fill holes in plastic or as a strengthener I use super glue and bicarbonate of soda amazing results.

Fantastic video, more like this please and dont worry about it being long as i think the majority of viewers (myself included) really enjoy a good long and interesting fix. by far the Retro videos are the best as they have history and good old fashioned issues you just dont get on modern items. more.game gears, lynx, sega Nomads (this is a mobile megadrive!)and perhaps a rare pc engine gt turbo. looking forward to the next video as im a brit abroad that enjoys your walk n talk your way through problems to get to solutions. regards chris. ps how can i become a vince massive patrion?