Does this description make sense?

[maxhifi]

I'll add to the above point. The reason I made the suggestion above, is if you spend about a month or two making Radio & TV news bed time reading, you will essentially get into the head of a mid 20th century TV service man. They had articles on running a business, articles on new products, articles on how to test things, "tough dog" repairs. It's basically a slice of the whole industry. The Mac's column was a narative about a fictional repair shop where "Mac" would solve a couple tough repairs, with the help of his teenage assistant "Barney", and they would banter about current issues in TV/Radio repair, along with some corny material about Barney's girlfriend, or some sexist comments about female customers. It filled about a page to a page and a half, in every issue of Radio&TV news through the 50s. And the advertisements are a huge source of info too, giving more insight into what was going on at the time.

Technical books may be more to the point, but they are usually more dry, and don't contain the "human" element like magazines do. I think considering what you are trying to do, knowing a bit more about the "human" element would work well for you. Particularly things like how business was conducted, what customers expected, what a service call consisted of - the layout of a shop, the general demographic and social status of a repair man, etc. A bit of research will bring all this stuff into clear focus.

[venivdvici]

Excellent suggestion. I found some on ebay. 1959 issues. That should work for my 1961 story. Looking forward to reading them!!!

Thanks.

Originally Posted by maxhifi

I'll add to the above point. The reason I made the suggestion above, is if you spend about a month or two making Radio & TV news bed time reading, you will essentially get into the head of a mid 20th century TV service man. They had articles on running a business, articles on new products, articles on how to test things, "tough dog" repairs. It's basically a slice of the whole industry. The Mac's column was a narative about a fictional repair shop where "Mac" would solve a couple tough repairs, with the help of his teenage assistant "Barney", and they would banter about current issues in TV/Radio repair, along with some corny material about Barney's girlfriend, or some sexist comments about female customers. It filled about a page to a page and a half, in every issue of Radio&TV news through the 50s. And the advertisements are a huge source of info too, giving more insight into what was going on at the time.

Technical books may be more to the point, but they are usually more dry, and don't contain the "human" element like magazines do. I think considering what you are trying to do, knowing a bit more about the "human" element would work well for you. Particularly things like how business was conducted, what customers expected, what a service call consisted of - the layout of a shop, the general demographic and social status of a repair man, etc. A bit of research will bring all this stuff into clear focus.

[venivdvici]

I'm so disappointed. I was supposed to get my 1959 issues of Radio & TV News today. They sent me 1959 issues of Radio Electronics instead of what I ordered. And I was looking forward to reading the Mac column.

My favorite saying, of which I'm the author, is: If it's not worth doing twice, it's not worth doing.

I always have to do things twice, it seems.

Originally Posted by maxhifi

I'll add to the above point. The reason I made the suggestion above, is if you spend about a month or two making Radio & TV news bed time reading, you will essentially get into the head of a mid 20th century TV service man. They had articles on running a business, articles on new products, articles on how to test things, "tough dog" repairs. It's basically a slice of the whole industry. The Mac's column was a narative about a fictional repair shop where "Mac" would solve a couple tough repairs, with the help of his teenage assistant "Barney", and they would banter about current issues in TV/Radio repair, along with some corny material about Barney's girlfriend, or some sexist comments about female customers. It filled about a page to a page and a half, in every issue of Radio&TV news through the 50s. And the advertisements are a huge source of info too, giving more insight into what was going on at the time.

Technical books may be more to the point, but they are usually more dry, and don't contain the "human" element like magazines do. I think considering what you are trying to do, knowing a bit more about the "human" element would work well for you. Particularly things like how business was conducted, what customers expected, what a service call consisted of - the layout of a shop, the general demographic and social status of a repair man, etc. A bit of research will bring all this stuff into clear focus.

[kx250rider]

I worked on many CTC-7s, and I'd recommend for accuracy, to remove the part about testing all tubes. No TV repairman would have done that, as it would have wasted a lot of time. If I had been called out for a shrunken picture, I'd have first measured the household electrical outlet to see if the voltage was low (a common problem at that time). There is a switch on many early color TVs to compensate for a low line voltage, in fact. Next I'd have tried swapping the two 5U4 tubes, and if that didn't fix it, I'd put the originals back, and then troubleshoot the power supply and have then found the bad filter capacitor. This would have involved unbolting the chassis from the cabinet, and sliding it part way out to get at the bottom (or actually the side, as that TV had the chassis mounted upright inside the right-hand side of the cabinet; not on the bottom as most sets were then).

I hope this helps...

Charles

[venivdvici]

That's interesting--measuring the household electrical outlet. Hmm, maybe he'll have to bring it back to the shop before troubleshooting the power supply, because Mrs. Amato had to leave the house for church bingo but didn't want to leave Hunny there alone and didn't want to reschedule to get her set fixed. So Hunny had to take the chassis with him! Church bingo. Does it every time.

Originally Posted by kx250rider

I worked on many CTC-7s, and I'd recommend for accuracy, to remove the part about testing all tubes. No TV repairman would have done that, as it would have wasted a lot of time. If I had been called out for a shrunken picture, I'd have first measured the household electrical outlet to see if the voltage was low (a common problem at that time). There is a switch on many early color TVs to compensate for a low line voltage, in fact. Next I'd have tried swapping the two 5U4 tubes, and if that didn't fix it, I'd put the originals back, and then troubleshoot the power supply and have then found the bad filter capacitor. This would have involved unbolting the chassis from the cabinet, and sliding it part way out to get at the bottom (or actually the side, as that TV had the chassis mounted upright inside the right-hand side of the cabinet; not on the bottom as most sets were then).

I hope this helps...

Charles

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

I worked on many CTC-7s, and I'd recommend for accuracy, to remove the part about testing all tubes. No TV repairman would have done that, as it would have wasted a lot of time.

On house calls, that's absolutely correct. However, most road techies would routinely give all the tubes the 'tap test' to reveal any borderline intermittents and arcing damper tubes (a very common problem). Weak tubes could often be identified by turning the set off for about 10 seconds and then back on. A lag in horizontal lock-in would reveal the oscillator tube becoming weak, a lag in color sync lock-in showed a weak color osc. tube, slow width fill-out showed a borderline horiz output tube, etc. For house calls the old adage was that the set itself is the best "tube tester".

But in the shop, all the tubes were routinely tested on a tester unless the customer specifically requested a cut rate.

[venivdvici]

It seems late in the game for me to ask this, but what exactly is a road techie? Didn't repairmen go to the homes for those big consoles and if they couldn't fix it there, they brought it back to the shop? I'm sure some people could carry in their portables to the shop to probably save on a house call charge.

Originally Posted by old_coot88

On house calls, that's absolutely correct. However, most road techies would routinely give all the tubes the 'tap test' to reveal any borderline intermittents and arcing damper tubes (a very common problem). Weak tubes could often be identified by turning the set off for about 10 seconds and then back on. A lag in horizontal lock-in would reveal the oscillator tube becoming weak, a lag in color sync lock-in showed a weak color osc. tube, slow width fill-out showed a borderline horiz output tube, etc. For house calls the old adage was that the set itself is the best "tube tester".

But in the shop, all the tubes were routinely tested on a tester unless the customer specifically requested a cut rate.

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by venivdvici

It seems late in the game for me to ask this, but what exactly is a road techie? Didn't repairmen go to the homes for those big consoles and if they couldn't fix it there, they brought it back to the shop? I'm sure some people could carry in their portables to the shop to probably save on a house call charge.

A road techie was a guy doing house calls. In the truck he would carry a toolbox, tube caddy, often a second caddy of lesser-used tubes, a dot/crosshatch generator, mirror and stand, degauss coil, and furniture blankets and ropes for transporting sets to and from the shop.
When big consoles and combos weren't fixable in the home, some shops preferred to pull just the TV chassis and take it to the shop. We generally took the whole unit rather than pull the chassis. I think that's why I got a bad back today.

Being a road guy generally required a lower skill level than a shop tech. But most shop guys would work in both roles as needed. Then there were the "dog shooters" - hotshot techs who specialized in the really tough troubleshooting jobs from other shops.

[venivdvici]

Thanks! Road techies, dog shooters. Cool names. I'm hoping to get my Radio & TV magazines tomorrow. Can't wait to read them.

Originally Posted by old_coot88

A road techie was a guy doing house calls. In the truck he would carry a toolbox, tube caddy, often a second caddy of lesser-used tubes, a dot/crosshatch generator, mirror and stand, degauss coil, and furniture blankets and ropes for transporting sets to and from the shop.
When big consoles and combos weren't fixable in the home, some shops preferred to pull just the TV chassis and take it to the shop. We generally took the whole unit rather than pull the chassis. I think that's why I got a bad back today.

Being a road guy generally required a lower skill level than a shop tech. But most shop guys would work in both roles as needed. Then there were the "dog shooters" - hotshot techs who specialized in the really tough troubleshooting jobs from other shops.

[kvflyer]

I don't remember many of the names above. But I do remember my dad talking about "Tough Dogs". I looked in some of the old PF Reporter or Radio Electronics books (can't remember which one) and there was a tech section that was called something like "Tough Dogs". Surely, some of you guys remember.

[kx250rider]

I might add one more detail, and that is, most color TV owners in the 1950s & early 60s, would call out a factory service tech; not the neighborhood TV repairman. That's because most neighborhood techs claimed they'd work on color sets, but in fact many times, they'd get themselves in trouble. RCA had a service fleet in most all cities, and also many, MANY RCA sets were kept under annual service contracts, and only RCA techs would be allowed to work on the sets under that policy.

This isn't exactly important in the case of your writing, I guess, but I thought it's worth mentioning.

Charles

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

I might add one more detail, and that is, most color TV owners in the 1950s & early 60s, would call out a factory service tech; not the neighborhood TV repairman. That's because most neighborhood techs claimed they'd work on color sets, but in fact many times, they'd get themselves in trouble. RCA had a service fleet in most all cities, and also many, MANY RCA sets were kept under annual service contracts, and only RCA techs would be allowed to work on the sets under that policy.

This isn't exactly important in the case of your writing, I guess, but I thought it's worth mentioning.

Charles

That's all correct. Our store was the authorized RCA (as well as DuMont/Emerson) sales and service dealership in our little hick town (Globe, AZ). But being far removed from major cities, we were late getting into color, and didn't get into it until 1964 with the CTC-15. We went to the factory-sponsored RCA School in Phoenix to learn the mysteries of color.
The truck was a '61 Ford Econoline van. A couple of us goofballs used to think it was a hoot to be going down a hill and shut the ignition off for a few seconds and back on, which caused a huge BANG!!! out the exhaust, till one day we blew the muffler off.

(Dunno why the blue formatting occured. Twarn't me.)