View Full Version : I Love Trash! (2007 edition)


Whirled One
04-30-2007, 07:00 PM
[It looks like this thread got left behind with the recent server upgrade. So, I'm going to re-post the original post, along with a quote of a response by Eric H with a reply to that that I was going to send last week.]

Well, we're about 2/3 of the way through this year's designated "Spring Clean-Up" bulk-trash days in various neighborhoods in my neck of the woods, but so far haven't had any big TV-related finds while "curb-shopping." However, I figure I'd post about it anyway if for no other reason than to remind folks that it's "big trash season" once again in many communities. Keep an eye out!

I really expected to find a big *glut* of TVs out this year, what with people starting to replace their "old" analog sets with new HDTVs, but that doesn't seem to have happened. There have been plenty of sets out on the curb, yes, but probably not more than I've seen in previous years.

So far this season I've seen a total *six* tube or tube-hybrid TVs out on the curb, which actually isn't too shabby in terms of numbers. None of them have been terribly exciting finds though, but I ended up picking up four of them anyway (all are 12" - 16" B&W portables), as follows:

- 1965 Zenith 12" B&W portable: It's in excellent condition, and quite clean both inside and out; even the metal chassis looks great. Works nicely except for a slight 4-sided shrink. Probably low B+; may need to check/replace the electrolytics. Probably the winner of the bunch.

- Mid-60's Zenith 16" B&W portable: Identical in styling to the 12" portable above, so it's probably the same model year. It's only in fair-to-good condition though. Haven't evaluated this set yet.

- Early-70's Sears 12" (12v-size) B&W portable (made by Sanyo): This is a hybrid set, but mostly tube; the tuner is transistorized, but the chassis has only four transistors (and 6 tubes). Haven't evaluated yet; TV was rained on while out on the curb and hasn't completely dried out yet. Overall condition looks good/average.

- 1973-ish RCA 15" (15v-size) B&W portable. It's a KCS-168 series set, but the model number tag is missing from the back. It's overall in very good condition; a quick check shows that it functions okay except that the vertical osc is way off frequency-- the vertical hold control has absolutely no effect, so it's probably the control itself or an open component connected to it.

The two sets that I passed up on (sorry guys, I can't take 'em all!) were:
- A mid-60's Curtis-Mathes 19" B&W portable in fair-to-poor shape, missing knobs, and looked decidedly cheap for an older C-M.
- A late-60's Magnavox 25"/23v color console with significant (but not completely disasterous) water damage, especially on the lower 1/3 of the cabinet. Peeking through the back revealed it was rather moldy inside too. Probably sat in a wet basement for a while or something. CRT had bad cateracts. I likely would have picked this up if it was a roundie despite the water damage though.


Does that set look anthing like this one?: http://www.vintagetvsets.com/64zenith.htm


It's very different from that one, though oddly enough I do have one similar to the one pictured there (courtesy of jstout66!).

Anyway, here's a couple of quickie photos of the 12" Zenith (model N1250) and the Sears (model 564.50080100). Note that this Zenith has a more conventional layout with the tuning knobs on the right side of the screen and the speaker below the tuning knobs. The tuning knobs are rather thick and chunky, and the off/on/volume control is in the center of the UHF tuning knob. The Bright/Contr/Vert controls are located below the screen.

I can't find date codes on the Sears anywhere-- not on the CRT, nor on the other tubes, nor moulded into the plastic cabinet. It sure has that early-70's-Japanese-TV-look to it though. Lesseee.... the SAMS folder for that set was from early 1972, so it's probably a '72 model.

Actually, what led me to believe the Zenith to be a 1965 model was a hand-written paper label fastened to the back cover that identifies it as a Mother's Day gift from that year. [Someone's mom evidently took good care of that gift over the years too..!] Looks like it's indeed a '65 or so if the SAMS Photofact date is any indicator.

The Sears (made by Sanyo) set actually works well aside from a minor case of the "coneheads." The front-end does seem to have excellent sensitivity, though perhaps at a slight cost in picture sharpness.

The 16" Zenith I found has exactly the same style cabinet as this 12" one.

I'll get a photo of the RCA later, if anyone cares.

More to follow!

Whirled One
04-30-2007, 07:47 PM
This past weekend brought another "spring clean-up" trash day opportunity in a nearby community. Spotted a total of five tube/tube-hybrid sets, but again we're basically talking 60's/70's B&W portables in poor shape. At least this shows that it's still possible to find tube sets out "in the wild" though, so I guess that should be encouraging. Only one of those came back with me; it's a GE SA-chassis 11" B&W portable that *might* actually be kinda cute once it's cleaned up, but we'll see. I swear I've seen a 9" (?) GE B&W before that looks similar to this except that the off-on-volume control is located inside the speaker cone to save space. One thing I did notice is that the visible screen size on this set is rather close to that of the PortaColor. Also, the screws that hold the cabinet back are accessed through the *front* of the set, just as on the early PortaColors. I would also guess that the SA-chassis is the likely parent of the cheap-tacular SE- and SF- series chassis types that continued on through the mid-70's.

The only other 'find' that came back with me on this expedition was that very 70's-looking Zenith shown in the other attached photos. At first glance, what would you make it out to be? A Chromacolor II in an interesting slope-front white cabinet? Looks reasonably high-end too. It doesn't have Space Command, but it does have lighted channel numbers that show through little windows with a black surround, and a click-stop UHF tuner with nice big channel numbers. Even has a sleep-timer settable for up to 3 hours.

But, gee... that cabinet isn't nearly deep enough for it to be a color set. The CRT face also looks too heavily tinted for a mid-70's color TV. Sure enough, it's B&W. The SAMS index pegs it as a 1974 model, which puts it a bit ahead of the curve in terms of having a click-stop UHF tuner. Pretty high-end looking for a mid-70's 19" B&W portable. The only thing that made me pick this up was just the novelty aspect of such a high-styled 70's solid-state "big screen" B&W, but then I started thinking-- you really don't see as many 19" B&W sets around as you used to. 70's/80's 19" B&W portables used to be quite common at thrift stores and such, but now I'd suspect many thrift stores won't even take B&W TV's that are larger than 12", if they accept them at all.

Anyway, it's not a B&W console like the one drh found, but it does seem pretty fancy for a large monochrome set of that era. It does have the typical Zenith metal chassis design though, and a large portion of the circuitry is contained on three plug-in modules. It also appears to be made in USA, unlike most? all? of the smaller-screened Zenith B&W sets starting in the early 70's.
By the way, anyone know what the last year was for a Zenith B&W TV with Space Command?

Eric H
04-30-2007, 07:59 PM
That Zenith is the same one Gidget has in her bedroom, Gidget was on in 1965.
I'll try to get a picture of it later.

Thyratron
05-03-2007, 01:02 AM
I wish I'd find stuff like that on the curb! Here, you're lucky to find a melted 12" Daewoo! By the way, Whirled One, is that an early Radarange in your photo?

fsjonsey
05-03-2007, 11:02 PM
Here in the suburbs east of cleveland, Waste management allows people to throw out anything short of a refrigerator at any time. This creates a dilemma for would be treelawn surfers like me. The last good day we had, well, not good for many, was the flood we had in July of 06, after a night of constant, heavy rain. All of the tributaries that flow into lake Erie filled to their breaking point, and overflowed, flooding every low point and basement in lake county. Needless to say, people threw out every electronic item in their basements, even if it had only come in contact with an inch of water. I saw alot of mid 80's Zenith and RCA consoles, and a few SS portables, though the local kids must have gotten to them first, the CRT's were all kicked in. Looking back now, i want to kick myself. Laying beside heaps of moldy carpet in front of a split level house was a flawless looking Leslie speaker, with the tube amp and speaker assembly still intact. It was too big to fit in my 95 Geo prism. I went home, looked at the prices they were selling for, and felt like crying. Determined, i borrowed a friends van and went back for the Leslie, but just as i pulled up to the house, i could see the garbage truck pulling away, with the now smashed leslie and the moldy carpet heaped in the back. Saddest sight of my life.

Whirled One
05-07-2007, 09:06 PM
By the way, Whirled One, is that an early Radarange in your photo?

Yep! That's an early Amana Radarange, a model RR-2. I'm actually looking for one of those (or, better yet, an RR-1 :yes: ); the earliest Radaranges I've encountred are the RR-4 series models, and I don't even bump into those very often anymore. The photo is from an early Radarange cookbook.

Attached are some 'quickie' photos of a trash find from this past weekend. It's a Panasonic (Matsushita) CT-98D 19" tube-hybrid color portable from what looks like 1970 or 1971. It's roughly half tube and half solid-state, and has 10 tubes. I almost never encounter Japanese tube/tube-hybrid color sets, *especially* those sold under a Japanese company's own brand name (as opposed to, say, a Sears-branded TV made by a Japanese company), and this set is in very good shape overall-- just has some surface dust, and minor dings in the plastic trim. Even the antenna rods (which are kinda brass/gold in color and have white plastic tips) are both intact. I think it's a fairly nice looking set too for its ilk, with the 'blackout' area for the channel selector lights (the AFT and one-button color control have indicator lights too); even the plywood cabinet has a decent finish.
It even appears to work OK, which is a bit of a relief, since the tube types used in this thing seem rather oddball, at least from a USA perspective. [Note the TV reception isn't too great anyway in the steel storage building where these photos were taken.]

Oh, one thing-- this set has "Instant On", but in this case, it may as well be called "Always On". When the power is switched "off", the HV shuts down, sure, but you can still clearly hear the audio-- though at a greatly reduced volume. Obviously at least the RF (tuner), IF, and audio stages are still getting enough voltage to operate. This seems especially odd because while the tuner and IF's are transistorized, the audio output stage is a tube. The tube layout diagram pasted inside the set shows an (unmarked) resistor in parallel with the power switch. Don't these "instant on" circuits usually involve a diode in parallel with the power switch..?

Chad Hauris
05-07-2007, 10:17 PM
In the series-string sets with a half wave power supply, a reverse-connected diode across the power switch will perform both the functions of reducing the apparent voltage to the filaments by cutting off half of the AC cycle, and since the pulses are on the negative half cycles they are blocked by the rectifier diode and the DC supply to the set is thus shut off.

In more elaborate sets like this which may use an autotransformer or voltage doubler there is usually a double pole power switch to disable the DC supply while engaging the instant on reduced voltage system.