Photo found on ebay

A BIT OF HISTORY !
lets identify the stuff in the photo.
It looks to me that the radio on the shelf with the tag is a Howard general coverage receiver.It is just to the right of the RCA color bar generator.

KB2LRI

Awesome photo! I think I see a B&K 1076 Television Analyst to the left of the scope and Precision E-200 RF generators to the right.
Also some 8XP4 / 8YP4 test CRTs on the workbench.

Don't forget that metal cabinet roundy test jig at the far right..

Don't forget the "Packard Bell" color TV sign.

It would be interesting to know a little bit about the history of that picture!

Wao, lots of deja vu in that pic. 'Cept the logos on the wall were RCA and DuMont/Emerson.

It would be interesting to know a little bit about the history of that picture!

It sure would, but of course, there isn't any.

Don't forget the "Packard Bell" color TV sign.

Barely visible in the original - I increased the contrast when I scanned it.

It looks like an awfully narrow bench. They must've used wheeled work benches for the larger sets.

Yep, wheeled work benches for the big stuff, like consoles sometimes stood on end with the chassis slid partway back.
Our benches were an 'L' configuration with an auto radio section at the far end of one.

I visited a shop a few years ago that had an identical bench, right down to the roundie jig up in the corner. I saved the jig, the shop is gone now.

Wiremold raceway plug strip along the bench front: I have the same (except mine's above on a shelf edge) and I'll bet a lot of you do, too.

Wiremold raceway plug strip along the bench front: I have the same (except mine's above on a shelf edge) and I'll bet a lot of you do, too.

I like that raceway. But have you ever priced it? I guess I have not gone to the correct store. I have done boxes and Romex in the past. But the Wiremold is better for sure.

Thanks for taking the time to scan and post the photo. It is a big part of our past and I am sure that there were many hours spent bent over those chassis and possibly a few colorful words uttered at times...

what a trip how different people dressed and looked. A bit of class I guess you could say.
I have several of those pieces. Very cool.
I bet they all smoked

We had an island wide enough for two or three consoles in the service area and a mirrored wall to observe from the rear while adjusting. Long antenna leads with "clothes-pin clips. Upper body stregnth was always being built up in those days! We 'serviced while you wait' if the problem was minor.

Would that be a 6/ 12 volt power supply behind the head of the guy on the left?
How bout a component sub box on top of the Analyst.
Remember wrist watches! I'd guess late 60's

A BIT OF HISTORY !
lets identify the stuff in the photo.
It looks to me that the radio on the shelf with the tag is a Howard general coverage receiver.It is just to the right of the RCA color bar generator.

KB2LRI

You may well be right. It could be a Howard...or possibly a National NC-46...which had a similar dial bezel.

the rca color bar dot generator it is and its a wr-64a because i have that one,lol.

I bet they all smoked

After touching the wrong wire on a live chassis....You can bet they smoked and swore. lol.

I bet they all smoked[/QUOTE]

Back in those days, it was unusual, if you didn't smoke. When I see old test equipment, you can see right away, the equipment that came from a heavy smokers shop.:yuck:

Wiremold raceway plug strip along the bench front: I have the same (except mine's above on a shelf edge) and I'll bet a lot of you do, too.

I don't think Wiremold makes plugstrip with recepticles that close together anymore. Ever since they had to make it with grounding recepticles.

We used "Tapaline" at the first shop I worked in. No polarization, just long strips to plug it in. If you get tingled when standing on the floor after a rain shower in wet shoes, turn the plug over! EICO VTVM's, soldering guns(!) and metal RCA rollaround tables with RCA rubber mats on top. We fixed anything! TV's, radios, car radios, tape recorders, even lighted firemans helmets! Fun days back then, and the owner smoked like a chimney!

Wiremold raceway plug strip along the bench front: I have the same (except mine's above on a shelf edge) and I'll bet a lot of you do, too.
Yep i've still got one, a 6 footer. Also a set of three mini-cabinet IRC resistor assortments in 3 wattages (although the stock's severely depleted from 'post retirement' work over the years). And about third remaining of a 1 lb.roll of Kester 'real' solder from back in the day.

I make pleasure myself from the story talk of before times!!! :music:

In village of my borning, me uncle Bishar Ali would renew the frequent households and TV sets of the upper caste. He would pleasure himself to your stories also. Yet he was cut off head for disloyalty to the party group, so he has passed. :thumbsdn: :tears:

This :banana: is why contine myself in his way and love TVS

After touching the wrong wire on a live chassis....You can bet they smoked and swore. lol.

Work with one hand in your pocket so you can be the engineer and not the conductor.

One thing I don't see and don't care to are cockroaches and the occasional mouse or rat. Removing the back, hard telling what might come out to surprise you.

"Remember wrist watches?" ????

Ersin multicore. Wish I still had some of the latter.

Roaches, rats and mice were the norm. One day I went to a house to service a magnavox console and the owners son was under a big cardboard box with a tiny hole to watch me. As I pulled the set from the wall, I asked, "What are you doing under the box?". His reply, as he peeked from under the box was, "I want to see what happens when you poke the wasp nest in the TV!". I took my flashlight and looked carefully thru the holes in the back, and hanging from the top of the cabinet was a wasp nest the size of two closed fists, covered in wasps. Needless to say, I did not fix the set. The wasps were coming in from a broken window covered by a curtain behind the set.
Another one was a king snake that went into the set for warmth and got across B boost to ground. The owners were not happy when I picked his remains out of the set with my hot tube puller while their son watched....
Remember mid engine Ford Econoline vans for house calls?

looks like the shop I "worked" in one summer as a kid, about 13 IIRC. Really just after school day care (dad was friend of the shop owner). Owners wife/office manager did not like it at all, I would work on AA5's and totally mess up her inventory system by pulling parts and not keeping track of them.

Roaches, rats and mice were the norm. ...
Another one was a king snake that went into the set for warmth and got across B boost to ground. The owners were not happy when I picked his remains out of the set with my hot tube puller while their son watched....


Heard that electricians often find dead mice and snakes inside circuit breaker panels. These critters find the terminals for the 120 and 240VAC feeds and get zapped. Open knockout holes are likely how they get inside. Why they go inside, maybe it's a bit warmer in there...

Ersin multicore. Wish I still had some of the latter.

I have seen some on eBay... 60/40 good enough?

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=ersin+multicore&_sacat=0&_odkw=ersin+multicore+solder&LH_AvailTo=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40

Not affiliated,
jr

Anybody else think the 'scope might be a Sylvania?

Roaches, rats and mice were the norm...

My late Uncle West (West Stereo Service on Metairie Rd. - Audubon Radio on Magazine before that) had some experiences like that - wish I could remember them all. His Dad contracted with Morse for warranty work back in the sixties and he had some amusing stories about making house calls in the projects. Electrophonic rent-to-own consoles loaded with roaches, component failure due to gunshot - stuff like that.

I make pleasure myself from the story talk of before times!!! :music:

In village of my borning, me uncle Bishar Ali would renew the frequent households and TV sets of the upper caste. He would pleasure himself to your stories also. Yet he was cut off head for disloyalty to the party group, so he has passed. :thumbsdn: :tears:

This :banana: is why contine myself in his way and love TVS

Ohh how I have missed this! I pleasure myself daily with the knowledge that I have the television set of the upper class rather than the flatscreen of the peasant:banana:

Like Uncle West, I used to run service calls. Definitely an education on seeing how life was on both sides of the track. The boss even offered to give me combat pay to go to certain areas :thumbsdn: (but we both knew I would never take him up on the offer). I may have been dumb, but I wasn't stupid. For a high school kid in the late 60's it was a worldly experience.

Remember mid engine Ford Econoline vans for house calls?

I saw an old print ad (circa. 1971) for our local shop showing his shop at the time, including his 60s Chevy van parked out front. Fast forward, last week I was driving down a backroad just outside town and, in the backyard of a house...there it was! It still has the lettering on the side, clearly visible. I need to catch the owner home and get some photos.

To kinda go off topic, I have several invoice books from 60s/70s tube caddies. Some day I should scan them and post them up.
The prices are amazing...the dollar has lost so much value. $5 for the service call and repair, and a $3 tube. Wow..

"Remember wrist watches?" ????
I do, though I haven't worn mine for several years. At that time, it was the fifth item I would have been carrying with a clock on it, after my pager, two cell phones (personal and work), and my handheld computer.

Ersin solder: didn't know they still made it! Too bad I loaded (leaded?) up on some big rolls of something else last year.

Watches: in much less time that it would take to pull my phone out of my pocket, I look at my watch and in 1/10th of a second I know the time. It's just convenient for me. Plus it makes a fashion statement: "look at the guy with the cheap watch." I keep the good ones for dress and wear a $15 Timex that if it gets crunched, no big deal.

My dad worked for Sears servicing TV's and electronics from sometime in the mid 1950's to sometime in the mid 1960's in Birmingham AL and the last year in Pascagoula MS. He even drove the crappy old Econoline van!

His customer stories were priceless! He opened several roach / mouse infested sets! One lady called the store demanding a new picture tube under warranty, turns out her kid was watchind a western and blasted the bad guy with dads shotgun!

He also told me a story of a nice old lady in Hueytown and he asked her one time "whats with all the junk cars in your yard"? It was Bobby and Donnie Allisons mother!

Before he worked at Sears he worked for the DuMont dealer in Birmingham, once he told me they installed "the biggest g-d set he ever saw" in a swanky nightclub. It was a Royal Soverign! I would love to find that set today, but I'm sure its long gone.

I bought a used 1965 Ford Econoline van in 1969. It had only 38K on it. It had to be one of the poorest handling vehicles on the road. That thing was all over the road. I always considered it to be a death trap.

I bought a used 1965 Ford Econoline van in 1969. It had only 38K on it. It had to be one of the poorest handling vehicles on the road. That thing was all over the road. I always considered it to be a death trap.

Back than I was driving a 68 Dodge Sportsman window van. By today's standards all the early vans were death traps. I am now driving a 2006 Ford E150, and it is by far the best driving most comfortable full sized van I have ever owned. I am not fond of the E350's because of the tough suspension, but the 150's ride and drive like a luxury car.

Agreed, I don't mind riding in your van at all. Even if 50% of the time thus far was spent curled up on the floor! lol

I make pleasure myself from the story talk of before times!!! :music:

In village of my borning, me uncle Bishar Ali would renew the frequent households and TV sets of the upper caste. He would pleasure himself to your stories also. Yet he was cut off head for disloyalty to the party group, so he has passed. :thumbsdn: :tears:

This :banana: is why contine myself in his way and love TVS


Ah don't know 'bout the rest of ya alls, but ah ain't got 'th foggiest idear hwut it is this here fellers tryin' 't say. Ah ain't here to bash this feller, but fer cripes sakes thats some tuff readin' if ya know what ah mean... ah muss say, this here "Sanjar" feller ought to try som'in new 't translate dat there ara-bay-ic or hwutever he's a sayin' in 't sum'in more readable fer the ing-a-lish 'a readin' folk. Not tryin' to be cruel to ya my friend, but lemme tell ya, its 'sawful hard to understand ya. I'm jusa sayin'.... (grin)

:nono: Shameful. You should apologize. I work with engineers from all over the world, and their English is hard to understand, but I don't mock them. You are embarassing America, no matter how funny you think you are. :thumbsdn:

Hmmph..... Well lemme tell you som'in "Einar". I for one ain't mockin' nobody. I thinks you jus'n don't understand my southern good 'ol boy way a writin'. I thinks you oughta lit'n up there 'ol buddy cause I'm 'bout the nicest guy 'round. I'm just sayin' 'ol "Sanjar" over theres a kinda hard to figgur out... but he ain't got nutin' to worry 'bout, cause he ain't gunna understand a cotton pickin' word I'm writn' anyway....Lemme tell you whut, hows 'bout you figgur out whut he's a sayin' in a plain ing-a-lish and I'll go get you one of those there nifty all fangled cee tee one hunerts yous guys are always talkin' 'bout...(grin)

10-4 good bud...

:nono: Shameful. You should apologize. I work with engineers from all over the world, and their English is hard to understand, but I don't mock them. You are embarassing America, no matter how funny you think you are. :thumbsdn:

Engineer? You mustn't have had the pleasure to see him drill through the top of the Admiral into the CRT to install "digital switches."

Some engineers do stuff that only a tech can undo :banana: and then they are thankful. And then they "brick" a perfectly good system again. It never ends.

"Remember wrist watches?" ????

And speaking of remembering wristwatches, in the picture that started this thread, I'll bet that only the repairman on the left worked on auto radios, as he is the only one wearing a leather watch band!

Many of the behind-the-dash terminals on those 40's and 50's cars were not insulated. All it took was that brass watchband touching a hot terminal and the ground at the same time and that 6 or 12 volts could leave you with a burn tattoo for life!

It was the Amps, and not the Volts that did the frying.

I knew two servicemen who sported these burn scars.

All it took was forgetting to remove your metal banded watch once!


Actually, I still wear a wrist watch, as I find analog time is just more visual and easier to see when you are late . . . . .



Jas.

burned my wrist back about 1970 on an ammeter under a dash never stuck my hands
in anything electrical again with a watch on since !

no wonder most electricians do not wear their wedding bands

An important tip about a wristwatch, glad it was mentioned! I knew about wedding bands (tales in an automotive trade magazine about a band glowing red hot were enough to scare me!) but hadn't thought about the watch. I do find myself fishing around under the dash of old cars from time to time. The leather band would help, of course, but I think next time I'll take the Timex off.

Work with one hand in your pocket so you can be the engineer and not the conductor.

That's great, never heard it before. I promise to give you credit when I use it!
Cliff

no wonder most electricians do not wear their wedding bands

Ihad a boss who had a non-conducting wedding ring. Made of Ivory, or plastic...

That is a very nice view of the inside of a TV shop. I remember going to the store with my mum to look at colour TV in the 60's. :music:

Does anyone here remember Friendly Frost? Or Newmark and Lewis?

Does anyone here remember Friendly Frost? Or Newmark and Lewis?

Went the way of Topps Appliance some years earlier...

Pete
Proud supoporter of CT-100's the world over!

My parents would go food shopping on Friday night, and when they wanted to leave, they knew they could find me at the appliance store in the plaza watching Flintstones, or some other show on all the color sets lined up like good soldiers. RCA, Zenith, Admiral, GE, Westinghouse, Philco. It seemed that the store sold many, many different brands. NTSC always meant, as it still does, "never twice the same color" :yes: !

Does anyone have any pictures of the large consoles of the 60's in their store displays?

I remember a couple very nice pics like that being on here before; they may be buried deep in some old threads. Was it Veg-O-Matic that posted a store in a shopping mall circa late 60s? There is another one with a room that had consoles lined up on big shelves.

I thought I'd post a few pictures I took from the last TV shop I helped clean out. This was near the end; the building (and most of the contents) are gone now; that color tv test jig is still sitting here at my place awaiting a new home, among other things!

I had a bunch of those RCA books from 1972-80. Dumped them all about 15 years ago because I thought nobody cared anymore. After fixing a few late-70's Colortraks consoles for family members.

Any of the 50-60's GE RCA and Zenith factory information I inherited from two local small-town Appliance-TV dealers I saved. (grin)

Most of those binders are still stacked up in my TV room, looking for a good home. I think I sold one or two; they cover pretty much any chassis you want from the 70s/early 80s.

Does anyone here remember Friendly Frost? Or Newmark and Lewis?

And there was Crazy Eddie, mainly an electronics chain around the New York City area during the 70s and 80s.

That's great, never heard it before. I promise to give you credit when I use it!
Cliff

I stole it somewhere, so no credit needed

What were those console sets in your pics? BPC's in particle board? NOS?