Hello from the Berkshires of Western MA

[rlovison]

I've been a member of AudioK for a while and just recently stumbled into this forum. I'm looking forward to sharing info and participating in the community.

We have a local transfer station in our town and recently I've been salvaging some flat panel televisions. It all started because my wife wouldn't let go of a 25 year old RCA CRT and agree to purchase a bigger screen flat panel until that CRT died. So I found another way. My first LCD salvage was a Visio VX32L that was in beautiful condition cosmetically though needed a new power supply, surface mount fuse on the MB and a remote that I picked up on eB*y for a total of $42. My wife doesn't miss the CRT.

The next one was a LG 32LC7D, also in beautiful condition and functioned beautifully. All I needed was a remote that again, I found on eB*y. My wife uses this one to play exercise videos in her exercise room.

The third is a Toshiba 32HLC56 that was left in the rain and suffers from the "2 seconds to black" problem. I'm hoping this is just a bad transformer on the inverter board (one was bad out of the eight). I'll replace the part and test it out next week.

So there you have it. A new hobby. If I find any more flat panels I'll need to start giving them away. Now if I can only find that 40" plus screen.

[Sandy G]

Welcome ! Nice t'have ya !

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by rlovison

We have a local transfer station in our town and recently I've been salvaging some flat panel televisions. It all started because my wife wouldn't let go of a 25 year old RCA CRT and agree to purchase a bigger screen flat panel until that CRT died.

I'm with the missus on that one, but welcome anyway.

[rlovison]

Thanks for the welcome Sandy and KV.

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

I'm with the missus on that one, but welcome anyway.

Even though our CRT hadn't officially died (hadn't started on fire), the brightness, contrast and sharpness had deteriorated. It also had a tendency to make a loud pop, crackle, go to black and then turn itself on again. It was a nice set and had served us well for years but had reached the end of the road.

[Jon A.]

Lots of miles on that one. Fires aren't the norm regarding end-of-life with older sets as far as I know. My 1987 Sony's picture isn't the sharpest, but it stays anyway. It's faring better than my XL-100 which has a rather dull picture and the on-screen display doesn't work, but I like its design so I'll keep it around with the intention of restoring it to tip-top shape, even if I need to wait years to locate a CRT, but that's just me. I'm not even sure if the CRT has significant problems, I guess I'll know once I start patching things up on the chassis, or acquire a tester.

[rlovison]

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

Lots of miles on that one. Fires aren't the norm regarding end-of-life with older sets as far as I know.

I was only joking when I wrote that. I used to joke with my wife that our RCA would need to catch on fire before she would consider replacing it.

I like to restore and maintain my audio equipment from the 70's and 80's though I was never attracted to restoring CRT televisions. When I discovered that I could no longer carry the 25" RCA by myself I knew it was time to let go of the design.

I wouldn't mind owning the first television my parents purchased. It was a black and white unit with a 13" screen... I believe it was a GE. The unit was in a 3 foot (.9 meter) long wooden case. I remember seeing the insides as a kid. It looked like something from another world.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by rlovison

I like to restore and maintain my audio equipment from the 70's and 80's though I was never attracted to restoring CRT televisions. When I discovered that I could no longer carry the 25" RCA by myself I knew it was time to let go of the design.

If you're talking about 8-track players, I'm game for that. Cassettes do have their place with me, but 8-track is my preferred format. 25" table top sets of that vintage are quite scarce. I'm sure you're talking about a table top set as not even Bigfoot could carry a console on his own.

[rlovison]

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

If you're talking about 8-track players, I'm game for that. Cassettes do have their place with me, but 8-track is my preferred format.

Sony 620ES II cd player, Pioneer C-90 pre-amp, M-90 power amplifier, PL71 turntable and A-77X integrated amp, Nakamichi BX-100 cassette deck.

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

25" table top sets of that vintage are quite scarce. I'm sure you're talking about a table top set as not even Bigfoot could carry a console on his own.

My mistake... it was a 26", not 25", ColorTrak 2000 table top manufactured in 1988.

[Jon A.]

Still, table top sets of that vintage with screen sizes bigger than the low 20s are practically unheard of to me.

I have a few dial-tuned Ford 8-track stereos, plus two cassette decks, a Sony TC-FX30 and an Akai CS-702D II.