I always thought by 1970 vacuum tubes were done for inside of radios and TV's....but I recently had a guy tell me they were using vacuum tubes in TV's (not the picture tube) as late as 1974....?

Does this sound right?

Were stereos and radios also using vacuum tubes this late?

Thanks in advance.

Later than that...

Most of the big makers offered "value-line" TV sets that used some tubes up through 74 or 75. There were only a handful of companies making solid state color sets in '70-RCA, Motorola, I guess Sony and maybe some other Japanese companies. Sylvania might have been the next. The last tube chassis TV is generally considered the GE portacolor; I think production may have officially ended around '77 but several people have reported seeing later production dates, even into 1980. I have also read of some el cheapo bw sets that used a tube hv rectifier being produced up until 80 or even later. As for radios/stereos, the only ones with tubes beyond about 68 would have been special high-end equipment, I believe. (you can still buy such creatures today)

I remember around 1974 - 75 my dad bought a new Sears- Silvertone 25" color TV, it was the very last tube set sold in our local Sears store. A plain set, just a metal cabinet with painted on woodgrain. What a piece of junk it was, a year or so in the thermister went up in smoke, and while I had the chassis out I noticed it came new with a REBUILT CRT!

It was definitely not Japanese built, probably a Warwick. 4 or 5 tubes on the chassis and series strung.

Average consumer radios: Solid state AC operated table radios started to become common by the mid '60's; however, there were some tube radios made at least through '69. Zenith made a cheap plastic cased AM/FM tube set for the '69 model year ("Z" line) and a friend has a rather nice '68 Zenith AM table set with a tuned RF stage. And, I've seen a few Japanese tube sets that looked like they could have been from the early '70's. I have a few ultra-cheap Japanese 5-tube AM sets that were available during the mid-to-late '60's. These usually cost under $10 when new.

Console stereos and portable record players: Most major makers had switched to fully solid state console stereo's by '65-'66. From the '63-'65 period, some companies made hybrid models that contained a tube tuner and SS amp. There were some smaller companies that offered low end tube models into the late '60's. Most portable phonographs switched to solid state by the mid '60's; however, some cheaper record players (mainly kiddie "one tube wonders") contained tubes through around 1970 and some classroom record players used tubes into the early-to-mid '70's. I have a 1970 Rheem-Califone tube type classroom record player and Newcomb made some combination record player/PA systems for school use that used tubes well into the '70's.

TV's: Most major companies offered tube color and B&W TV's at least through '74-'75; however, most of these later sets used a mix of tubes and solid state components. GE was probably the last hold out, with their porta-color sets that were basically all tube and offered at least through '77. Also, GE was still making tube-type B&W portables in the '75-'76 era. I've heard of some cheap B&W portables that contained a tube or two being made into the '80's; but, I've never seen one. I think it would be safe to say that the GE porta-color was the last major tube set. RCA discontinued their tube sets at the end of the '74 model year and Zenith made tube sets through '75.

It's interesting to note that the first solid state battery operated portable TV was the Philco Safari from '59. A couple of years later, Sony got in on the act with a SS B&W portable. Then, Motorola released it's solid state "works in a drawer" color set in '67 and RCA introduced it's solid state CTC40 in '69. I think Zenith held out until '71 for their first solid state color set and Magnavox waited until '72-'73 for their first SS color set.

The first SS color sets were rather expensive; therefore, not as many of these were sold vs. tube-type sets. By the mid '70's, it had become cheaper to produce a reliable solid state color TV and that's probably why tubes hung around in TV's for several more years after they were discontinued in radios and record players. A friend told me that he went TV shopping somewhere around '73 and he ended up buying a Zenith hybrid console. He said that the dealer had an identical looking solid state console; but, it was $100 more than the hybrid set. He said given that both TV's had the same quality of picture, he could wait a few seconds for the picture to come on and save $100.

I know that Rowe jukeboxes used tubes at least into the early 70's and I think they may have offered the option of a tube or solid state amp then into the mid 70's (until the selection circuitry began to be computerized). They still even used a 5U4 rectifier tube/7868 output tubes with a solid-state phono pre-amp.
I have a McGohan tube type PA amp which I think is from 1974, also a Bogen PA amp from '74, they also use 7868's.
Hammond organs with tubes were made up through '74 too.

There must be something about 1974 which really prompted most makers of all kinds of devices to drop tubes, maybe tubes themselves began to become more expensive due to less overall demand? Or solid state devices somehow became more cost-effective?
I know some PA/Jukebox makers still used tubes because they thought they were tougher and less prone to sudden failure than solid state devices. Although Seeburg began to use solid state amps very early, like around '63 or so.

I remember around 1974 - 75 my dad bought a new Sears- Silvertone 25" color TV, it was the very last tube set sold in our local Sears store. A plain set, just a metal cabinet with painted on woodgrain. What a piece of junk it was, a year or so in the thermister went up in smoke, and while I had the chassis out I noticed it came new with a REBUILT CRT!

It was definitely not Japanese built, probably a Warwick. 4 or 5 tubes on the chassis and series strung.

That was against the law, even back then. The dealer couldn't sell the set as new. You could have called Sears on that one. They would have had to give your money back.

once at a warehouse sale for sun tv,i purchased a daewoo 27 inch set still in the box.got it home,unpacked and turned it on.shorted crt!took it back and the tech there tried to lower the screen control to eliminate the retrace lines.he sent it back.when i came home that evening i saqw the lines and took it back myself.the tech removed the back and there was a rebuilt crt!they replaced it and problem solved.i paid 85.00 for this set and although it was very low,i did expect a new set.it worked approx. 13 years before it was sold at a yard sale

My grandmother bought an RCA CTC39X all tube set in 1975. Probably on clearance sale. She put a fair amount of hours on it, soap operas and evening TV shows. Early 80s we replaced a few of the tubes in it. It got tossed in the early 90's though...

My first brand new TV was a 1968 12" Motorola B/W portable, the model with the handle moulded on the side of the TV. This TV was tube type, but the dealer also had a similar 12" Motorola solid state model for $10 more. For a 16 year old kid, $10 was a big amount of money back then, and I agonized a lot trying to decide if the reliability and high tech of solid state was worth the extra $10. I ended up buying the cheaper tube model ($89). It wasn't a bad decision as that tube TV lasted 17 years with daily use and never had to be serviced. It was still working when I gave it away, so who knows how long it lasted? At least my my case, tube technology proved pretty reliable.

Here in Italy we stuck with tube based equipment longer than most other western countries, virtually all large screen Italian made TVs were still all-tube in the late 60s and some cheap large screen B/W sets based on a late 60s Zanussi hybrid chassis were still made as late as 1980

Also Philips made a cheap portable reel to reel tape recorder as late as 1969, the EL3572

Looking back from the SS era, we had an all solid state (except for the 1B3) Magnavox B&W 21" console that Mom and Dad got in the very early '70s. By '74 it had suffered a shorted yoke, and a shorted audio out transistor in '77, and the CRT was replaced once in about '77 or '78, and was more than ready for replacement again by the late '80s when I fixed up a CTC72 set for them and the old B&W went to the giant pit at the end of 18th St.

Newest tube set I ever had was a 12" b/w GE with the SF chassis in a puke-green plastic cabinet from 1974. Never had a tube set new enough to have the click-stop uhf tuner - which I think was used starting in '75?

I also had one of those later SF chassis 12" GE B&W's in a woodgrain plastic case. I think it had a click-stop UHF tuner. I used to have a '74 Wells-Gardner built 25" Truetone color hybrid console that had the click-stop tuner. I don't know when click stop UHF tuners were required; but, I've seen sets as early as '73 that had them.

I remember an oddball 12" B&W Magnavox that must have been one of their last tube sets. It had a vertical osc/output tube (IIRC, 17JZ8) and a horizontal output/damper tube (IIRC, 38HE7). It used a solid state "stick" HV rectifier and it had a couple of modules for the sound and IF.

I also had a 12" Motorola "handle on the side" B&W set that claimed it was "solid state" on the front; however, it had some sweep circuit tubes in it. I guess that one was a "friday job".

The first RCA and Motorola solid state color sets still used an HV rectifier tube and I've seen many solid state B&W sets that still had a tube for the HV rectifier. I think the Philco Safari and the '60's era Sony portable B&W's used several subminiature tubes in an HV multiplier circuit.

Wasn't Magnavox making an all solid state B&W set in the early 60's?

I think the last car radios with tubes were around 1964. Particulars escape me at the moment.

I think the last car radios with tubes were around 1964. Particulars escape me at the moment.

We owned both Ford and GM 1964 model vehicles, and they had both switched to solid state AM car radios by then. My brother had a '62 Chevy Corvair, and I worked on the radio once and seem to recall it had four vacuum tubes, but an audio output transistor.

I've seen a few of those types of radios. They used low B+ tubes and transistors in the audio driver and output stages. I think they first appeared in the late '50's.

This is maybe a little outside of this discussion, OTOH, maybe not. In 1984, during the Reagan era military build-up, an order was cut for several Naval vessels to be equipped as the last contracts specified. The design dated from the Sixties, & these boats had R-390As as std equipment. So, a company was set up- Fowler Industries, & they turned out brand-new 1960s spec-R-390As in 1985. I think 10 were built, at a reported cost of (Gulp !) $30K apiece. They could have easily gotten R-390As on the hobbyist/surplus market, for maybe 1% of the price of that, but the contract specified "New", & that was that. Naturally, when the inevitable draw-down came, all those radios were surplused out, & I think several of them have found their way into eager new owners' hands...Serial #1 was in the infamous St Julien's Creek surplus "Pile" of R-390As that sat outside for over a year before they got sold off, basically as scrap....

For 1974, the RCA CTC39 was sold. We suspected RCA was using up old stock parts and it makes sense though. They would get rid of a lot of tubes that way.

The poster that indicated that GE made tube type Portacolor sets until 1977 is correct. I have a couple.

I also have both GE and Sylvania solid state B&W TVs from around 1965. The GE uses high voltage diodes(3 in series) for the HV rectifier, so is truly solid state. Not sure about the Sylvania.

I just replaced the horizontal output transistor on the Sylvania. I was afraid that the flyback had went, but once the shorted transistor was replaced, it seems to work fine.

I also have some small later 1960s Philco/Ford B&W sets that are solid state except for the HV rectifier.

I just picked up an RCA portable from 1974, a series strung set. Amazingly it works well as I found it!

-J

TV or radio?

Never even seen a tube radio as late as '74. The newest one I had was this little white plastic RCA AM clock radio from '68, actually I had two of them for a while.

Sort of off topic, but did Zenith ever make a table radio that was all transistor, but still used the old fashioned steel chassis... sort of the radio equivalent of the 25EC58 tv.

Yes, Zenith made an all transistor AC-only table radio. I think the first one was from '66 ("N") line. I have a '67 ("X" line) AM/FM white plastic clock radio with an all metal chassis and plug-in transistors. In '68, PC boards were used. The first ones had a PC board attached to a metal chassis. By the early '70's, production had shifted to foreign countries and the insides looked no different than any other brand.

The early Zenith solid state console stereo's were on a metal chassis. The better ones retained the metal chassis through the mid '70's.

i have owned several dated 79 and seen at least one 80
The poster that indicated that GE made tube type Portacolor sets until 1977 is correct. I have a couple.

Newest tube set I ever had was a 12" b/w GE with the SF chassis in a puke-green plastic cabinet from 1974.

I think that was avocado...

I like puke-green better.

I had a 12" B/W GE in 1971. It didnt work very long, and the handle that made it portable broke off while my cousin was borrowing it. Had a fairly good picture, and was the same puke-green and white.

Technically, tube type 'radios' are still being produced---in the form of component stereo tuners...Magnum Dynalab makes hi-end (pricey!) tuners such as MD-109, MD-107 and others with triodes and dual triodes in the output circuitry.

I think that was avocado...

I like puke-green better.

I had a 12" B/W GE in 1971. It didnt work very long, and the handle that made it portable broke off while my cousin was borrowing it. Had a fairly good picture, and was the same puke-green and white.

I bought a "Kenco", house brand of the former '70s retailer Kennedy and Cohen (rebadged Broadmoor) 12" b&w tube-powered TV new in 1975. The set lasted all of three years, then something burned up (never did find out what was smoking on the chassis; could have been the yoke or 1001 other things) and I trashed it. The longest-lived b&w portable I've ever owned, however, was a Zenith J121Y 12" solid-state set. I bought it new in 1978; it was still working as well as ever 22 years later (except for the UHF detent mechanism breaking, jamming the tuner on one channel--as bad luck would have it, a blank channel in my area). I had just moved into my small apartment and had no room for three TVs (I brought 1 color set with me from my former residence and bought a then-new RCA 19"), so I put the little Zenith portable out back behind the building. A day or so later, I looked back there and the set was gone, probably picked up by someone else. If that's the case, I hope the person got some good use out of it. The CRT in that set was as strong as ever when I put it out, so it would have been a darn shame if in fact it had gone straight to a landfill. For all I know, my little portable may still be working as well as always for its new owner to this day; after all, it was a Zenith, made in the late seventies before the company left Chicago. This was one of the first SS TVs I ever saw with almost everything on one PC board, although my Broadmoor tube portable was built like that as well. I don't like those one-board tube designs because the boards get brittle over time, especially around high-power tubes such as horizontal outputs that get extremely hot in normal operation. I have told the story here many times of my 1964 RCA CTC-12 clone Silvertone color roundie, in which the video output tube socket broke out of the socket; that is what soured me on PC boards. To this day I don't trust them; thank goodness today's TVs are designed not to run as hot as the earlier tube sets did.

I have yet to hear of any kind of circuit board problem in modern flat-panel TVs being caused by overheated transistors, ICs or other components, although I have read here in VK accounts of sets that have suffered major damage from being dropped; flat panels are especially vulnerable to such damage, which is almost always irreparable when the screen shatters. I see sets on eBay daily that are being sold as parts sets because of broken or cracked screens. I like the improved picture quality afforded by digital TV and FPs; however, given how fragile the latter are, I sometimes wish CRT sets were still being made. Those old sets were practically indestructible, unless they were dropped or thrown down a flight of stairs. My former stepmother (now deceased), in a fit of anger, threw a Silvertone b&w portable down the stairs of her house; the CRT did not implode. The set, miraculously, still worked quite well for six months after that. As well, my RCA CTC185 survived a fall off its stand a couple years ago; the only damage was a slight bend in the CRT shadow mask, which I was able to remedy with just a couple of sweeps across the screen with an old speaker magnet. Again, however, with today's FPs, one fall off the stand and the set is usually instant junk, the moment the set hits the floor.

CRT TVs are not completely indistructable. I read a story about some people who were fighting and throwing a TV at each other. The CRT did implode at one point. Some of the glass hit one of the fighters in the neck, just at the right place, killing them. That is the only case that I have heard of where an impolding CRT hurt someone.

Somehow or another, I can only feel just a little bit sorry for them....You have to be pretty well "Eat Up w/the Dumbass" to try a stunt like that...

That is true!

If it wasn't a lovers spat, how much ya wanna bet that the glass didn't really endup there by coincidence? :scratch2:

CRT TVs are not completely indistructable.

I didn't mean to imply that the CRT sets were 100 percent indestructable -- I said "practically", and also noted that these sets probably will suffer CRT damage (including but not limited to implosion), not to mention PC board damage if the set has one or more such boards, if they are manhandled or dropped. My point was that the older CRT sets would not be destroyed if someone threw something at the screen (most older consoles and portables had a pane of safety glass in front of the actual CRT to prevent damage to the tube) or if a portable CRT TV fell or was pushed off its stand, whereas with today's FPs there are usually no second chances -- the second a FP set hits the floor, the screen shatters.

As you say, the CRT sets were pretty indistructible. However, some of the later ones were not very stable with the large heavy CRT(with lead in the glass) and the small light PC boards. I have heard of people being injured when these fell off their stands. The older, 1940s to mid 1980s TVs did not have this problem.

The problem I see with many '90's and later sets is the plastic cabinet becomming brittle and falling apart. I've seen a lot of Sharp TV's with this problem.

I have several Zenith 12" b&w sets with the 12CB12X and ZX chassis, all are Hybrids. Tubes are 38HE7, 17JZ8, 6LN8, 12FX5. Some have a 1X2 HV rectifier and some have a diode stick. The transistors even have their own sockets! Date codes range from 1972 - 1974. All are still in working condition and have a great picture!

One of them is the "Sidekick" with the denim case covering, one is Tennessee Volunteer orange, one is salmon and white and the last is brown and tan.

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r314/corvair65/MVC-020S.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r314/corvair65/MVC-019S.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r314/corvair65/MVC-017S-2.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r314/corvair65/MVC-018S.jpg

I have a 1970 all tube Zenith 12" B&W that still works fine.

I have several Zenith 12" b&w sets with the 12CB12X and ZX chassis, all are Hybrids. Tubes are 38HE7, 17JZ8, 6LN8, 12FX5. Some have a 1X2 HV rectifier and some have a diode stick. The transistors even have their own sockets! Date codes range from 1972 - 1974. All are still in working condition and have a great picture!

One of them is the "Sidekick" with the denim case covering, one is Tennessee Volunteer orange, one is salmon and white and the last is brown and tan.


Are they sitting on a 100+ year old Singer treadle sewing machine?

jr

I guess you learn something new every day. I did not realize the Zenith "Sidekick" portable was a hybrid -- all these years I thought it was 100 percent solid state. By the late '70s, Zenith must have abandoned hybrids in favor of all-SS 12" portables; in 1978 I had a Zenith J121Y solid-state set, no tubes. That set lasted me 22 years and still had a like-new picture when I finally retired it in 2000.

There was a "Sidekick II" that was a solid state set from the mid '70's. I think '75 was the last year for Zenith tube sets.

There was a "Sidekick II" that was a solid state set from the mid '70's. I think '75 was the last year for Zenith tube sets.

I got a zenith like the 3 pictured above-jan 75 datecode, its hybrid, probably last year then.

I was looking through sams and saw a Catalina color console from 76 with tubes. Hybird with trippler

Whats the deal with Catalina anyway? Is that a Wells Gardner department store brand or something?

Catalina was a house brand of White Stores which I know had locations in Texas. Here is an ad for the chain with some Catalina products.

http://www.newspaperarchive.com/SiteMap/FreePdfPreview.aspx?img=107366041

Hey Chad thanks for that info. Looking through old H. Sams catalogs I see some very obscure brands. Catalina was among them.

As much as it hurts to admit, me and my buddies have destroyed many sets which naturally includes imploding the " kine " . Once we did an -85 Sylvania Superset tabletop (n.a.p.) and the front glass literally expelled towards us after throwing a cinderblock through the screen. lucky we were at a small distance with the video cam :D:smoke::beer: Would I do it again? nah. that set had a decent pic still. Stupid.

But yeah it takes a considerable striking force to break the screen on a crt.

From what you describe, that sounds like a WG built set. It should be fully modular; yet, still uses some tubes. That same set was also sold under the Truetone, Bradford, and other house brands.

I think the newest photofact that I've seen on a tube set was from '77 and was on a 12" Sanyo B&W.

Catalina was a house brand of White Stores which I know had locations in Texas. Here is an ad for the chain with some Catalina products.
I love that ad. Get your color TV, four new tires, and a shotgun too! :)

Living in Texas, I have an early to mid 1970s Catalina portable color set. This one is solid state and I think made in Japan. Other than a somewhat weak red gun and dirty switch contacts(on the auto color switch), it works ok. I think I also have an earlier 19" tube type black and white set. I have not worked on it yet.