View Full Version : 1959 zenith space command 300


radiotron
04-05-2014, 04:04 PM
Thanks to tvtimeisfun I have a new space command 300! Works great with original remote control!:banana:

Jon F
04-05-2014, 04:11 PM
Adjust your vertical linearity! :D

TV looks good.:thmbsp:

dishdude
04-05-2014, 04:27 PM
That's a pretty modern looking set for 1959. I love the large channel display!

radiotron
04-05-2014, 04:32 PM
Adjust your vertical linearity! :D

TV looks good.:thmbsp:

That's part of the bezel, you can't see it that well because of the lighting

truetone36
04-05-2014, 06:51 PM
That looks more like a 1963-64 set to me.

robert1
04-05-2014, 09:27 PM
I Have the same model, except it is non-remote. according to the label inside the cabinet, mine was made in 1960. all metal cabinet makes it weigh a ton. i recapped the vertical output stage & replaced a open resistor in the horizontal driver/Oscillator stage several years ago & i am still using it as a daily watcher.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b567/cikovic1/DSCF0003_zps25a6aab6.jpg (http://s1292.photobucket.com/user/cikovic1/media/DSCF0003_zps25a6aab6.jpg.html)

that black bar going across the screen is from the camera.

Eric H
04-05-2014, 09:54 PM
According to the oracle of all knowledge (eBay) it's a 1961.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1961-ZENITH-CHASSIS-16F27-TV-TELEVISION-SERVICE-MANUAL-/270615346893?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f01ee7ecd

59, 61, whatever, it's a really nice set and you don't find many suitcase portables with remote any more.

Jon A.
04-05-2014, 11:10 PM
Wow, never saw a channel indicator like that before. Remote-controlled too, sweet. I wonder if Zenith made any color sets with such a setup...

Electronic M
04-06-2014, 12:13 AM
Wow, never saw a channel indicator like that before. Remote-controlled too, sweet. I wonder if Zenith made any color sets with such a setup...

Not quite the exact same part, but non-remote color sets had tuning knobs with round number projection indicators like that. The remote models usually had the same type of display with a rectangular window.

Jon A.
04-06-2014, 03:06 PM
Not quite the exact same part, but non-remote color sets had tuning knobs with round number projection indicators like that. The remote models usually had the same type of display with a rectangular window.
Even so, that's another color set for the bucket list.

DavGoodlin
04-07-2014, 07:56 AM
Thats a nice example of a Space Command set for sure, and best for us TV techs to save the finest examples.
Let the Eames-freaks have the others, Zenith made the best sets then.:tresbon:

I saved a 1961 23" Zenith a few months back with the same knob as Robert1's set above, its now under my newly constructed work bench as a permanent watcher.:thmbsp:

dieseljeep
04-07-2014, 08:29 AM
I Have the same model, except it is non-remote. according to the label inside the cabinet, mine was made in 1960. all metal cabinet makes it weigh a ton. i recapped the vertical output stage & replaced a open resistor in the horizontal driver/Oscillator stage several years ago & i am still using it as a daily watcher.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b567/cikovic1/DSCF0003_zps25a6aab6.jpg (http://s1292.photobucket.com/user/cikovic1/media/DSCF0003_zps25a6aab6.jpg.html)

that black bar going across the screen is from the camera.
The big power transformer, also adds to the weight. The remote model also has a transformer in the remote unit.
IIRC, that model uses the 3DG4 rectifier tube.

dieseljeep
04-07-2014, 08:39 AM
Not quite the exact same part, but non-remote color sets had tuning knobs with round number projection indicators like that. The remote models usually had the same type of display with a rectangular window.

The projection indicators on Zeniths and other makes, used a special lamp bulb, 239 or 240. If you tried to use a #47, you couldn't get the numbers to focus properly. It had something to do with the filament placement. Even with the proper lamp, the adjustment was tricky. :scratch2:

robert1
04-07-2014, 01:41 PM
The big power transformer, also adds to the weight. The remote model also has a transformer in the remote unit.
IIRC, that model uses the 3DG4 rectifier tube.

Mine uses a 5U4 rectifier. still has the original.

tvtimeisfun
04-07-2014, 02:26 PM
Hello it takes a very special person to get such a good set from me he deserves to own because he is a good kid besides he helped me get a late 50s telefunken console radio working he dives right in and produces progress on anything he does I am very proud to know him...Timothy

old_coot88
04-07-2014, 09:52 PM
Thanks to tvtimeisfun I have a new space command 300! Works great with original remote control!:banana:
Does that set have the 90 degree CRT with the big neck? If so, I once had the non-remote version of it. That set was absolutely bulletproof. Used it for several years and gave it to a widow lady who used it until she passed away many years later. The set was never serviced or needed any work whatsoever.
(It also had the 3DG4 rectifier.)

radiotron
04-09-2014, 08:35 AM
Hello it takes a very special person to get such a good set from me he deserves to own because he is a good kid besides he helped me get a late 50s telefunken console radio working he dives right in and produces progress on anything he does I am very proud to know him...Timothy

Thank you Tim, oh I forgot to make the telefunken radio thread I will make it later

Jeffhs
05-09-2014, 09:05 PM
That Zenith TV looks great--good picture for a set from the late '50s or '60s. I've had several vintage Zenith TVs (two of which had a light-through projection channel knob like yours), but never one exactly like your SC300. I did have an SC300 portable Zenith in the late 1970s, but I never knew if the remote control worked since the hand unit was missing, as was the motor drive for the VHF tuner. :no: I had to get rid of that set because the horizontal output tube went gassy and I couldn't find a replacement. I think the HO tube was gassy because one day I turned the set on, only to find the picture badly washed out on all three VHF channels in my area. This set uses keyed AGC, which depends on proper operation of the horizontal oscillator-output stages for its own correct operation, so when the HO tube became gassy it threw the whole thing out of whack. My set used, IIRC, an oddball (almost unobtanium by the late '70s) HO tube with a 22-volt filament; the local TV-electronics parts store didn't have it. Hated to do it, but I junked the set and bought a 12-inch Zenith b&w solid-state portable the next day.

The strange thing was, the Zenith SC300 lasted me all of one year before the HO tube went bad, while the new solid-state portable which replaced it lasted 22 years and was still working when I moved in 1999. I hated to get rid of it, but I had moved to a small apartment late that year and had no room for the small set; I already had two color sets (a 1995 Zenith SMS1917SG 19" color table model and a new [at the time] RCA CTC185), and the apartment is very small, so unfortunately, the 12-incher had to go.

I hope whomever picked it up from behind the apartment building where I live got a few more years of use out of it, as the set was still working quite well and the CRT was still very strong. Being a Zenith, I'll bet it did work for a few more years and may sitill be working today. Those sets were built to last, unlike today's BPC/SPC throwaways.

Good luck with your "new" (to you) Zenith TV.

Jon A.
05-09-2014, 09:26 PM
That Zenith TV looks great--good picture for a set from the late '50s or '60s. I've had several vintage Zenith TVs (two of which had a light-through projection channel knob like yours), but never one exactly like your SC300. I did have an SC300 portable Zenith in the late 1970s, but I never knew if the remote control worked since the hand unit was missing, as was the motor drive for the VHF tuner. :no:
My SC500 console came to me without a hand unit even though it was in the photo of the TV, but I was able to try all the functions with a 600X remote, the buttons just didn't work as labeled for the most part. Also, someone thought it was a good idea to take all the screws out of the tab wheel for stopping on or skipping channels, I'm lucky the wheel was still there.

Jeffhs
05-09-2014, 10:41 PM
Someone thought it was a good idea to take all the screws out of the tab wheel for stopping on or skipping channels, I'm lucky the wheel was still there.

I wonder why anyone would do such a thing, since the tuner will not stop or skip without the tabs on the wheel. :scratch2:

If, however, the screws holding the tabs to the wheel are what's missing, you may be able to find replacements for them; that or else you might look around for a junked set that has the wheel intact--tabs, screws and all.

I don't know if you still have analog TV in Canada (here in the US the analog NTSC channels were done away with over five years ago, so now all that's left are digital channels), but if your service is anything like what we have here, you will only need to set the VHF channel selector on your TV to channel 3 or 4 to receive the output from your cable box or OTA converter box. I seem to remember another Canadian VK member (Robb in Toronto, IIRC), however, who said in one of his recent posts that there are still analog TV channels in Canada; the country hasn't mandated that all TV stations switch to digital, as our government did. If you still have analog channels in your area, you can use your Zenith TV as is for OTA reception using an antenna. However, I would think the only analog channels you will receive are the Canadian ones from Halifax; the American stations, if you can get U.S. TV from where you are (I think you are within range of several East Coast cities), are now all digital (as I mentioned above) and cannot be received using unmodified televisions.

Jon A.
05-09-2014, 11:09 PM
I wonder why anyone would do such a thing, since the tuner will not stop or skip without the tabs on the wheel. :scratch2:

If, however, the screws holding the tabs to the wheel are what's missing, you may be able to find replacements for them; that or else you might look around for a junked set that has the wheel intact--tabs, screws and all.

I don't know if you still have analog TV in Canada (here in the US the analog NTSC channels were done away with over five years ago, so now all that's left are digital channels), but if your service is anything like what we have here, you will only need to set the VHF channel selector on your TV to channel 3 or 4 to receive the output from your cable box or OTA converter box. I seem to remember another Canadian VK member (Robb in Toronto, IIRC), however, who said in one of his recent posts that there are still analog TV channels in Canada; the country hasn't mandated that all TV stations switch to digital, as our government did. If you still have analog channels in your area, you can use your Zenith TV as is for OTA reception using an antenna. However, I would think the only analog channels you will receive are the Canadian ones from Halifax; the American stations, if you can get U.S. TV from where you are (I think you are within range of several East Coast cities), are now all digital (as I mentioned above) and cannot be received using unmodified televisions.
Actually, the tuner motor will run continuously. Something has to finally catch with whatever friction is available and trip the rocker, or it has to be pushed down manually. A screw from my SC 600X remote kept the wheel in place long enough for testing. Then it slipped and started stopping between channels. I just have to find screws with the proper thread that are about 1/4" long and some lock washers.

The analog channels we get go into the low hundreds, with some gaps in between, as seen on my mother's 2006 20" Toshiba CRT TV. Naturally my TV tuners don't go up that far. We get, or used to get (may have been gone when I hooked up cable to mom's set) something called Peachtree TV, which I think was WTBS. The service came with my cable internet, but I don't use it. Even my mother got sick of the programming quickly and I disconnected it. Being the experimenter that I am, I would prefer to hook up modulators for various video sources and use the tuner that way. Come to think of it, my Philips Color Voice converter outputs on channel 2.

rca2000
05-10-2014, 12:28 AM
I have one like this. It was a "shopping find" from some years ago. Cabinet not too good, had rust on top, may be worse now, as it is in the area of my old garage where water was leaking. It DID work somewhat, when I last had it on.

john f
05-11-2014, 08:41 AM
I really like the channel indicator, gotta add that one to the shopping list, if anyone has one they'd part with..

rca2000
05-12-2014, 11:52 PM
Mine::

Like I said--some rust on top, and back. ALL there, kinda worked in 2006 or so. Tube pretty good, at least useable

Does NOT seem to have had any water in it in this garage.

john f
05-13-2014, 08:50 PM
Shipping to NJ would be a killer, but I'd take it off your hands if it's looking for a home.