This weekend at an estate sale I got this Heathkit from around 1967 for $12.50. It works well but will need the heat gun trick on the crt as there is pva deterioration.
There was also a '54 or so RCA b/w console with 21" metal crt, did not power up, they would not take less than $30 for it. I did not get it as I didn't want to take a chance on it having a bad crt...$30 is too much for me to spend on a b/w set that may need major repairs.
This picture is of the set on our adjustable height dolly. We have the crt to the rear of the dolly so I can work on the circuitry at the rear (will replace some paper caps.)

Control panel.

Rear of set.

I built one of those in 1970 and used it until the fly bit the dust in 1984 and I bought a Sony Profeel. It had the optional remote which I think is still around here somewhere. I got rid of the set around 1990. Wish I'd kept it. If you want the construction manual, let me know.

Thanks Tim, but they did include the original manual plus some tubes and a can of Quietrole.

I read somewhere that the pre GR-2000 series sets used a IF strip that was cribbed from satellite designs and is reputed to be very good at pulling in a signal. Can anyone verify or refute this?

Anthony

The Heathkit I built about 1975 had a potted, non-adjustable IF that was supposed to have good selectivity - don't know if it was any more sensitive than the usual set, or whether it had some relation to satellite design.

Later IF designs in consumer products used surface wave filters to obtain similar fixed alignment

BTW, does anyone know if Consumer Reports ever published a review of a Heathkit TV?

.

I will have to see how many IF stages it has...it seems to have just about average sensitivity, was able to pick up UHF stations with no antenna connected.