From time to time....Someone here mentions one of those 13" BW Zenith tv sets from about 1981--82 or so, that had digital tuning. I have seen a couple, never had one, and did not really want one, I KNOW they have a hot chassis and such. But, I never have come across one....


Till now.

NOW, I HAVE ONE. It even has the "Zenith advanced electronic tuning" hang tag with it. Thanks to the "Wyoming spring clean-up". Still in the trunk. I have to go BACK for the "late route' of the clean-up in an hour or so.

If i wanted MODERN tube sets...I could FILL my van at least TWICE tonight...including "flat tube silver sony" sets...but so far...that little Zenith is the only "classic set" I saw.

It WILL be available, for possible trade, and I could bring it to the ETF next weekend, I have another set to bring already.

I e-mailed someone I *think* was looking for one of those.

The 13" is not common, but the 19" is the rarest one, IIRC.

I'm not really sure how rare they really are. They're certainly not particularly common, and a pretty decent find (especially with the original hang tags!). What's odd is that in the mid-1990's or so I must have encountered them (in both sizes) every few months at thrift stores, yard sales, and the like-- but I never actually bought one. Then it seemed like there were several years where I *never* saw one. Then, suddenly, a few years ago, I found one at a thrift store, and since then I've spotted 4 or 5 more of them. Right now, I think I have three of the 12" ones, and one of the 19" version.

Be sure to power up and check-test the set you found-- a fair number of the ones I used to encounter at thrift stores and such had bad/flaky tuner controllers. When you power up the set, the tuner should be on channel 2. If the two-digit LED display instead shows random segments on power up, and/or the tuner doesn't respond correctly to button presses, the tuner has issues.

In any case, I'm surprised they're even as 'common' as they are-- I can't believe that there'd have been a market for an "upscale" portable B&W TV in that time period! ...especially since the digital tuner in these sets is not actually all that convenient compared with most other TVs