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Old 06-20-2017, 09:30 AM
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Electronic M Electronic M is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Pewaukee/Delafield Wi
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The first chassis letter denoted the year. B was 1971 IIRC so the HC should be ~1977 and the Y probably would be 1968, but IIRC it's chassis number was from a transitional period in chassis naming. The CCII should have the date printed on the back.

IIRC Zenith sold it's first Solid State color sets in 1973, and they had an experimental field test SS chassis the year before which got completely recalled and scrapped. Other makes like motorola and RCA were rolling out SS sets like the WID moto/quasar line and the RCA 2000 in 1968.
Monochrome SS dates back even earlier. Zenith rolled it out with the model 1290 portable in IIRC 1968....It was all hand wired and there is a commercial on youtube of it being dropped from a plane running and parachuting to earth safely (I own a white cabinet example)....Of course other brands had SS portables years earlier. Philco was the first in 1959 with the Philco Safari, and many other brands joined the fray in the early-mid 60's.

1975 was the last year for the tube/SS hybrids from most makes, including Zenith (some held out longer). One all tube (unless tuning UHF) set continued production till at least 1978: the GE portacolor.

I've got a danish modern with the same chassis/face panel as yours, and I've got a metal table set with a 20BC50 chassis(or was it CC I may have mixed it up with another set I've got) and the same face panel.
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