14B38Z chassis - I believe the 'B" indicates 1971.

It's one of the last, if not the last B&W TV to come with a remote. This is a rare set, I've been looking for one of these for (seriously) about 20 years. After finding a Flashmatic last year, and now this one, the only TV left on my list of ones I really want but haven't found yet is a 19" Zenith color table set with the 4-tube hybrid chassis - It's odd that that proved to be the hardest to find....

I haven't even had time yet to even see if it works. This is (finally) my week off, but between working on my house and trying to get my Lincoln running - which is driving me crazy with a problem I can't track down - I still don't have much time.

14B38Z chassis - I believe the 'B" indicates 1971.

It's one of the last, if not the last B&W TV to come with a remote. This is a rare set, I've been looking for one of these for (seriously) about 20 years. After finding a Flashmatic last year, and now this one, the only TV left on my list of ones I really want but haven't found yet is a 19" Zenith color table set with the 4-tube hybrid chassis - It's odd that that proved to be the hardest to find....

I haven't even had time yet to even see if it works. This is (finally) my week off, but between working on my house and trying to get my Lincoln running - which is driving me crazy with a problem I can't track down - I still don't have much time.

I had a 19" Zenith b&w portable TV like yours, even down to the remote (the control panel, however, on mine was slightly different, so yours may have been ever so slightly newer than mine, and the remote hand unit was missing when I found it) in the 1980s or so. It was a trash find in my old neighborhood (an eastern Cleveland suburb), and it worked very well about a year before the picture faded out, probably due to an AGC problem, while I was watching it one night. I replaced it the next day with a Zenith J121Y b&w all-channel solid-state portable, which lasted 20 years until I moved to an apartment (long story and OT) in 1999.

BTW, I wish I would have kept that small Zenith portable, as it still worked very well even two decades after I bought it, despite the fact it would only receive one VHF station on its monopole VHF antenna and nothing on UHF (my area, where I live today, is 30 miles east of Cleveland and about 15 miles further southwest from the TV towers in a western Cleveland suburb; the area in which I lived before that was an eastern Cleveland suburb, some thirty miles from the TV towers, which received all seven Cleveland TV stations very well) and, when I got cable, I had it connected to my then-new RCA 19" NTSC portable (this was two decades plus before DTV made CRT televisions obsolete).

I would hold on to the Zenith TV you have if at all possible, as the Zenith Radio Corporation no longer exists; it was taken over by LG, I believe in the late 1980s or nineties. That is too darn bad, IMHO, since Zenith was, hands-down, probably the best TV, radio and home-entertaiment equipment manufacturer in this country since it was founded in 1918. It was my favorite brand of TV and radio as well; I still have a Zenith SMS1917SG 19" color table model TV and several 1960s-1980s Zenith radios. One of those radios is a Zenith H-480-W AM/FM/stereo FM clock radio which still works well on AM, but the FM is extremely weak (I can barely hear it, even with the volume control at maximum).

I have no experience whatsoever with Zenith's home computers, never having owned or used one (the company had a line of such computers some time in the '80s, IIRC); however, I understand they were good quality, perhaps on par with Apple, et al.

When Zenith left Chicago for Korea in, IIRC, the late 1980s or early '90s (I'm not certain of when they made that move), it was truly the end of an era. I had a Zenith 4-mode stereo system which had been manufactured in Korea; I owned it some 17 years and it worked very well. I would have kept that system, but I moved to a very small apartment (where I live today) in 1999, and had no room for it. I replaced it with an Aiwa bookshelf stereo system when I moved here, and gave the Zenith stereo away.

That's a rare one for sure these days. I also like the Zenith in your avatar.
One of the 50's Zeniths have been on my list for years and I'm still waiting to get one.

14B38Z chassis - I believe the 'B" indicates 1971.

It's one of the last, if not the last B&W TV to come with a remote. This is a rare set, I've been looking for one of these for (seriously) about 20 years. After finding a Flashmatic last year, and now this one, the only TV left on my list of ones I really want but haven't found yet is a 19" Zenith color table set with the 4-tube hybrid chassis - It's odd that that proved to be the hardest to find....

I haven't even had time yet to even see if it works. This is (finally) my week off, but between working on my house and trying to get my Lincoln running - which is driving me crazy with a problem I can't track down - I still don't have much time.

What functions does the remote control? Channel select, Volume on off?

What functions does the remote control? Channel select, Volume on off?

I seem to recall a Doug Harland YouTube video where he demonstrated a SC100 set and the remote controlled channel and power, and on the tuner star wheel inside the set you could set the remote tuner to skip empty channels and designe which empty channel was power off depending on which way you rotate the tabs.

Zenith did a nice job of getting the most out of that single button clicker.

Interesting that set from 1971 has a SC 100. I have a 1962 with a SC 300, I thought the higher the number, the more functions, but my 300 only has two buttons; one cycles through power on, volume and power off, the other is only channel up.

I have the 19" 4 tube hybrid you're looking for, working fine with a strong crt. PM me if you are interested.

I seem to recall a Doug Harland YouTube video where he demonstrated a SC100 set and the remote controlled channel and power, and on the tuner star wheel inside the set you could set the remote tuner to skip empty channels and designe which empty channel was power off depending on which way you rotate the tabs.

Zenith did a nice job of getting the most out of that single button clicker.

Yeah, it's the one-button remote, you set one of the channels to be the off position. The remote only changes channels. That is the same model set in the video, I remember I tried to talk Doug into selling me that set back when I lived in MI.


Interesting that set from 1971 has a SC 100. I have a 1962 with a SC 300, I thought the higher the number, the more functions, but my 300 only has two buttons; one cycles through power on, volume and power off, the other is only channel up.

I have the 19" 4 tube hybrid you're looking for, working fine with a strong crt. PM me if you are interested.

The higher number is more functions - the 100 is just one button. About to send you a PM about your color set...

...

So I watched it for about 2 hours, then the horizontal went way off frequency, turning the hold control all the way to one side wasn't enough. I don't suspect that will be too hard to sort out, but I'm still in the process of organizing my garage, I don't really have a good place to work on it yet.

I couldn't figure out how to attach pictures to a PM, so here they are.

WOW that hybrid is like new pix ! I know, I sold them from the B line intro
through the F4001 end.
Anyhows Zenith got most things right but remotes they did not. Example
is the SC100 one button. You can have a silver, orange or blue button
all different freqs. PIA 2-4 button were a scrambled mess....
must have been a good reason, I hope ! Good news is after the switch
to electronic hand units just a few were used. Codes were set on IR
REAL Zeniths for years.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

Interesting that set from 1971 has a SC 100. I have a 1962 with a SC 300, I thought the higher the number, the more functions, but my 300 only has two buttons; one cycles through power on, volume and power off, the other is only channel up.

I have the 19" 4 tube hybrid you're looking for, working fine with a strong crt. PM me if you are interested.

WOW that hybrid is like new pix ! I know, I sold them from the B line intro
through the F4001 end.
Anyhows Zenith got most things right but remotes they did not. Example
is the SC100 one button. You can have a silver, orange or blue button
all different freqs. PIA 2-4 button were a scrambled mess....
must have been a good reason, I hope ! Good news is after the switch
to electronic hand units just a few were used. Codes were set on IR
REAL Zeniths for years.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

I agree the button frequency shuffling over time and models on the 2-4 button remotes was Mickey mouse.
But on one button clickers I can see it being an advantage in use. Someone with 2-4 TVs wanting to watch multiple shows at once would be able to have the remotes not interfere with each other. I can see a sports bar between 2 major cities having 4 different frequency SC100 sets and loving it.

The horizontal trouble I was having was just the oscillator tube (a 6GH8 :D). Been watching this one out in the garage, also just fixed that zenith radio sitting next to it. If you look closely, you can also see the SC100 remote sitting next to it.

I took the 'B' in the chassis number to make this a 1971, but the dates on the tubes are all '72, making this one a little newer that I thought.