You found some excellent goodies this weekend. And, that washer and dryer will probably last another 40 years. Some folks from the church recently had a washer and dryer set from around '76 (don't remember the brand) and the dryer finally gave out, although I'm sure it could have been repaired. Of course, the lady of the house had to have a matching set; so, a perfectly good washer ended up going to the dump when the new guaranteed not to last more than 5 years appliances were delivered. BTW, the same couple still has a mid '70's Zenith CCII console that's already been promised to me either when it dies or they decide to upgrade.

And, that light is very cool, as well. My house was built in '63 and originally had a pull down light over the kitchen table, even though it was not near as nice as yours. I think it was replaced, for some reason, in the early '90's.

And, I''d almost bet that the TV's work. I've been hoping to once again find one of those B&W space command Zenith's. Once again, it would be nice if I could rewind back to the early to mid '90's and save what I was finding back then.

...

If my GF didn't insist on doing the decorating, my living room most likely would resemble what Doug has going on there. Including that model Zenith console, one of my faves. Thanks for sharing!

Wow... and they had a green Dodge Coronet to match that washer/dryer! You found some great items, Doug!

Doug: Trying to send you a message... says your box is full....

Doug: Trying to send you a message... says your box is full....

I cleared it, should be good.

Thanks for the comps too!

Andy, you have a cool looking place. Nice job on the old fridge too!

I'd have grabbed those three IBM Selectric Typewriters also... they are excellent machines!

That washer is the style with the agitator that goes up and down instead of side to side. They are not the quietest machines around. Most of those have been junked so you were lucky to find a set that clean. The timer may just need a motor if it doesnt advance. You can replace the motor without replacing the whole timer. The dryer is gas also. Now all you need to find is an avocado green Frigidaire 3 door side by side refrigerator,the ones with the full length woodgrain handles and a Frigidaire double oven electric range and you will be set. Those tvs are very nice too.
John

I'd have grabbed those three IBM Selectric Typewriters also... they are excellent machines!


yep that was what I got to use on my 1st job back in the late 70's

Great finds! I really like that light. The washer and dryer are in great shape, I love the old appliances. I have a new dryer and it sucks. Is that photo taken at your new house? I spy a Lawn-Boy next to the Coronet:D

Great finds! I really like that light. The washer and dryer are in great shape, I love the old appliances. I have a new dryer and it sucks. Is that photo taken at your new house? I spy a Lawn-Boy next to the Coronet:D

My friends mothers 13 year old Amana side by side refrigerator just died when my aunts almost 30 year old Whirlpool refrigerator never quits.

...

i have a monitor top that works perfect also. needs a new door gasket. only time you know it,s working is when you hear it kick on then you have to get close to the compressor to hear it running. steve

We have one at the shop right now, a fill-in that we are going to paint. It runs. I have strongly thought about getting one, maybe to use in the office for sodas. There was one on CL last year, also working, for about $120 but money has just been too tight. That compressor is just one of those "perfect" designs, but with time they messed with it and reliablity was lost.

Didn't these use sulfur dioxide and methyl formate for the refrigerant? You might want to evacuate if you accidentally break or puncture a line. :zoom:

John

Didn't these use sulfur dioxide and methyl formate for the refrigerant? You might want to evacuate if you accidentally break or puncture a line. :zoom:

John

yes they do. steve

...

That is just too cool-I have always had my heart set on a getting a monitor top, or even a Crosley Icey-Ball. Looking at yours, I can see why they told us as kids not to climb inside of an old fridge-looking at that heavy door and latch, that thing could easily become your tomb!

So, Doug, when are we gonna have a picture tour of your vintage house?

I've seen it, it's gonna be a palace when he gets all his gear moved over. That Chinese cabinet RCA set really sets the living room off, it's a nice touch. Hey Doug, how many of your sets do you have moved over so far?

There was one sale today in Skokie at 9523 Leamington Ave. I found a nice clean 25" Chromacolor II table set with the cart up in one of the bedrooms. Its a 25GC45 chassis, model G4740W and it has the varactor tuner. This is my 2nd 25" steel cabinet CCII set that I found this year at the estates. Rather unusual that I've found two of the big full sized table sets when usually they are impossible to find. This one is a 1976 by model but was built in May, 1975 and was also a victim of the infamous white safety capacitor. This one was replaced under warranty as seen by the yellow tag on back "4 lead capacitor modified". So its kind of nice having an early run CCII chassis in a table model. Having that Gusdorf cart too made it a complete set up and it doesn't look like this TV saw much use either. It works fine like a Zenith usually does. All it needed was a vertical size touch up. Got the whole thing for 10 bucks, my kind of deal. It never occured to me until just now, but in looking at my pictures, the previous owner had the TV sitting on the cart backwards. The "finished" side of the cart was facing the wrong way!

The room with the blue textured wool carpeting is one of the bedrooms in my new house. So its going to still be in its appropriate "habitat" so to speak...
Also, thanks for the compliments on the house. Im currently working on fixing up some things still, once I get it to a happy medium, I'll definately be sharing some photos with all of you as the house is basically all original from '64 and it'll stay that way, just cleaning it up a bit, some new paint in the rooms and clean the original carpets which are actually in excellent condition.

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Congratulations & nice save! For the exception of your set having a chromatic switch, it looks nearly identical to my '79 "K" line steel cabinet Zenith that I recently found. One can never have too many CCII's!

Typical Zenith quality. Still working.. Nice score Doug!
P.S. Nice house! I dig the decor.

This one is a 1976 by model but was built in May, 1975 and was also a victim of the infamous white safety capacitor. This one was replaced under warranty as seen by the yellow tag on back "4 lead capacitor modified".

I don't think that was a warranty replacement - Zenith TechTips announced the 4 lead kits with the "modified" tag in late 1977 (It's a Jan 78 TechTips). We replaced a TON of the safety caps in the early 80's and attached the tags.
BTW, the metal cabinet sets were popular with hotels and the military - great for barracks common areas where the sets saw a lot of abuse. Our System III test jig was a CCII (Duramodule) metal cabinet fitted with a Sys III CRT/yoke combo and two tuner clusters - one a DA and the other a MT version. A Zenith service seminar rep showed us how to build one after we saw the one Zenith used in their roadshow.

Cheers,

First sale I went to was after work on Friday 7-30 in Elmhurst at 465 ridge rd. I picked up a Motorola table AM FM stereo/phono unit. It was plugged in and working in the basement on the shelf that it was most likely custom built for. I never saw a Motorola table model like this before so it was a nice addition to the collection. Like all real Motorola products, they were made at the Franklin Park plant, which was essentially right down the street from where I found it. Model ST-82A from 1964.
On Saturday I went to two sales. The first was in Northbrook at 2215 Valencia. This is the sale with the little 12" Sears tube type color set. It was sitting on a shelf in an office, still plugged in and wired up to the outdoor antenna still. These didn't have istant on, so the TV's life was spared. The set is like new still and hardly ever used, it still works fine and it has all the lables on it still. While I couldn't easily find anything with a date code, I had to look it up in the sams index. Its sams #1079 which is from 1970 and is very early in the index as 1970 sams start with folder #1076. I'd imagine this TV is probably a 1969 model. It is a Toshiba made set too, 562.10428, and many components have the Toshiba name. Its in a nice metal cabinet with big ventilation slots on the side and has 14 tubes in it, so theres barely any solid state in this one! It was $20. I also took a picture so you could compare the competition this set had in 1969 with the comparable Zenith 14". Very cool little set and definately one of the rarer TV finds. There can't be too many of these left, kind of amazing that it was still set up for regular use 41 years later...
The last find was a real dissapointment. It was in Broadview at 2240 22nd Ave. I went in the house and didn't find any TV's, but I found a MIB portable zenith stereo phono but it was sold. Oh well, so I continued to look around and I found a few tubes that I knew were from a late 60's color set. Just for the heck of it, I asked the ladys running the sale if there was an old Zenith TV in the house. Sure enough "Oh yes, but it didn't work so we put it outside for the garbage yesterday, its still behind the house if you want it". I figured it was just some newer pbc set, but nope. I walked outside and I was totally bummed out when I turned the corner to see what was just 24 hours previously a mint condition 1969 Zenith console color set. The idiots drug it out of the house and slid it on the ground tearing up the top and then to add insult to injury, we got a nice rain fall that evening and the TV got destroyed with water. When I went to tilt the TV back, about 2 gallons of water poured out the set which is all the water you see in the photo under the TV. So when I stood it back up, the bottom was so soft that the leg just snapped right off because of the soft soggy wood as the set was just sitting there upside down, not to mention all that particle board just expanded and it'll never be right again. I still took it to get the tuner and chassis. Its a shame as this is one of my favorite control panel layouts as you don't find this one too often. I guess the real annoyance about this whole thing is that the TV actually had a $10 price tag on it and I came to find out someone tried it at the sale and it didn't work, so they just throw it outside to get it out of the house? WHY? THE SALE ISN'T OVER YET, GIVE IT A CHANCE, YOU NEVER KNOW! It makes no sense to me why they felt it neccessary to do that. I also get annoyed with dumpsters in driveways when I pull up to an estate sale, you look in the dumpster and the entire contents of the home is in there, yet when you go inside, there is nothing but the useless crap like glass figurines and misc linens and some ugly 80's wall pictures. If you're going to have an estate sale, why not let the customers decide what gets saved or not? After the sale, then it would be justified to do whatever it is you want with the stuff as it didn't sell. I guess that kind of logic makes too much sense for most people.
Either way, the Sears set was a great find as it would much harder to find one of those again vs. a late 60's zenith console...


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1969 Sears (Toshiba) 12" color TV
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The comparable competition:
1969 Japanese made metal cabinet Sears/Toshiba Vs. 1969 American made metal cabinet Zenith 15Y6C15
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How nice!!! The small Zenith tv near the Sears portable set just look exactly like my beloved 15Y6C15 Zenith tv! I cared so much about it and it was stolen from my garage...:tears:
I would love so much to find another...

What a shame about that Zenith console. One really would think that the people running these sales wouldn't get "dumpster happy" until after the sale. After all, the object of a sale is to make money. It's a little hard to sell something if it's left out in the rain to ruin or thrown in a dumpster. Sometimes, It's hard to hit a happy medium. We either have the greedy "antiques road show" sellers who think everything is priceless or we have the type of seller demonstrated here who thinks, "no one will want this obsolete non-working TV". At least maybe the chassis, tuner, CRT, and knobs can be used to bring another TV back to life.

At least you were able to save the Motorola stereo and the Sears TV as I suspect both of those are not very common. Years ago, I had a Motorola console stereo with that same control layout; but, I've never seen a portable version. I suspect '64 was the end of the road for tube type Motorola Stereo's, radio's, and phonograph's.

I knew that Sears set had tubes in it!

Hey Doug. What chassis is in that Zenith. Maybe it's a 14A9C50. You told me that was one of the models you didn't have. Dave.

Doug, would you happen to have a pic of the 1968 version of that wet Zenith console TV? My grandmother had the damaged one you have here, but our first color set, I think, was a '68 model. It was a wood console, but like your metal cabinet X4204, I want to say the three control knobs were mounted above the tuning knobs, and the screen did that sort of odd kaleidoscope-winking effect when you switched it on and off.

Hey Doug. What chassis is in that Zenith. Maybe it's a 14A9C50. You told me that was one of the models you didn't have. Dave.

Hey Dave,

This one is a 16Z8C50. You're right though, I don't have any 14A9C50 chassis sets and it is still one of the models I really want to find.

I'm still bummed out over this set getting wrecked like it did. The thing was mint before the hackers drug it outside scraping it along the drive way and leaving it in the rain...
I don't have any zeniths with this control panel layout and it was one I've always wanted, but no sense in keeping it around as the cabinet is junk now. I've had a couple like this in the past, but they were sets that had been used for parts by TV shops that I got when I was a kid.

...

Hey Doug, what are you going to do with that Zenith? I'd like to have it for parts.

Doug, as usual, I'm amazed an the cool vintage electronics you find. I also like the look of that hanging lamp to the right of the Motorola stereo.

Thanks. I thought that was a cool lamp too but I wasn't able to get it. Lots of the stuff at this sale was extremely high priced.

Most of the fun I think is just the search for the stuff, going to all of the different sales throughout the suburbs.

As far as the Zenith TV is concerned, I was going to part it out and hang onto the chassis and components, and if the CRT is good, Im going to hang onto that too. I made some nice shelves at the house to store just parts chassis and CRT's so I can keep them all neat and organized.

The TV thats similar to the table model X4504 can be found in an earlier posting here that was an estate sale find on 5-28-10. It was a 20" mini console that fits the description you had. I gave it miniman82 shortly after I found it. I don't have any other ones like the one described. I might have a picture of one in a '68 brochure though.

Had a good day in Waukegan. Wasn't even gonna stop, but on a whim my wife and I followed the signs to an estate sale just off of Sheridan Rd (near Greenwood Ave). The house was very nice, and was itself being sold for less than $130k. Nice brick place, would probably be worth a quarter mil if rehabed. :scratch2:

Inside I found a Zenith, a VT-71, and a Philco AA5 radio/record player.

The Zenith works, but I hear hissing and smell ozone. Probably old HV wiring or something. I can't tell what model is it, because the stickers all fell off some time ago. The antennas are good, and it even came with a bowtie UHF. :D

The VT-71 looks good, aside from what looks like an infestation of roaches at some point. I think all that's left is ancient eggs, but I'm not taking any chances- it's staying otuside till I get it cleaned up. As always, the foam deal is saggy, and will need to be replaced. Do they still have those for sale at ETF classifieds? The 7JP4 has a good getter and the filament lights up, but there are 2 broken pins onthe socket. They look repairable, but I may need a new socket. HV transformer looks good as well, but I can tell it's well used- every single tube is a different brand. :D

The Philco radio is interesting: it's an AA5, but if you pull the front flap down and release 2 spring loaded brass pegs, the whole top swings open to reveal a record player.

Total? $85 for all three.

Very nice haul! That Zenith will make a great picture when it's fixed. I used to have one of those 7" Motorola's; but, it was missing many parts and I let someone have it in order to fix their set. Those Philco radios with the slide in record slot are neat. They made them in '46 and '48 as well as phono only and console versions. There was also a "talking book" version for the blind that played 33 and 78 rpm.

Interesting info on the radio, thanks! There's still an old Magnavox mono console with magic tuning eye, but I'm not interested in it. FYI.

that zenith rules!those sets sold like mad back in the 70s and 80s.everyone of those went quickly.once out on the floor,they were snapped up by those"i only want a solid state set"guys.they couldnt deny the picture those sets delivered.congrats on this find!

Is that not the famous "Bing Crosby" Philco?

Sure looks like one. Looks restorable.

Is that not the famous "Bing Crosby" Philco?

Sure looks like one. Looks restorable.

For sure it is...I have been looking for the ad that shows Bing sliding a 78 RPM record into the front slot... no luck! anybody have a copy?

update: Here is a restoration report that shows the famous picture:
http://www.radioremembered.org/Philco46-1201.html

jr

Nice save on the 4 tuber! You can never have too many of those, they have the best picture! I'm sure the focus resistor is cracked and is leaking to ground, its so common of a problem on those. Take the resistor off, clean it up and give it a nice heavy coating of RTV silcone all the way around, it'll stop the corona trouble.

once out on the floor, they were snapped up by those "i only want a solid state set" guys.


Guess the joke's on them, this one's got tubes. :D

yes,thats the point.back then,no one wanted a tube set.solid state was the latest rage."i am looking for a solid state portable for the bedroom".when they would start browsing,the zeniths were the one they always migrated to.the picture sold the set.they were amazing.again,the name zenith brings a look of excitement to the faces of us old timers.

the name zenith brings a look of excitement to the faces of us old timers.



Yes, it does. :yes:

My grandfather on my mom's side had all Zenith stuff for a long time: Zenith solid state console TV, Zenith receiver/record player, and Allegro 1000 speakers. I remember it well. Then the TV crapped out (acutally the picture was just too dim to watch anymore), so he got a Quazar. :sigh:

I had mostly Zenith entertainment gear for a long time myself, until the company was taken over by Gold Star and the quality went downhill -- fast.

I still collect vintage Zenith radios (have several vintage sets and two antiques, all but one of which work very well), but I wouldn't give two cents for today's "Zenith" branded flat-panel TVs. Before it went out of business a couple months ago, the laundromat up the street from me had a late-model (probably, even likely or certainly, manufactured by GS) 19" "Zenith" CRT television on a wall mount. I couldn't help wondering how long that set would last :scratch2:, as they had it on all day long and into part of the evening -- from eight a.m. until eight p.m. seven days a week.

BTW, I also remember the Zenith integrated stereo systems well, as I had a 4-mode system with Allegro 100 speakers, eight-track stereo tape deck, phono, single cassette, and AM/FM radio. That system served me well for 17 years (1982-1999), then I moved and bought an Aiwa bookshelf system. Should have kept the Zenith. The built-in cassette decks quit in the Aiwa system after seven years; I was informed by a local TV repair shop that it would cost close to $200 to repair the decks, which was close to what I paid for the entire system originally, now ten and a half years ago. When the second deck finally quit for good, I bought a used stereo cassette deck and patched it into the aux inputs of my bookshelf system. Works every bit as well as, if not better than, the built-in dual decks. :yes:

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Doug, which took place in this picture appears to be such as the home of President in my old country! This must be a person would be very rich and powerful has this nation. Jabara televisions is proof :D:thmbsp:



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I note in this funny picture of the story of... ants The television doznes micro-enterprises appear to be people are under way on underneath a beautiful carpet or al-Naml! :yes::banana:

Estate sale at 5201 S. Lorel Ave, in Chicago yesterday. Upon pulling up to the house, I could already tell there was an old TV...in the front room. Just by seeing the back cover I could tell it was an RCA of some kind. Sure enough, it was. Its a 1968 model GL700W and it has a CTC-28 chassis and its been sitting in that front room since day one. Its amazing to me how this happens, factor in this example: This TV has been in this house since 1968, in that same room...it's 42 years of someones life that essentially never changed. Think of everything in your life that has happened in the past and this TV was sitting there this whole time when so much has changed everywhere else... It didn't end there though. It was one of those sales where there must have been no family left, so the family photos were also for sale. I flipped through a bunch of family photos and sure enough I found a few pictures of the original owners in their front room with the TV and Christmas tree in the background. So I took those too to have as a pedigree. These photos were in the walgreens envelope but there were no dates on anything or the envelope, however, some of the other photos were of their street under some massive snowfall. I try to know my Chicago history and I know that there was a record huge snow storm in January, 1979 and these photos looked to be it, so Im going to assume these photos here are from Christmas 1978 which would make sense that its all on the same roll of film. So we're seeing a 10 year old TV already in these old pictures and the owners were already in their late 50's by then. Not sure if it works though, but its in like new condition and was very well cared for. The lady (Bev) running the sale is one of the best ones ones around, she's always been the nicest of the estate sale people and always gives me the sets for dirt cheap. Whenever I see "Estate Sales by Beverly" I know it'll be a good one because she only does the sales where nothing has ever changed, which are the best ones for obvious reasons...

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Very nice set and I'll bet it still works. And, it looks like the CRT is cataract-free. I was thinking of the estate sales of today, where the inside of a home often looks the same today as it did 40+ years ago. Then, I think about our society today and how estate sales will be 40 years from now. I think we will find very few sales in which the house has remained the same for several decades. Heck, most people in my age group think they must have a new "this" and a new "that" everytime the wind changes direction. And, forget about them staying in the same house for 40 years. They get bored with whatever they're living in and obtain another "bigger and better" house every few years.

Great find! Looks like that tv moved about 8 feet to the right in the last 30+ years:D Those pictures are really cool, the tv still looks just as new now as it did then. I too find it amazing how some houses don't change for decades but everything else does. It's kinda like those abandoned houses that still have stuff in them like everyone just left in a hurry, the world moves on but day after day those places are stuck in time until they rot away or someone bulldozes it.

Nice find.

I have been searching for the b/w version off that set for some time. It is one of the sets that was in our home when I was a child.

The b/w version is the KCS 183 Series, Model CQ-227W, and uses a 22vabp4 crt.

The cabinets of the b/w and color sets are identical, only the legs are slightly different, and of course the slight diffference of the "mask", as RCA refers to it in their literature. Of course the cabinet is masonite with American walnut grain applied, and the grills flanking the crt/bezel are plastic, but still a nice set.

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I was thinking of the estate sales of today, where the inside of a home often looks the same today as it did 40+ years ago. Then, I think about our society today and how estate sales will be 40 years from now. I think we will find very few sales in which the house has remained the same for several decades. Heck, most people in my age group think they must have a new "this" and a new "that" everytime the wind changes direction. And, forget about them staying in the same house for 40 years. They get bored with whatever they're living in and obtain another "bigger and better" house every few years.

The house I grew up in screamed 1950s until it was sold (by my late father's widow--long story and OT) ten and a half years ago. No kidding--there was old salt-and-pepper color carpeting in the living room and the hallway to the back of the house that was worn down to the underlayment, the original furnace, kitchen cabinets that dated at least to the '50s, the original linoleum flooring in the kitchen, and other remnants of that decade which were never updated (except the paint on the living room and bedroom walls), as I said, until I moved out in 1999 and the place was sold. I'll never forget the first time I saw the house after it was sold. I had gone to a barbershop in the neighborhood to get a haircut, and decided after I was finished to take a look at the street I grew up on. Don't you know it, I nearly walked past my boyhood home, and would have if I hadn't seen the address (1745) on the new mailbox next to the front door. No kidding; the new owners had done so much remodeling in that house, at least as much as I could see on the outside, that I did not recognize the place, despite having lived there 40 years of my life (I'm now 54 and have lived in a small apartment 35 miles east of downtown Cleveland since November 1999; I don't miss that house one bit).

Is there such a thing as love-at-first-sight? If so, I've experienced it twice: once for my current gf, and the other when I just saw that RCA that Doug picked up this weekend. Beautiful set, and a great find!

This sale was at 8220 W 89th Ave in Hickory Hills, IL. This is an early 1964 RCA Victor CTC-15 round screen. This was a really nice original house built in 1962. The TV was in the basement which fortunately was very dry and clean, so the TV has no problems at all. Its in excellent original condition still and was very well cared for. Its a model 14-G724-MV and I think someone in the other thread mentioned the name is "The Randolph" and it has the CTC-15AA chassis to be exact. I've never seen this particular control layout before, so I was unaware of that triangular looking logo above the control panel was the color hologram. I always liked those. They wanted $50.00 for it in as-is condition of course which I paid after waiting nearly a half hour in line as everyone in front of me had a many things. One of the guys at the sale helped me move it up and out to my truck which is always a great help. Looking around in the work shop, I found some tube boxes that contained some original tubes that got pulled out of this set, so I took those along as there is a slight chance they are still good yet and I'll put those back in the set if they are. The people who lived here were WWII generation, the mans name was Orlow Vedder, and he was an electrical engineer at Western Electric. One of the bedrooms upstairs was his office, where he had some promotional things from Western Electric's "Engineers Week" and also numerous drafting items, books etc. which I also bought. He also had some interesting "bombing angle calculators" that must have been his when he was in the air force as it all said "property of US Air force" and appeared to be WWII era. I bought that stuff up too and it was cheap. The WWII uniforms and clothing is always very expensive and fortunately, many collect that type of thing so it always gets saved. He had most of his WWII stuff down in the basement. I always enjoyed these "greatest generation" estate sales best, they were the true Americans and they always seemed to live a great middle class life because of how well their homes were taken care of and the nice things they had.
When I got the set home, first things first and thats take the back off and see whats in there. I was glad to see the dry grey fluff dust which is a sign it was always in a clean home. The infamous brightener was on the CRT which was the bad news... However, with a very slight rejuv, that tube came back very strong and tracked well, so I don't think that brightener was on very long from an operational standpoint. Its still the original CRT, just a little bit of cataracts. The TV appeared to be low hours though, the boards are in great shape still and not overheated, mostly all original tubes are still in it too. All the chassis screws were still underneath, and it doesn't appear that the chassis ever got pulled for repair. Only thing out of place was the tuner shield sitting on the bottom of the cabinet. I noticed the on off volume switch didn't "click" when it was pulled out. When I went to power up the set with the cheater cord and a huge burst of sparks and flames shot out from the volume switch and then it started smoking nearly starting the wires on fire. It was pretty intense, must have been some carbon arcing going on there. That switch is toast, who knows, that might be one of the main reasons that originally put the TV out of commission. I jumped it and the TV powered up fine, good brightness and great sound, lytics were nice and cool to the touch. No color sync which Im sure is the usual 6GH8's. The TV looks like it should work fine but I'll leave that and the power switch replacement up to Dwight as he is the one who wanted me to save this one for him.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/THFAodfwi7I/AAAAAAAAB7Q/gN-rvDi6Zx0/s800/DSCF5791.JPG

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I didn't see that many RCA CTC15's with that control panel. I think it was the highest priced tv only model. 6X9 bass speaker and hard cone tweeter. I see it has the original CRT. Dave.

Doug, thanks for taking the time to grab that set for me! It looks to be in excellent condition still. Lisa and I will be by Tuesday afternoon to pick up the tv and some Lou Malnati's pizza!

I have had similar problems with the on/off switches on RCA's but not quite so bad of results. Some of the XL-100 models with a push-pull on-off switch in the 70's actually used a microswitch activated by the volume control shaft to try and put a more robust switch on there. I got a bunch of 120vac coil heavy-duty relays recently so the next time I fix one of these I may put in one of those relays to do the actual power switching and take the heavy load off of the front-panel switch.

I wonder if this would be a good use of a varistor to take the surge off.

or maybe that would goof up the auto degausser....

Another great set-that just has a perfect look. My -15 has that control panel. The plastic panel that covers the lower knobs tends to break off; the color-shift emblem is cool, of course.

I had that switch problem with my -12, the set was dead which probably retired it. My 25MC30 Zenith was the same way.

WOW! What a great looking set.

The RCA is on the road to Detroit now...very safely I might add!

Dwight, you've got that thing padded up in that Explorer like UPS is going to be handling it!

By the way, Ashley and I had a great time with you and Lisa this evening. The two of you need to come back sometime soon on a weekend and the four of us can hit some estate sales.

Let us know how the TV works out. Have fun fixing another cataract CRT too!

Thanks again Doug! We made it back ok early this morning. Couldn't sleep in as I'm used to getting up around 6-7AM though, so I got up and I already have replaced the switch with one from a parts chassis! The cataract will have to wait until this winter though.. BTW, thanks for the Zenith building tour!

RCA was sued over that switch. It was a CTS control and the switch was only designed to carry 3 amps. Not even considering inrush. RCA distributor used to carry Centralab KR8M replacement switches that fit perfectly as a replacement. They had instuctions on the package how to install.

RCA was sued over that switch. It was a CTS control and the switch was only designed to carry 3 amps. Not even considering inrush. RCA distributor used to carry Centralab KR8M replacement switches that fit perfectly as a replacement. They had instuctions on the package how to install.

Thats interesting. I remember someone else mentioned that the switches on late ctc15's early 16's were a recall item. Didn't know there was a lawsuit, but it doesn't surprise me the switch on that CTC-15 almost caught fire. It was a significant flash, again, i actually saw the wires start to glow from the flash igniting the insulation at the very end where the wires soldered to the switch. I damped it out with my fingers before it could catch fire, seriously had I not had the back off to see all of this, it could have been a real big problem...



Dwight, no problem. Glad you finally go to see the Plant, quite a bit different seeing it in person compared to just the photos.

Dwight, I see you've been out of town. I have been trying to get in touch for a few days because a friend insisted I drop off an automotive CD player for you to take a look at. I figured you were just at an estate sale or something... So there is a radio hiding next to the trash can along your new garage wall.

Please call me when u get this. Congrats on that TV, it's very attractive.

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Looks odd for it to sit on the floor like that. I wonder if it had a legged base that it sat on. Very sharp B&W set.

Good looking old GE set.
I do believe that is one of those sets designed to sit on a base with legs.
Have a junk Maggie like that - too far gone to save.

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That chassis is more substantial looking than I expected...and I sure figured it would be series string.

Many sets/brands of that era had optional factory designed bases designed to exactly fit the cabinet. The cabinet was simply placed on top of the base. The legs were part of the base. Look at advertising literature from that era and you will see them. Someone recently had 2 NOS bases for sale on eBay.

For the first time in over two years, I found a vintage TV at an estate sale! It's nothing special, but for $5 I couldn't say no. I was actually at the same house a couple of weeks ago, but the TV was hidden in the back of a closet. It's a 19" GE from 1963. The cabinet is unusually luxurious for a 60's table top B/W set. It's all real wood, and despite its looks, there's no evidence that it was supposed to have legs. Does anyone know if the channel knob is original? It's ugly, but I'm starting to think it is original.

I think I was the first person to take the back off it. It has all the original tubes, and no evidence of any repairs. All it needed was a serious tuner cleaning, tube socket cleaning, and some minor adjustments. It has a Zenith style projection channel indicator. It's also surprising to see a transformer chassis on a 60's GE.

Is that a low-power channel you're picking up on Channel 8?

Either way, the channel knob looks a little out-of-place in my opinion, but I think it is original.

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It's just connected directly to analog cable. It's an easy way to make sure all 12 channels are working properly. All the low power channels are on UHF (which this set lacks) and are in Spanish.

I agree that it's an ugly knob, but the more I look at it, I think it may be original. I'm hoping to check it against the Sams folder when I get my stuff out of storage.

Yeah. Here in Chicago I believe we can pick up about 7 UHF low-powered channels and 1 VHF low-powered channel (but the reception on this channel is terrible).

I read in a recent Broadcasting & Cable newsletter (I don't want to try to quote it due to copyright issues) that translator and low-power TV stations will be converting to digital some time in 2012, so any of you with older sets connected to analog cable had better enjoy those LPTV analog stations while they last.

I knew it was only a matter of time until even the LPTV stations would face a DTV transition deadline. I don't know, however, if this will also apply to translator channels, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did. I think the FCC wants to and eventually will require every TV station in the country to vacate the VHF and UHF TV bands so they can reallocate the entire spectrum from 54 to 700 MHz; they already had a head start on this when they reallocated channels 70 through 83 to land-mobile in 1970. Both of my analog TVs (one 1995-vintage, the other 1999) have electronic VHF/UHF tuners that only tune channels 14-69, although for some reason most of the all-channel sets I remember from 1970 until perhaps 1990 or so had tuners that went to channel 83.

Both of my analog TVs (one 1995-vintage, the other 1999) have electronic VHF/UHF tuners that only tune channels 14-69, although for some reason most of the all-channel sets I remember from 1970 until perhaps 1990 or so had tuners that went to channel 83.

They cut the higher channel numbers because you could pick up the old cellular frequencies up there! ECPA took care of that.:D

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Low power TV stations have nothing to do with analog cable. It's entirely up to the cable companies whether or not they continue to offer analog cable. My cable company still has about 50 analog channels, including all the over the air channels, and most of the basic cable channels such as Discovery and CNN.

What cable provider do you have? I have Comcast, and we get 2-31 (minus a few stations in-between), 70, 96, and 98. It annoys me because most of my favorite channels aren't included. Who knows when I'll even be able to get this many channels, with the FCC making changes at rapid speed without notifying us in advance.

I heard LPTV stations will remain over-the-air for the next 20 years (as of August 13, 2008). Now "20 years" is a pretty relative term, since no date was ACTUALLY set in stone. I think it's just another way of saying that we shouldn't worry about it right now because, at this time, low-powered analog stations aren't "disrupting" the airwaves and "blocking phone lines" as much as full-powered analog stations "supposedly" did. (Please take notice of the quotations).

I heard LPTV stations will remain over-the-air for the next 20 years (as of August 13, 2008). Now "20 years" is a pretty relative term, since no date was ACTUALLY set in stone. I think it's just another way of saying that we shouldn't worry about it right now because, at this time, low-powered analog stations aren't "disrupting" the airwaves and "blocking phone lines" as much as full-powered analog stations "supposedly" did. (Please take notice of the quotations).

I think economics are already affecting LP stations. There are only two left operating in my area, where there were at least five or six before the transition. And the signals on the two remaining are weaker (as if you thought that was possible!)

Our single LPTV station, a religious channel, went dark about 9 months after the DTV transition. From what I heard, it was costing the station too much money to keep their analog transmitter going and there were not enough people watching their analog OTA signal to make it worth keeping it on the air. The station still is available on cable and satellite.

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