Where is everyone from?

[old_tv_nut]

Hey, Aussiebloke!

About that 50th anniversary at the Powerhouse next year - I hope you're planning to take a lot of pix and post them here!

[oldtvman]

can i have the sets from you guys in california before your state falls into the ocean!!!!!!!

[Steve K]

When the big one hits it will be the rest of the country that will fall into the Atlantic!

[prewtv]

Hi Dennis Choinski here, lived in Milwaukee WI most of my life. Pre WIFE had a battery
Radio and 7 inch CRT tv collection in a store front in Milwaukee. Worked then as a TV repair tech mostly TUBE TVs. Now fix auto electronics for DELPHI. Now like TVs found
in ads early magazines that may never have gone public. Use my learn as I go woodworking skills to make cabinets. Got to have a RCA 621TS thou.

[Sandy G]

Oh, and it kinda goes without saying any AKers have a standing invitation anytime you're passing thru NE Tennessee-just call or e-mail a day or so in advance. Even if you're just passing thru on I-81, there's a VERY good restaurant/truck stop we could have a cuppa joe & chew the fat for awhile.-Sandy G.

[Randy Bassham]

Southeast Missouri exactly halfway between St Louis MO and Memphis TN. I work about 3 miles from the house I grew up in (If I ever grew up) and live about 10 miles from it. Aside from a few years away in East Texas for College and my first duty station with my employer (State of Missouri) lived here my whole life. Got my first antique radio in 1961 at the age of 11, worked on radios and TV's since that time. My Dad was an electronics tech and Ham, he would bring home old radios and TV's that were traded in at places his friends in the business would let him haul off for me to play with. Wish I had a few of those old sets I tore up to build other projects. I'm turning 55 next Friday and am eligible to retire, looking forward to being able to spend more time in my own shop playing with my toys again.....

[Jeffhs]

I grew up in Wickliffe, Ohio, an eastern suburb of Cleveland about 16 miles from downtown. Was in Cleveland Heights (another eastern Cleveland suburb) for three years in the early '70s, then came back to Wickliffe and stayed there the next 24 years. Due to a huge change in my life in 1999, I had to move from the house I grew up in. I always wanted to live in a small town, so when I found out I'd be moving I decided to come to where I live now. The name of the place is Fairport Harbor, Ohio, a village of some 3,180 population (as of the 2000 census; it's probably less now) about 33 miles east of downtown Cleveland, just about a mile, more or less, from the south shore of Lake Erie (at least that's where my apartment is; I live on the main street of Fairport Harbor which ends almost right at the shore, so I am practically on the lake).

No room for old TVs here in my small 1-bedroom apartment, unfortunately. (When I was in my old house in Wickliffe I collected old sets like crazy--fully half my basement was full of sets in varying degrees of working order; my pride and joy was a 23" Zenith console, a trash-day find in the late '60s, which I retubed from the ground up, as someone had swiped all but the HV rectifier and CRT. Had to get rid of it when I moved to Cleveland Heights; nearly broke my heart to do it, after all the work I had put into it and considering how well it worked with the new tubes.) However, I do have room in my bedroom for my amateur radio station and a small collection of radios, many of them Zeniths. I have a Zenith color TV in my bedroom as well, 1995 model SMS1917SG which still makes a very nice picture on analog cable here; so does my RCA 19" set in the living room, which is hooked up to Comcast digital cable through a set-top box (indoor antennas don't work well in this area, as it is 40+ miles southwest of the Cleveland TV transmitters, and I can't have an outdoor TV antenna, the rule permitting apartment dwellers to have outside antennas notwithstanding--the terms of my lease absolutely forbid any kind of structure mounted on windowsills or on the overhang between the two stories of the building), so I'm stuck with cable--but I don't mind it as I get many more stations with it than I ever would with an antenna, even if I had one. (I have a VCR and a DVD player, along with a subscription to Netflix.com, so I would never be at a loss for something to watch even if I didn't have cable). The reception is much better with cable as well. One channel, NBC channel 3 from Cleveland, absolutely will not reach here without it--no kidding, I get absolutely nothing on my TVs on that channel using rabbit ears. The reception on that station is bad all over town, apparently; our one grocery store, three blocks from me, has a TV they use during football season--it doesn't get channel 3 with rabbit ears either. The only station they do get well enough to watch is CBS channel 19 from Cleveland. The problem must be the sheer distance my town is from the TV stations; most everyone here has cable so it's not much of an issue anymore, whatever the reason may be for the poor reception on antennas. Who knows?

[Dave S]

Location: Born and raised in NJ (with a number of very happy years spent in Montreal during and after college) and a pleasant four year stint in eastern PA that ended two years ago.

How it started: Around 1980, a friend moved into an old house in Staten Island. He said to me "Hey, you collect radios. There's a old TV in the attic. Want it?" (It was an RCA T-100 although I didn't know it at the time.) And that's when the insanity began!

Despite the jokes about NJ, I always saw it firsthand as the Garden State when I was growing up rather than what you see as you're passing through on the Turnpike. But I realized our real claim to fame when corresponding with a collector in Hawaii a few years ago. He said "we have to import everthing, while you lucky guys in New Jersey just trip over this stuff everywhere you go." And I had to admit, he was right.

As Uncle Floyd used to sing "Deep In the Heart of Jersey" (to the tune of Deep In The Heart of Texas)

Oh the factory smoke, will make you choke
Deep in the Heart of Jersey
The City rats run in big packs
Deep in the Heart of Jersey
The Pizza man says, "I no understand"
Deep in the Heart of Jersey
And route 17, the traffic there is mean
Deep in the Heart of Jersey

The city skies ain't fit for flies
Deep in the Heart of Jersey
The Parkway man takes a quarter from your hand
Deep in the Heart of Jersey
The dumps in June ain't like perfume
Deep in the Heart of Jersey
But it's my state and I think it's great
Deep in the Heart of Jersey
Way out west in wild new jersey
Yippi Yi Yay!

[colortrakker]

Those NJ stereotypes are only true for those who've never ventured west of Bergen or Essex County. Parts of Somerset, Hunterdon and Sussex counties are God's country. Warren County, just over the Delaware River from PA, has a bit of the God's Country thing going, but it's got a VERY backwoods vibe.

And don't ask about insuring or inspecting a car in NJ!