3 for sale just down the street. I know one is a CM. give me your thoughts on what they might be. Age?
http://boise.craigslist.org/ele/2418506449.html

For 10$ I'd pay a visit, pop off the backs and grab any set there that had tubes or a delta gun CRT reguardless of the actual age.

The one without knobs is probably an 80's solid state set and not worth getting, but the others look somewhat promising.

Tom C.

The one in the picture on the right looks like a Chromacolor 2. That's definitely worth 10 bucks if it is.

The top picture looks like a 1st gen. or so RCA colortrak , 76 or so, with manual tuning to me. a VERY well--built set--I WOULD get it(all of them).

The set on the top left looks like an RCA colortrak from around '77. If it uses an upright chassis, it will be worth getting. If it uses the flat (CTC8x or 9x series) chassis, I'd have second thoughts about getting it. Also, the later RCA delta gun CRT's from the '77-'80 period didn't hold up that well.

The set on the right is a solid state Zenith from the late '70's. It could be either a system 3 or chromacolor II. Whatever it is will be stated on the front panel. If it's a CCII, it will likely have a "J" or "K" line upright chassis with a delta gun CRT. If it's a system 3, it will likely be the first generation chassis that still has a power transformer and a 9-153 HV/horizontal sweep module. All system 3's used inline CRT's and the early ones didn't hold up nearly as well as the delta gun CRT's.

I suppose the bottom one is the CM set. For some reason, it looks like a later B&W console. If it is, you probably need to get it because those late run B&W consoles from the late '60's until the early '80's are hard to find.

yes one is a 1977 RCA. The second is a Zenith with a touch button channel selector. I left those there and bought the CM B&W set. It's cute as a button and very small compared to the others. I don't have a lot of room for all 3 so i had to choose. They will be there if anyone wants one. let me know

Is the CM tube or SS? Was the Zenith a System 3?

The bottom set looks like a later C-M 23" B&W from the early 1970's. Somewhere I have a scan of a newspaper ad for that set.

I'm interested in who made the chassis in that set, and if it's Japanese or not.

I think the zenith was a system 3. I can get the model number for you. The CM is all tube. Don't know yet whether it is American or Japanese. Model number is 20M402-. pecan console. TV is in really good shape. It turns on but the sound is strange. Has HV but no picture. when you switch it off you see some brightness. I know you should not turn it on without testing things but I could not resist. Will test tubes and CRT tomorrow and will post results and pics.

That CM may not have much monetary value but it most certainly is extremely rare. Harder to find than a CT-100, and I'm not kidding!

Most are not worth much except to the people who own them and a few others. Some younger people would not know even how to work one or even care about one. They would be looking for the remote. Often you have more money and time invested than they will ever be worth, but they are worth something to you. Bringing them back to life is exciting and fun. Brings back good memories of when I was a kid watching out Zenith roundie of the moon landing. later We had a 1972 Magnavox. What a great set! Wonderful color on that one! Had it for 12 years until the convergence circuit blew and my dad wanted a new one. There are some exceptions though. CT100's, Predicta's etc are worth something. Actually I have NEVER seen one of these(CM B&W) in my life. I grew up in southern California and used to see Many many old TV's. A lot of them sitting on the curb, at junk shops etc. I used to bring them home and a lot of them worked. I learned a lot about them especially after you come in contact with the HV circuit. LOL! I made friends at the local TV repair places before they went under. Most of these sets were thrown out as soon as you got a new color set or put in the basement or kids room and soon forgotten.

Sams seems to have only issued a schematic for this set in the back of folder 1108, if anyone has it. (1970)

I have access to free Sams. All that I need. If you need one, let me know. The price is right. :)

If you have 1894-1, I could use a copy.

I'll pick one up in the next day or so

Well it works! This set has not been run in 20+ years. Tested the CRT, looked weak when I firs ran the test but after letting it run for a while, it came up. Did not run it past 6.3V. After burning the junk off the cathode for about 10 minutes, it jumped to full scale then settled down to about 7 which is very good. Has very good brightness and contrast. Set will need more work of course but it's definitely worth it. lots of dirty sockets and jumpy vertical. Tube test next. I'll keep you posted. Does look like a Japanese chassis.

Tested all the tubes. Cleaned the tuner. Found 2 suspect tubes. Shorts light was glowing slightly. Replaced with NOS. Picture still "jiggles" at random times. checked solder joints and caps. Nothing obvious yet. Lots of oil filled caps(japanese), This set has a very nice picture! Real wood cabinet. NO particleboard. Anyone have any ideas on the jiggling picture?

Thats a Matsushita built set....?? I would change every one of those grey caps and if there are any small green wax coated ones. They are paper. I have a packard bell built by Matsushita and I had to replace all those caps. The electrolytic were fine.

The white ceramic one is probably fine, in my set the grey one thats the boost filter opened and cause the horizontal output to red plate and almost killed the flyback.

Yes Matsushita. Yes there are those green wax coated ones. I will get a list of cap values and make an order. I had a problem in a Pioneer all tube stereo receiver. Has a lot of those gray oil caps. All crap. What a Pain in the a$*. Once done there should not be any issues. Looks like it will be a good performer.

Yes GET RID of those green ones before you run it. And make sure you replace the capacitor that goes from the Boost off the bottom of the flyback to the sets b+.
Im not a fan of recapacide at all, but those green ones are evil.

I will do that asap. Thanks for the info. I'll let you know the results.