I'm kind of new here and I have to say it's like a breath of fresh air to be associated with many other vintage electronics collectors. As I read through these topics, I sometimes wonder: how did these other guys get started? What sparked your interest in saving and restoring? Why do you do it?

For me, it has been a lifelong interest. When our suburban development was being constructed in the mid and late 1960s I followed the Bell Telephone installers around, summer after summer. Some of the Bell guys thought it was funny that a kid around 9 or 10 years old wanted to see how the telephones went in to the houses and some of them taught me a thing or two about installation. Then I was fascinated when our 1960 Zenith console went on the fritz and Mr. DeLeo, the tv repairman, came to the house to repair it. He talked into the set as if it were something alive, referring to the set as "she". I thought wow this guy is really into this. As the years went on, one could not help notice how the so called "progress" of telephones and tv sets (my two favorites) dwindled in comparison to the greatness of the 1960s. About 1984 or 85 I began to collect. The sidewalk curbs in my NJ suburb were abundant with tv sets from the 1960s. I only took one, a 1967 Zenith color console. It has been with me since and is currently in dry storage. It will move with me when I move again next year. Also still have my family 1964 RCA Victor portable. Have a couple others but I should have collected many more back in the 80s and 90s. And Western Electric rotary telephones LOL man you could have as many as you wanted in the early 1990s and I took plenty - people just threw them in a box in the basement or the garage. I had so many, every color, desk set, wall set, Princess, Trimline. In 1985, when my parents retired, I also pulled out the 1963 olive green one and the red one my family had since 1963. I still have 10 of these phones and they all work fine. I added one 1972 olive green touch tone for daily use but the rest are rotary and the red one is in current use. My siblings can't fugure out why I am still attracted to these things from our childhood years (but they have come to know that this is the real me LOL). My friends think my place looks "vintage" because I also like great, solid furniture from the 1960s, so I guess my home looks like a trip down Danish Modern memory lane when one visits me. When I show them pics of my '68 Buick Electra 225 they can hardly believe that this huge car was once a normal part of daily driving in the USA and moreso that I have owned it since 1987 and I still drive it now and then. That's my story. Feel free to tell your story. It amazes me that many people much younger than me are truly interested in saving and restoring vintage electronics and cars and I'd like to hear from them.

Great story! Myself:
As a young kid in the 70s I was always fascinated by our color console, a tube chassis GE. I liked to turn the sound down and put my ear up to the cabinet and just listen to it "hum". I liked to peer in the back and watch the tubes glow, feel the heat, smell the dust. A highlight was when the repairman came, usually Mr. Bruce Meredith. I got a sneak peak inside! I loved to DX, getting up early in the morning to twiddle the dial. (around this same time I discovered the joys of DX'ing AM radio with a little transistor set) In the early 80s I discovered old radios. My parents had good friends that had a c.1940 Philco in the living room for decoration. I always snuck behind it while nobody was looking, and thought it was very neat...the places listed on that dial, the way the chassis was mounted on a slant, those big ST tubes. My uncle, meanwhile, had a '38 Philco, one of those "no-stoop" sets with the big round dial. I was in love!

There was an old lean-to behind my father's shop and one winter the roof collapsed. While cleaning out the place he dug out a Zenith "Universal" portable from about '46. He gave it to me to play with. I plugged it in but it just hummed. It was crawling with ants so I sprayed it with the only thing handy, some Raid Wasp & Hornet killer. To this day, if I smell that stuff I get nostalgic! I never did get that Zenith working...but it really lit a fire in me. In time, I found an AA5 Emerson from the late 50s at a yard sale, 50 cents. It worked fine. The notion that old tube electronics actually worked was a big deal to me at the time! From there it just steamrollered. I heard Jack Carney playing bits of Jack Benny on the radio. I bought more sets. All of my allowance now went to my hobby. On a field trip to the library I did some research and learned I was not the only antique radio collector in the world! I joined some clubs, got some newsletters.

One day, when I was maybe 15, I was in a local antique store. I never knew that the upstairs was open to the public. One day the door was open so I ventured up there. I walk down the aisle and up front there is a perfect layout of a 50s living room, including an RCA 21" console from '54. They sold it to me for $25, and agreed to deliver it that same day. It arrived before my parents got home, so I was able to sneak it into the house! Had it for a week before they knew. The set worked well, too. The collection ballooned. My little room became packed, as did most of the other space around the house that I could get away with. Around the time I graduated high school I discovered the town dump-and the alleyways behind the local TV shops. I started dragging home tube color sets by the truckload. (still fairly easy to do around 90-91)

Most of what I had back then is gone, a victim of limited storage space and my own youth and stupidity. But today I have many times more than what I had then. I also have an old car, the 67 Impala that Dad started fixing up for me when I was 15, also in 1987. Lots of other old stuff around here, too! Hope I wasn't too long...

You guys have great stories! Mine is more boring.

I bonded with our 1949 1-128 Sylvania as a kid. I got to help my dad repair it as I got older. I wanted it to last forever. He eventually got rid of it. But slowly. It was taken out of the console and built into a rec-room first.

When I finally found a 1-076 that can be restored into a 1-128 I was happy. But, I tend to anthropomorphize inanimate objects. The Sylvania seemed happy too. When I see a set old enough to have a personality and in danger of going to the dump I feel a need to rescue it. It deserves to live.

I've been doing the same thing for cats. But I usually find other homes for them.

John

I am very new to the scene since I am only 20 but . . .

Growing up we always had Zeniths (mid 70s to early 80s sets) and the first time I unearthed a b&w set I was hooked on TVs. It was a late sixties Sony portable set BTW.

From that point on I used to read up at the library and on the net, then found this site. :thmbsp:

I've always had an interest in electronics. Back in the '80's, we had a 14" Truetone portable color tube set that was juggled between the motorhome and my Parents bedroom. I got off on looking at the glowing tubes through the openings in the back. It was a real treat when it would mess up and Dad would carry it to an older TV man that worked out of a trailer in his backyard. By that time, he was about the only repairman left that would touch a tube set. There was also a late '40's RCA Victor radio/phonograph console here that my parents bought new. It didn't work and I wanted to wreck it so bad I could taste it. Fortunately, my Dad wouldn't let me and I still have the radio today. When my collecting really took off was in the summer of '89 when I received a '36 Silvertone table radio with a big airplane dial. About a month prior to receiving the radio, we were at a family reunion in GA. I mentioned to someone there that I really would like to find one of those old radios with tubes in it. He didn't say much and I forgot about it. One morning, UPS called to say they had a package for us. It turned out that the guy that I mentioned the radio to found one in his barn and sent it to me. I still have it and would never get rid of it. Shortly after that, people started giving me old radios and TVs like crazy. The first B&W TV that I fixed was an early '60's RCA 19" portable and the first color set was a 19" Zenith space command ChromaColor II. I have not come up for air since.

000

I've been interested in electronics since I was a kid. It's really the only thing I've stuck with over the years. I've dabbled with various other things over time, but with everything else I eventually lost interest and gave them up.

Some of my earliest memories are of a 23" Pye Hybrid B&W set in our lounge room. Often peering through the vent holes in the at the tubes and other parts rather than watching what was on screen. That set was eventually replaced by a Philips color set and relegated to a back bedroom. Early one morning when everyone was alseep I took it apart to get a better look at what was inside, then put it back together again before anyone noticed. Later when that set died I took it apart again, though this time I had permission.

Once while hanging around in someone's backyard while my father visited someone I found the chassis from a tube B&W set sitting in an old pram in the long grass. The lady who owned the house said I could have it, but my father would only let me take part of it, so I took the tuner. I carried that tuner around like other kids would carry a stuffed animal or toy car for ages, taking it apart and reassembling it several times.

When I was 7 I discovered the annual road side rubbish collection. I couldn't move anything big on my own so I wheeled around an old pram with a few basic tools and stripped the chassis out of things right there on the side of the road and wheeled it all back home. I used to get into a lot of trouble when my parents got home to find every flat surface in the kitchen or lounge room covered in radios, TV parts and whatever else I had found.

As I got older the area I covered got larger and I got strong/determined enough to start dragging complete sets home. I met the local junk dealers this way, a couple are still doing it today. Occasionally one of them would pass me struggling to move a set and would drop it off at my house for me.

I used to plan my route to school to pass dumpsters and other places I knew there was stuff to be found. I got a few other kids interested in electronics by showing them the stuff that I found, but I don't think any of them stuck with it. Once I even convinced a girl that liked me to help carry a set home. If only I knew then how rare this was, but I was only 11 at the time and was far more interested in the TV than I was in her.

I've been doing this for a long time now and it still excites me when I see the first pictures on a set that I've fixed.

It's that time of year again and there are 8 sets in my car waiting to be unloaded (though only the Siemens 70s set will be worth posting later) and I'm already planning what else to pick up after that.

I past from hobbiest or collector into hoarder long ago, but I can't help myself. I've tried to give it up. Thin the herd and stop accumulating, but I'm always drawn back to it.

I just never got over the little boy "It's Majickal" aspect of it...Sound/pictures coming from a Box...How Kewl is THAT, after all ?!? Yes, yes, I KNOW how it works....But the wide-eyed wonderment is STILL there...

i worked in a repair shop when i was a teenager.i replaced crt s and rebuilt tuners.light work with some deliveries.spent a couple of years there and learned some but not enough to make me a repairman thats for sure!after military and marriage,i settled in to a career as a mechanic.i was badly burned in an accident and while recovering,i was left with no income and at that time 3 children to feed.i started to do some repair work from my home to make a living.the good people in our neighborhood passed my name around and business took off!granted,i wasnt that good,but i sure learned lots and made a decent living.unfortunately those 3 magnavox combos in the living room took a toll on my marriage!never cared for the old stuff until i found a roundie at the salvation army.this was in the mid 80s.it was a ctc 12.like new conditon and the picture was so sharp!30.00.my wife had a fit.wasn t in the budget.so i had to pass.i went back to twisting wrenches.still never forgot that roundie.years passed and i became a sales rep in the basement business.a customer had a sylvania d16 combo in their home.early american and it was pristine.they commented on how much they loved it and wish it was working again.i looked at it and found the horizontal output tube loose in the socket.wiggled it around and some rtv,presto!good as new.very good picture and that repair got me a nice sale that day.the fuse was lit and i remembered how much i really enjoyed this.on that job i found many 80s rca and sylvania sets but nothing really too interesting.still wanted to find a roundie.i stumbled on charlie trahans site by accident.his ctc 15 restoration struck a nerve in me.i wanted to do the same thing.made some contacts through the years and began searching.found this site through charlie too.posted a few times and began corresponding with the absolute best techs and best people on the planet.found my ctc15 with the help of bryan gadow.took time from his day to call me and give me some leads to chase down.i owe him big time for many things he has helped me with.started a small shop for a couple of years until the owner sold the building.i have a small collection of roundies(5) and some zenith radios among other things.i still haven t forgot that ctc12 .i wanted it so badly!some day i will have that same set.until that time i am enjoying the hunt.

I was always fascinated by electronics; since I was a toddler. I started fooling around with small 5-tube radios when I was 7 or 8, then someone gave me an old Magnavox TV when I was about 9. By 13, I had an after-school job at a local TV repair shop, and learned the trade. Shortly after that, I found a 12" round tube Hoffman at a garage sale, and wanted it BAD. I went home to get my mother to come help get it, but someone else was just finishing paying for it when we got back :(. I guess that started a "drive" to get a small round tube set, and then when I got one, I later got another , and another, and so on until my max of 300 sets at age 25. I made TV repair a career for 20 years, and now with no more TV repair, I'm an avocado farmer with TV restoration as a hobby once again. Down to <75 sets, appx. I've nearly repeated my collecting drive a few times, with Toyota cars & trucks with the rare Diesel engines, and now with Cold War era air raid sirens (yes, the 1/2 ton units that sit atop poles!!!!!). Fortunately, I'm too busy to have more than a few sirens, and the Toyota Diesels are down from 14 to 5. Sirens are at 4 and counting............ Marriage also puts a cap on collection hobbies, and happily so, as I've know for the past few years! And somehow; I don't know how, I went in my motorcycle shed last week, and realized I have 8 dirt bikes and 2 street bikes. How'd that happen???

Charles

Only within the couple years or so have I liked old TV's. I have yet to make any decent scores. I've just got a couple 13" or less TV's that really aren't too fantastic. A little 10" '82 Quazar with an off center screen, A 13" '84 Sony that tends to have a fuzzy picture even on direct input through the RF, and a 12" '87 black and white Emerson that works just fine but eh. A TV I really want right now is a smaller rectangular tube console with the little "peg leg" feet. The best TV I have right now is a 2002 25" RCA bought new. I really like this old stuff but if something goes wrong with them I'm screwed since I know nothing about diagnosing and fixing TV's.

Wow thanks for the interesting replies!

My own ability of repairing sets is limited (I can fix just about anything mechanical on my '68 Buick and I have repaired and installed lots of old Western Electric telephones but I never learned enough about tv repair, especially the challenges of color tv).

Next year, when I turn 51, I plan to semi-retire, buy a small house in an "active adult" (that means 50 and over LOL) community in NJ near the shore (and the house I have my eye on will be for sale next year when the current owner moves to Florida. The next door neighbor is a 72 year old guy named Joe who used to own a tv repair shop in Jersey City, NJ and he said he'd get a kick out of teaching me a few things on one of my old sets that does not currently work).

Long live the hobby!

Side note: bgadow mentioned in his story here about hearing Jack Benny on the radio. I'm a big Jack Benny fan. I've collected his radio shows and tv programs for years. Good old Jack...always money hungry, always "39 years old", always scratching on the violin, the long, dead pan stares when he gave when he was amused by something, his car was a 1927 Maxwell (sound effects courtesy of Mel Blanc).

67Zenith, you are lucky to have that opportunity....the old timers know things that we can never learn from a book ! :thmbsp:

As a kid, I learned a lot from those "old timers" that were willing to take time with me. Unfortunately, most of those "old timers" that I used to hang around have now passed away.

Same here. The few " old timers " (say, over age 70) that I made friends with in this hobby are now gone, as are their shops and resources. :thumbsdn:

My uncle played a major part in starting me on electronics, i was about 3 years old when he took apart my portable phonograph to show me how it worked, i was so fascinated! it didn't take long for me to understand how to use a screwdriver and my poor little phonograph was soon strewn all over the home, incredibly though, it survived in pieces inside a box and i rebuilt it to like new conditions a few years ago!

My uncle also took me to the many small (illegal) dumps along rural roads and we had some fun at dismantling old TVs (usually 60s B/W sets) my favourite item was the speaker, i started collecting TV speakers then and i still do it today, i have a ridiculous quantity of them! probably over a thousand.

At some point we took home an entire set, an early 60s 23" Emerson, and we fixed it (it just had a loose aquadag strap) and this became my personal TV set for many years (i still have it) but my parents forbid my uncle to drag home more old TVs.

Then in 1995 when i was 16 years old my grandpa bought me an Haflinger pony (the one in my avatar) with a little cart so that i could move around on my own without riding a "dangerous" motorbike, big mistake! that little cart allowed me to drag home dozens of old TVs, this got me in serious problems with my parents and they cyclically shackled the cart, but at some point they gave in and built a shed for my old TVs!

After this, i almost took home each and every TV i found, i have about 80 sets now, and i still use that old cart whenever i find a big TV or console stereo which doesn't fit in my tiny hatchback car, although that cart is pulled by a mule now as the old Haflinger pony is enjoying retirement.

It all started with a Zenith suitcase portable phonograph that I bought for $1 when I was 4 yrs. old. Then a Apex Model 30 console radio when I was 7(I still have both). I got started collecting TV's when I found a big blond Dumont and a CTC-7 at a flea market that was closing down when I was 9. I bought those for $5 each (those were the days!). Before I knew it I had filled every bit of extra space. I've thinned the herd a few times, but I still have stuff stashed everywhere. Much to the wife's dismay I have almost 100 TV sets, 14 console stereos, approx. 70 old radios, boxes and boxes of parts, even a RCA transcription TT. My wife says I'm a hoarder. I say, "Who, me?"

Then in 1995 when i was 16 years old my grandpa bought me an Haflinger pony (the one in my avatar) with a little cart so that i could move around on my own without riding a "dangerous" motorbike, big mistake! that little cart allowed me to drag home dozens of old TVs, this got me in serious problems with my parents and they cyclically shackled the cart, but at some point they gave in and built a shed for my old TVs!

After this, i almost took home each and every TV i found, i have about 80 sets now, and i still use that old cart whenever i find a big TV or console stereo which doesn't fit in my tiny hatchback car, although that cart is pulled by a mule now as the old Haflinger pony is enjoying retirement.

The Halfinger pony in the avatar is really beautiful.

67Zenith, you are lucky to have that opportunity....the old timers know things that we can never learn from a book ! :thmbsp:

Speaking of old timers, I lived on 1st Avenue in NYC until 2006 and there was a small tv repair shop on the avenue, I think it was called Jensen's TV Repair. I don't know if it is still there but it was an amazing experience to walk into the shop. There was a sign that said "since 1954" and also a huge illuminated RCA Victor sign over his work bench. The counter had an old 1950s style NCR cash register on it and on the wall was a 1950s Western Electric "Space Saver" rotary telephone - both the register and phone in working order. Behind the counter was a doorway leading to the stock room, the doorway was covered by green drapery and I'd watch him part the drapery to go back there and look for parts and all I could see was a wall of old tube boxes. He wouldn't let me go back there to see all his old stock. He wasn't the friendliest guy. He did good work though. I don't know if his shop is there anymore, he was up in years in 2006. I asked him if he really had been there since 1954 and he just said "yep". Had he been friendlier it would have been nice to talk with him but that old guy was all business, no talk.

Same here. The few " old timers " (say, over age 70) that I made friends with in this hobby are now gone, as are their shops and resources. :thumbsdn:

Same here... For me, it was a few retired World War II tech guys who lived in the neighborhood, and would often be seen puttering in their garages with old HAM equipment or old TVs. I befriended a few of them, and that was a great benefit in learning about older stuff, that I couldn't ever have learned in tech school in the 80s.

Charles

As many of you know, my Dad was a TV repairman for over 40 years. I grew up in a house where the garage was the TV shop (until Dad went "legit" in the 70's) and the coffee table magazines were Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics, and Electronics Technician Dealer. Dad welcomed us all kids into the shop to learn - I was forever entertained at the tube checker, a Sencore TC-141 - and I still remember common tube settings!

I got my first "save" at 12 years old. It was a GE 21" BW console from the 50's - a two piece mahogany cabinet. I found it at a yard sale for $1.50. Dad re-capped it for me using caps I salvaged from junk sets while he worked. It sprang to life and served as a summer set/summer space heater in my bedroom until I was convinced to sell it at a yard sale for $15.

My collecting really kicked off in my 40's - I now have a RCA CTC16 roundie, a GE Portacolor, a Setchell Carlson 23" BW consolette, and a 7" BW Motorola set that needs to be restored. I've also picked up a ton of vintage test gear along the way - 5" Oscilloscopes (9), Signal Generators (3), Color Bar/Crosshatch generators (4) and a bunch of other assorted gear and parts.

Semper Receiveratus Thermionicatus....

Cheers,

One old guy who stands out in my memory was a WW-II type tech as well. He and another guy owned a small shop that was in town since the 40's IIRC...lots of cool stuff in there !! I remember my fascination when he showed me a battery-powered boatanchor radio...heavy as lead and used odd batteries that he no longer had. We spoke of Radio Row NYC, tubes, and vinyl records. The other guy in that shop never, ever said a word and was constantly working on stuff. He also sat extremely close to the workbench TV (an old Hitachi color) and watched golf in the background.

Anyway, the shop was a real estate office the last time I passed by, and I have been informed that my friend lost his battle with heart disease.

One can only wonder what became of all the service lit., tube caddies, radios, etc !

I lived with my grandparents as a kid in the 80s. My mother and father we always around, but they both worked, so I stayed with the grandparents instead of "daycare". Like many Italians, the basement was a "duplicate" of the upstairs (just without any bedrooms) complete with bath, kitchen and living room. The basement had all the old (50s) blonde furniture, i.e. Old Stomberg-Carlson 1946 Am/FM1/FM2 radio, Western Electric phone, Zenith tube TV, 1940s Philco fridge, etc.

Upstairs was very late-60s, danish modern. There was a 1968 Zenith console, and I remembered there were a bunch of extra Zenith tubes in yellow boxes stored in the drawer of my grandmother's solid walnut danish-mod end table. I was generally not allowed to touch things in this room, lol. The TV room had the daily-watcher Chromacolor set. They only bought quality stuff... No imported junk in that house.

My parents, God love 'em, were like most "young" people. They had hideous particle-board simulated-wood 80s furniture. Even as a kid, I thought this stuff was ugly and cheap compared to the stuff my grandparents had. They did have a Zenith Chromacolor II. Even so, it was a price-leader 19" el cheapo. Not very interesting to a kid who has seen the inside of a 20-tube, 23" color Zenith with all it's dial lights, tubes, little hidden doors and real wood.

My grandfather was the kind of guy who could fix his own TV, and when he couldn't, he always "knew a guy" who usually lived in an interesting neighborhood. He fixed his own cars, did his own cement work, built stuff from wood, tended his own garden and we made our own sauce. We barely watched TV, and when we did, it was something that was already old like "I spy" or "Kojack".

My friend's parents drove boring, small, gray, ugly cars. My grandfather had a beautiful jade-green Chrysler New Yorker. His older brother had a tri-tone copper Mercury Grand Marquis coupe and visited often. We listened to Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Louie Prima. They were WWII vets who smoked camels and let me sit in the car, and took me "places" with them.

Is it hard to imagine who I would take after?

I'm glad to say that things remain largely the same in 2009. He doesn't drive his (Hemi) 300C very far any more, but we did get our cars together for a group shot recently...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/More%20stupid%20cars/1195995871.jpg

My grandmother has passed, but the furniture remains the same. He has a total piece of crap 32" RCA set now that I want to replace with a decent flatscreen. (If there is one) I hate that his generation is dying off so quickly. The "stuff" helps me remember them.

Carmine: I love the story about your grandparents. Your grand dad sounds "top drawer", as they used to say in the 1950s to express the best of the best. Nice that their Danish Modern furniture is still in place. What happened to their 1968 Zenith 23"??

My whole place is 1960s Danish Modern (mostly handed down by relatives who once had good taste) and the furniture is solid as can be, still looking great today.

I couldn't help but to LOL when you stated that your parents had 1980s "hideous particle board, simulated wood funiture". It made me laugh because the relatives who handed down their great Danish Modern furniture to me all bought particle board junk from discount outlets when they retired. I just don't understand it!

Me neither, 67-Z. Sorta like when my old nighbors give me their minty old records, since their kid or grandkid bought them a shiny-new iPod ! Hehehe . . .

Great story, Carmine. My grandparents had some American and some Japanese sets, but the main thing was that they believed in repairing stuff and hanging onto cherished items, instead of just getting new things. We need this mentality nowadays more than ever.

I love old furniture, the type with the intricately carved faces and designs. Hernia-central on moving day but it's built to also serve as a fallout shelter in a time of need ! :D:yes:

I bought my first set, an 8-TS-30 at a swap meet in the late 70's, I wasn't a "collector" at that point, just interested in what looked like the oldest TV ever to me. :scratch2:
I added a couple more sets along the way, a 721-TS and an 8-T-241 I think, (whichever one had the sliding doors) still not really collecting as such, also I had no idea how to fix them at that point.

I sold all three of my sets in 1996 or so figuring I'd never be able to find parts for them or figure out how to repair them.

Then I found the Rec.antique.radio+phono newsgroup, after that I found the Antique Radio Forum, then I found another old set and I was off again.

Then eBay came along... now I have no free space left. :D

I by fate still have the set I grew up with a set my father puchased new in 1963. It is a dead on twin for the set Charles has posted about. Space command 400 just like his. As a little boy I watched Batman and Bonanza in color on that set. It was the only set in the house untill 1974 when he puchased a 25" Zenith CCII. The set was moved to my brothers room, I think that's what saved it because if I got my hands on it would have junked. I have never fixed up the set but I turn it on now and then. It is watchable. Someday I will get the remote working again and change the CRT.
I also started early and was very much into electronics even before high school. In my teens I worked for a Zenith dealer from 1975 to 1980. I did just about everything as a helper there learned a lot. More then I learned in school.

Zenith2134: The minty old LPs sound real good! And since you get them for free from senior citizens, that's even better! Side note here - a guy in his 80s in my apartment building recently passed away and his grand daughter cleaned out his apartment. She was tossing out a box of about 30 reel-to-reels from the 1960s - all the greats, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, lots of instrumentals like Jackie Gleason mood music, etc. I asked her for the box and she laughed and gave it to me. She didn't even know what they were! She asked me "how do you play those things?". I told her I have a 1966 Webcor. She shrugged her shoulders.

3Guncolor: Working for a Zenith dealer from 1975-80 must have been a great experience. Looking back, I wish I had worked part time at one of the local tv dealers or tv repair shops but as a teenager I was totally involved in learning about the mechanics of V8 engines. I worked at a place called 1001 Auto Parts and then at a Phillips 66 service station where I learned a lot about cars of the 60s and 70s - but I always regret not having put any time into learning about tv repair when I was younger. I guess someday I will catch up!

My mother became ill Thanksgiving Day 2002. She died Thanksgiving Day 2003. That year was the worst year of my life. (Those of you who have had to watch a kind, loving parent die slowly, by degrees, know what I mean). One of the things that provided me with some solace during that period was music. I primarily listen to vinyl, and the only place you can find vinyl nowadays, is at thrift stores, garage sales, etc. Well, one day I was at a thrift store looking for some LP's when I noticed an old Marantz receiver sitting on the floor. It had a sticker on it that said it was non-working. The price was $2.00. I bought it on the spot. Now, here's the thing: up to that moment, I never, never, worked on vintage electronics. I knew nothing about fixing them. Zero. Zip. Nada. To this day, I still don't know what possessed me to buy the thing. Nevertheless, I took it home, and began to dismantle it. I took it completely apart. Then I put it back together. Guess what, it still didn't work. But....... BUT......while I was in the process of dismantling it and putting it back together, It took my mind completely off the misery my mother was in. It was therapeutic. After she passed away, dismantling and reassembling vintage electronic equipment was no longer therapeutic, it became a fun hobby, a hobby I enjoy to this very day. Oh, by the way, I have figured out how to make them work. Probably the strangest post you'll read on this thread. But heck, you asked.........

Don't know how it posted twice?????

I guess I've always been inclined to collect things. When I was a little kid, my Dad gave me all his old 45's, and then my grandmother's friends gave me their old records. That started my record collection. At times I've actively collected stamps, typewriters, old telephones and old cameras. I always liked old radios, never could find any when I was younger but had an uncle who owned a radio/stereo repair shop and learned some stuff from him. Got serious about fixing them a couple of years ago after he passed on, and am now (slowly) learning about televisions.

I've been interested in electronics from a young age. When I was about 7 years old I was given a "golf ball" shaped transistor radio as a present. Within a couple of days, it was in a dozen or more pieces and I was in a lot of trouble!
The next step from there was the roadside rubbish collections. I used to spend hours riding around the neighbourhood on my bicycle with a box on the back for carting my finds back home. Of course, complete TV's were impossible to transport but the odd chassis did get salvaged.
The neighbours and friends did give me some complete sets to play around with. I still have the PCB's from a 1970 HMV hybrid B&W TV that was fire damaged that I was given.
My fondness for Kriesler (an Australian brand) and Philips products can probably be traced back to the many happy hours I spent as a teenager with my best friend poking around inside his families old TV's. It was at this time that I first saw the complex beauty of the Philips K9 colour TV chassis.

I gave up the hobby for a few years due to work commitments and a family move which forced a reduction of my hoarded junk, though thankfully, I did keep the best of it.

In the last couple of years I have been engaging in this hobby with renewed enthusiasm. I am interested in old technology generally, but have decided to concentrate on collecting early colour sets (for Australia that means 1973-77) as they are generally cheap (or free) and unappreciated at the moment. This period also saw early semiconductor technology pushed to its limits and construction methods were interesting.

I guess I have my dad and great-grandfather to thank for my interest. Dad's been into electronics in one form or another as long as I've known of - electrician in a steel mill, ham radio operator, TV repairman, and has always dabbled in computers. We always had old sets around the house that came from one place or another. If I had half of those sets now I'd have a pretty respectable collection. My first taste of TV repair was a late 60's Zenith rectangular console. Dad had gotten it from someone who snapped the neck off the CRT going through a doorway. He replaced the CRT and had been doing some other work on it when I decided I wanted to get in on the act too. Don't remember much except a bright flash and a heavy diaper, but I've been hooked ever since.

My great-grandfather was another tinkerer, with a basement electronics shop full of tubes and radio parts. Although he'd given up the hobby, I was always welcome to come over and mess with whatever I could get my hands on. We would occasionally play with AA5 clock radios and whatnot, sometimes creating more smoke than results. :)

The first old TV I ever came across was a metal-cased Admiral portable in a dumpster, around 1995 or so. Replaced the cord and it worked (quite well, actually). Still going today, at least the last time I fired it up. Needs to be recapped and gone through, though. I've picked up a few more since then, including a couple Admiral consoles, and my daily-driver Chromacolor II. Still on the lookout for a Zenith roundie - maybe some day.

-Jim

Funny how we all were fascinated by those little glowing glass vials as children. Myself included! Does anyone get "hooked" like that with transistorized equipment exclusively?

I have ALWAYS been the type to tear things apart, from the moment I could hold a screwdriver. As a toddler, my parents had to put pins in the sliding lid of their Magnavox console (Harwick cabinet, 1967) or else I'd stick my hand in there and start fiddling with everything as it played. I literally cut my teeth on the edge of that cabinet peering over the top to watch the records spin 'round. My dad still has that console, and I just recapped an identical spare R204-20 chassis for it to extend its life and bring back the absent treble of the original. He's about 6 hrs away so pulling the original chassis for a restoration wasn't an option for me. I had a fascination with that stereo that persists to this day in all things Magnavox (go figure). Well, at least "original" Magnavox in the mixed-case letters, pre-Philips takeover.

In 5th grade, my mother took me to a local museum where there was a guy exhibiting jukeboxes victrolas and antique radios. I remember he had a Seeburg C, and AMI "A", and a Seeburg trashcan. Collecting them had never occurred to me since my parents were very "minimalist" types who didn't believe in carrying "junk" through life. Oh boy there's another monster that got unleashed.....it started a 30 years (and counting) fascination with antique radios and jukeboxes!

My first "tube" radio was a gift from a family friend. We were visiting her dad's workshop and I saw the AM/FM Silvertone Catalog #20 (182.something chassis). She observed how I lit up looking at it and arranged to acquire it from her dad. Yep, I've still got it today! The school's maintenance man was a former TV tech, and I learned a ton from him. From there it has spread into 30+ radios, 9 jukeboxes, and 9 tube TVs. I have to wonder the whole collecting thing isn't some form of OCD. To some it's hoarding. To me, it's collecting.

i've been into hi-fi since ~'70 but was always happy just to have one working version of whatever format player i had.

since last fall, i've started amassing 2, 3, and more coming, copies of players i already have.
strange thing is, last fall is when i found and signed up for AK.
hmmm, think there's any correlation? :scratch2:

nah!