BIN $99 and it's working

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2200887058&category=3638

That looks like an infrared remote. I had one of these TVs and it was ultrasonic.

iirc that is a ultrasonic remote set.
i got a remote yesterday at the flea market.
wanted a spare for my system3 portable.

Based on the control panel on the set it looks like Infrared to me.
I have not seen a Zenith ultrasonic that operates the number keys. I think the last ultrasonic sets had the row of neon lamp channel numbers (can be wrong of course.)

Their first remote sets with digital tuning and on screen display from about 1981 did use an ultrasonic remote. It looked like an IR remote with a numeric keypad, but was ultrasonic. I've seen a couple of the 19" sets like this, but never seen the remote. They redesigned these with IR remotes after a short time. They used the dreaded 9-160 main board.

Looks like a 1981 model, It also has space phone and it is an infrared remote set. BTW, 1980 was the last year for ultrasonic remote for this one.
Zenith had 1 year that was unique for this model and it was "81.
The other was in 1977, that had the CCII chassis, in "78 they went to the Sys 3.
I have seen and owned a lot of this type, The oldest I had was from 1977 and was a chromacolor II The newest looked exactly like this one and was manufactured in june of 1981.
The two I presently have are 1979 models with ultrasonic remote and what Zenith called "high performance television sound"
Yes, They have the "dreaded" 9-160 modules, I don't mind them though, They are easy to repair and pretty reliable once gone through.
There were very many of these sets sold in this area and I still find at least 1 or 2 every year on the curb during garbage day.

I assume the chromacolor II version didn't have digital tuning? At least I've never seen one with anything beyond the motor driven tuner.

I hauled one of those to the dump about 4 years ago. There was an intense thunderstorm overhead when I got there and everyone was hiding in their cars. I didn't want to hang around standing outside long for fear of geting electrocuted so I grabbed that sucker out of the back of the van and heaved it with all I had towards the trash pile 180 degrees releasing it like an olympic discus thrower. That sucker musta flown about 10 feet landing with a crash. My back hurt after I got home. :(

Space phone my ass. Hello? ...its for U.

So I guess no one wants it? :rolleyes: :thumbsdn: :pity: :dunno: :( :p:

the remote in the pic is ir.
but i am 99.999% sure the set is ultrasonic.
and my table set with space phone has a full numeric keypad so you can dial the phone.

The Chromacolor II model Did not have osd or digital tuning. The model pictured is actually an ir remote set Zenith DID make them KC8! Remember, That is a unique model made only that year.

This will clear things up, Here's a pic of my 1979 sys 3. This design carried on through the end of the 1980 model run.
1981 models looked like what is pictured on ebay.