I saw an ad on Craigslist asking for a charity to pick up the remains of an estate sale. In one of the pictures there was the edge of a console TV peeking out. So I e-mailed the lady and she said someone would be working at the house today.

Well, The house was still pretty packed with stuff. Having been to garage and estate sales before, I was amazed at how much remained. All the TVs were there, including a 27" Wega. I wound up leaving with a Sharp multiband radio from the 70's, a Kenmore floor scrubber/polisher, and this:

It's a Zenith Chromacolor Hybrid set, chassis no. 23DC14 from 1972 or 1973. It was plugged in, so I turned it on and it powered up for about five seconds, then went dead. Even though the cabinet sides are plastic and it went kaput I took it home. It has the original 23VBWP22 picture tube.

Now this set has Belfuses, which I am not familiar with. Are they just like regular fuses? I tested two with an ohmmeter and they both read open.

Nice find! I'd be willing to bet a filter cap shorted out on you. I have a set with the same chassis, the filter cap was so bad that the picture looked like a mushroom cloud when I first powered it up. I bet yours is totally shorted out. Perhaps this was a bad run of filter caps they used on this chassis as most other filter cans on zeniths held up quite well. The one on mine that was bad was a 2 section lytic, 100,150 @ 400vdc.

It looks like an untouched set as it still has the factory silicon blob that holds the 6LF6 in place. That was another sign of cheapness that you started to see in zenith though. Before, they used to use the wayfer board with springs to secure the HOT, then starting around '73 they started putting silicone on the tubes. Must have been for shipping purposes? Can't really see a reason why thats necessary under normal operating conditions. If I ever need to test an original HOT with the silicone, I carefully cut it with a razor knife near the socket so when I put the tube back (if its good) it looks original like nobody touched it.

Im pretty sure that a belfuse was just a style of connection or construction, not really special electrical characteristics. The value of the belfuse is usually rated in milliamperes after the hypen of the part number thats stamped on the case.

Another pointer,
be sure to clean that goop off the CRT by the anode and remove the yoke too. Clean up the anode connector as well as they break down and become tacky/oily which is where that all originates. I had a 12A12C52 chassis set that had no high voltage because that oily mess ran down the edge of tube right into the yoke like on yours and it corroded the wires shorting it out.

As for those cabinets, I think zenith was one of the first to really skimp on cabinet quality. They really produced some cheap cabinets starting in the early-mid 70's. All things considered, I'd appricate a cheap cabinet with quality components vs the other way around. IMO, once zenith let the chromacolor II chassis go around '78/'79, the quality was gone and both cabinet and components became cheap. The system 3 (introduced in '78) and newer really doesn't interest me for the above reasons.

Nice find! You will be pleased with the results once you get it going. And, I see something hanging off the back that I haven't seen in 20 years - one of those game switches that was used with Atari's and other video games of the '70's and '80's.

On your set, I wonder if the tripler and focus divider are original. These seem to be high failure items, at least on the TV's in this part of the country. And, if you find a good deal on 6LF6's, you'd better stock up. I think AES wanted about $70 each for them at one time.

I think AES wanted about $70 each for them at one time.

I know, thats nuts what they want for those things. TV tubes are worthless to everyone practically except those HOTs. Thanks ham guys:D

6LF6 - $81.40
20LF6 - $76.10

AES is going to end up pricing themselves out of business.

A few years ago, a lady brought me all 4 tubes out of one of these sets and said she needed them. I asked her what made her think all 4 were bad. She said because all 4 had fire inside of them and she figured her TV would work if she replaced them. I tried to explain to her that it was normal for the filaments to have an orange glow and suggested that she bring the whole TV in for repair. She insisted on the tubes until I looked them up. Then, she almost had a heart attack. She ended up buying a solid state set from me and I don't know what she did with the Zenith.

That lady was wise, IMHO, to have gotten rid of her old tube set and buying an SS set from you, as tube-type televisions, radios and such are passe for anyone other than collectors; moreover, her remark regarding "fire" in her TV's tubes (which we VK members know, of course, is the normal glow of the filament in any vacuum tube) is priceless. Just the kind of remark I would expect from a person outside our hobby.

However, vacuum tubes aren't the only things going for premium prices. About eight years ago, I bought a can of tuner cleaner (before I had even heard of Deoxit) at the local Radio Shack store--cost me $8 with tax. I hate to think what this sells for nowadays, if one can even find it anymore. As for tubes, about 25 years ago I bought a replacement 6146 output tube for an old Heathkit DX-40 ham radio transmitter. At that time (1985 or so) the tube cost me $17. Today, I hate to think of what the same tube (if it can be found anymore) would go for -- probably $30, $40 or even more. If a 6LF6 sells for over $80, I wouldn't be surprised if a new 6146 (again, if these tubes are even made anymore) is at least $70. :eek:

I'm glad all my ham gear and entertainment gear is solid state (I donated an old Kenwood ham transceiver, my second HF ham rig, to a ham radio club in New York City shortly after I moved here, and got rid of the rest of my tube powered equipment before I moved), as I don't know if I could afford new tubes today for the stuff I used to have -- once again if the tubes are still available. I've been getting replacements for the tubes in my vintage radios from John Kendall's Vintage Electronics in suburban Baltimore (www.vintage-electronics.com) and, while the tubes themselves are bargains (I never pay more than $5 for any tube I get from him; most are far less), the shipping charges from his warehouse to my home near Cleveland cancel whatever savings I would otherwise have realized, had I purchased the tube locally. I once purchased a 12AU6 from him; the tube itself was only $2.25, but the shipping charges were in the neighborhood of $8. The total was something over $10.

About eight years ago, I bought a can of tuner cleaner (before I had even heard of Deoxit) at the local Radio Shack store--cost me $8 with tax. I hate to think what this sells for nowadays, if one can even find it anymore.

Just bought a can last week from Radio Shack - was out on a job and needed it. $11.99 plus tax if I remember right.

Well, the cabinet is cleaning up nicely - the plastic is in good shape.

This set has a service sticker on the back from Cordora's TV, who was in business until around 2005. They were the last TV shop I heard advertising on the radio and were still toting that estimates were free. I think there's a strip mall where they were located.

I can't believe the price of that tube! I'll have to find my inventory sheet and hope I have one.

I'm looking forward to seeing this one working :)

P.S. I found out the name of this set was "The Segovia" from this ad:
Cass City Chronicle Sept. 7, 1972 (http://newspapers.rawson.lib.mi.us/chronicle/CCC_1972%20%28E%29/Issues/09-07-1972_4.pdf)

I have a bunch of belfuses from zenith. Tell me what the numbers are and I might have them. If I've got em - you're welcome to them, gratis.

I have a bunch of belfuses from zenith. Tell me what the numbers are and I might have them. If I've got em - you're welcome to them, gratis.

Same here - I have about 250 or so belfuses, and about 40-50 Sans-a-fuses (Belfuse base, with a circuit breaker, so you'll never replace one again!)

Lemme know if I can assist.

Cheers,

I have heard that Antique Electronic Supply is slowly phasing out their TV tubes. Radio Daze has already quit selling tubes.

Luckily, I ran into a person selling NOS 20LF6s and 6LF6s at a garage sale a while back, so have some.

6146 is not bad at about $25 at AES. I had no idea 6LF6 are so high the stock must be about gone. I wonder when the last run was?

Somewhere, I've got a NOS Philips-ECG branded 6LF6; so, it would have had to have been during the '80's, maybe even early '90's. Our local parts house was still carrying ECG tubes as late as the early-to-mid '90's. I remember buying an ECG 31JS6 for an RCA color portable. This was sometime in the mid '90's and I think the tube was around $17. I wonder if ECG tubes were made in one of the old Sylvania or other domestic plants or were they foreign made?

Well, the cabinet is cleaning up nicely - the plastic is in good shape.

This set has a service sticker on the back from Cordora's TV, who was in business until around 2005. They were the last TV shop I heard advertising on the radio and were still toting that estimates were free. I think there's a strip mall where they were located.

I looked up Cordora's TV on Google and found a shop by that name in Metarie, Louisiana. I don't know if that's the same place you're talking about or not. If the Cordora's TV you mention is gone, and a strip mall has replaced it (a common practice nowadays), the shop whose listing I saw must be completely different.

No, it's the same shop on Transcontinental, you're just seeing old listings. I looked on Bing & Google's aerial maps and the old strip mall they were in looked like it took a licking from Katrina. I also believe that area had some flooding, especially since they were half a block from a canal.

There are so few TV shops left in metro New Orleans I could probably name them all off the top of my head.

Regarding the 6LF6,, it isn't just the hamradio guys who want em...it's popular with the OTL (output transformerless) amp guys as well.

Be sure to watch the tripler. I changed literally hundreds of them when this chassis was popular.
The first ones were blue and they would literally blow up (selenium! What a stink!) and throw tiny metal circles everywhere.
The ceramic discs siliconed to the top of the flyback on some of them like to short out also.
Futterman amplifiers and their clones love those big 6LF6 tubes! They run them HOT and mismatching the loads can bring on a expensive fireworks display!

Regarding the 6LF6,, it isn't just the hamradio guys who want em...it's popular with the OTL (output transformerless) amp guys as well.

Actually, it's not even Ham's or OTL guys. CB'ers are the reason 6LF6's are so rare today. The 6lf6 was commonly used in illegal CB Linear amps back in the 70's, mainly because it was a cheap and readily available sweep tube at the time.
These Linear amps were generally very poorly designed, splattered harmonics everywhere, and ran the tubes way beyond their max plate dissipation ratings. The average lifespan of a 6lf6 in one of those amps was barely in the tens of hours. And most of those amps used at least six, and some as many as 10 or 12 6LF6's, depending on output power. Back in the 70's this wasn't an issue. The 6LF6 was a common TV tube.

"Dedicated" :lmao: CB'ers are still using many of these amps, and have almost completely burned through the remaining NOS stocks of 6lf6's in the past twenty or so years. They continue to pay top dollar for any NOS 6LF6 they can find, even though they could easily rewire their amps to accept the new production Russian El509/6KG6, just as the OTL amp guys have done. However, most of these guys aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer, so I doubt that will happen any time soon.

Nice find! I'd be willing to bet a filter cap shorted out on you...The one on mine that was bad was a 2 section lytic, 100,150 @ 400vdc.

I got into the set last night and found the 2.7amp fuse blown. The electrolytic that's 150/100/15 @ 400v tested with very low resistance and didn't charge up on the ohmmeter. It also tested low with my new ESR meter. So I think you're right on the money Doug.

And Zenith26kc20, thanks for the heads up on the tripler. Mine tested good, but I'll swap it out nonetheless.

Ryan, I didn't think you were working on TVs anymore. Didn't you give up your workshop some time last year? :scratch2:

Well, this one's sitting in my front room (for now) - just have to put it back together after working on it.

CB'ers are the reason 6LF6's are so rare today. The 6lf6 was commonly used in illegal CB Linear amps back in the 70's, mainly because it was a cheap and readily available sweep tube at the time.
These Linear amps were generally very poorly designed, splattered harmonics everywhere, and ran the tubes way beyond their max plate dissipation ratings. ...

"Dedicated" :lmao: CB'ers are still using many of these amps, ... However, most of these guys aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer, so I doubt that will happen any time soon.

:) I know a ham friend who rebuilt one of these illegal linears for a neighbor of his, to reduce the harmonics and make it work better. Mainly so this CBer wouldn't produce interference with TV reception, which the neighbors would blame on my ham friend. :nono:

The sharp freeband CBers, now that the sunspots are at a minimum (which makes for a lack of "skip" on 27Mhz) likely have found out that a general or extra class ham license no longer required Morse Code, just a written test (albeit a non-trivial test). And sworn off freebanding in exchange for legal worldwide DX communications.

I replaced that bad three-section cap and the set came alive. I can't seem to get the brightness and color/tint right unless I just press the Chromatic button, but even then it needs help. Also, the focus changes with the brightness and color controls.

I couldn't pry open the original cap, so I mounted a terminal strip for the new filter caps:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s252/audubon5425/P1040100.jpg

With Chromatic activated:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s252/audubon5425/P1040104.jpg

Without:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s252/audubon5425/P1040105.jpg

You'll probably need a new focus divider. Very common failure in that set.

Yup, but the CRT looks strong! Good job!

Well, the brightness is almost at max to get a viewable picture - I know this set sat dormant for some amount of time; I'll have to dig out the CRT tester to see if the tube is weak or I have other issues.

The focus control was maxed out too - turning that down helped a lot. I played with the thumbwheel and knobs on the yoke and eliminated most of the shadowing. Adjusting the color and tint does cause the picture to shift - radiotvnut suggested checking the resistors on the focus control board; a quick check showed two reading at twice their value but I didn't have time to take them out of circuit to get a correct reading. The interference is still there - I thought it may be the Atari adapter box but a new balun made no difference.

One thing I thought was funny was that there's a constant static noise coming from the HV anode cap the entire time the set is running.

That noise is probably small arcing from the goo that Doug was talking about. It will make for a bad connection. Discharge the CRT and clean the button and anode wire really well with alcohol then use a small amount of di-electric silicone around the boot to make a seal to the tube. That should stop the noise. Neat set, hope you get er right.

Zenithfan and Doug are right on the spot on that goo, my emperor was arcing pretty good and there was some nasty goo there running down from the anode. Discharged the CRT and used some clorox cleanup wipes on the CRT. Arcing was gone. Those boots on the anode seem to warp outta shape.

Well, I thought cleaning it thoroughly with Windex would do the trick - I'll get in there with some alcohol tonight and try to find my tube of dielectric grease.

I don't think you want to use dialectric grease.. You should use silicone to breach any voids between the cup and the glass, non conductive RTV is what I used. Works like a charm.

---

I've used both and either way works. Like andy says, Silicone is more permanent while the grease stays but can be wiped off. Dielectric is my preferred method.

It's been a while since I saw a red tripler but I remember a very large dark red ceramic disc mounted in a board near the flyback. Check it for cracks as it can arc also. I think it is removed when the tripler is updated to a newer model.

Well the other night I dragged out the set and let it run a few hours, and it seems to have lost horizontal sync.

Video of new sync issue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As3Xy8e7txg)

Well the other night I dragged out the set and let it run a few hours, and it seems to have lost horizontal sync. Upon further inspection, I just noticed the damper tube used in the set is a 6DQ6 instead of the correct 6DU3. I'm thinking maybe the damper caused my brightness issue, but now it's time to figure this out.

Video of new sync issue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As3Xy8e7txg)


I'm amazed the set wasn't severely damaged with a 6DQ6 where a 6DU3 should be; almost seems to me as if the two tubes were interchanged. I'm not familiar with the 6DU3, but I do know the 6DQ6 was never intended to serve as a damper tube -- it is a high-power tube ordinarily used in horizontal-output service. Was there a 6DU3 in the 6DQ6 horizontal-output socket?

Your horizontal sync issue could be caused by a defect in the horizontal oscillator or AFC circuits. Don't try to run the horizontal oscillator too far off frequency, however, or else you will lose the HV and raster; that's if the osc. frequency is too high. If the oscillator frequency is set too low (or if the horizontal oscillator is not running), you could damage or destroy the power transformer due to loss of grid bias on the output tube. The problem occurs because the tube's plate current will go sky-high if there is no bias voltage on the grid. This in turn overloads the power supply and could lead, if left unchecked (and if the circuit is not fused), to a burned-out transformer.

I misread the tube - it's a 6DQ3, which seems to sub for a 6DU3.

While I have no direct tip for the loss of horizontal sync, my copy of the Sams has my Dad's suggestion that B+/Bias is critical to vertical sync and AGC issues with these sets. Mind you, he went to several Zenith Service Schools and was more likely to use a Sams over the Zenith manual - hence the comments, most likely from the service seminars.

One comment - watch 165V for Vert shakes

So what I'm suggesting is that maybe the horizontal sync might be sensitive to B+ levels as well. That, or a bad 6U10, sync seperator, or Horiz AFC diodes.

Cheers,