John Staples Restores a 1952 DuMont TV

In the CHRS television display room at KRE radio in Berkeley, Dr. John Staples has restored a 1952 DuMont 30" "big screen" tube TV. It is working and we have the antenna input connected to a modern DVD and modulator so the set is showing "I Love Lucy." The California Historical Radio Society, CHRS, has a real museum at the site of the station where Wolfman Jack was filmed for American Graffiti, KRE-AM on the Berkeley Marina.

[@TheTwick]

Wow! In the 50s and 60s my father taught me to fix TVs and radios. He was an engineer at RCA. I used to earn money fixing the neighbors’ sets. I did make house calls for the big ones but preferred working in my dad’s basement shop. I could fix 95% of everything that came in - my dad fixed the 5% that I couldn’t. I envy you. I wish I could go back to those days. Vacuum tubes were ‘alive’ in a way that transistors are not. I got more than a few scars from those HV rectifier tubes but I learned how to work safely. My dad said he could fix anything with a wet finger and a pencil. The wet finger was for ‘measuring’ voltage and the pencil was for tapping tubes (if you don’t understand ‘tube tapping’ , well, I guess that’s one for history).

[@jeromecabral192]

I got into fixing vintage tvs when I was 9 years old in the 80s and been at for 36 years

[@johncourt6895]

Ok I don’t know how I ever missed this. I never knew a 30 inch existed back then. This is amazing to see and I can only imagine the people who saw this set when it was new and what they thought about it. Technology is really something in the fact that most of the parts in the tv were phased out and replaced with less and less over time. This was a great job for sure. Sometimes I miss having that piece of furniture to look at. Keep up the good work.

[@videolabguy]

When I was fourteen, someone gave me the power supply chassis from one of these Dumont monsters. It ran a lot of my home made projects (in a barn! I grew up on a ranch in the boonies). Gave me one of my nastiest electric shocks too. While turned off! It left four first degree burn "pits" in the palm of my right hand. Six months to heal! DO NOT pick a male pinned DC power plug on a huge power supply. What were they thinking? That's a great restoration job, John. Thanks for the demo.

[@mechmusicman]

I was at an auction in Jackson, MS that had one of those. It was in perfect condition and worked great. Went for nothing, wish I had bought it.

[@K7AGE]

This set is the same age as me. I will keep my fingers away from that tube!

[@turle8645]

Very creative thinking to use the color tv for the high voltage supply!

[@DelosPark]

This brings back memories of an auction in Phoenix, AZ several years back of an old radio/tv shop. several things had been tossed prior to auction for room to walk. would have loved to gone through those treasures that were tossed. two sovereign royals side by side made to the showroom for auction. first i had ever seen. That was an interesting auction. i picked up a few treasures such some nos early rca dogs that were on display above the front door still with tags. An early SF 110 collin kenedy radio that was hiding in a lot of junk, etc but didn't really know what i would do with the dumonts. they were huge! and my lovely wife wouldn't appreciate it so but always wondered where they went tho.

[@leecrt967]

Nice work. I restored an RA-119A Royal Sovereign earlier this year. I covered the resto as a guest speaker at the Early Television Foundation at this year's convention. You can catch the presentation at their website.

[@mikemoyercell]

58 fury!

[@vickiegrant3325]

I've been to the ETF about 4 times. I saw the Royal Sovereign in operation in Hilliard. Really neat. The interesting thing about it was that this 30" set is actually lightweight!

[@jdpowers3924]

And I have a bunch of those little barrel looking things with wires coming out of them too.

[@Nunofurdambiznez]

$1800 in 1952 is now $19, 854.07! That's not for the rich.. that's for the SUPER rich!! WOW!

[@Suddenlyits1960]

There was also a Crosley 30" set that used the same chassis as this.

[@cwmoser]

Very impressive work. That is indeed a very rare and collectible TV. Love to find one to restore - but I doubt I'll ever be that lucky. BTW, can you tell us how you came to find that set? I've never restored a Dumont TV but a few weeks ago I obtained a Dumont RA113 - much smaller CRT though - 17" vs your 30".

[@jaldav]

Interesting that they were called "Telesets".

[@HussamMajzoub-pv7nd]

املك tv DuMont حجم كبير تاريخ الصنع 1960 للبيع

[@vocalchords88]

I have one of these and would like to speak to John if possible.

[@user-gs4wj1cq5c]

very cool collection. I also collect retro TVs. I'm from Russia. Can I translate the video into my language and show it to my friends?

[@outofround]

John I have one that needs restoration. It needs an HV coil. What suggestions do you have for that? I'm thinking of using the HV generator out of an ionic breeze ozone generator. What do you think?Thanks.

[@monicapushkin3274]

MZTV museum has one of these.

[@connorm955]

That's amazing. Costs $20,242 in 2022 money!

[@HussamMajzoub-pv7nd]

املك tv DuMont تاريخ الصنع 1960

[@peterfriend8084]

.....then he paired the DuMont with a Betamax unit and ruined the whole set-up!!

[@ShadowsOnTheScreen]

What do you mean? Just a Betamax badmouthing joke?