What does collecting old tv's mean to young people?

[DavGoodlin]

I'm 52 and by age 8, was plugging in stuff found in farmhouse attics, basements and barns of many family members. I often recall waiting until I got sound on a TV, then chickening out before anything scary happened. Pretty soon I had a reputation for getting stuff to work, leading to many gifts of appliances, radios and by age 12, TV sets. After learning that a few new capacitors would KEEP stuff working (more than 5 minutes), it was downhill from there.

Fortunately, we had a house with a huge daylight basement and my parents understood a need for a hobby for a kid who was lousy at sports, with no other talent but accident-free tinkering. It was cold in the winter, often I pulled chassis out and slid many a color console set up two flights of carpeted stairs to my room, never breaking a CRT in the process. Its funny how much care can be taken and brute strength you can muster saving old technology. I also was on the roof often trying to get the perfect array of aluminum to work in an awful location surrounded by densely-wooded hills. Digital has renewed this interest in antennas and Dx'ing with a vengeance.

As a high schooler in Electronics Vo-Tech, I learned to tackle early color set issues using B&K 1077B television analyst, then I was VERY fortunate to work under some senior techs who learned electronics in the service, came home and then made TV repair their business. As they retired, I became a curator of test equipment and parts, mostly tubes

If I ever meet anyone in my area who likes old radios and TV and is younger, they can have plenty of my stuff - free, to pass it along as was done years ago. We do our best work here by matching spare parts with sets in need, and sets in need of homes with new owners

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

It was cold in the winter, often I pulled chassis out and slid many a color console set up two flights of carpeted stairs to my room, never breaking a CRT in the process. Its funny how much care can be taken and brute strength you can muster saving old technology.

No kidding. I had to get my Electrohome console out through a sliding door, onto my convertible hand truck without scratching it, then up a rather tricky set of steps that curve around the house (fortunately I had a spotter to give it a boost over each step), then I pushed it 1.24 kilometers (about 3/4 of a mile) home. At least that's the shortest distance I've traveled to bring home a set.

[MRX37]

Try wrestling a 60 inch rear projection behemoth into your house by yourself. Big, heavy, and unweildy as hell.

The only thing that beats that is a damn Trinitron!

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by MRX37

Try wrestling a 60 inch rear projection behemoth into your house by yourself. Big, heavy, and unweildy as hell.

The only thing that beats that is a damn Trinitron!

No kiddin'. I manhandled a 36" Trinitron all by my lonesome, ONCE. That was QUITE enuff, Thank You Very Much..

[NowhereMan 1966]

I'm 49, always been interested in electronics and radio as well as old TV. The oldest TV I remember was our B&W 1959 Philco with no UHF tuner. I remember sitting with Mom watching the Moon landings and Christmas cartoons and shows. In Pittsburgh, we could get channels 2, 4, 11, 13, 16 and 53, later we had 22. We could get channel 7 from Wheeling, channel 9 from Steubenville, channel 6 from Johnstown, and 21, 27 and 33 from Youngstown. I'm glad to see the millennials here and around taking up the torch for us, sadly, we will not live forever but I'm glad there will be custodians of history in the future.

[hi_volt]

I got into collecting old radios and TV sets back when I was a young teenager. When I was in college, I ran a TV sales and repair business out of my apartment. Most of the sets I worked on were from the CTC-10 through CTC-40 era. I've always had a warm spot in my heart for color roundies, probably because of the great memories I had in college.

[Sandy G]

I have, what is undoubtedly, the 1st TV in town. Its my unassuming 1948 7" Admiral "1911A11" bakelite set. The old guy who owned the theater in town had it, he also ran a shop where he fixed radios, & his daughter ran the theater for YEARS after his death. My Uncle told me that he had a place fixed up on a hill outside of town, w/AC power, & an antenna, & during the summer months, he'd tote the Admiral up there, & he & his buddies would try to pick up WSB or WAGA out of Atlanta, & catch a baseball game on it. I never got an Atlanta station up there, but, I picked up everything else.. At least 2 or 3 network feeds, a BUNCH of PBS stations, & all kinds of indie UHF stuff. I took a JVC CX-500 US "All-in-Wonder" 4.5" color set up there a BUNCH of times.

[sweitzel]

I'm 40 and used to collect all sorts of things: vintage computers, vintage radios, cameras, records, audio processors, and film projectors and prints. I read this site because I really am not in a position to start collecting vintage televisions. As my dear wife so eloquently put it a number of years ago: "You really need to choose one thing to collect or things are really going to get out of control" She was right. I sold most of the computers except one (Apple Lisa), and sold a lot of my cameras, and sold my vintage radios (except one a Zenith 8S463) and chose focus collecting my projectors and prints. It really made my hobby fun as having so many other things just distracted from one another. I like "collecting" televisions virtually through the discussions on this site and in real life am building a cinema on my property to someday install the projectors and platters and audio racks and have my own place to watch my films.

[Tom9589]

I once saw two 56" Trinitrons in the Coca-Cola boardroom in Atlanta. They said it took a forklift to bring them into the room. I don't doubt them. They really looked good!

[Username1]

Kids think anyone over 20 is crazy anyway..... so who cares what they think.....

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[kf4rca]

You need to periodically go in there and wipe down all your sets of mildew. I use a chlorine water mix (made from clorox bleach). That'll be good for about a year.
But I heard there is a product called Clearshell (made by ZEP) which is better!

[ZackN920]

"What does collecting old tv's mean to young people?"

Well to other young people, I must be a nut. lol I don't know, Never really thought about it. I guess, to me it's just preservation, and actually enjoying them. I don't mind black & white, while most other's my age group(i'm 22), would think your crazy if ya watch something in black and white.

[Dubis7]

Born in '96, so I guess I can fairly answer this.

It's hard to say for sure. I have older parents, but they've always been happy to no longer have to deal with tubes. I learned about this stuff from them, and decided to spring on a 1950s radio when I was 15. Then I realized you can actually WORK on these things, instead of throwing them out, so I decided to learn that. I started getting obsessive about getting only mid century appliances, though I can't really justify that beyond "I like them better." So I guess now it's some combination of sustainability, and the fact that I started young and it's just a part of my childhood that I'm very close to.

[Sandy G]

I remember in the summer of 1969, my Dad took all of us to New York City. What an AMAZING place, especially for a 12 yr old boy from the wilds of Tennessee.. I remember we walked down this one street that had NOTHING but electronics shops on it,& OMG-I had died & gone to Heaven ! There were a BUNCH of those Symphonic "Minni TVs" all playing in one shop's showcase, I THINK they had a similar bunch of Sony 4" & 5" playing. There MAY have been one of the fabled 7" Trinitron-KV-7010Us, too, but I can't say for sure. And then there were the CARS-Like a lot of 12 yr old boys, I had a "Radar" that would go off when an interesting car rode by... I had to IGNORE it, the Caddy limos were almost "Overloading" it. Quite a few Rolls & Mercedes 600s, too. Not too many "Sports Cars", however, Manhattan just wasn't a good place to be tootling along in a Maserati. or Ferrari. I was JUST starting to think that Girls might actually be good for something beyond tossing rocks at, had LOTS to look at in THAT dept, too..

[etype2]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

I remember in the summer of 1969, my Dad took all of us to New York City. What an AMAZING place, especially for a 12 yr old boy from the wilds of Tennessee.. I remember we walked down this one street that had NOTHING but electronics shops on it,& OMG-I had died & gone to Heaven ! There were a BUNCH of those Symphonic "Minni TVs" all playing in one shop's showcase, I THINK they had a similar bunch of Sony 4" & 5" playing. There MAY have been one of the fabled 7" Trinitron-KV-7010Us, too, but I can't say for sure. And then there were the CARS-Like a lot of 12 yr old boys, I had a "Radar" that would go off when an interesting car rode by... I had to IGNORE it, the Caddy limos were almost "Overloading" it. Quite a few Rolls & Mercedes 600s, too. Not too many "Sports Cars", however, Manhattan just wasn't a good place to be tootling along in a Maserati. or Ferrari. I was JUST starting to think that Girls might actually be good for something beyond tossing rocks at, had LOTS to look at in THAT dept, too..

I might of been standing right there next to you oggaling those tiny TV's on 42nd Street. I was in the Navy at the time. I'd come down on weekend leave and stay Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Sony KV 7010U was taken off the market in 1968, but the KV 7010UA would have been in those windows.