1965 Motorola Portable TV Repair Vintage Black and White Television TS454 Chassis

The plastic wrap is to protect the item when the post office leaves the package out in the rain.

Wow, that TV is in excellent shape; the antenna isn't broken off, the paint and chrome is still completely intact - amazing! I remember the TV commercials for those sets, the handle on the side was really attractive in the mid-1960's. I think Motorola was responsible for driving a lot of the TV technology during the 1960's. They came out with the first rectangular color CRT in 1964, pioneered the one PC board set, and began designing IC's to integrate most of the TV down to a chip set. They also came out with the Quasar line "Works in a drawer" (plug in replaceable PC boards) in 1967; their premium color set line, which was much higher quality than anything else at the time. You'll notice on that B&W set you are working on, the flyback is encased in silicone rubber, which was superior to what everyone else was doing that at that time. Also notice that your set is filled with GE (General Electric) style Compactrons (2 to 5 tubes in one package). I think GE came out with this tube line around 1960 and I suspect it had a lot to do with the longevity of tubes/slow change over to transistors. To keep competitive, the TV manufacturers cost reduced their products as much as possible. This tube line enabled GE to introduce a 10" color portable TV in 1966 for the unheard of price of $150 (if my memory is correct). I think it had only 11 tubes. Yes, the cigarette smoke drenched TV's are nothing new, that high voltage attracts it nicely. Since Bill Clinton decided cigarette smoking was evil and needed to stop when he was in office, you haven't really seen what I had to put up with in the TV shops in the mid-1970's. One of the shops I worked for would refurbish used sets, the ones with white cabinets that were in a heavy cigarette smoke environments were brown, the color of coffee with creamer. Of course the smell was quite noticeable from 10 feet away. We used Fantastic general purpose house cleaner to strip the nicotine, and it came off looking like black coffee. That fusable link resistor looked like it suffered for a long time before blowing (notice the corrosion on the leads from high heat). I have never seen one shred up like that one did. That resistor exterior may have had a fiberglass/asbestos weave. Asbestos was commonly used at that time for most any high temperature application. All the schools I went to growing up had asbestos ceiling tiles. I think asbestos is still being used for the brake material in cars, simply because there is no suitable replacement.

The notes on that package are invitations to the shipping gorillas to do exactly the opposite. "Packaging has to be adequate enough to survive being thrown down a flight of stairs." A quote I witnessed from a UPS employee at a receiving center.

Barring the power resistor that "EOL'd" itself, this thing is pristine I was watching Sesame Street on one of these things when I was but a toddler...

Cool TV set with an asbestos haven within. Very clear picture. Colourful ebay sticky tape also.

Children today would not understand that at one point in time you had to get up to change the channel on the T.V set. Great video. Cheers!

I loved that bit at the end! You should do a 5 minute video, explaining how a tv works but as if you’re talking to a nuisance caller. Our old 625 lines PAL system was shut down too long ago. I miss it!

Blasting viewers with radiation wasn't enough, lets add an asbestos dispenser too.

Well treated TV. Those antennas were always broken out. They even had a repair kit to fix it. LFOD !

I'd guess the plastic wrap was because the seller knew exactly what that white powder was and didn't want the USPS to come knocking when it spilled out of the box along the way.

Starting this video with an eBay shipping rant made me think I was watching radiotvphononut

What a beautiful tv😍😍I wish that Obama and the FCC didn’t turn off all analog TV signal because it could still be portable😢

An other quality video from Mr Shango’s Lab. Thank You, Please keep the videos coming!

I can hear "radiotvphononut" blowing a gasket and yelling  as he sees how this was packed for shipment!!

Good stuff, as always. There was enough “house dust” inside the TV to indicate it had some hours on it. Low hours perhaps, but NOS or nearly NOS, no.

"Does that make sense?" "Yes, Nylacoin Mcschnarsalblamler"

I love it when people pack things like it's the only package the package carrier will be delivering that week. They probably thought it would be driven on the same truck from the pickup point to the delivery address too. Also like the news clip showing the fire hose wrapped over the top of a car that was probably illegally parked in front of a hydrant. In some places, they would have had the windows busted, or doors peeled open so they could run the hoses through the car.

I'm not complaining but I get more nervous about asbestos then some, not sure why. Just the fluffy kind and also brake dust. Used to live on a one way down hill city street with lots of traffic and a traffic light at the bottom of the hill. Lots of large trucks stopping downhill and lots of tiny shiny particles spinning in the air in a shaft of sunlight made me wonder.

In 1972, when I was 5, I remember my mom buying one of these. We lived in Wickenburg, about 55 or 60 miles northwest of Phoenix. It was indeed sensitive. It got a picture with only the antenna built into the handle.

PLEASE I want to go back to 1965, America didn't suck so bad back then.