I have a friend that I run into maybe once or twice a year. Every time, she mentions that she really is going to get over to see me, and bring along her father's old Philco for me to fix up. She usually mentions some other radios she wants to give me, and once she talked of her parents "first tv". I take it all with a grain of salt, one because I know she has a hectic life and probably won't ever really get over here with that stuff, and two, I have found that people who don't know about radios/tv's tend to get their info wrong. Plenty of times somebody has come to me asking if I want their "first tv/first color tv" and I expected something like a CTC-17 or a 25MC30. When I go to look at the set it turns out to be a System 3 or Colortrak, in all its particle board glory.

Well, today my friend showed up at my office and what did she have in the back of her truck? First, her Dad's Philco console, a '48 "over and under" combo. Fairly basic, shouldn't be too much trouble to bring back to life. (famous last words!) But wait, what else is that in the back? I had forgotten she ever mentioned it:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x293/bgadow/August195.jpg
Yep, a genuine Zenith $ervice $aver! Nothing real fancy, the cabinet is worn, but it's all there and didn't cost anything. Unlike all those beauties that Doug finds out in Chicagoland, this one saw some use and isn't exactly dust free!
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x293/bgadow/August196.jpg
Looks like the original Chromacolor crt and a '71 build date. (she mentioned that her parents bought it when they got married 48 years ago, so she was off like most folks, but still this is old enough!) For now I've left it at work; I'll take the isotap to work tomorrow and see how it reacts to a slow wake up.
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x293/bgadow/August197.jpg

I wonder how hard is it to find the IC for those old sets, and to they every fail? good luck with the start up.

I had this exact model years ago and remember it put out a fantastic pic

I wonder how hard is it to find the IC for those old sets, and to they every fail? good luck with the start up.

Those IC's had a weird thermo problems when they first came out. The color would shift all over the place. Those were the brown plastic type. That set looks like it has the later metal cased one. They seemed to be pretty reliable.

Those IC's had a weird thermo problems.... The color would shift all over the place. Those were the brown plastic type.

Back in the 80s at the RCA Sarnoff Lab< I used to work with someone who before that worked for Zenith, and he mentioned that the assembly line workers used to use a hammer of some sort to smack those ICs into their sockets. They made them stop doing that after reliability issues cropped up.

Is that a 1971 model?

Is that a 1971 model?

A "B" model is the 1971 model year. Why did Zenith start the chassis with a "20"? Those numbers seemed to be confusing. As the other chassis number starts with a "14".

Bein' its a Zenith, wouldn't be surprised if it works-Of a sort-as is. Should do fine once a little TLC is applied.

This thing looks, inside and out, like combination between my 71'(bunch of tubes,bunch of transistors,and an IC) hybrid and my late 60's (one transistor on the main chassis) hybrid. I yours appears to use the same IF chassis as mine. I have a spare IF chassis for mine so if you need one just ask.
My 71' produces an excelent picture, though if one places it next to a roundy it is aparent that the round screen sets produce richer more life like color.

Yours does not appear to have the giant resistor that mine uses to divide the HV into the focus voltage so you are probably lucky.

My focus divider has been slowly going south over three years of daily use, and I've been adding several-hundred meg resistors to keep the focus sweet spot with in the control's range. I need to later check in to whether or not another NOS divider I've found is compatible with my chassis.

Tom C.

that is a great set!seen many of these in the 80s and the picture was fantastic.they just kept going and going.i have one now that has a sylvania rebuild crt and the picture is awesome.owner has it changed because original had green halo.i am willing to bet that it still works with minor repairs only.good score.

Yep, sure enough, I gave it a slow start and here it is:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x293/bgadow/September065-1.jpg
I haven't put the tester on the crt...I haven't done much of anything, yet. I have no idea where to put it. Like a lot of my sets, if somebody were to show up at my door they could talk me out of it without much trouble.

I thought it odd that there is no sign of a cataract. I wondered if it could be a tension-band tube; the label looks like the original.

those old zeniths never cease to amaze me with how they just always seem to work. be interesting to see how the CRT test. Most of the time I get the best improvement by replacing the video output tube, and the cap on the electrolyitic on the contrast control (cathode bypass on the video amp).

IIRC, all the '71 and newer Zenith sets were tension band CRT's.

Uhh, Bryan, no disrespect intended & all, but, IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FOOL W/IT !! (grin)

My 71' had it's original black matrix delta gun tube and it had a green cateract that I went and removed recently.

the assembly line workers used to use a hammer of some sort to smack those ICs into their sockets. They made them stop doing that after reliability issues cropped up.


Interesting. How many chips and/or modules did they ruin with that technique (?) before they were told to stop it, and (supposedly) put the ICs in by hand? :scratch2:

That is a great set! I have had 2 20CC50's and I would trade most sets for this set. It will give you tons of good performance! Its well worth the cabinet work needed and you can have a very dependable tube tv as a daily driver!