I had barely finished this posting...

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=65647

...when Captain Moody told us all about the two old sets placed in the trash with a note "More TVs inside". So, unless otherwise challenged, I am declaring St. Clair Shores, Michigan to be the "Crazy-old-man-hording-old-TVs" capital of the world! :banana: Just another reason I love my city!

I went over to the house after Capt' Moody, and brought home the following: (In one truckload I might add!)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1rca.jpg

Here's an old RCA, in very good shape (The sets in the attic faired much better than the basement, which was simply a fire wating to happen!)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1wards.jpg

A Monkey Wards set... There were a high percentage of store-brand sets. I grabbed them just because you rarely see them. This one was supposed to have legs.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1magnavox.jpg

Here's a 21" Maggie... I know you aren't supposed to hard-start 'em, but I figured most would end-up back in the trash unless they worked. The ones that looked reasonably safe, I plugged in with mixed results. This one mostly hummed, with no HV.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/magnavoxA.jpg

Close-up of the controls... Note the "Power Tuning" button!? It's not remote, so was it really that damn hard to turn a knob?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1moto.jpg

Here's a Moto for ya...

Continued in next post....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1admiral.jpg

Here's the only color-console I got, an Admiral. Fired it up after several decades, and got a weak, blurry image of Judge Judy. CRT is a 25AP? Seems like a pretty early rectangular.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1ge.jpg

A GE Portable.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1motocolor.jpg

A Quasar that I grabbed for the capt'n.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1motocolorA.jpg

Obviously a very early edition...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1wardscolorA.jpg

Wards color set... This thing weighed a ton!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1wardscolor.jpg

Close-up. Typical weird-looking Japanese set.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1books.jpg

Some of the books I found in the basement.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1Portables.jpg

Left-to-Right: A Philco "briefcase", covered in mold. :sigh: A Magnavox Solid-State B&W. I grabbed this one because I figured it might be a pretty early SS set... Didn't Magnavox have one of the first? It also has some kind of photoeye sensor! Last is a SeArS (old logo) portable. Pretty crude, looks like a metalshop project. No UHF.

Continued....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1philco.jpg

Kinda cool looking Philco 9" set. I might stick that in my computer room, next to my monitor... Will match my 70s room perfect.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1zenithcolor.jpg

Of course, here's a tube color Zenith.. This thing probably hasn't seen 120 volts since Jimmy Carter was prez (Judging by the dust, and how far buried it was in the basement.) I swear, that's exactly how the picture came up, without touching a control! Consider it's taken in broad daylight too! If that doesn't convince you who built a good set.... Too bad the company's dead, or it would make a good ad!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1olympic-moto.jpg

I realized that I had forgotten to take a shot of an Olympic and a Motorola, until after I had pulled my truck back in. The Olympic looks vaguely "European"... Like a Grundig radio.

I also forgot to take a shot of a 23" Zenith B&W set in an early American maple cabinet. You can see a little of it in the Admiral color picture, and in the group shot below. It's a Space Commander 300. Has sound, no HV.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/z1groupshot.jpg

Right now, I've got all these sets parked in the garage of my rental house (My tenant is getting a break on her rent, so I told her the garage is MINE, lol)

However I can't keep them there forever, so if you see anything you'd like to have, or trade for... Send me a PM!

Wow! That is the single largest old TV find I've ever heard of. I used to have that exact same Zenith color, I found it on the curb, brought it home, plugged it in and it worked, and I used it regularly for years.

"Crazy-old-man-hording-old-TVs" --- I hope if you hoard old TVs (like myself) that doesn't automatically mean you will eventually go crazy.

Great finds! It's always exciting to come across a big amount of TV's like this. Looks like that Zenith Chromacolor just needs some new caps and should be perfect. They do seem to have the best CRT's.
Good looking Dodge truck too! What is that, like a 74 or so?
We really like our 1986 Dodge with Tommy lift at the shop. Still has a carbureted 360 engine.

/Left-to-Right: A Philco "briefcase", covered in mold. :sigh: A Magnavox Solid-State B&W. I grabbed this one because I figured it might be a pretty early SS set... Didn't Magnavox have one of the first? It also has some kind of photoeye sensor! Last is a SeArS (old logo) portable. Pretty crude, looks like a metalshop project. No UHF.

Continued....[/QUOTE]

I have wanted one a while, and posted so on another site.

If you want to part with it, I am probably comeong to AK fest. I have an RCA ctc-53 I would trade for it, (needs vert. trepair, but works somewhat, and has a good crt)

Wow!
Can I come over and play?

veg

The little Sears set is talkin' to me..It's Cuuuuuuuute....

Wow! Had that heart going THUMP THUMP THUMP, didn't it!?

The little Sears-I had one that I should have kept, it was even older/more crude than this. I think it is a Toshiba. I think that series of sets was the first "American" TV to be imported.

Zeniths from that era are just amazing. There have been many which I brought home, after years of neglect, and they worked fine. A perfect example of how to design & build something right.

I like the GE color 18". Our family's old GE console, from when I was a kid, was that age. I have an 18" but it's just a little newer. Yours has a control panel very similiar to our old set. I'd assume it has the series string chassis instead of the transformer setup of our console. (KE, or similiar)

The control panel arrangement on the Maggie console looks like it would skin your knuckles if you used the knob! But that alone would be a silly reason for power tuning.

I'd like to know who built the Airline color set. I know they sourced a lot from Admiral & Wells-Gardner but if it is foreign???

I hope most of these can be saved in one way or another.

As for the truck, 72 or 73, right? Super clean looking-that was my favorite of the grilles they used.

RCA2000, clean out your PM box!

The truck is a '73 for the record, mostly original paint. 3/4 ton with a big-block, so it's a good TV hauler. :D

I don't know how I always let it get full, without knowing it!!

This find does not hold a candle to the TV shop that I cleaned out in Athen's Texas. There was a 24x24 foot room full of mostly TVs and a few radios.

The TV serviceman's house and property was also full of stuff. Way to much stuff or one person. I never want to do that again.

I went to one of those TV shops, this one was in Snyder, TX. It was packed with hundreds of tube type sets, including round color sets, made two trips, filled up a Dodge 1-ton van plus Dodge pickup. He sold me the sets $10.00 each...unfortunately I think he has since sent some of the sets to the dump. I still have some of those sets I have not even got started on working on and that was 2 yrs ago! Sometime I will have to try and make another run out there.
The ones I have worked on so far almost all had tough dog problems like bad CRT's, burned yokes, bad flybacks, but I got some spare parts from the shop including a new 18" color CRT so have had pretty good luck on the repairs.

I had one of those early quasar sets that was a hybrid. It had an excellent picture, but always seemed to have trouble with the color oscilllator. I never did figure out why it kept randomly loosing color. I ended up selling it.

I would love that arline color set , but I know shipping would be a killer. If you take any with you to arizona I can drive out there. What's that color console sittting next to the rca near the door?

I passed up a Zenith a lot like that one about 10 years ago. Still can't stand myself for it. Bad timing and distance will probably kill my chances of preserving this one. C'est la vie...

PS to Jordan: that color console is the Admiral Carmine was talking about.

Hey Carmine, send me a PM, that Philco "Briefcase" is calling my name!!



Dumont-First with the finest in television. :yes:

I still have quite a few of the sets from the Athens TV shop. I have repaired several, given some newer repaired ones to an animal shelter store, given some un-repaired ones to other TV collectors.

Sad to say, several went to the dump as I could not keep them all and neither could the other TV collectors that I knew at the time.

Makes me wish I could move up there and start restore'n them!

Carmine,

How about the Quasar? What year is it, anyone know....?
If you're willing to part with it/sell it, I may be able to pay a visit if you're in town. I'll be in Rochester over the holidays (about 18 miles from St. Clair Shores) with the wife & kids visiting the folks/family. We're driving, so I can get it back to DC with probably no trouble at all in the Cherokee.

What a collection!

Oh man, you should have spoke up sooner. I gave away the Quasar about 2 months ago..
It needed a crt, and used the very hard to find 16" one. The only gun I could get to register on my B&K rejuvenator was the Red one. It was pretty cooked. BTW, the set was a 1972.

No problem, Cap'n.....wanted one that works anyway (my skill set is limited to soldering and replacing tubes and simple parts, wiring). My troubleshooting abilities are pretty poor and I have no troubleshooting gear as of yet.

If you come across any color Quasars, I'd be interested...!

Thanks again,
Carl

Carl, if you want a Quasar Works in a Drawer, I have one. It's a 25" small size console, but the legs unscrew and it should fit easily in the back of an suv.
It works great, and I would give it to you free of charge.

Wow...thanks....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know much about that set, but did google it. What year is this one?
I hope you will let me see some of your collection while I'm there (Dec. 23-29). I bet it is nothing short of incredible.

Carl

PS. Does anyone have a list or link of all the UHF stations (full power) that used to be on channels 70-83? I found some on the net, but mostly just New England ("The UHF Morgue")

PPS. For Carmine & The Cap'n: Found this a few months ago and have sent it to many a Detroiter. Unreal photo journalism that details a once grand(er) city.
See: http://detroityes.com/webisodes.htm

I have a Quasar Portable that you can have if you're ever out this way. It is just like the one Captainmoody had but the CRT is good. Just had to replace the circuit breaker with a fuse. I will not ship it as it may be damaged that way.

I know this is probably gonna stir up alot of comments, but that Admiral set... I need the CRT out of it if its good. I have an Admiral Combo that I'm trying to bring back to life. Needs a CRT in a bad way. Although alot of people are saying to replace it with a Zenith if I can find one.

You should be able to replace with any 23V" delta gun tube. I have not found Admiral tubes to be the best in either performance or long life.

Hey chad, thanks for the info. Any more details you could give me regarding this swap would be greatly appreciated. not sure what u mean when u say "delta"

Basically what Chad is saying by Delta is that older tubes were called delta because they have three guns in the picture tube to create beams for color. They are arranged in a triangular pattern therefore being named Delta. One for blue, red and green. The newer tubes are inline tubes which means the three beams are created inside one gun or housing. I agree with Chad that the Admiral branded tubes werent much and never really produced the best picture that the rest of the set can be capable of. Zeniths seem to be the most rugged and as long as they have good emission will produce a fantastic picture. RCA tubes and others will work too but might not give you as good of a picture or reliability. Most color tubes that are more rounded on the corners like the 25X or AP22 or similar and the later 23V**P22 (23 inch viewing area) tubes will work in your Admiral. The later 70's and early 80's Delta color tubes (example RCA XL 100 and early Colortrak or later Zenith Chromacolor 3's and System 3's) wont work as they are slightly larger and more square on the corners so wont mount in your Admiral and with the more square tubes its hit and miss whether its a delta or inline tube. Their still to be had its just you have to keep an eye out for a set that uses one or somebody local to you might stumble across a parts set with a good crt. I got a low hour black matrix tube off of Ebay not too long ago for $95 shipped. I've done business with the seller in the past so knew he packed well so i wasnt worried about it getting shattered in shipment. They pop up on there once in awhile and the guys on here usually let us know when they do so you have options, it just takes time. Good Luck.
-Tony

I had a 1961 Philco Briefcase 19 portable in the early '70s; it worked great, as soon as I got it home (it was a trash-day find in my old neighborhood). Didn't have to do a thing to it but plug it in. Used it as my daily watcher for quite a while, especially after my 1964 Silvertone roundie color set bit the dust in 1973 or so (cracked video output PCB). :no: That Silvertone was in bad shape anyhow; just before the video PCB cracked I had hum bars in the picture, on-again-off-again color sync that could almost always be brought back to normal by turning the tint control from red to green and back again, the convergence was terrible (I didn't have a dot-bar generator at the time; I tried to set the convergence by using the vertical line produced when the service switch was in the service position, but no luck--I think I just made things worse), you name it. The sound was still good, although when the PC board broke I lost that too. :no: When I eventually moved in 1975 I left that set behind for my then-stepmother (whith whom my dad and I had been living since 1972, before she divorced him three years later) to deal with.

I kept the Philco a year or two after returning to my home town (it still worked for a while), but the set eventually died and was put out for the trash. What goes around comes around.

As for Zenith, I have a Sentry 2 color set made in 1995 that still works great, and still has its original CRT. I only use it these days to cross-check when I'm having problems with my cable service, though it was my daily watcher for four years at my former residence. Never had even so much as one repair done on the set. Considering how troublesome Zenith CRTs were in the 1990s, I think I was very lucky to have gotten a set with a good tube. This one has 11 years on it and is still going strong; since the Zenith TV doesn't get much use in my apartment (I bought a new RCA CTC185 when I moved here), it should last at least a few more years--I sincerely hope so. At least the lightning-bolt Zenith logo on my set actually means the TV was manufactured by Zenith, even though the company's color sets were being built in Mexico for Zenith Electronics Corporation in Missouri at the time.

My point is that 1990s-vintage Zenith TVs weren't all bad. There were a few that went years without developing CRT problems or severe chassis troubles as many of the newer Zeniths (after Gold Star bought the company and moved it offshore--grrrrrrrr) had, such as the video circuits going up in smoke when the CRT eventually shorted.

I all but swore that I would never buy another GS-manufactured "Zenith" branded TV immediately after Zenith sold out to them; heaven knows I'd never buy an LG flat-panel for the same reasons. I really shouldn't knock LG, though, as I have a cell phone made by them that still works great, even after falling to the ground front first when I tripped on a sidewalk in my old neighborhood and fell in 2005 (the phone was in a case on my belt, which is probably what saved it from being smashed to bits when it hit the ground; I was not nearly so lucky, but that's another story).

Chad, thanks for the offer. I have been to Monahans Sand Hills, El Paso and Odessa. Maybe if I ever make it back that way, I'll give a holler.

Carl



I have a Quasar Portable that you can have if you're ever out this way. It is just like the one Captainmoody had but the CRT is good. Just had to replace the circuit breaker with a fuse. I will not ship it as it may be damaged that way.

Yes I agree with Tony about the Zenith Chromacolor CRT's. They are the best both in picture quality and lack of deterioration in the faceplate. Zenith continued to use the 23" tube size up through the early 80's whereas other companies abandoned it in the early 70's. They began to use an inline 23" tube in the early 80's with the same rounded corners as the older delta type.

In 1984, I worked on a 1974 Zenith 19" for a friends mom. Got it going, and was impressed with the sharp pic and nice color tracking.

Took it back and installed it back on the customers kitchen fridge.

I got to see it the weekend of 10/28. Its still running. The customer runs it every morning so she can watch the Today Show. Then she turns it off and does other things. These folks still have a big Zenith TV entertainment center in the living room. I know it still works, but I didnt get to see it.

I was doing Zenith service in the late 1989-99 era. I RARELY saw a Zenith, and when I did, it was always something simple causing the problem. Rarely had to replace a kine.