Here is the first find for the year at the estate sales on 1-12-08. There were 3 sales this weekend and one turned up another rare find. The sale was at 4109 Lawn Ave, Western Springs, IL. The company "Becker and company" conducted the sale. Ive known them for quite a number of years. First thing they tell me "we were talking about you, theres an old TV downstairs". So I go down and take a look. I noticed an early 50's sonora b+w console in very poor condition and was dissapointed. I figured it was going to be a color set, but you dont know. I passed on that and went up to the bedrooms to see if something else might show up. Sure enough, I walked into the 2nd bedroom and spotted this mint little 14" zenith portable color set from '68 sitting on the floor all by itself. Then I saw the little hanging "zenith" card on the antenna still which Ive never seen. The set was on a dresser that was sold the day before. The photos you see are exactly how the set was found. I used my cell phone for the pictures at the house. I powered it up and it worked fine. (big surprize) Doesnt appear to have ever been tampered with or had the back removed. All it needed was the tri color badge that fell off and was lost. Luckily, I have a few of those from parts sets. The good thing is, there is an indention in the metal door so you can fit the badge exactly were its supposed to be.

As for pricing, it was priced strange at $28.00 but it was half off so I got it for $14.00. I brought it down and mentioned that this is the perfect type of set Im looking for. They didnt know I was interested in portable TV's, nor did they think that set was old enough for my interests. Most people see a set like this and think its only 20 years old. You tell them its a '68 and they look twice.
This set is model Z3508W, it was zeniths very first portable color TV introduced in 1968 and available through 1969. It uses the 15Y6C15 chassis. In 1970, zenith switched to the plastic cabinets for the little 14" sets. I actually have another one of these that I found at the curb by my old home in Downers Grove back in October of '02 that had a shorted filter cap blowing the B+ fuse, thus sending it to the curb al by itself.
Todays find is a much nicer set, just needs a good dusting.

Awesome find Doug! I wish I could find one like that!
Mark

Really is a good day when you find one as clean and perfect as that set is. Big thumbs up, I love the tag! Talk about unrivaled reliability, 40 years its still doing well.

Yes, that's one of my favorite Zeniths. I had 3 of them, all about the same time, during the early 80s. I wish I had kept one!

Charles

I have a parts only version of this set. I have already sent the Flyback and other parts to various members of this forum. However, I still have the carcus, so if you need parts, please let me know-I may have them.

Grrrrrr...I HATE you....(grin) EXCELLENT score, Doug !

Congrats on another great find Doug!
You root out a lot of pristine sets in your travels! :thmbsp:

Nice start for 2008! I hope you have just as good of year for '08 as you did for '07. You mentioned seeing a Sonora TV. I had a 17" or 19" B&W Sonora in a metal portable cabinet. I got it from a repairman years ago and it had already had parts hacked out of it. I hacked more parts out of it over the years.

I have one of those that I found in really rough condition. It looked like it had been outside for several years. I did manage to save it. It took a lot of cleaning and rust removal, but it looks decent now. It has an excellent picture for a portable.

Who made the CRT in yours? Mine has a Zenith branded CRT, but RCA's EIA code. Mine also has an etched safety glass instead of a smooth one.

This weekend there was an estate sale with several somewhat unusual TV's.
This was held in a vacant storefront which the estate sale people rented. This must have been a very well to do family which was on the cutting edge of technology at one time.

There was a 1970's Sony LV-1901 console TV with built in Betamax unit which they wanted $295 for (would have been half of that today but still more than I really would want to pay, so I ended up not getting it)
It has a Beta-1 speed only beta recorder in it, and I hooked it up to see how it worked. Someone actually had left an old Beta "Adult" movie in there but it was beta-2 speed so I actually saw it at twice speed! It actally did work but I stopped it after a little while of seeing what it was...

There was a Zenith projection TV which has a motorized screen to rise it up out of the cabinet. It ended up having difficult coming up straight out of the cabinet and did not seem to really produce a picture. Not sure why they wanted $495 for it.

I did get a Sony 3-CRT projection unit for $75.00, a KP-5020. It seems to work well although they did not have the special Sony screen available so I think I will need to fool with the projection screen angle to get the convergence completely right.

Also there was a Panasonic 3.5"? B/w portable with built in cassette player, AM/FM and weather radio which I got for $15.00.
And got a Hitachi 5" color portable with channel indicator bar on-screen for $5.00

There was also a Frigidaire space-age 1950's electric range with oven doors which lift up at eye level plus a pull out drawer for the stove burners. They wanted $575 for it, and would have been half today but I really had no good place to put it plus I still thought it was fairly expensive.

Hi Chad, I have that hitachi, it has sound and no raster. Cabinet is pretty nice, battery cover is missing. Do you want it for parts?

I had one of those early '80's Zenith big screen's with the screen that lowered into the cabinet. The screen was stuck in the "up" position and the neck was busted off of one of the CRT's. Otherwise, the set worked. I wound up throwing it out. BTW, I caught a lot of heck from my mother when I brought that one in. I don't think we spoke for the rest of the day!

There were numerous good finds today at the estates. There were 12 of them that I though were worth attending, but only had enough time to get to 8 of them. Hopefully the other 4 didnt have any TV's..... It was extremely cold here today, it was -8 degrees F when I left at 8:30 this morning and only got up to +5 degrees F at most by afternoon. The sales today were spread all over the chicagoland area. The first sale was far out of my way, but glad I went. It was at 233 Dartmoor Ave in Crystal Lake, IL. Found a 1965 Zenith roundie with the 25MC33 chassis in the french provincial cabinet. It was upstairs in one of the bedrooms which was used as an office. The TV was sitting like you see it with all the stuff on it. It will need some work though. the power cord is missing and the chassis is loose in the cabinet. Like someone tried to fix it but gave up and left the set in peices. It shows some wear and tear but the top is pretty nice yet. I havnt found a zenith roundie for some time at the estates. Have no idea if it works yet, hopefully the CRT is good.
Next TV find was at 6112 S. Parkside in Chicago. I picked up this unique looking RCA XL-100 set with it original pedistal base. the TV is all plastic, even the sides, as is the pedistal. however, the support table of the pedistal is wood! It works OK, but needs some attention.
The next sale after that one was at 4929 Forster Ave, in Schiller Park. It was a two flat and the orignal owner used both living spaces. They even owned another house just like it almost across the alley on another street at 4923 Michigan ave. Both houses were part of the estate sale. At the 4926 house I found one of my favorite sets that Ive been wanting to find. Its a 1966 Admiral 23" color set. Its the chassis that uses the dual 6JM6 horizontal output tubes! the set was preserved as it was in a clean upstairs living room and had a custom made glass top that protected it all these years. It works, but the picture was dim. CRT needs some work, hopefully the cathodes just need reactivation by raising the heater voltage for a while.
I went across the alley to the other house at 4923 Michigan and it didnt look much like a house inside. Everything was tore up and destroyed. Honestly, it looked like the house was vacant for over 25 years. Fortunately, this little '65 RCA b/w console survived in good shape. At first glace, I thought it was one of those ctc-19 mini consoles. I got that set for free, the Admiral cost me $10.00 and got help to bring it down the sprial stair case in the back of the house!
The final sale was the final find for the day. It was at 712 Beverly in Wilmette. Picked up this unique little 12" panasonic color portable from around 1970. Its a "Pana-Color" and is an all tube set. For once I find a nice clean japanese set with intact antennas. 98% of the time, antennas are snapped off on the japanese sets I find. I asked about the price and the guy tells me its broken. I told him Id still like to have it, so he gave it to me for 2 bucks. He told me I could try it out and see if I could figure out what was wrong after I bought it. I waited about a minute and it turned on and worked fine. the guy was old enough to know about tubes in the old sets, but he didnt care, never gave it a chance to warm up!

The worst part about all of this is bringing the sets into the house after being in the zero degree temps. The CRT's all frosted badly when I brought them in and the condensation was terrible. the best thing I could do was to keep wiping them down with a towel, have fans blowing at full speed on all the sets with the back covers off to evaporate the condensation as quickly as possible. the fans did the trick and they dried nicely.

In the photos, you see the original home the TV's were found in followed by a picture of the TV found in that home.

Woah, you find some crazy-nice TVs where you live... Jealous! What CTC is the XL-100 set? Always liked those RCAs, they have a cool look to them.

That RCA b/w console looks just like a CTC-16 control panel, just slightly re-designed.
My grandma on my dad's side had 2 of those RCA XL-100's, in a slightly different cabinet, one in the bedroom and one in the living room. When she passed away, they gave me the sets....one of them is still at my parents' house but the horizontal frequency was off and would not lock in.

I remember that condensation problem from when I was a kid in Ohio, I would store a lot of stuff in the unheated garage at my parents' house and when I would bring a TV into the house in the winter there would be a long wait for it to dry out! That is not a problem here as the humidity is always low and it does not usually get nearly that cold.

What are you using to haul all that stuff Doug, pickup truck or van? That looks like a great find of TV's but it makes me tired just thinking about all of the hauling labor! The only time I ever got that much at one time was Texas Recycles day and from an old TV shop and there was no need to extract the sets from out of houses.

In the photos, you see the original home the TV's were found in followed by a picture of the TV found in that home.

Wow, this is an amazing post. It's great to see the house and the TVs.

Congrats, those are some beautiful sets. :thmbsp:

Snade

Ive got an '04 Chevy silverado 1500, extended cab w/ standard 6ft bed. Actually, that truck you see in front of the white house that I found the admiral TV in is my truck. Everything gets proper padding and is secured for transport. I have a bunch of those moving blankets and ratchet straps. Smallers sets I can fit into the back seat like the XL-100 and the panasonic.

Looks like you done good at the sales this weekend! Lesson to us all is that one never knows what he will find unless he goes to the sale. What year is that XL100? It reminds me of a Zenith 4 tube hybrid that I had back around '95. It was a 19" in a decorative plastic "fake wood" cabinet and had a matching pedestal that it sat on. That set had an arcing tripler and I gave it to a friend who fixed it and sold it for about $75. Had I had half a brain, I would have kept that set.

Awesome finds Doug,:thmbsp: That Zenith has a great cabinet, it sure is hard to find the french provincial.

The RCA XL-100 is a CTC-71, model FS484-L "model year 1974". I always liked how rca put the model year on the model tag on some of the 70's sets.

That RCA is really cool.:smoke: Is it attached or separate from that base? I wish they put the year on all of 'em! But some is better than none.:rockon:

Crazy nice finds there Doug! Ususally my back seats are always folded down in the back of my Chevy Tahoe, It's great for hauling sets around, especially those entertainment consoles!

Some Dones back pills are always nice to have around when moving those big, heavy sets!

This is a rather unusual find. Found it yesterday at 404 Orion St, here in Batavia. Its probably the cheapest tube type TV ever made. Its a 16" 1973 General Electric model SF3206WD. Its a 4 tube chassis. Very small board. Probably the lightest TV in existance of its size. Only 2 IF stages and both amplified by one compactron tube. Still has a tube type sarkies tarzan VHF tuner. Even has instant on. and the CRT is even good! Must have never been plugged in. Set works pretty good too. Being such a cheap economy set, the picture is bright and clear but pretty soft. Looks like I was the first to take the back off. Its these cheap sets that never survive. I dont think Ive ever run across a GE portable b/w of this type before. Anyone know what a set like this would have sold for new? Still a USA made set with usa parts.

Thats pretty neat, Doug. you don't see many of those. Always thought GE made cool looking sets. I think they sold this model for about $100.00

I don't think I've ever seen a 16" SF set; but, I've seen plenty of 12" versions. Most were the late '60's style with the knobs below the screen. I did see one from the mid '70's in a simulated wood plastic case and click stop UHF tuner. The case was the same type used on the later XB chassis solid state sets. I believe there was a '76 model red, white, and blue SF chassis set. I'm sure '76 was the last year for this chassis.

I have one of the 12 inch versions that appears to have a chassis similar to this one. The sound portion in mine is solid state with an integrated circuit and output transistor.

I also have another GE with a 16 inch or so screen. I have not had the back off recently, so do not remember the chassis layout. What I do remember is that the CRT has the smallest cathode of any I have seen. Of course, it is very weak.

Madman Muntz had nothing on the General...

I have a GE set which uses a 5-tube chassis...can't remember what the tube numbers are, but the functions are:
1. Horiz output & damper
2. Vertical output, oscillator, and feedback diode
3. Video output and AGC keying
4. 1st and 2nd IF
5. Sound detector and output
This set does not have a seperate horizontal oscillator tube or transistor that I can see...somehow it uses feedback off the flyback to make the oscillator work.

I think in the set in question here it uses a transistor for the horiz osc and it probably has the IC sound discriminator and transistor audio output.

This is a rather unusual find. Found it yesterday at 404 Orion St, here in Batavia. Its probably the cheapest tube type TV ever made. Its a 16" 1973 General Electric model SF3206WD.

Yep, that's an SF chassis alright; looks remarkably like the one in the far-more-common 12" SF sets. That chassis looks *tiny* compared with that 16" CRT though!
I guess I've never seen a 16" version of that.

The SF sets seem to be pretty bulletproof, but as you'd probably expect, they were el-cheapo "value leader" TV's and not great performers.

Still kinda neat though!

A friend of mine found a CTC-16 combo at an estate sale in Encino, CA. It's in a provincial cabinet, mint condition, but has a newer Kenwood turntable in it. I haven't gone to see it in person, but I may go today or tomorrow. The estate liquidator thinks it's worth $1000s, but I put in an offer of $20 through my friend who was there. Liquidator is going to talk to the estate owner, who evidently wants the house empty post-haste. I have the feeling I'll get it for $20 :)

Charles

I have a GE set which uses a 5-tube chassis...can't remember what the tube numbers are, but the functions are:
1. Horiz output & damper
2. Vertical output, oscillator, and feedback diode
3. Video output and AGC keying
4. 1st and 2nd IF
5. Sound detector and output
This set does not have a seperate horizontal oscillator tube or transistor that I can see...somehow it uses feedback off the flyback to make the oscillator work.

I think in the set in question here it uses a transistor for the horiz osc and it probably has the IC sound discriminator and transistor audio output.
:tresbon:
...What about:
- tuner,
- synchronisme separator ( only a diode? )
- sound intermediate frequency,
- extra hight voltage rectifier ( a valve? )
:scratch2:
I have the schematic diagram of a 12 tubes Irradio set from the 50s who has a PL81 pentode as an auto-oscillator horizontal final stage.:yes:

Wow. You gotta take me with you. I'm over in Oak Park. You can keep the TVs. I'm just looking for stereo and albums.

:tresbon:
...What about:
- tuner,
- synchronisme separator ( only a diode? )
- sound intermediate frequency,
- extra hight voltage rectifier ( a valve? )
:scratch2:
I have the schematic diagram of a 12 tubes Irradio set from the 50s who has a PL81 pentode as an auto-oscillator horizontal final stage.:yes:

Gianni, yes I think I forgot these functions! The tuners are completely transistorized. I think the sync separator is in the same tube as the AGC keying and video output. I'm not sure what the sound IF is...may be a transistor stage but will double check. The HV rectifier actually is another tube.

Gianni, yes I think I forgot these functions! The tuners are completely transistorized. I think the sync separator is in the same tube as the AGC keying and video output. I'm not sure what the sound IF is...may be a transistor stage but will double check. The HV rectifier actually is another tube.

Thank you!

There were 5 sales I went to today. Found three sets, all at the same house at 1915 Buckingham Ave in Westchester. Entered the house at the back door and first place was to the basement. I heard a TV playing and it was a '74 RCA mural TV (hotel set) had the built in AM FM radio. Same exact TV I had growing up, except this one is mint. Ours saw tons of use my brother and I beat it up over the years as kids. So it was nice to get another one in nice shape to see what ours used to look like.
Looked around and then saw a very interesting set with the doors open! Its a 1971 GE table color set! Even had its original factory cart. Never seen a table set with swing out doors. This set is like new. Just needed a good dusting. Ironically, this one appears to have never been serviced, just like the cheapy b/w set I picked up last week. Didnt expect to start finding GE TVs all of a sudden! These are as rare as the motorola's.
This set reminds me of a big portacolor. Its all plastic cabinet with some type of composite plastic swing open doors. Needs some work, but the CRT is bright so I have something to work with. My first GE tube type color set that is not a portacolor! Like any GE TV its a cheap set, but this must have been a "high end" cheap set since it has the gaudy cabinet, light up dials and light up buttons on the control panel. Pretty neat. Full of compactrons inside. Still yet to pull the back off though.

Went upstairs and the finds were not over yet. In the living room was this 1961 space command 400. The TV still worked, still hooked up to the antenna and still plugged in! The remote chassis was off, so the tubes didnt boil away. The TV still worked, and good! Its hard to believe a TV to still be "in use" for almost 50 years. Obvioulsy it saw little use, but the fact that it was still in the front room hooked up! Didnt see any other TVs upstairs. There must have been another set they used more frequently.

Heres some interesting facts though. The man that lived in this house (Edward Bratyanski) worked for Hotpoint Corp. (originally a chicago based appliance manufacturer) as a quality control inspector at the plant on the north side of chicago. There was a large b/w picture on the wall in the basement of his 25th anniversary of employment party held at the plant on February 2, 1960! So he started working for Hotpoint in 1935! His wife Mary recently passed. There was alot of hotpoint stuff in the house as well as GE. Im guessing the GE TV was some kind of deal or gift since he worked for hotpoint. Im amazed how one of these sets survived after all these years. It probably had some kind of senimental value, so it survived. Just so you know, Hotpoint was its own company until 1967. thats when GE bought them.

Looks like you had a good "TV day" as well. Did you by chance buy that record player sitting next to the RCA?

Wow, I hope 2008 will be as good (or better) as 2007 for you. This Saturday was my first luck at estate sales in a long stretch.

That house looks like it could be down the street from me! It seems that like Detroit suburbs, Chicago has a lot of brick houses. But in all my travels through the Chicago area, the houses seem to have extra tall foundations (i.e. at least twice the number of steps up to the front door) with very few garages. This style of 1-2 steps up and detached garage in the back yard is by far the most common in the 50s-60s vintage Detroit suburbs. However, like most other good things from that era it seems to have gone out of fashion and the "new" style appears to be a 25' driveway and attached garage. The great thing about this is how you get front-row seats to all your neighbor's garage junk, and whatever eyesore cheap car they drive. 1/3 of the front of your house is a door for your car! Home aesthetics are apparently now measured in the number of cheesy-fake peaks you have on your castle roof.

Back to the TVs...

Wow that GE is ugly, and I'm pretty tolerant of gaudy cabinets, but wow. Good that you saved it, 'cause I doubt many survive.

Was that Zenith hooked up to the VCR on the top?

That is the nicest SC 400 B/W I've ever seen.

Great to see that GE! I'm assuming it's the series string chasss, like C2 or CE? Somebody on here has (or had) a very similar set, with the doors and everything, except it was a very early GE solid state set from about '72.

Man, I really wish we had sales like that around here. I am starting to see a few advertised but they are all newer houses, people who moved here to retire. Not much in the way of old electronics to be found like that.

I picked this RCA table set that was on craigslist. It was on the way home from work in Hillside so it worked out well. Surprisingly, someone else called who really wanted it but it was after I called to claim it. the man who owned the set was the original owner, immigrated to the US from Poland in 1970. He bought it after he got married in 1975. He was right, the tag on the back says February, 1975. Model FT505W. Actually the set is in really nice shape. I thought it would be a bit banged up, but not at all. Just dusty. He said he never had it serviced, always worked great. Thus, all of the back cover screws are still on the set and that means nobody was in there hacking up the circuits. He Just didnt need it anymore, but didnt want to throw it away. It was sitting on a card table in the corner of the basement. Both antennas are even intact and working! A good clean up will make it like new.

Its a CTC-58, which is a new one for me and the cabinet has many similaritys to the tube type sets. Its the vinal clad metal cabinet, plastic back and the tilt out control bin, just like you'd see on a CTC-38. It works fine, great CRT. Tuner needs to be cleaned as well as the brightness pot.

the man who owned the set was the original owner, immigrated to the US from Poland in 1970. He bought it after he got married in 1975.

In my experience, both with estates and buying homes, Polish people (especially immigrants) take very good care of their stuff. The furniture and appliances are 50-years old, but you can eat off the floor. :yes:

...

That GE w/ swing out doors is the same one Monty Hall gave away in '71/'72 on Lets Make A Deal. It has the same knobs and tri color badge that my '72 has. Nice set but that cabinet is really something....... It is cool that it still has its original stand. You always seem to find the good ones, Doug. Maybe we should all move to your area! LOL!

...

:tresbon:
...What about:
- tuner,
- synchronisme separator ( only a diode? )
- sound intermediate frequency,
- extra hight voltage rectifier ( a valve? )
:scratch2:
I have the schematic diagram of a 12 tubes Irradio set from the 50s who has a PL81 pentode as an auto-oscillator horizontal final stage.:yes:

Wow. You gotta take me with you. I'm over in Oak Park. You can keep the TVs. I'm just looking for stereo and albums.

:headscrat:scratch2::headscrat:scratch2::headscrat :scratch2:

The GE is a C-2 chassis. Definitly a unique design. I was the first to pull the back off. Looks like rats nest inside the way it was built. Doesnt look like it will be too fun to work on with circuit boards stacked upside down and tward each other. Wiring all over the place etc. It makes sense why techs didnt want to work on them. There was a special consideration though, there is a slide out plate on the bottom of the set to gain access to the underside of the main pc boards. This set needs work in the IF section, but I think I might get lucky on this one. Typical GE, uses the strangest tube types. The 8CB11 (3rd IF) was weak as can be. Both sarkies tarzan tuner tubes were shot. Shorted 8AL9 video output tube, so that explains why I cant control the brightness of the blank raster.
What surprized me the most is that this set actually uses an octal base horizontal output tube. It uses a 26HU5 which has a full bakelite base. looks like a 6DQ5 that is used in early color sets. I have about a million NOS tubes, but dont have those odd ball types you see in the GE's.

I have about a million NOS tubes, but dont have those odd ball types you see in the GE's.

I might, let me know if you need any. If I don't have them, I can get them.:yes:
Mark

Yep, the General went through the trouble of designing that pull-out bottom panel so you can get to some stuff from the bottom, but good luck accessing much from the top! One of the ones I have has some issues related, I think, to agc & video but some of the components, well, you just can't get there from here! I ended up with the tube stash of a retired GE dealer so replacements don't usually trip me up.

Found a very interesting set yesterday. It was at 458 Dominion Dr., Wood Dale, IL. In a condo complex of all places! Very rarely do I come across combos. My back hurts today. It was like an engineering feat to get this set up the stairs around odd corners, out the door into the back of my truck safely. All of this had to be figured out before attempting to move this enourmous tank of a TV, otherwise, Id be stuck and have to start all over again. Forunately, the son of the original owner who passed helped me move it. This one is a 1969 Motorola Quasar works in a drawer. One very rare option, it has remote control! A motorola color set with remote is probably among the rarest of rare finds. Unfortunately it had to be a combo, so I can't keep it. A combo of this size is too big to fit anywhere in my collection so it needs to go.

Nice thing, it still works! Still has the orignal remote too. Take a look at the control panel. The intensity, hue, and volume are spring loaded toggle switches. I noticed the set didnt make any motor sounds when I adjusted the hue and color. I read up on how this system worked in the Motorola TRR-7 remote control manual. This set electronically controls those settings. A change in gain on two transistors simulates a change in resistance to the specified circuits, thus eliminating the need for a potentiometer. There is no motor drive. It uses an FET memory circuit to store a charge on a capacitor. This charge can last up to 1000 hours, so its called a "memory circuit". and was claimed the ultimate state of the art remote control system by Motorola. "No gongs chimes or other annoying noises" as claimed by motorola. Its still a motor drive VHF tuner though.

Never seen anything like it. Very unique set. TS-915 chassis, so this one is 100% solid state. All parts are dated "11M69"

thats a find!! never saw one like that. post pics in operation!!!

You know; I don't think I've ever seen a Quasar combo!! I've seen the 23" Motorola tube set in combos, but no solid state sets. Not even the early Quasar hybrid.

What's even MORE intriguing is that the "QUASAR" badge appears to be glued onto the bezel next to "MOTOROLA", which is screen-printed. Perhaps they added the Quasar name mid-production run?

Nice save!

Charles

What's even MORE intriguing is that the "QUASAR" badge appears to be glued onto the bezel next to "MOTOROLA", which is screen-printed. Perhaps they added the Quasar name mid-production run?


I wondered that too. Also, the Quasar name is not in the "correct" typeface either, which further suggests that this might have been made right when Motorola was introducing the "Quasar" name.

I've never seen one of those "Works-in-a-Drawer" sets with remote before-- neat!

I've seen only one of these before. A friend in Arkansas had one in his living room that he'd had since it was new. Had all the paperwork to it and everything. It worked fine, too. When he went to a nursing home (he was 87)
his daughter was going to throw it out, fortunately I was able to go get it before the trash man got it, and I found it a good home. It's now in the living room of my ex-boss and is his daily watcher.


Dumont-First with the finest in television.:yes:

I had a standalone "works in a drawer" set once, it was pretty neat. I got rid of it because it had a ruined cabinet. You mentioned you can't keep it, I like this one, call me if you can't find a new home for it.
Mark

...

Went to a few more sales this weekend and found a couple sets. Picked up a sears table set from around '75. Sale at 499 E. Park Ave, Elmhurst, IL. Its solid state, but looks much like a tube type set and built like one too. Very heavy. Its a japanese made set. I think its a sanyo based on the model number. Got it for $7.50 half off.
The second to last sale turned up a nice Zenith. Sale at 5314 Madison Ave, Skokie, IL. Its a '66 model 8308 with the swivel base. Uses the 25NC38 chassis. I wish i knew more about "central service company" Its a big tag on back of almost every Zenith TV I find with a map of the sales/service locations thoughout chicago area. They are gone now, but must have been some huge electronics dealer back then that everyone went to. Based on the amount of vintage stuff I find, most of it has this tag on the back. Almost like the "best buy" of the 1960's. It was plugged in. I asked how much it was and the lady tells I wont want it as it doesnt work. Supposedly they turned it on and it made some noise then they shut it off and left it alone. They said I could have it for whatever I thought was a fair price. So I took it for $10.00. I turned it on and as you would expect, it worked. Some fine tuning and it should be good as new. Obviously it has a new RCA colorama CRT installed with no signs of cataracts. The tube is dated 22-70, but was installed in September 1973 according to the repair tag in the set. the orignal owner has a list of the repairs over its life up until 1979 on a list taped onto the back of the TV, including what was wrong and what was done to repair it. This TV did pretty good. It only had a horizontal output tube, HV rectifier, CRT and the dial lamps replaced in its life at different times. No serious troubles, assuming this list included all repairs. Its a cheapie cabinet, the composite photofinish sides and top. The swivel base assembly is of high quality with a ball bearing swivel plate.

Nice Zenith! I like it when they tell you to "make a fair price". Great save!

Nice sets! That Zenith has the exact control layout as my Uncle's set that I destroyed when I was a kid. The cabinet and CRT is still buried in the basement. That sears looks like a Sanyo or Toshiba. Is the cabinet metal or plastic? I used to see a lot of Sanyo made Sears sets in metal cabinets.

I too like it when they tell you to "make a fair price". The only problem is when your idea of "fair price" and theirs are two different things.

Picked up another 4 tuber. Found at a sale at 355 W. Harrison St. in Elmhurst. Its a later one, model E4001W from 1974. Its the plain basic TV, no AFC or chromatic button features. Has the plain super video range VHF tuner, and basic non-lit tuning dials. Uses the 19DC22 chassis. This is how I remember these TVs as a kid, kind of dirty and from a smoker home but not beat and destroyed. Once the TV gets warm, it emits that stale smoke smell. I remember this well from when Id bring these home back in the early to mid 90's. Smelling the stale smoke while looking through the back cover seeing the tube filiments light up through the layers of dust. Good memories! Has fair use, but still works well. Trippler replaced at one time with the ECG replacement. TV was sitting in the basement on a shelf with some office supplies.

Nice save Doug!! A little plain but VERY nice, I'd welcome one of those into the collection any day.:thmbsp:

I know that smell quite well! On one hand, I can't stand smoke...but the odor does take me back. One of my most recent finds ('70 Sears color portable) positively reeks of menthol cigarettes...but when fired up it takes me back to when I was a kid, living with my parents, the "Kool Filter King & Queen"

takes me back to when I was a kid, living with my parents, the "Kool Filter King & Queen"


Same here... I have the asthma to prove it :thumbsdn: .

I've tried every way possible to get the stench out of TVs. The problem is that the high voltage draws the smoke particulates into the set, and they collect as a thick goo on the back of the tube. Washing the tube very well with 409 (Windex won't work because it won't break the oil base cigarette smoke). Then basically leave the set outside for a few weeks. That works somewhat, but you will never get the smell totally out.

One side comment: For the same reason that the smoke coating is so tough to get off, it will preserve the old 1940s piano gloss finish perfectly. Dr. Dan has an RCA 741PCS projection set that was in a mens' club, with God knows how many patrons smoking all the time. When the cigarette smoke was all cleaned off, the lacquer finish was absolutely as new. No fading, no crazing, it was beautiful. Still the stink from inside the cabinet, though.

Charles

Too often when i come across old audio receivers and amps there is that brown haze over the aluminum faceplate and knobs.

I usually use Nevr-Dull to polish it away (gotta use a hell of a lot of it though!) then use non-ammonia Windex to clean the rest. As you guys said, inside is tougher.... Sucks when you need to disassemble every last bit just to clean a heatsink or transformer that's already working as it is!

Gee, this thread was getting buried-better get busy, Doug! I wanted to jump in here as I have, at long last, come up with my first real estate sale find. Background: as I have mentioned before, we hardly ever have them around here. Most estates go to auction, but there have been more and more showing up. Anyway, last week we were on vacation out in Kentucky and the local paper listed about a half-dozen sales. I only had time to make a couple. The first one was the winner, a nice little house at 4008 Gartin Avenue, Ashland, KY. After walking through the inside and the garage I was pretty dissapointed-no electronics, and prices were through the roof. Then I heard 2 good things from one of the operators: everything is half-off, and don't forget the basement. Oh, there is a basement! And sure enough, as soon as I rounded the corner there sat a TV. Well, no, nothing real exciting. It's an Admiral Nova II "suitcase" portable. I think it was the only thing in the house that wasn't priced; the woman working down there said they would have to try it out but my wife quickly let her know that I didn't care if it worked or not. For $3 it was mine. No cord so we couldn't have tried it, anyway. I did try it tonight and it works just fine. This is model C2057P in Sams 975-1 from 1968. When I first spotted it I thought something looked familiar, then I remembered its close cousin on an album cover (see pic).

There were a couple other sets down there but I decided to pass. One was a mid-70s Panasonic and the other was an early/mid 70s GE with a smoked gray front cover. Both were 12" bw sets.

My other find, the next day, doesn't qualify as an estate sale find-got it at the Hillbilly Flea Market just north of Ashland, for another $3. This is the newest version of the Philco Seventeener that I've seen. Not sure offhand of the year; the model is P2710BR, which Sams only lists as being in 1156-SED (special equipment) and I know it is a little older than that. Anyway, it works too. Not that I needed more of this kind of set but it is nice to bring something home on these trips.

Great finds, and stories! Always nice to know they're still out there. :thmbsp:

The Admiral set is neat. The Seventeener was just never my favorite style set, but its still very worthy of being a collectible. They both look great!

Those are good finds.
Ive basically had no luck at the estates for the past few months now. Like somebody just turned the switch off and now its nothing but 80's consoles and empty TV carts. Getting the chinese roundie was a nice addition though while not a local find. I'll be going to some more estates tomorrow. The search continues.

Finally! Some old sets show up at the estates! Ive been consistently going to sales on saterdays and try to go to all of them that look like there is older stuff in the home. That generally ends up being about 10 or so each week. I was pretty bummed out not finding anything but empty carts and gutted cabinets.

I did start off seeing yet another gutted cabinet. That sale was in Oak Lawn. It was a ctc16 with the bezel and back cover still intact. I didnt take the cabinet, but I took the back cover screws as those are handy to have. Too bad, the cabinet was mint. There was a ctc-58 console in the living room but I left that too. It was in sad shape cosmetically and CRT was toast. Had a new sony on top which also hacked the cabinet up.

The 4th sale I went to was the best one, as thats where both of my TV finds were at. The sale was on the south side at 3751 W. 57th st. in Chicago. First set was a '73 RCA 18" portable with cart in the bedroom, its a CTC-59. So I was happy to find that. As I walked into the kitchen I could hear the flyback ring from a TV in the sun room. As I walked into the room, I could see the edge of the cabinet and it looked good! A mint '67 CTC-25 was sitting there playing with a great picture off the rabbit ears! I couldn't believe it. Its a swivel base set too. The set was on for a while, the cabinet was very hot. Looked at the back and all the cover screws were still on there which is a good sign. I pulled the back off and I got extremely lucky once again. This is another 100% original TV with every single original RCA tube. The back was pulled once to clean the tuner it looked like. The shield wasn't reinstalled but was sitting on the bottom of the cabinet. The color is a bit weak but the CRT is strong and the focus is very good. Got both CTC-25 and CTC-59 sets 30% off. Cost me $39.00 for both. They did the math wrong, 30% of $55 for both sets should have been $38.50, but who cares. Im not a cheap skate. Hopefully the ctc-25 isn't going to be one of those sets that needs a bunch of original tubes replaced (like all of the 6GH8's!). Both sets are true survivors as they were both upstairs in a clean house. Really rare to find an RCA without having major service. Lots of times the back cover is hanging on by one stripped out screw and a torn off model tag always adds to the dissapointment. You all know missing or damaged model tags is a big pet pieve of mine. Both these RCA sets were complete which was a nice change of pace.

Getting home was a joke. The day was about perfect. You can see the picture of the house in chicago how nice it was, that was about noon. After the last sale at about 3pm I could see some really dark clouds out west. I was on the north side of the city at this point about to head for home. THe wind picked up and I got very nervous as the RCA in back only had furniture pads protecting it. I pulled into a shell station at irving park+pulaski (for those who know chicago streets) and had to wait for 1.5 hours for the intermittent thunderstorms to finally pass. I kid you not, not 10 seconds after I pulled under the canopy did it start to pour! What luck! I finally left the station at about 4:45! Bought some food in the mini-mart waited in the truck and relaxed for the time. The people who ran the station didnt care that I waited which was nice. Didnt hit a drop of rain back to the house. Need to get a cap on my truck. Rarely do i have tarps in the back. Would be simple enough to have had one with me but for some reason it was left behind. Go figure.

btw, the old radio next to the gutted RCA was sold.

You done well, Doug! Two very nice sets. I have not seen a CTC59 in ages. I think mine was a "trans-vista color" model with a rocker switch to turn it on. Is yours an XL-100 or an Accucolor?

I hope you continue to find stuff from here on out. I know it can get very depressing and irritating to go home empty handed week after week.

Doug always seems to find the best old TV sets (Zenith and others) in and around the Chicago area. I wish I were that lucky. I live in a small town (population 3,220) outside greater Cleveland, where people don't seem to throw out old TVs very often. The last time I saw a console TV out for the trash here was several years ago, a couple streets over from my apartment. It was a 25" RCA color console from around 1978, with the RCA Nipper logo (His Master's Voice) on the front panel. I have no idea if it worked or not. The only other old TV I've seen here was a small RCA 12" portable, about seven years ago (roughly a year after I moved here). The set was sitting on a treelawn only a few hundred yards or so from my apartment; I should have grabbed it on the spot.

I don't see old sets in my area that much either. If I see any consoles , they are mostly 80's RCA at the Goodwill store. I did see 2 Zenith Chromacolors a few weeks ago.

I don't see old sets in my area that much either. If I see any consoles , they are mostly 80's RCA at the Goodwill store. I did see 2 Zenith Chromacolors a few weeks ago.

If you see any Zenith Chromacolor or Chromacolor II TV's and the price is right, grab them! These are getting harder to find by the day. The same holds true for the early solid-state consoles by RCA (TransVista or early XL100), Motorola (Quasar works in a drawer), Sylvania, etc.

Like you, I see more '80's and later consoles than any of the older stuff. I could have bought a nice looking mid '90's RCA console for $25 from my first grade teacher who was having a moving sale. I knew I'd be hard pressed to get my money back, much less make a profit; so, I left it. It really is a shame that people won't even pay $25 for a later model cable ready remote color TV just because it's "one of those old looking floor models".

000

Nice finds! I am glad your dry spell is over! {hopefully:D}

The radio next to the CTC-16 cabinet also looks like a nice one.

. Oh, there is a basement! And sure enough, as soon as I rounded the corner there sat a TV. Well, no, nothing real exciting. It's an Admiral Nova II "suitcase" portable.

My other find, the next day, doesn't qualify as an estate sale find-got it at the Hillbilly Flea Market just north of Ashland, for another $3. This is the newest version of the Philco Seventeener that I've seen. Not sure offhand of the year; the model is P2710BR, which Sams only lists as being in 1156-SED (special equipment) and I know it is a little older than that.

That Admiral "Nova II" set reminded me of a small Admiral color portable TV my aunt and uncle had in the 1970s, after their 1960s-vintage 23" Sylvania console went belly-up. The tuner cluster on your Admiral is identical to the one on theirs, except your Nova II has a larger CRT and is b&w.

IIRC, the Philco "Seventeener" 17" b&w portable was a successor to or predecessor of the company's "Briefcase 19" nineteen-inch set. The latter was introduced in 1961, while the former must have appeared in Philco's line of b&w portables at least a year or two later.

I don't know much about the Seventeener, but the Briefcase 19 was a heavy set, even though it did not have a power transformer. (I had a Briefcase 19, a trash-day find, in the early 1970s until 1975 or so; worked very well all that time.) Blame most of the weight of the Briefcase 19 on the 19" CRT (the Seventeener was probably just as heavy with its 17" tube) and the fact that there was a fair amount of metal in the set, including the cabinet, which was all metal except for the CRT mask. This set also had a unique built-in rabbit-ear antenna; the dipoles were actually built into either end of the handle, which could be rotated 90 degrees in either direction (the dipoles retracted into the handle for carrying as well). Haven't seen a TV since with an antenna like that, and may never see the likes of it again. :no:

Over the winter I posted about a set I got from one of my extended relatives. It was a late 80s Magnavox console; nice cabinet but lots of chassis problems. Since I could find no interest I junked it.

This relative, a sweet little southern lady with lots of charm, passed away recently. Someone I will really miss around the table at Christmas. Well, the family has been cleaning the house and they asked if I wanted the other console TV. I didn't know about this one, and wasn't sure what to expect. Since the first one was the "daily watcher" I figured this one must be older. How old? What make? My imagination, as usual, ran wild. Well, no, it did not turn out to be a Motorola Quasar remote set in a Drexel cabinet...not quite :) But it isn't exactly junk. I got it tonight: Magnavox T989-14 chassis (shows up in Sams 1418-2 from '74) This must have been the most popular cabinet style they offered as I've seen quite a few over the years. This one appears very clean inside and out. At first I held out hope that it might be a tube chassis but, no, it is solid state. I haven't dug into this enough to see if the tuning is electronic or just electric; pushbutton, nonetheless. And, yes, it is remote, complete with the orginal transmitter. One oddity is the digital LED display, nevermind that it's hidden behind a door. Pretty early use of that technology.

I haven't tried the set yet-I have no place to put it so it has to ride in the back of the truck for a least another day. I didn't feel like running an extension cord down the driveway. My stepmother said it does work; it has the original Magnavox crt (EIA # 337, Westinghouse)

I guess I will put out my usual pitch: does anyone want to come down and get this set? It is almost gimmicky enough for me to keep it, but there really, really isn't any room.

While I was shuffling sets tonight I also got the GE CTC-146H that my father bought new in the spring of '90. Lots of hours on this one, but still going. Someday I may regret it, but I can't collect everything! It will go on freecycle.

Over the winter I posted about a set I got from one of my extended relatives. It was a late 80s Magnavox console; nice cabinet but lots of chassis problems. Since I could find no interest I junked it.

This relative, a sweet little southern lady with lots of charm, passed away recently. Someone I will really miss around the table at Christmas. Well, the family has been cleaning the house and they asked if I wanted the other console TV. I didn't know about this one, and wasn't sure what to expect. Since the first one was the "daily watcher" I figured this one must be older. How old? What make? My imagination, as usual, ran wild. Well, no, it did not turn out to be a Motorola Quasar remote set in a Drexel cabinet...not quite :) But it isn't exactly junk. I got it tonight: Magnavox T989-14 chassis (shows up in Sams 1418-2 from '74) This must have been the most popular cabinet style they offered as I've seen quite a few over the years. This one appears very clean inside and out. At first I held out hope that it might be a tube chassis but, no, it is solid state. I haven't dug into this enough to see if the tuning is electronic or just electric; pushbutton, nonetheless. And, yes, it is remote, complete with the orginal transmitter. One oddity is the digital LED display, nevermind that it's hidden behind a door. Pretty early use of that technology.

I haven't tried the set yet-I have no place to put it so it has to ride in the back of the truck for a least another day. I didn't feel like running an extension cord down the driveway. My stepmother said it does work; it has the original Magnavox crt (EIA # 337, Westinghouse)

I guess I will put out my usual pitch: does anyone want to come down and get this set? It is almost gimmicky enough for me to keep it, but there really, really isn't any room.

While I was shuffling sets tonight I also got the GE CTC-146H that my father bought new in the spring of '90. Lots of hours on this one, but still going. Someday I may regret it, but I can't collect everything! It will go on freecycle.

I think the T989 was the second Magnavox SS chassis. The T979 was the first. The T995 was the third and was made throughout the middle to late '70's. The T989 had instant on; so, I hope the CRT is still good. Around here, the T995 was much more common than the 979 or 989 chassis. I think the T974 was the last hybrid chassis. I hope someone can save this set of yours as I don't think it's very common.

BTW, would anyone know what the last year was for a tube / hybrid Magnavox color set?

I actually got a tube-type color console TV at an estate sale! I haven't found a tube type console set in about 3 years so this is a rare find for me.

It's a Sylvania large console with folding doors over the screen. Has a 1975 RCA black matrix 23VALP22 replacement CRT in it...Has HV AC at the rectifier but no DC (likely problem in 6BK4 grid-cathode circuit). It looks like maybe from around 1968? The IF stages are transistorized and the rest is tube. Has a power tuning motor but no remote receiver.

I made a video showing the cabinet, chassis, testing and checking for HV with a neon lamp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyvyHJKns-w

An update on the Magnavox: I finally got enough junk cleared out of the way to bring the set inside. When I first plugged it in I was struck by the loud hum of the remote chassis. The set powered up but with a weak raster and no reception. I pulled the back and found the following: the tuner is a Rube Goldberg design. It uses a regular old click-stop tuner (with a knob hidden behind a secondary door) plus a limited number of UHF presets. The tuner is motor driven, as is the volume control. The tuner display isn't really LED-the segments are lit, apparently, by individual subminiature lamps. One is intermittent and one appears to be burnt out. The dust cover is missing from the tuner; I cleaned it but that had no effect on reception. The video module seems looser than it should be; I cleaned the contacts and put it back. The CRT is weak, but not dead. I ran it for an hour or so at 8v and that helped. Another more pressing problem is that there is arcing in the focus control circuit. One end of the pot goes to ground through a resistor and the wiper has a spark gap to ground. I'm getting a steady blue spark at the ground end, which I don't understand. Someone had unhooked the sparkgap, and hooking it back up basically killed the set, so I undid it again.

I don't know that I will put much more time into this. Maybe I'll give it until the end of the month and if nobody shows any interest I'll just junk it. The gimmicks are nice, but it is a largish set. One more thing: my stepmother kept commenting about how nice the cabinet is and how they just don't make things like that anymore. What she doesn't know: the cabinet is about 75% plastic, with most of the rest being particle board. As expensive as this set had to have been when new, I'm not sure it has any solid wood anywhere on it.

Went to five sales today, one turned up a very nice 1969 Motorola Quasar works in a drawer. Found at a sale at 4501 Lee St. in Downers Grove, IL. I paid $10.00 for it. The TV was inside some unknown 50's era black and white TV cabinet. The TV appears to have been placed inside this cabinet from day one. The TV was already out of the cabinet by the time I got there (I saw previous pics of the TV on estatesales.net) The people running the sale figured the 50's cabinet was worth more than the TV so they figured the cabinet would have a better chance of selling if the old "POS" TV was out of it. Well they were wrong. The "POS" TV sold first. Ha! The Quasar's cabinet is clean, just dusty, but the inside is perfectly clean still. the legs were unscrewed and underneath the cabinet which was good to see. The original owner's name could not be missed anywhere on the set though. Edward Franta kind of went overboard with his name and address stamp. He stamped almost everything on this TV. back cover, inside of cabinet all over the place, on various parts of the chassis, convergence board, yoke, all the data and paperwork. I didnt count, but there are probably over 10 individual stampings throughout the cabinet. I must admit though, he or the service tech was very professional. Everything is intact, including hardware and the fact that the service literature was put back into the cabinet and pinned in place. The AC interlock for the first time was not messed with. Needless to say, I was pleased to see the original paperwork in there. I powered up the TV, sound but no HV. I pulled out the paperwork to check out the service data and out comes a few repair receipts from october of 1983. Apparently, the TV had a no HV condidion back in October of '83. Mr Franta had the Quasar service center, then still on Grand Ave in Franklin park come out to fix the set. The sweep transfomer was NLA as of 10-21-83 and he was refunded his $15.00. I find another receipt from the great and now long gone B-B+W electronics in Berwyn, with a a thordarson FLY-467 priced out a 36.66 from 10-26-83. It was bought by Miles TV and he most likely did the repair work. In fact, if Im not mistaken, Miles TV is still in business on Cermak Rd in Cicero. Im surprized he's still there as you'll get shot at in that neigborhood these days. I havn't pulled the chassis out yet to look, but he put all the wires back exactly into the wire ties which is rare to see on a serviced set.
As to why there is no HV today is yet to be determined. the original CRT tests 95% from cold start up, so I know thats not the problem. Lets hope the thordarson fly isn't the problem! Besides, I always thought quasar flybacks were considered to be of good quality and do not (often) fail?

Another nice save! Congrats!

This was a local find for me this past Thursday off of craigslist. It was in Des Plaines, IL which is a northwest suburb. Very close by to where I work, so I was able to stop by on my way home.
I called up the guy who was the son of the original owners to ask for a model number and some pictures. The pictures he sent made the set look really kind of bad. The top of the cabinet looked bad in his pics, but it turned out to be alot better when I saw it in person.
This is a 1967 model X4120 that uses the 24NC31Z chassis. This is the very last year zenith offered roundies, and the 24NC31 the last chassis designed for the 21FJP22. Its a lower end console, but Ive been wanting to find one of these late model zenith roundies with this control layout. I always liked the speaker grille with the color emblem in the center.
He goes on to tell me that the TV was not working and that a TV repair man back in the late 70's said the tube was shot and the TV was not worth repair. He tried it out before he listed it to confirm that the CRT was "bad". We got it upstairs in the living room and plugged it in. Sound but no picture. pulled the back off to check it out and I could hear high voltage, the CRT filaments were on. So I suspected a video output problem or a totally dead crt. I flipped the service switch over and got a nice bright horizontal line! I flipped it back and the picture came on bright! Just an intermittent service switch! The verticle is very short though, but it does have a good picure. The CRT was replaced in October of a year yet to be determined as the degaussing ring was covering that part of the label. I dont know what kind of rebuild it is either. It looks like maybe a channel master or so. Pulling off the ring will reveal the rest. They didnt remember when the new tube was put in. After about 1 minute, we smelled smoke. The thermistor was broken away and was arcing! So thats where it stands now until I have a chance to pull it apart and get it back to normal.
The reason they kept it is because their daughter won the TV on Bozo's flying circus back in 1966! It was a horse naming contest and you had to write in to WGN TV with what you would name the horse. The names were judged and the winner got the zenith TV and the horse! Well, their daughter won, with the name "Padapon". The horse went to the zoo where it lived a good life. The original owners son was there to help me with the TV, it was still in their house since day one. I commented that Padapon was an interesting name for a horse. He laughed and said that his sister remembered that name from some story book with a horse she liked. Ha, the judges didn't even know it was a plagerized name! She was only 6 years old when the TV was won as first prize. It was the familys first color TV set.

It was advertized as a best offer deal. Well, after they found out I was a collector and was familar with these, the family just wanted me to have it for free as part of my collection as they really wanted to see it go to a good home. I still gave them $20 for it and everyone was happy.

Awesome! The more roundies I see the more I love em.

Nice find & a good story! There does not appear to be any cataracts on the CRT, which is very rare; even if the tube was replaced somewhere along the way. Can't wait to see it running...

i saw that on craigslist.channel master made a really nice rebuilt picture tube. i have had several in the past and they are great! nice save on that great set!

Doug, that's the same set I want you to re-cap the chassis on for me... When do you think you be able to head out here? How does next weekend sound?

That's a great story! I really think it's important to document things like that-I write down everything I know about everything in my collection. Maybe nobody will ever care, but who knows? I wonder if there were any newspaper ads for that contest?

Is this the crt that uses the seperate non-bonded faceplate? I know Zenith and others used it on their cheapest models.

Spent some time on the zenith roundie today. Pulled the chassis, tested the tubes and esr on the filter lytics. Had a few shorted 6Kt8's which is typical as well as weak tuner tubes. The vertical was way to short caused by the 40uF@475 in the vertical circuit. The cap was basically open. One of the filter lytics got replaced too at one time, but the quality of soldering was pretty poor as well as melted wires. That got corrected. Had to install a new thermistor and varistor on the degaussing coil assembly too. Fine tuner nylon gear was cracked down the middle too which is so common on turret tuners. You find that you can adjust the fine tuning in one direction, and not in the other as the gear slips on the serrated shaft.
The chroma circuits were in good shape as was the rest of the set. It was more or less a simple tube change/clean up to bring the set back to life. The CRT is dated October, 1975 and is a General Electric rebuild. It tests 100% on all three guns, so the set must have been taken out of service shortly after the new CRT installation. The guy I got it from claims they stopped using it in the late 70's-early 80's when the tech said the CRT was shot......this was obviously not the case. The service outfit "Certified Television" used only GE tubes in this set.
Seeing the picture on a zenith with a strong tube is unbelievable. The picture quality is crisp and very pleasing to the eye. This is why I like analog! 42 year old TV with a picture that can rival most of todays newer sets. Another quality zenith product.

Glad to see you got it going & that's one fine picture on that set!

Beautiful picture and a great score! Good job! I really like the looks of that set.

I just realized by reading the story on the set that this is the one I called about a week or two ago. The guy told me the same story about the set, he also said he was going to send pictures of it to my email and never did. I figured someone else got it. Oh well, at least it went into good hands. I was a big Bozo fan as a kid and thought it would be cool to have that tv. Could I at least come see it run sometime?? Thanks for saving it Doug.

Man oh man, DRH...that picture is nothing short of incredible. Analog is king in my book, too FWIW. Audio and Video. With the right gear, it blows away digital to my senses. :yes:

Again, you have a very special collection brewing, man! I always admire it when I see these posts.

Doug,

Quite a collection you have now! What are you going to do with it later in life? Here's a tongue-in-cheek possibility:

Saturday, September 14, 2058 -

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry Announces Major Acquisition

The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry has completed an agreement to acquire nearly 700 20th century Television receivers (TVs) from noted Chicago TV collector and restorer Doug H******.
The significant acquisition includes consoles, portables, remotes, advertising items, all with extensive provenance documentation. The acquisition encompasses the major portion of Mr. H******’s massive collection of finely restored TVs dating to the 1950s. Noted items from the collection include over 350 TVs from Zenith, a major Chicago manufacturer of televisions..
"We are extremely pleased that the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry will be home to these important Chicago items," said Mr. Norris Wacker, curator of the Museum’s electronics collection.. "Many of the items in the H****** collection perfectly complement the Chicago focus of the museum, and the strengths of his collection—particularly in early color—will greatly expand on the existing strengths of the museum's other Chicago-related collections."
Mr. H****** said that he is "very pleased that these sets I've come to love so much will have a compatible home at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry," and added that he looks forward to the $34 million dollar wing the museum is adding to house the collection.
Mr. H******’s collection and restoration efforts have been featured for years on AudioKarma, an audiophile/videophile website beginning in 2003; and Mr. H******’s own website dating from the same era.


Just a joke, but what a fine collection you have!

Cheers,

Found a rather unusual set today. Something Ive never ran across. Its a 1977 RCA CTC-89 with remote control. It was found at a sale at 916 Lafayette Ave in Aurora.
I considered not going to this sale as it was in a bad section of Aurora. Aurora has a pretty bad reputation for crime. Like most of Chicago suburbs, they continue to decline and nothing is being done to save whats left of them. Makes one wonder what the future holds. Thats another story though that I could go on and on about.
Considering I just recently survived a CRT implosion, I figured my luck was still strong so I went ahead to the sale.
I found this set sitting in a bedroom without a bed, with its original RCA hi-cart. Ive seen many of these odd hicarts around, but never saw what kind of TV would have been on them. So today I got the best of both worlds, the TV, and finding out the kind of set that went with the commonly found empty cart.
I never had a set like this before, and never saw one before either. Seem like late 70's RCAs rarely show up, especially with remote. Its a typical primative remote as you can see. Its even an ultrasonic, which must be one of the very last from RCA. The set was made in September of '77. So it just turned 31. It doesnt seem like this set should be over 30 years old! When you first look at it, you'd think its from the early-mid 80's.
I noticed it was a Color Trac too. I kind of considered not taking the set at first. Then I decided to power it up and see what it was all about. The remote had good batteries in it yet. Plugged it in and it turned on. Pressed the channel changer button and the dial drum rotates! That sold me on it, motorized varactor tuning. You never see those! What also sold me is that it had the original cart and the set is in mint condition. The picture blew me away too. THe picture is as good if not better than a zenith chromacolor II. It has 8 preset UHF channels. Opened up the control door, which is designed to be completely removable. Also to note, the long vertical control door is actually pot metal! None of the presets were tuned, the indicator bars were all the way to the end like it would have been after leaving the factory. The channel windows on the dial drum all had letters A-H for UHF too. No channel digits were ever installed.
I didnt know what to expect as far as the chassis was concerned. I bought it for half off, which was only 5 bucks. My kind of deal.
When I got home, I pulled the back off to dedust it. I was expecting some "modern" looking chassis layout, like a mediocre sized circuit board and nothing else. Well, I was pleasantly surprized with what i saw. A nice big chassis, like an XL-100 which plug in modules, but the chassis was a horizontal layout. The power supply and HV sections were still point to point wired. Even has a seperate remote control chassis, similar to that used in the 60's sets. So its not a cheaply made set. It must be one of last "good" ones though. Good meaning, circuit boards/modules mounted on a steel framed chassis, and individual pots mounted to the rear of the chassis. I really like this one, and would make a great everyday TV.

Excellent find. Found a CTC-89 curbside a couple of years back but the green was totally weak. It was a single-knob tuner with electronic presets also from '77. This is a delta gun set, correct?

yes, it is a delta. Another reason why I like it!

Nice find! And, getting the original remote and cart makes it super nice! That set brings back a memory of one a lady gave me years ago. I put a CRT in it and sold it. That was back when I sold every TV I fixed to fuel my antique radio habit. I'd almost forgotten about it until I saw your set.

The picture blew me away too. THe picture is as good if not better than a zenith chromacolor II. It has 8 preset UHF channels. Opened up the control door, which is designed to be completely removable. Also to note, the long vertical control door is actually pot metal! None of the presets were tuned, the indicator bars were all the way to the end like it would have been after leaving the factory. The channel windows on the dial drum all had letters A-H for UHF too. No channel digits were ever installed.
I didnt know what to expect as far as the chassis was concerned. I bought it for half off, which was only 5 bucks. My kind of deal.
When I got home, I pulled the back off to dedust it. I was expecting some "modern" looking chassis layout, like a mediocre sized circuit board and nothing else. Well, I was pleasantly surprized with what i saw. A nice big chassis, like an XL-100 which plug in modules, but the chassis was a horizontal layout. The power supply and HV sections were still point to point wired. Even has a seperate remote control chassis, similar to that used in the 60's sets. So its not a cheaply made set. It must be one of last "good" ones though. Good meaning, circuit boards/modules mounted on a steel framed chassis, and individual pots mounted to the rear of the chassis. I really like this one, and would make a great everyday TV.

I agree with you, Doug. I also have an XL-100, very late 1990s vintage (CTC185, bought new in 1999) that has only had two repairs in eight years...and even survived a fall off the stand about two weeks ago, the only "damage" being slight color distortion that I was able to clear up with a few passes of an old speaker magnet. I don't know to this day whether the auto-degausser in my set has failed or just what happened (the shadow mask was bent slightly when the set hit the floor, or...?), but I do know I was very surprised and pleased to have gotten rid of the color splotches so easily. (I had visions of a smashed CRT and other horrendous damage to the chassis.) They haven't returned; in fact, the TV's picture is every bit as good as it was when the set was new. The only thing I've noticed is that the picture is slightly out of focus for a few seconds, until the TV warms up. Once it's warm, the picture is beautiful.

The picture quality of XL-100s, as you noted, is every bit as good as (if not better than) Zenith sets. I would put my XL-100 up against a Zenith Sentry 2 any day of the year.

RCA/Thomson finally got the bugs with the RF tuner out of their newer TVs, beginning with the CTC203 chassis (so I've read here), by mounting the tuner separately from the rest of the set. The on-board tuner in those late-'80s-'90s RCAs was a bad idea from the beginning; I can't help wondering why it took them so long to get the message and change the design. :scratch2:

Great find Doug! I've never seen one of those before either. Very nice, well made design. That thing will last for many years to come. And the ultrasonic remote, makes it an unbelievable deal. You are having a streak of good luck!

Very nice set! I have noticed too that on almost every TV/VCR with a varactor tuner I have seen, the UHF presets/numbers are not set up. Either people were using cable boxes or just did not watch UHF. Very rarely, some of the presets are set to local UHF channels but often the numbers are still not installed.

THe picture is as good if not better than a zenith chromacolor II.

Blasphemy.

Hate to be off-topic Doug, yet hardly worth a new thread...

Did you get the e-mail I sent from my work? I'd really like to see some of the cleaned-up & working pictures of that Zenith set I gave you, as I'm sure other AK'ers would too. :D

i will post pics of my zenith chromacolor 25 inch set and my nib xl100.i will let ak ers make the decision.i had forgotten how good those rca sets really were until i got this from that auction.very close yet different.i cant make up my mind.you guys can!

Y'know, Doug, I'm jealous. When I was closer to your age, I used to go to sales, auctions and the like, just like you're doing.


But then I got married.

And had a kid.


Now...


Ain't got no money.

Ain't got no space.

Ain't got no time...:tongue:


So keep on doing those sets. I'm living through your glories...LOL!

Went to 6 estate sales yesterday. Found two sets, one of them was an absolute surprize of a find.

First sale I went to was at 619 Huber Ln, in Glenview. Typical late 60's two story house. Green shag carpeting in the living room must have been 6" in length. Never seen shag carpet that extreme before. Even up the stairs!
Anyway, I found this nice 1961 Zenith portable in a blue steel cabinet. It had this orange tag that reads "Not working". I figured it couldn't be. So I plugged it in and it really didn't work! Every so often you might run into a non working zenith, but its a rare occurance. This one has no HV. It also has this unusual completely not ergonomic 3 pointed tuning dial. Obviously styling supperceeded engineering in this case. It does look cool though. It was marked $1.00. It was half off, so $.50 takes it home! My kind of deal!

The 3rd sale brought me down to Blue Island, IL at 2318 Krueger Ave. It was a typical 1950's brick ranch. Very typical type of home you find throughout the chicagoland suburbs. When I walked in, there was nothing to old as far as TV's. Had the usual new TV on the old TV cart in the living room. Both bedrooms had "newer" sets. So I go down to the basement as a last hope. As I turned at the base of the stairs I saw for a split second what appeared to be the side of a large TV on a TV cart. Two ladies stepped right in front of it so it blocked my view. I quickly went over to it and when I saw it, I was completely stunned. Finally, I found one of my "must have" sets! Its a 1969 Zenith 25" steel cabinet concentric tuning set. Ive been looking for one of these for years. It even had the original gusdorf cart. I finally found the TV, not the empty cart!!!!!
It was sitting in the basement exactly as you see it pictured. I didnt have my good camera with me, so I had to use my motorola i-580 cell phone to take the pics. The set was marked at $15.00, but anything at this sale under $20 was half off. So I got it for $7.50.
There were some 20+ women at this sale, so I didn't have any help at all to move the set. I didn't have my appliance cart with me either. (I was unprepaired yesterday, but thats when you find the sets...). I waited around for a few minutes expecting someone who was capable of helping me move this thing out of the basement. Well, I gave up and I just informed everyone I was going to be moving the set and to stay clear. I bear hugged this tank of a set and climbed it up the stairs vertically so I could get through the door. Stupid idiots still came to the basement door and down the stairs when I was on my way up, totally in my way acting like "oh, what do I do". As soon as I got up the stairs I immediately had to set it down. My heart rate was pretty intense. Picked it back up and brought it out to the truck. You know how it is. you pick up a huge TV by yourself and everyone has to throw in their .02 cents "wow, that looks heavy" etc. I got the set outside without a scratch. This set is like new still. Just a little dusty.

I have not plugged it in yet. So i don't know what Im in for, but looking through the back, its completely original. Looks like another survivor that missed the hack tech repairs and not missing the back cover screws! Its a model Z4519W with the 16Z8C50 chassis. I'll do a slow power up on it and see what happens. I never had one of these chassis before. I'll post better pics when its all tuned up. Whats even better is that there is a TV tag on the back from where it was purchased and the day it was purchased! I love this type of stuff when its still on the TV. It reads "Burr Oak TV", "First in Blue Island in Sales and Service" Written on this tag in pen was "Purchased new 1-25-69, 2yr CRT, 1yr Parts, 90 day war." I looked with my flashlight on the inside to find the date stamp on the side of the cabinet. It was there, dated 1-7-69. The set was sold just a little more than two weeks after it was built. Didn't take long!

These are so dang hard to find, any 25" zenith table set from the 60's or early 70's. Its been a pretty dry summer for tube color sets at the estates. So this was a nice way to give me some more confidence that some are still out there!

Way to go, Doug! You done good this weekend! I'm anxious to see those sets up and running!

The RCA color trac was the top line model, the XL100 as the next down.
The set you got was very popular as a promotion give away then, since they were already made, but about to become obsolete very quickly.
Banks would give you the TV set if you got a CD for over 10 grand.
My Mom had hers on about 20 hours a day for 11 years.
It had quit twice, both times it was some little reed relay enclosed in a tube that fit inside a coil. The set would not come on when that relay wore out.
It had a great picture and nothing ever needed adjusting.
Sold that set, got her a 27" RCA with no moving mechanical parts which is now
20 years old and still used 20 hours a day.

I like those Zenith b/w sets with the three pointed tuning dial, have 2 of them. This is the first 60s Zenith b.w set I ever heard of with no HV, one of mine had been sitting out in a barn for decade, the cabinet was all dirty and beat up, but it still worked when I got it.

Yesterday I found a 1971 Curtis Mathes tube type color set at an estate sale for $10.00. This house looked like very little in it had changed since the 1960's...there was lots of interesting vintage lamps and decorative items I got too.
The set had a hack repair job done on it...the back was put on with one screw and the chassis was not mounted to the cabinet very well...maybe only with one screw. I used the ratchet strap and dolly to move it on end.

It uses an RCA CTC-25 type chassis with some improvements such as connecting plugs and sockets on the wiring to the tuner cluster, 8" speakers, cooling fins on power transformer and a 6BQ5 audio output tube.
2 of the power supply diodes look very crudely soldered onto the circuit board. There was no indication of power when I plugged itin. It has a 25V" picture tube without a bonded faceplate.

Here is a video of the set. I don't have a still camera that works very well so I usually just do videos plus the video lets you show and tell more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqsW7MwFcqI

Also does anyone know if there is a way to embed videos in AK posts?

You lucky dogs! Sounds like a good weekend for finds!! Im in need of a 25AP22 CRT in that ctc-17 I picked up, but im going to use a variac and my 23egp22 CRT to test the chassis..

:yes:Ya done good this time Doug!:thmbsp:

Thanks for the kind words everyone.
This evening (or should I say yesterday), I powered up the big 25" zenith for the first time. I pulled the HOT, and powered it up with the variac. The set was unplugged and appeared to have been untouched in years. From how the house was layed out, I believe this TV was the "basement" TV since day one. There was similar vintage furniture arrayed around the TV, and across from the seating area was the usual built in bar that everyone had. I don't think I've ever set foot in a 1950's/1960's home that didnt have a built in bar in the basement with wood paneling all around. Maybe thats a midwest thing, I don't know if its like that everywhere else in the US.

Back to the topic, after a slow power up, I had good sound. I plugged the 6LB6 back in and powered it up again. Had a picture with snow! Hooked up the antenna and as usual, a near perfect picture. I could'nt believe how crisp the picture was, and bright too. Its another lucky TV that survived, never had the back pulled off in 40 years until I came and saved it from its death at the end of the estate sale.

Its not 100% working perfect, the vertical is a bit short, not a tube either. So it will require some troubleshooting. A good chassis dedusting is also in order. My usual routine is to test ALL tubes in a recently aquired TV. Of the all original tubes, 3 were bad. Shorted 6U10 (rare), weak 6Z10 (the ususal), and a shorted 6GH8 (as expected).

I'll get into it tomorrow. Today was just the test out day to see what it was kind of shape its in. Its certianly a low hour set, for which I am pleased. The HV was running high at 28 KV when I first powered it up. Zenith with that ridculous "hollow shaft" HV pot makes it tricky to adjust the HV without the adjusting tool, which I never was able to find. A tapered flat head screwdriver always works though. The regulator is in good shape, brought it down to 25KV still within its adjustable range. The usual component drift. However, Im a bit concerned with the sweep transformer. That thing runs hotter than hell. I have an NOS one for this chassis should it be required. I've yet to check the cathode current. This is the same flyback used in the 20Y1C48/50 and 16Z7C50 chassis, and Ive had a couple of those crap out on me over the years.

Ha, as I sit here typing this, I'm monitoring the set. Now its intermittently flashing into a blank raster with the side pulled in. I know right off the bat thats an intermittent open vertical blanking transistor. Thats because one of my 16Z7C50 chassis sets had the same problem about 4 years ago. I went in circles trying to find it, little did I expect the vertical blanker to cause such a problem. Sure enough, replacment cured it for good. The original one had intermittent low gain which caused the problems. Im sure there will be more to come. A TV can't be flawless after almost 40 years of existance!

So that's where it stands for now. A few little things to work out, but thats where the fun is, in the repairs and getting it back up to par. Photos to come shortly....

Hey--how come you pulled the videos on troubleshooting the '61 Zenith? I enjoyed those. In fact, I watch both yours and Chad's videos on a regular basis.

Never had much courage with sticking my hands into TVs.
Portable radios, no problem--they only deal with 117v tops. Only TV I ever worked on was a 1948 Hallicrafters T54, and even then I was verrrry cautious.

Bill

Funny avatar, Batterymaker!

Good work on the Zenith; and I do agree that most things aren't perfect after 40 years .

About the bars....Seen that exact style around here a lot. My house had one but it was removed.

...

It is working much better now. I checked the HOT and it was running rather high at 210-220 mA. I adjusted the coil, this is the chassis where you shunt your meter over a 4.7 ohm resistor in series w/the control and just adjust for lowest voltage. I was able to bring it down a bit, and the fly is running much much cooler now.

This one was running hot to the point where you could smell the polyester from the HV cage if you were within a couple feet of the TV. That went away now as the fly is running cool. Just a slight adjustment to bring the current down makes the biggest difference. Just need to fix the vertical problem now, that will be this evening. Ive got some time now to fix it.

...

Today was a special estate sale that I attended. It was at 6953 W. 63rd St. in Chicago.
I came to find out that the people who lived at this home worked for Zenith. There were numerous Zenith products throughout the home. A neighbor was at the sale who told me all about them (Scully and Cecilia Santucci). They both worked for zenith on the production line after WWII. They apparently worked there until retirement sometime in the 1970's-early 80's.

As you would expect, some old Zenith TVs were found. Thats about all that was left too. I was told by others at the sale for the second time that there were tons of NOS zenith tubes, radios and transistor radios, all of which were bought up the first day of the sale. There was also zenith schmatics and other zenith related items that sold quickly. Supposedly, there was a yellow royal 500 that some collector found, and it was unknown to the collectors that a yellow 500 was ever produced. All we could think of is that it was some kind of prototype. This guy turned the house upside down trying to find the missing battery cover for it today! No luck though.

The TV's as usual were totally ignored. I was able to save all of the "old" sets. There were three of them. First set was in the back room, a 1965 Zenith rectangular color set, which is the first generation rectangular chassis (25MC36). Next two sets were downstairs, a 1973 4 tube hybrid w/cart, and a 1963 Zenith b/W console. The b/w console had the factory UHF tuner which is a rare find.

I looked all over the house to see if I could come up with anything related to zenith other than just some TV's. Well, I got extemely lucky and found a box of photograph that were for sale, just a few photos thats all.......I'll post the photos and other items later on.

That B&W set is really nice... Can you be sure there were no other TVs bought the day before? Maybe there was a mashed spot on the carpet where a one-of-one porthole color set once stood?

Could you tell what there daily watcher set was? I'd hate to think these people were forced to watch some blurry $150 Wal-Fart Chinese crapbox in their final years.

Either way, great finds.

That 1965 zenith really brings back memories.My best friends parents owned one of those,and I spent many hours in front of it.It must be a space command,as I remember that the tuner was motorized.Great find,doug!

Great finds! I really like the "stand" that the B/W set has. You also do not ever see the Zenith rectangulars that are that old. You are one lucky dog!! The sales around here SUCK! It has been several years since I've found exciting things like that at the estates.

Went to five sales today. First one was in Bartlett, I found a '65 zenith roundie console. Sitting in the basement, untouched. No idea if it works, did not attempt to power it up yet.
Next sale was in Park Ridge. I found this '68 zenith concentric tuner console. It was actually on craigslist, but part of an estate sale going this weekend. It was in the garage waiting to be thrown away if nobody would take it.
Last find was a 1972 or so RCA mural TV in Berwyn. Definitly a hotel model as it has the blank off panel on the back for the controls. This set has a tag from ITC in Berwyn, dated 6-23-76. I bought a philco hotel color set that had this same tag on it. Im curious if this ITC place sold used/repaired hotel sets to the public? I guess its typical of an RCA hotel set to have its model tag ripped off. Yet to see if this one works or not. I didn't save the motorola on the side, the back cover was broken into pieces.

Nice finds! You've been having pretty good luck with finding TV's over the past few weeks. I once had an RCA hospital set that was almost identical to yours. Mine had the motorized tuner with the socket on the back cover for the pillow speaker. It was actually a pretty good performer.

Yes, the last few weeks have been good. Hopefully the trend continues. I need a trend of having more space though!
I took the back off the roundie before powering it up. Yikes, I was caught by complete surprize with what I saw. a mallory 160@250 blew up like a bomb. Considering that there is no dust on the capacitor guts, Id be willing to bet this happened durring the estate sale. The back was off, so there are some fresh dust disturbance marks in places. Someone probably went ahead and turned it on to see if it worked and then the bomb blew off. Most likely the estate sale people tried to turn it on so they could determine the what to price it at. I guess $10.00 was good for a broken TV! The electrolite is still pretty tacky to the touch, and should hopefully clean up OK. There is spatter all around though.

Wow Doug, that's awesome!

I wonder if that happened recently, the soot looks newer than the rest of the dirt, I'm guessing the seller tried plugging it in sometime before you got it, did he seem nervous and shaky? :D

Eric, I just edited my post while you were typing yours, yes, I think it did happen durring the sale.

he he he wouldnt you liked to have been a fly on the wall when that happened.

Warning--plugging in dormant TV's may cause soiled underwear....:D

I disconnected the exploaded cap and clipped in a new cap just to see what would happen. As I waited for it to warm up, I then pressed in the breaker to reset it. On comes a picture. Tube is a little weak, its a channel master rebuild, its green but after a few minutes it seems to get better.

Amazing stuff! Lately it looks like you're catching fish in a barrel. Really cornering the market on those Zeniths!

ouch! that capacitor could have smashed the CRT when it blew up!

That's lucky the CRT didn't get broken, I've never seen a cap go like that! Nice finds and a great picture on that roundie!

The metal shield around the bell of the CRT is probably the only thing that kept the tube from imploding when the capacitor can hit it.

BTW (for zenithfan1): I just looked at one of the videos you uploaded to YouTube and could not believe it. A woman actually stuck to a toilet? If I hadn't seen that clip with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it.

That's lucky the CRT didn't get broken, I've never seen a cap go like that! Nice finds and a great picture on that roundie!

I think you should consider the strain on the tube... could be weakened. Should probably be placed in a large box and have the exhaust tip snipped to be safely disposed of before it implodes and kills a small child. :nono:

Went to an early estate sale today (Friday) which is rare. This one was on my way home from work. I went to a sale at 10655 S. LeClaire Ave in Oak Lawn. Ive been in Zenith finding mode lately, but a cool RCA comes along my way this week. Its a high end model too, motor drive tuning both VHF and UHF. Its a 1968 model with the CTC-30 chassis. The set is like new still. Was in the basement "family room" well cared for. It was one of those TVs that was still plugged in, hooked up to the antenna. And yes, it still works! Strong bright+original CRT with not one sign of cataracts, not even a bubble. Im still amazed how cataracts can be non existant on certian RCA CRT's from this time period. The motor drive tuning is really interesting on this, it has a verticle channel strip indicator. The motor drives need some attention, which should be interesting to work on. Ive never had one of these sets. Its one of those sets that I knew about from seeing in service manuals but never thought I'd be lucky enough to ever find one at this stage (40 years later!). The control layout inside the door is really cool. My favorite cabinet design from RCA. It was priced fair, $50.00. A little high for the first time considering what they normally go for. Normally these can't be given away around here.......regardless, Im more than happy to pay $50 for such a nice TV.
Loaded it up in the truck and away I went driving in rush hour Friday traffic! More estate sales to come for tomorrow.

Nice score indeed!! Can't wait to see it working!

Bet it'll have a great picture after the basics are taken care of. Again, a great find!

Maybe the channel motor just needs fresh grease. Took apart my 1920 Victrola this afternoon and cleaned and regreased the main spring. Talk about caked up grease! Its amazing how well certain things continue to work even after decades of neglect.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=115566&d=1225504284

A local TV collector gutted a set just like that, and I arrived to find just the cabinet and back. I still took the cabinet because it was such a beauty, but it just sat around for months in my garage and shed (getting in the way). I figured it would make a good "cabinet" for a flatscreen, but then I remembered I don't have much interest in owning a flatscreen, so that idea got shelved.

I gave some thought to shoving a cheap-cabinet Zenith in there, but somehow I knew the Franken-set mixing of DNA would bother me (OCD). Eventually, something damaged the cabinet and I sadly pitched it.

I would so love to have a roundie, late 60s, or early Chromacolor II set in a cabinet like that, but it just seems like they don't exist! Every Zenith set of that era seems to be a big steel or press-board box. If it has a wood cabinet, it's always some furniture style I dislike. However, I save the sets in the hope the correct-year/model cabinet will show up for an upgrade.

If anyone has Zenith full-line catalogs of that era, could you post a new thread with some picture scans? I'm starting to doubt they even made such sets, yet I don't see how they could have avoided it... Real Danish-modern style was so popular in the 60s.

How about a picture of this set in operation Doug?? :D

we want a pix of it working. great score. steve

Another TV showed up at the estates today. I found this one in Westchester at 1517 Westchester Blvd. Its a 1971 model Zenith B4519W with the 12B13C52 chassis. Another surprize of a find. It was easy to load up, it was brought into the garage for the sale. In fact, the original owners were running the sale. They were moving out of state and selling all of their stuff. I got to speak to the man who bought it new back in 1972 from what he told me. He couldn't remember where he bought it but claimed it was a furniture store in Oak Lawn.
There was also a chromacolor II console next to it in the garage, but someone actually bought it as it matched the furniture in the livingroom. Im sure it will be gutted for an LCD set. Both sets are like new still. I could tell this set was in a clean part of the house all these years. Im sure it was probably in the basement in the later years. Their son was there too and he told me one of the TV's works great, the other one didn't work that great. Ive yet to plug it in, but Im sure the chroma II was the perfect working one. Glad they decided to save it for the sale. I got it for 20 bucks. I was surprized as the son was telling me that the "old zeniths" were made by hand with no printed circuit boards, and that they were the best built TV's. Surprized me to hear that, perhaps he's the one who decided to save this set for the sale as he knew how good they were.

It even has the original zenith 75-300 ohm matching transformer on the antenna terminals.

I have a very similar model from carmine. In fact Chris, this was the kind of set I thought you had when you found the one similar to it. Its amazing how different these sets are though. The one from you was a '74 and is similar in cabinet design, but thats where it ends. This one has the the turret tuner and the gyro UHF tuner. Also has knobs for the auxilary controls as opposed to heat shrink tubing for knobs like the '74 did. The '74 was basically a set made from old parts what was left and was zenith's cheapest set available. Obviously the knobs were used up, so they used the tubing to extend the pot shafts through the control panel to save money. This was still a nice higher end set, granted its 3 years older, much changed in that time period.

I think the cabinet on that set is identical to the remote set I gave you when you were here in the spring. (Not the spider-poop-covered thing from a month ago.)

Did you get a picture of the soon-to-be-gutted ChromacolorII so we can all cry?

ok so i want to know how many tv,s do you have now. i am glad you are saving all of them. steve

ok so i want to know how many tv,s do you have now. i am glad you are saving all of them. steve

As of today November 2, 2008, I have a total of 95 TV's throughout the house. Most of which are in the basement neatly displayed. This does not include TV's I have recently sold on ebay that are pending. At the present, I have 54 Zenith TV's, 25 RCA's, and 16 others (which are basically admiral, GE, motorola). So 57% of my collection is dominated by Zenith, 26% RCA, and 17% other. This includes all b/w+color TVs. I have very few b/w sets though.

20 of the 57 Zeniths are Space Command models, eight of them are space command 600's, two 100's, two 400's, two 500's, three 300's, and one 200, and two space command 1000's. The space command sets as you all know are my absolute favorites. Nothing can top them IMO. My goal is to have first, more space, second, one of every chassis color TV zenith produced between 1962 through 1975. Once I get that, and I have more money to work with, Id open the first Zenith electronics museum and showcase everything. They already have a motorola museum, we just need one for Zenith now.

Hey nice find and a great idea! I would come to the museum! It is amazing how many sets you have still. I see why you are clearing out some. Maybe I can take a few extra when I come down. I still want the two Zenith sets for sure!

Here's the RCA roundie from the estate sale in Cicero. Turns out to be a bit nicer than expected. Its actually a CTC-15, has all of its original tubes, including the CRT, which is still good! The TV even works which is somewhat of a surprize. Has a two tube UHF tuner which is also kind of interesting. The set was upstairs in a bedroom. Has the custom cut glass top for it. The set was made in late '63/early '64.

IT got serviced back in 1967 by RCA, who pulled the chassis for repair. The tech must have lost is grip and dropped the chassis and it landed on the power transformer severely bending up the mounting feet of the transformer. Im surprized it has all of the orignal tubes, but there is missing hardware, HV cage cover is missing screws. All of this probably happened under that one repair.

thats the one!!! the cabinet i ve been looking for. that is my favorite style for the rca ctc15.looks very 50s.i have a white french provencial - my least favorite,that i would love to get rid of.that looks like a choice find.lucky,lucky man!

Looks pretty nice, thanks for grabbing it. When can I come get it? I should have the drive-shaft all fixed in the next week. If not, I can borrow something to come down in.

Cool set!

Interesting-I have the almost identical set (different legs and grille cloth) but with a CTC-12 chassis. Uses that same UHF tuner, as I recall. A good performing set. There is something about that cabinet style that I like.

Another TV showed up at the estates today. I found this one in Westchester at 1517 Westchester Blvd. Its a 1971 model Zenith B4519W with the 12B13C52 chassis. Another surprize of a find. It was easy to load up, it was brought into the garage for the sale. In fact, the original owners were running the sale. They were moving out of state and selling all of their stuff. I got to speak to the man who bought it new back in 1972 from what he told me. He couldn't remember where he bought it but claimed it was a furniture store in Oak Lawn.
There was also a chromacolor II console next to it in the garage, but someone actually bought it as it matched the furniture in the livingroom. Im sure it will be gutted for an LCD set. Both sets are like new still. I could tell this set was in a clean part of the house all these years. Im sure it was probably in the basement in the later years. Their son was there too and he told me one of the TV's works great, the other one didn't work that great. Ive yet to plug it in, but Im sure the chroma II was the perfect working one. Glad they decided to save it for the sale. I got it for 20 bucks. I was surprized as the son was telling me that the "old zeniths" were made by hand with no printed circuit boards, and that they were the best built TV's. Surprized me to hear that, perhaps he's the one who decided to save this set for the sale as he knew how good they were.

It even has the original zenith 75-300 ohm matching transformer on the antenna terminals.

I have a very similar model from carmine. In fact Chris, this was the kind of set I thought you had when you found the one similar to it. Its amazing how different these sets are though. The one from you was a '74 and is similar in cabinet design, but thats where it ends. This one has the the turret tuner and the gyro UHF tuner. Also has knobs for the auxilary controls as opposed to heat shrink tubing for knobs like the '74 did. The '74 was basically a set made from old parts what was left and was zenith's cheapest set available. Obviously the knobs were used up, so they used the tubing to extend the pot shafts through the control panel to save money. This was still a nice higher end set, granted its 3 years older, much changed in that time period.

I have the exact same Zenith console . Excellent performer too i might add . I didnt even do anything to it , just plugged it in and it worked fine . Mine came from the famous "VAUGHN " in Ny.

Went to four estate sales today. Found a 1972 Zenith console at 841 Highland Ave, in Chicago Heights. This was the stereotypical "green carpet" estate sale. Its just a made up term I use which basically means, if you see green carpeting in the living room, odds are there will be a vintage TV in the house some place. And don't ever overlook the living room of course, as thats most likely where it will be!

Ive talked about this with other collectors and they all agreed and notice the same thing. I think 8 out of 10 sales with green carpeted living rooms have had vintage TVs somewhere in the house.

Todays find was a new one for the collection, as it has the 25CC50 chassis, which is still a tube type chassis. Model C4724M, in the early american cabinet. I don't normally find full to the floor consoles like this. This one has the gyro drive tuner. Chassis design is very similar to previous chassis like the 12A12C52. Its all original, including the CRT. I turned it on at the sale and got sound but no picture. Took the back off and someone pulled the regulator tube out and the tuner sheild was laying ontop of the chassis as well as a few screws from what appeared to hold the tuner in place. Looks like the homeowner fiddled with it. The HV door was also open and also had a missing belfuse. So this will be an interesting repair. It looks like the back was not off a million times either judging by basically no wear around the twist tabs.

This was another one of those estate sales where I had to explain why I wanted this TV to the people running the sale. I think I get asked "why do you want it" at almost every single estate sale, unless I know the people running the sale of course. "huh, interesting hobby" is a typical response I hear. I was also informed that TV is switching to digital next year and that this TV wont work. Is that true? I mean, if I tell you that I collect vintage TV's and repair electronics as a hobby, it would make sense that I don't know about the digital switch over..........C'mon folks. This happens way to often to me! I guess they think that if you collect "useless junk TVs" that you are some kind of nut job that doesn't know whats going on in the real world.

Chalk it up to ignorance, the most abundant commodity in America today...:drool:

Doug, next time just tell them you use these old sets to communicate with the "Mothership" :D

Doug, next time just tell them you use these old sets to communicate with the "Mothership" :D

That's a good one! And, I'm so dang tired of everyone questioning what we do with these old TV's and then acting like we are a bunch of space cases because we collect them. Really, what is it to them, anyway? We are doing them a favor by buying them or hauling them away!

BTW, nice TV! I don't think I've seen a control layout quite like that on a Zenith.

BTW, nice TV! I don't think I've seen a control layout quite like that on a Zenith.

I havn't either in person. Ive seen it in manuals though, but not in person until today. Its pretty neat. If you look closely at it, the control panel has an elliptical shape down to the lower control panel. I'll get a close up on the controls. Its a '72, and is the only year for this layout from what I can tell in my brochures.

Eric, thats a good one. They'd probably believe it too as the look you get when you want an old TV would probably be the same look if I told them that.

Keep it up, Doug, you just keep it up...and you really will own every model! The more I look at this one the more I like it.

There was an estate auction a mile down the road this morning so I figured it was worth stopping in. They had a Zenith console but it was late 80s. Sold for $2, not to me. No other TV sets, but the deceased gentleman at least dabbled in electronics. Got a couple shoeboxes full of used tubes, some CB's and antenna gadgetry. A big stack of old Sears/Wards catalogs from the 70s/80s. I was leafing through the 75 Sears book and in the TV section they had a couple complete console cabinets-add your own 19" table model. Looked just like an ordinary mid 70s cabinet. One box had a factory service manual for a CTC-85. Man, that auctioneer was flying. Cold out there and he didn't want to be all day. Everything sold in 90 minutes. Lots of huge lots sold for two bucks each, and my wife and I bought a ton of them. Took me 2 trips to get it all home, and the second trip I was loaded like the Beverly Hillbillies.

The part about awareness of a digital conversion made me LOL Doug, nice sarcasm. It might be fun to act totally unaware, and just say something like "TV won't work after 2009? Hahaha, that's crazytalk!" Let them think they're part of the in-crowd.

Also have to agree on the green-carpet theory. Those houses are always on my go-to lists. Often times, I'll go simply because they are in a city that I know has lots of 50s/60s ranch homes with older residents. I'm sure you've felt the disappointment of walking into one of those homes, only to find the walls are painted dark red, and the only furniture is a bunch of modern assemble-it-yourself shit from IKEA. Obviously somebody's 2000 era rehab, and it's not really an "estate sale", just an "I'm-being-foreclosed-on-so-I'm-trying-to sell-all-this-crap-sale". If I wanted silver-box television sets and futons, I could find all I wanted at the curb.

As morbid as it sounds, only the actual death-sales are worth going to. Even though 90% of them don't have worthwhile TVs, I still get a lot of good deals on unused cleaning chemicals/supplies to use at my rental homes... Full bottles of 1985 Windex for $.50, push brooms for a $1, etc.

By contrast, yuppie estate sales aren't worth the gas to get there... Modern people don't know which end of a screwdriver to use, and as such the men who live in the homes have the same mechanical ability as my 93-year-old grandmother.

At the green-carpet estate sales, you'll find tools, major appliances, good-quality furniture, car parts, small engines, guns, technical books, cement tools, ladders, file cabinets, desks, and all sorts of other stuff that I've purchased. I even picked up a sweet Kojack-style London Fog winter coat that looks like brand new. You can tell the prior owners had some knowledge and skill.

A non-death sale gives me a great deal on outdated videogames, college-themed throw pillows, particle board furniture, broken Chinese appliances, gaudy "summer" rims for an import, and a whole bunch of other non-durable goods best hauled in a 3-yard dumpster. You can tell whoever lived in the house barely knew how to add fuel to the $99 lawnmower.

Sigh. :sigh:

My parents house was a green carpet living room with pine paneling in the kitchen. We had a RCA CTC-40 as our set up until 1990 when the power transformer blew.
As far as estate sales goes i keep thinking of my favorite song from back in 1990. The artist's name is Cheryl Wheeler and the song is called "Estate Sale" Here is a link to the music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdDrrChPwz0
Maybe it should be the anthem song for the Horizontal Hold section of A.K.
Logan

Nice find! Very unusual. I like it a lot. Yep, the green carpet. Always look for the green carpet. 8 out of 10 green carpeted houses contain a vintage tv of some sort. If I ever get a house with the green carpet and it's still nice, I would leave it in there, I like it! The carpet in my house is beige,.... ugggh. Anyways, can't wait to see that sharp Zenith picture!
P.S. I also am sick of hearing "What are you going to do with an old tv after next year" OR "What do you want that for" If I think it will affect the price, I say for parts. If you tell some of these people you collect them they think it's worth a fortune. Then from then on they charge others a fortune for them or try to, then they get trashed. I don't want that to happen. I have, however, told some what I plan on doing with it AFTER I have paid for it.:D

I usually tell people that I want it for parts. You are right that if you mention that you are a collector, the price goes up. That's the reason I don't place "WANTED" ad's for old electronics anymore. People see those and think "HE'S A COLLECTOR AND HE'S GOING TO PAY ME BIG". I'll just take my chances at the SA, the flea market, and other sales.

I started to pull it apart this evening. As you can see in the photos, the TV was backed up against a forced air supply duct. This obviously blew a ton of dust into the TV. Grey dust luckily, it was not a smokers set. I can handle that. I was able to tape the tube layout diagram back together. The loose screws were the top screws that mount the TMA to the bezel. Why those were removed was beyond me. Its a simple key slot mount. Thats why I think the home owner pulled it apart, and rubbed his arm against the side of the cabinet while doing so tearing up the layout diagram.

So far, most of the tubes are shot. Since I never had a 25CC50, I was suprized to see a not so common zenith tube. They used a 6JG5 for the 3.58 mhz oscillator which Ive never seen. Thats a one of a kind tube that you never see in other zenith color sets. Zenith almost always used a 6GH8 for that. I can name every tube used in all the color zenith chassis in my sleep except for this one. The 6LB6 is so dead the filament might as well be open. This is very alarming when I see a dud horizontal output. It means it was running way to hot, and this was a replacement sylvania so something is definitly wrong. The belfuse for the cathode is missing too as well as the 6JK5 regulator. Something strange happened to this TV, yet to be determined.

Pulled the tuner out. One of the gears for the VHF tuner indicator split, so the in indicator would slip when tuning. I used some loctite super glue to fix the nylon gear. The tip was plugged on my tube of glue so I had to puncture it with a needle. The tube was under pressure so glue went everwhere and the vapor burn to my eyes was so bad I had to flush them out. Crazy glue is some dangerous stuff when those vapors hit your eyes.

All the caps look good yet. The chassis is very clean. I can only hope nothing is seriously wrong in the horizontal sweep circuit. Of all the tubes to be bad, the tuner tubes were original and still good yet. Go figure.

. I used some loctite super glue to fix the nylon gear. The tip was plugged on my tube of glue so I had to puncture it with a needle. The tube was under pressure so glue went everwhere and the vapor burn to my eyes was so bad I had to flush them out. Crazy glue is some dangerous stuff when those vapors hit your eyes.

Doug,

I almost never reuse super glue - the dollar store here has 3 tubes for a buck, so 5 bucks gets me a years worth. Ironically, it's one of the few things in the store not sourced from China.

Also, has anyone used baking soda as a super glue accelerant for large glue-ups? It works great for the larger jobs where more than a drop or two is needed. Apply the glue, press things together, sprinkle on the baking soda, and - it's set! We used to glue up BPC cabinets this way with super glue first, then follow with up with epoxy. Worked great.

Nice set - and if you ever need any Belfuses........or do you use those "sans-a fuse" breaker type Belfuses??

Cheers,

baking soda and super glue yes i have and it works great. steve

Yep, I had an incident like that the other night, I was going to use my Kimball Midwest super glue and the end was the same as yours, the same thing happened! But, I "borrowed" a new one from work and all is well now. As is the on-volume knob for that '68 concentric tuning Zenith. Reinforced that with a metal clamp from another Zenith knob after I glued it. Glad you didn't get hurt, it really does burn the eyes. Belfuses are another thing I can get NOS from Chesters, if you need one you cant find just let me know. I also would love to see that chassis, I too have never seen that model. Seems very interesting, keep us posted!

Murphy's Rule of Super Glue:

Super Glue will stick everything together--except the two parts you're attempting to mend.:grumpy:

000

Loctite-now there is a company with some good products. I have some of their super glue at work in a unique container that works great and is less of a mess. You squeeze-in on 2 tabs built into the bottle.

Loctite is what i use in the container Bryan describes. I get about a years use out of each bottle and have never had a mishap with it. I never had it plug up either. I guess it has to do with the design of the container. Now that i said that i havent had any problems, i probably now will :)
-Tony

I started to pull it apart this evening. As you can see in the photos, the TV was backed up against a forced air supply duct. This obviously blew a ton of dust into the TV. Grey dust luckily, it was not a smokers set. I can handle that. I was able to tape the tube layout diagram back together. The loose screws were the top screws that mount the TMA to the bezel. Why those were removed was beyond me. Its a simple key slot mount. Thats why I think the home owner pulled it apart, and rubbed his arm against the side of the cabinet while doing so tearing up the layout diagram.

So far, most of the tubes are shot. Since I never had a 25CC50, I was suprized to see a not so common zenith tube. They used a 6JG5 for the 3.58 mhz oscillator which Ive never seen. Thats a one of a kind tube that you never see in other zenith color sets. Zenith almost always used a 6GH8 for that. I can name every tube used in all the color zenith chassis in my sleep except for this one. The 6LB6 is so dead the filament might as well be open. This is very alarming when I see a dud horizontal output. It means it was running way to hot, and this was a replacement sylvania so something is definitly wrong. The belfuse for the cathode is missing too as well as the 6JK5 regulator. Something strange happened to this TV, yet to be determined.


Doug,
I have a 25CC50 in a sort-of danish modern style cabinet that's my main living-room set. It was my parents' 1st color set they bought in late 1971, and has been in near daily use except for a year or two around '95-'96, before they gave it to me. I did all the service on it, until I graduated college and moved away in '83, and then they ran it until it wouldn't go no more, and replaced it with a Sony in '95.

When I got the set, the CRT was shot and most of the tubes tested bad. I had another 25CC50 in a metal cabinet with a good rebuilt CRT, but with several other issues, so I sacrificed that one to get my parents' console working.

Anyway, the 6JG5 isn't the 3.58 oscillator. It does use a 6GH8 for that. The 6JG5 is either the burst amp or the chroma bandpass amp. The other tube is the 6E(H/J)7. The rest of the chroma processing is done in the IC on the plug-in module.

On that chassis, the heaters for the damper and HV regulator are wired in series (probably to keep the HV from coming up if the regulator tube is removed). There should be a label on the HV cage door with two specific regulator/damper pairings because of different heater currents. If your set has a 6DN3 damper, you'll need a 6JH5 regulator (2.4 amp heaters).
I've had two problems with the horiz. sweep in the metal-cased set I had. One of them was a 33 or 39k 1 or 2 watt resistor going to one of the plates on the 6U10 horiz. osc/disch. tube going intermittent, and causing loss of drive to the horiz. output. This would toast your 6LB6. I replaced it on my console as a preventative measure. Also, the VDR in the horiz. output circuit went open, causing insufficient width but not overheating anything.
(Sorry I don't have exact values on these parts, I'm going from memory, and I haven't been inside my set in almost two years.)

Another problem with this chassis is the 1.2 or 1.5 Meg resistors around the HV adjust pot drifting out of tolerance. They are 5% tolerance, and when they drift out, you won't have enough range on the HV adjust pot to get 25kV. If you run out of range on the focus control, you'll have to replace the focus divider. If the original one is still in there, it's probably bad by now. It crosses to an ECG HiDiv-4, discontinued years ago.

Also, I've had trouble with early '80s NOS compactrons cracking where the base is attached to the bulb. I've had it happen on the HO, damper, and regulator tubes over the past few years, both GE and Sylvania-made tubes.
I figured that's from sloppy maufacturing, as by that time those tubes would only be used for replacement purposes.

Good luck with your set, if it has a good CRT it'll have that typical excellent Zenith picture.

Mike

Thanks for the tips mike. I just checked the chart, and this tube is the 1st color amp. Actually, I started looking for one this morning. ive got thousands of NOS tubes, not one single 6JG5 though, not even in boxes of loose used tubes. It must have been one of a kind for this chassis. I do have a 6DN3 paired with the 6JH5.
I put the set back together last night to try it out, knowing that the 6JG5 needed replacement. I powered it up, and got about 5 seconds of a raster, but bloomed away and the 68 ohm resistor on the 9-49 module went up in smoke, as did a 2.2k under the chassis from cathode to ground of the 6GH8 oscillator. Didn't pop the breaker in the cathode of the 6LB6 though. I useds a sans-a-fuse in its place just in case it wants to pop, and I don't waist good bel-fuses should a problem arise in troubleshooting. I tested the 6JG5 again, and now its got an H-K short, but I can't see how a short there could fry up those resistors if in fact that was the cause for the failure. I checked lead dress, but I did not disturb anything under the chassis. Tint and color leads are proper too, as I had the tuner out. Nothing shorted out there either. Very interesting problem here.

The troubleshooting will need to wait as I have to buy a tube on ebay and go pick up some resistors.

Went to an estate sale today only because the flyer advertised "several TV's."
Passed on the 5" b/w am/fm still in the box for 5$.
Passed on the GE mid 80's 13" color portable for 10$, although it was in good shape, just a common garden variety tv.
Passed on the hideous Philips 13" color tv with the analog clock under the CRT - not much of a bargain at 35$.
Passed on the 32" Sanyo - too much at 100$ - would have gladly given 50 for it though.
Passed on the 20" RCA Colortrak Plus - although I should have bought it for the niggardly asking price of 27$
Did snag the 27" Sanyo for 40$ with a perfectly good cart/stand and the original remote. Usually find these beat up and missing the remote and sitting on a worthless particle board stand. Didn't really need the beast, and definately not a fan of Sanyo quality, but the price was right.

The find of the day though was a panther on a log tv lamp in perfect condition. Damn thing even had a working C7 bulb. It looks mean as hell sitting on the blonde 1963 Zenith b/w console I got from Doug.

Doug, I have a 6JG5 to spare if you need it. NOS Zenith. Send me a PM with your address, if so.

This concludes another successful year of vintage TV finds at the estate sales. 2008 was a good year for me, many good things happend this year, a promotion in my career and also some extremely freightening moments as well that could have easily ended my life. Lets hope to have another good year with good health. Even though we are losing analog TV in 2009, we alteast have our collections, and hopefully a job and family most importantly. Lets keep finding these old TV's (or any vintage electronics for that matter!) Happy new year everyone!
Doug

Cheers to that Doug! Happy new year! And good luck collecting in '09!

Happy New Year Doug and cant wait till your first estate sale find of 2009! These are among my favorite posts in the tv forum.
-Tony

I wonder how many more old veterans are out there & will get "dumped" this year simply because "They won't work no more..." 2009 could be a banner year for us Mad Monks...

I wonder who will be the first to start "Estate Sale Finds in 2009"???

Charles

Can't wait. Hope the TVs keep popping up.

2009 may very well prove to be *the* most important year in TV collecting, since analog sets will be dumped by the truckload due to the transition to digital.....:scratch2: