I was thinking of this as I was just outside moving snow with a John Deere tractor, as there is a lot of thinking time in there. In the end of '07 I was looking at my collection and thought hmmmm... way too many '50s B/Ws and not enough early color, or color at all for that matter. This stuff is getting harder and harder to find so I had to get my butt in gear. The only roundie I had is the one in my avatar. I picked it up in Overland Park, Kansas on Halloween of '07. I then made it my resolution for '08 to get at least one '50s color set. I said " I don't care if it is a 1959 and a half as long as it's from the '50s". Well, when I went to the ETF convention there it was, My CTC 9. I was so happy to have made my goal. To my surprise at home I discovered that it was produced in the middle of '59! Kinda weird that I got my wish to a tee. I have since acquired two more '50s color sets, a '56 CTC 4 and a '56 CTC 5. I have more than made my goal. I found 8 roundies for the collection altogether this last year (this includes the Zenith SC 400). I have another '65 Zenith in the garage for parts which makes 9. I missed out on a CTC 15 due to the estate sale persons mistake (damn them). This year for '09 my resolution is to have as many early color sets running as possible before the digital switchover. I would like to give them one last chance at true NTSC before it's gone. Another is to possibly get my hands on a 21-CT-55 or a CT-100, it sounds way out there but you never know. I did have a chance to get a CT-100 this year but money issues kept me from it. And another thing on the list is a '50s color set NOT made be RCA, I would like to find an Admiral or Motorola. I know they were clones but man are they rare and cool looking. I think Steve McVoy at the ETF got the "coup de gra" of em all with that '56 Sentinel, I really hope I can make it out there this coming year to see it. Some other goals for '09 are some 4 tube hybrids, they have such a nice picture. Also, I have not had much experience working on them and would like to get to know the circuitry a bit more. And finally (for now anyways) a '66 GE Porta-Color.

My New Years TV resolutions:

1. Try to obtain a color roundie in decent repairable condition.
2. Try to obtain a Zenith steel cabinet tube color set in the 20"-25" range.
3. Try NOT to bring home any more Funai crap!
4. Try to repair some of the projects that have been sitting here for two years (or longer)!
5. Launch my own classic TV network in case RTN falls through.
6. Continue to hang around this site so I can irritate as many people as possible.

I guess that's enough for now!

1.Find a roundie.
2.Find a roundie. :D
3.Find a Kuba Komet or other 'far-out' or obscure set.

To try to save as many old veterans as possible from ending up in the Dump. Hopefully, they'll ultimately survive me, & will be regarded as rare & valuable icons in some future, perhaps more ENLIGHTENED time...

Try to obtain a Chromacolor II, so I can see what all the fuss is about.

Get some sets done.
Save as many old sets as I can.
Find a 50's color roundie, and a porthole.

Fix my Chromacolor completely, and my smaller portable, and to find at least one color roundie!

1. visit bryan and kim-cant wait to see his collection
2. try to find mark a 21axp22
3. finish up my zenith radios
4. close up the shop and enjoy some time off
5. find a ctc-7-9 for my own private use-had a beautiful 9 and sold it for good money
6. find a dumont 109
7. buy something from doug this year
8. get that ctc25 going-randys old set
9. keep reading and learning form these techs

Mine is to restore ( electronically ) my 1959 B&W ( off course... I live in Brazil, and there was no color here until 72 ) GE 21 inch.

This is the 50's TV more easy to restore in my collection, since it's the only one that is partly working ( gets sound, and screen lights up but... no picture ).

Hey... only now that I realized, while I was writing this... it will be 50 years old in 2009!!! If I can get it working again, it will be a very nice way to celebrate it's "birthday."

Sell/give away some sets, so I have room to buy more. I need to move from quantity to quality.

I need to brush up on my electronics theory. I have a long way to go as far as being a decent repairman.

I need to really get started on my planned book (or maybe just booklet) featuring the stories of every Radio/TV man on the Delmarva Peninsula.

I am with you on your first two Bryan, I have a ways to go myself on being a repairman. The quantity/quality issue is also something I'm working on. Hey Ron! you are very kind! Thank you for thinking of my need for a 21AXP22! I will fix that 9 up soon so you can see it, I know you have been wanting to see it work! Let me know if you need anything I can offer, I would do my best!

1) Find a ctc40 chassis for my combo (cant bring myself to get rid of it or dismantle it)
2) Head up to Bryans to pick up a few tv's
3) Recap my CTC12 combo
4) Clean and re-organize my collection
5) Take pictures and post here some of the tv's that i have and been talking about for years
6) Visit the Early Television Museum and hopefully attend the annual get together
7) Keep a lookout for more tv's to save from the landfill

Another thing-Hopefully, go to Knoxville one Saturday, hook up w/Julian Burke, spend the day pestering him, & expend a couple quarts of drool over his stash o' stuff...

My TV new year's resolutions are as follows:

1. Keep my Zenith roundie running. So far it's doing just fine.
2. Replace the ballast tube in my 8" Motorola 9VT1, refinish the cabinet, replace the grille cloth and add the retrace line suppression mod.
3. Restore my newly acquired 12" B&W Zenith hybrid.
4. Build a digital portable TV by combining a 5" or smaller TV chassis with a digital converter box circuit board. This may be a bit ambitious but it looks like it may be the only way to have a digital portable at least for now.

NOT buy any more TVs until I sell some!

Charles

My new years resolution is to get these sets i have sitting here up and running . Lately i been buying more then i repair .

Get a bigger shop to start a collection.

I just need to fix more of the sets that I already have. At this point the only set that I don't have that I'd really like to find is a Zenith porthole.

My TV new year's resolutions are as follows:


2. Replace the ballast tube in my 8" Motorola 9VT1, refinish the cabinet, replace the grille cloth and add the retrace line suppression mod.


What is the mod? Would this be something I may be interested in for my 7vt5ra?

I just need to fix more of the sets that I already have. At this point the only set that I don't have that I'd really like to find is a Zenith porthole.

Yep, me too. The portholes just don't ever come my way, last one I couldn't afford when it came up. Hopefully this year though.....

1. get rid of excess clutter
2. find a zenith roundie
3. find a remote-control roundie of some kind.
4. Try to find a late 60s zenith or admiral color portable
5. Dig out old sets and try to get them working.
6. Find excess sets a home.

I have a mid 80's Mitsubishi and I'd like to go HD sometime next year.....

Since I essentially have no life outside of work, I will continue to go to estate sales assuming that my work life doesn't consume a weekend. Estate sale saturdays are my only chance to actually be out and about durring the week, so its enjoyable just for that.

My resolution, is really to change my mindset of "more is better" into "just a few" and sell off some TV's.

Back when I moved to the new house here in '04, I had the huge collection of TV's at the old place (you guys might remember how my old basement looked with the orange tiles). Well, when the house went up on the market, the realtor said that all the TV's had to go or else it would scare off potential buyers (thinking that I was some kind of nut job). They were dead serious too. Well, long story short, I put all my TV's except for my absolute favorites in storage. I had only 4 TV's in my basement at that time, I can't tell you how good it made me feel. I appriciated those four mint perfect TV's so much when they were the only ones around. Id like to be able to be this way in a perfect world though, but I don't think I can make it happen. Ive spent too many hours finding and repairing these and I get attached.
Then I decided only to keep the best of the best. But then I started finding some really cool sets that were mint and you can't let those go. We all know that the window for finding these TV's gets smaller and smaller as time passes. So you end up accumulating so rapidly when all you do is spend your saturdays going to estate sales to find these TV's. You get buried when you keep finding "nice" TV's that you can't get rid of.

So will I resolve anything for new years? I doubt it, but it makes me feel good to think I might. Im realistic, so expect to see no changes for me in '09. Just the occasional ebay sell off.

My 2009 TV goals would be to find another 1950's color roundie-CTC-5 or even a CTC-4 from late 1955-56 or a CTC-5 Wingate-that's for color roundies-maybe in 2010 if not 2009. Well, for the other vintage TVs,
-any 1946-70's B&W set
-any 1960's-1980 color set
-any B&W roundie
I pretty much have to go out of town to find about 90% of my TVs with it being mostly other people's junk and cast-offs at yard sales-they are mostly a joke here with all that junk. I don't need other people's junk, I spend my time and money out of town and in the US to invest in great TV sets as described in this forum.

I guess for me I have no desire to get rid of my big collection of TV's including over 300 sets. I really have a lifetime of projects in the years to come in all those sets and have a sentimental attachment to each one. I actually have expanded my facilities over the years to accomodate more of my collection where I can actually have more of the sets hooked up and in use.
Sometime I would like to buy an entire office building or school building and have every single item in my collection restored and set up and operating (along with all of the organs, pianos, school buses, cars and trucks) and I will never give up on that dream.
For me I have found fewer and fewer tube type TV's over the years so the problem of accumulating more has limited itself somewhat. I have found a lot more old radios recently though.

I really have just focused on repairing my tube type radios and amplifiers and need to resolve to work on my round color sets. Getting the radios repaired has been easier just because they take less time.

My New Year's TV resolution is... 1920x1080. (-:

(Can I count my 1999-2000 RCA DTC-100 digital TV tuner as an "antique" yet? I could hook it up to my CTC-16 or CTC-5.)

I dont watch tv just music and AK chat :)

TV RESOLUTIONS FOR '09

1 - Put 82 and 84 RCA consoles, 86 CM console in storage in the garage
2 - Repair the '67 Zenith color console, or perhaps junk the beast
3 - Tweak the 63 blonde Zenith b/w console
4 - resolder, and this time, daisy chain a ground in the CTC 177 tuner
5 - purchase a new tv, for the 1st time since 1991, a 19 incher or so, a cheap lcd to hang on the kitchen wall - getting real tired of the daughter and girlfriend eating in the living room -
6 - get rid of the g** damned tv trays - see # 5 above
7 - find a "vintage" cart or stand for the 1977 CCII
8 - install an outdoor antenna
9 - get a FTA sattelite system
10 - add a few 1950's b/w or color consoles to the collection
11 - search for 3 sentimental sets, an RCA danish modern b/w console, an Admiral b/w low boy console, and a Truetone tabletop color set with its matching cart, all sets we had when I was growing up

Come to think of it, I do have a resolution that will save me some greif at the estate sales. When people ask why i want the old TV, I WILL NOT tell them that I collect them. I will simply say I need it for a prop, or Im picking it up for a friend who needs it for parts. This way, I won't have to deal with all the eye rolling, the annoying puzzled looks not to mention smart a$$ comments that go along with it. You know what Im talking about! This will be my new effort to simplify things.

Screw 'em, Doug...When people give me the fish-eye over Why Would ANYONE In His Right Mind Wanna Collect THEM Old Things, I just give 'em my best Charlie Manson look & maybe drool a bit...Keep 'em guessin'...(grin)

My resolution is to get a roundie--any roundie!!!
I haven't even seen one in Florida since I moved here 15 years ago.

Come to think of it, I do have a resolution that will save me some greif at the estate sales. When people ask why i want the old TV, I WILL NOT tell them that I collect them. I will simply say I need it for a prop, or Im picking it up for a friend who needs it for parts. This way, I won't have to deal with all the eye rolling, the annoying puzzled looks not to mention smart a$$ comments that go along with it. You know what Im talking about! This will be my new effort to simplify things.

Good one, I too am sick of what people think about the hobby. It is none of their damn business what I do with this stuff. When they ask me why I want the old TV I'll be the smart a$$ this time and either tell them it is none of their business or because it is for sale and I feel like buying it. Or, I need a TV, why are you asking me? Do you ask everyone why they are buying all this old crap?