First off I would like to thank everyone who helped me with my other threads about my crosley tv. Without your help I probably would not have been able to find parts and the knowledge to restore my set. Thank you!! That being said I find myself watching my b&w set all the time, It is the only tv I like to watch now. The picture is crisp and the b&w contrast makes alot of shows have a real pretty appearance. I do not know how to explain it.Does anyone else feel the same way? I do seem to be addicted to it, Doug.

I love watching my older sets. I also like seeing the reaction when my friends say "WOW that actually works?" or "You're playing video games on a 53 year old TV set, man that is sweet!"

That, and the color on the vintage sets is just so much more deep and real looking.

Good to hear of your success at restoring an old TV, and that you are enjoying it.

I had a very large old Crosley console TV when I was in my teens. I found it in a barn nearby, and conned it off the owners who were going to dispose of it anyway. After I gave it a recapping the set worked very well, and had good sound and a very sharp, clean picture.

I put my 1956 8" RCA 8-PT-7014 b/w set in my bedroom after I repaired it, and I would say about 3/4 of the tv I've watched in the past few months has been on that little set.

When watching the old sets the experience is often about the television, not the television program. That old Crosley is alive...it is taking waves from the air and turning them into sound & scan lines. It's painting a picture, line by line, thanks to the works of big vacuum tubes & handcrafted circuits. A new set might do the same thing, but it does it with bits of sand & solder, melted together by machine, all cold & impersonal.

There is magic in these old sets...the magic is that they work at all!

I prefer watching my vintage sets, especially my Zenith roundie. The color is so much deeper and the circular screen is such a pleasure to watch. I never have liked the sharp corners on modern sets that considered to be a feature. To me it represents a lack of styling. I love the handwired chassis, the glow of tubes and the joy of having taken something that at one time did not work and was destined for the junk pile and making it like new again.

When watching the old sets the experience is often about the television, not the television program. That old Crosley is alive...it is taking waves from the air and turning them into sound & scan lines. It's painting a picture, line by line, thanks to the works of big vacuum tubes & handcrafted circuits. A new set might do the same thing, but it does it with bits of sand & solder, melted together by machine, all cold & impersonal.

There is magic in these old sets...the magic is that they work at all!

I agree! THIS is what it's all about. I am very hopelessly addicted to the old sets! Some call me obsessed but I call it being passionate!

First off I would like to thank everyone who helped me with my other threads about my crosley tv. Without your help I probably would not have been able to find parts and the knowledge to restore my set. Thank you!! That being said I find myself watching my b&w set all the time, It is the only tv I like to watch now. The picture is crisp and the b&w contrast makes alot of shows have a real pretty appearance. I do not know how to explain it.Does anyone else feel the same way? I do seem to be addicted to it, Doug.

I basically feel the same way as far as seeing and feeling the magic that is clearly a part of these amazing priceless objects. The primary pleasure I get from these objects is that they help me think of the great people behind them, some of which are here at AK, as well as the great people who were first in front of them. For this reason I don't mind being addicted as it's helping motivate me to pay my respects to those who most deserve respect and considerations before they are gone! How many of you here think that deep? I have found very little evidence of the thinking and actions that people should have in regards to this.

I have found it very surprising that the great minds here at AK and anywhere else, in or out of the ever so popular internet lifestyle, seem to give little to no credit to those who deserve it. Whenever any words expressed hint towards implying people should think more about what they can do to help make this planet what our parents and grandparents, etc. tried to make it instead of whiling away the hours making oneself happy in whatever whimsical
desires they posess there is absolutely nothing added other than maybe sarcastic criticism to express a complete lack of interest.

So, I see this as proof that no matter what level IQ's people have thier actions prove they are as selfish as most people.

We should all only talk of happy easy things!

It sure is funny that I have not found anything written here on the known effects of touching and breathing lead as well as nothing factual about the effects of radiation exposure.

Fact is that both things interfere with if not prevent one from being able to think of more than what one feels like thinking about much in the same way many drugs work.

Henry Ford generously offered one of many explantions for the problems in our world that exist even more so today:

"Thinking is the hardest work a man can do... that is why there is so very little of it."

Please don't hate me for sounding like a smarty-pants. I am not trying to put anybody down. I am trying to get over the hurt I experience as I realize that most people make it too darn easy for the evils in the world to get away with anything they desire by not thinking more about what there actions do to support the wrong people.

Boohoo... poor little tiny insignificant John needs more medication! He's sad! Now let's all have a big pity party!

How many of you can admit you think just like that?

No response is necessary.

Thank you and let's all return to normal happy chats about whatever we feel like!

Hi Brach, I agree with you about the degree of love and determination--as well as enginuity--of earlier pioneers in the electronics field that went into the engineering of some of the earlier receivers. Before the television you are watching there was the "radiovisor" and Nipkow's disk. Before that was merely wireless transmission of audio over a 360 degree sweep--to wit: radio. Before that it was telegraph, which led to radio through the works of Marconi, and through such ideas as the Branley coherer. Before that it was hand-written letters delivered by couriers that either made their destination--or not....

Today's people are so far detached from this early progress in history as they take for granted all that goes on today with iPods, cellphones, text messaging, etc... Such "institutions" such as Heathkit have dried up, since nobody thinks of building a radio is something to carry on about any more. When I built stuff from scratch back in the '60s and '70s it was a big deal, and people were very impressed.

Not so these days. To impress your fellow man nowadays you need to have opened a successful business, and then amassed great fortunes with it, gaining among other things pleasure craft in the water, and two or more villas away from your main strongholdings within ivory-colored stuccoed walls and wrought-iron gates with a sentry booth at the end of the mile-long drive to the mansion's portico that opens into a large central hall....etc.... :rolleyes:

I live in a rambling old farmhouse built back in George Washington's time, in a town that is still under 700 strong. In between two adjacent windows in my living room there are two strips of woodwork interrupting the column of horsehair plaster that goes up between the portals of fenestration--and spaced about 16 inches apart to form a neat rectangle of plaster between the windows at about face height. It was only a while later that I learned that there was once a mirror placed in the frame. Reason: there was no convenient source of light back in the day this old place was erected, and to place a mirror between two south-facing windows was the only way to light up both sides of one's face for viewing in a looking glass--as we do today with wall sconce lighting to either side of a mirror in a bathroom or lavatory today.

Before I finally built a power plant here to supply electric when the grid is unable, I still would mill about the darkened-except-for-candlelight house in search of something, and stupidly flip on a switch as I entered another room... Oh! And additionally, I had puzzled about the lack of evidence of "knob-and-tube" wiring about this old house as a teenager, as I knew from working with an electrician uncle that such prevailed before Bronx or Rome wiring. There are no porcelain knobs or sleeves anywhere here, nor any residual evidence. The answer came later when an older neighbor and long-time resident of our town recalled being assigned by her parents to look after her younger sibs, and keep them from knobbing with the newfangled and fascinating switches and electric lighting apparata installed in their house back in the day when electricity finally reached my town here. The year: 1942.

We all take so much for granted these days.... :o

I consider it an honor to learn anything a man such as yourself has time to share.

Wow,Sometimes I think that my fascination with tube radios, tv's, antique cars is my attempt at going(living) back in time when people worked harder than most of us and had less,and were happy for what they did have, even if it was only their health!This world today is all about the money and having stuff.Not about what is important.Nothing is handcrafted and cared for.Doug

Wow,Sometimes I think that my fascination with tube radios, tv's, antique cars is my attempt at going(living) back in time when people worked harder than most of us and had less,and were happy for what they did have, even if it was only their health!This world today is all about the money and having stuff.Not about what is important.Nothing is handcrafted and cared for.Doug

Amen to all that...

This stuff IS addictive. I just finished a complete resto on an RCA 630TS, and, it looks better than when it rolled of the New Jersey assembly line back in '47.

Now, I'm looking for ANOTHER TV to restore...

God, Help Us All.

LJB:smoke:

Amen to all that...

This stuff IS addictive. I just finished a complete resto on an RCA 630TS, and, it looks better than when it rolled of the New Jersey assembly line back in '47.

Now, I'm looking for ANOTHER TV to restore...

God, Help Us All.

LJB:smoke:

That's what my game was back in the '70s--one TV set after another would get dragged out of barns and sheds and heaved up onto the bench.

After restoring the old Crosley console I turned my attention to a Westinghouse table model that had 2+ inches of mud on its chassis. The HOT could be half-seen, but all the other tubes were completely buried, or had nothing but exhaust tips showing. :eek: I pulled the set out of my old Valiant station wagon and placed it in the driveway and proceeded to hose out the inside. Tubes ricocheted everywhere after being knocked out of their sockets by the hard stream of water. :rolleyes: After rinsing all the mud out I "tuner lubed" all the pots, switches, sockets, connectors, etc, and reinserted all the displaced tubes, and replaced the ones that showed white getter spots. We were having good "hayin'" weather at the time, so I was able to leave the set out in the sun for a couple of days to dry out. You may not believe this, but I plugged that set in, and got it working in a very few minutes. My younger bro made good use of the set in his bedroom for a few years of flawless operation and good picture. :thmbsp:

I primarily watch my old sets. I also listen to my old radios mostly. Something about the tubes, must get into ones system. Love it!!
Dan