Kutztown TV finds
 

Stayed until the very end, trying not to scavenge the empty cabinets and basket-case radios:sigh:, etc. No TVs were left behind but Sams sets were found at trash cans, about 6 bank-boxes worth. Probably doubles of what I have already, like the 8 boxes of Sams that I brought, didn't sell and took back. All going to recycling if no one takes them next year. Boxes are falling apart.

I encourage TV participation at Kutztown as many radio guys are looking to these events to branch out into other treasures. Those collectors coming from NJ and NY are happy to go home with some proijects :banana:, provided they arrived in a suitable vehicle, not a Prius or Mini - OK? :nono:.

I missed Friday this year but plan to bring more BW projects on May 13 of '22. Later on as the crowd thinned, I bought three other early 50s sets for $10 a piece, including a 21" Tolex-covered Zenith with the even-odd tuner numbers. Bargains on TV can be had later in the day, both days!

I was able to convey a '51 Philco twin-chassis mini-console 17" to a local collector, who also took a 1950 Raytheon "Marquis" of the same dimensions. I sold a metal 14" Admiral w/o back or safety "glass" and another metal set, a Sylvania -made using a 17BVP4.

But the Motorola 17T23 came back on the front seat with a cute little blonde BW Magnavox MV55 and that boxy Zenith in the truck. Early 50s Zeniths are rare here for some reason. I took the un-sold but 100% working 67 Fisher console stereo back so it can go on FB marketplace. Obviously I still have not learned these do NOT sell here, even when you did all the work :thumbsdn:

Finally, that sweet 64 Zenith 21" model 6026 (25LC20) is homeward-bound back to another VK-er after not selling for a measly $125 over three days, even with my spare 25MC33 chassis thrown in. Plenty of interest from lots of folks when I tested its OEM (RCA-built 21FB) CRT to demonstrate its viability AND yet nobody interested had room to take it. :stupid:
I ALWAYS found a way to fit stuff in, so we's Pennsyl-tuckian TV types must consider doing two days on the road to get to ETF soon.:scratch2:

Sounds like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory compared to the area I live in. In "the wild" here in the San Francisco bay area, I have never seen a TV older than the 1980s. I'd drive several hours to attend a massive swap meet, if I knew there'd be 1960s color non-solid state TVs there. Kutztown would be 86 hours of non-stop driving for me.

Dave - if you need 25lc20 parts, hit me up, I think i still have a spare chassis

Dave, I'm missing at least a couple bankers boxes worth of Sam's out of an otherwise complete set. I have a text file of what I need attached to a thread I started in IIRC the classifieds section. If you have stuff I need and are willing to dig it out and send some boxes media mail I'd be interested.

Tom, have you looked through these yet? https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/ele...379625774.html


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I wasn't aware of them. Though if they have been cherry picked to be radio only (which the ad implies may be the case) then I'm not interested.

Back to Dave's original message.... Why did Zenith do that even-odd channel number arrangement?

Thanks, I'm sure we will meet soon to swap much more.

I just put those 7 boxes in storage, accessible so I can take pics or list set numbers so I can PM you. I will find a way to get them to you before next May. AFAIK, these are not cherry picked - they were my legacy SAMS library started 40 years ago.

Another VK member (2 hrs from me) has doubles that I need to look at to fill in my only missing numbers between 300-499.
He may hand me all of them too, so that may help.

The Bull-eye tuner is described in the operating manual but no mention of the interesting, non-sequential channel order.

I don't know but here in S.E.-PA., having 3-6-8-10-12 all adjacent to each other could have been a selling point, so you never needed to go "around the horn" to find out if anything is worth watching. Conversely if you lived in a metro area, typically using 2-4-5-7-9-11-13, you were equally accommodated.

Ill get a close up later but here is the set. Pre-1962 Zeniths are nearly impossible to find around here.

The 21FP4A is branded Zenith but with GE code, it tests weak and its cooking right now on the B&K 445.

I swear if some of us here in antique heaven knew where to haul a load, set up and sell everything we bring, it could be a great east-west swap. I would not mind having a Hoffman, Packard Bell or Kaye-Halbert set just for variety sake.

These were $10 each and my inventory is better for having them.

This has been discussed a few times on VK before...
In VHF heavy markets (especially if you lived between 2 of them) adjacent channels wouldn't be assigned in the same city.
So if you lived say on the eastern end of the Wisconsin Illinois border a Zenith tuner would allow you to tune channels 7,9,11 out of Chicago to the south then rotate your roof top antenna and tune the even channels from Milwaukee to the north.

If you only got one market all your channels would be clustered, and if you got 2 markets you'd have 2 clusters so to scan every channel you'd only have to rotate your antenna once per scan.

This is why I think people here are wrong to criticize the high prices on Ebay. Those high prices are caused by vintage TVs not being easily accessible in all locations, and it is the free market incentivizing people to spend the time and effort to cherry pick TVs from flea markets and other places... and make money selling them to people like me, who are not in a part of the world where these TVs are found in the wild. Everyone wins: the seller makes money, the buyer gets a TV they never thought they'd find in real life, and a vintage TV is preserved.

Tom C., I figured that was the reason. About 25 years ago I had a project which required a lot of work researching FCC documents about the "taboo frequencies" (their term). The documents were written around the early fifties or late forties. It's amazing all of the situations they covered. Adjacent channel interference was just one of many cases they covered.

Yep - "taboo channels." You either lived in a 2-4-5-7-9-11-13 market or a 3-6-8-10-12 market. If you wre really lucky, you lived between both. But now that we're in a digital world where the UHF band ends at channel 31 and we've got virtual channels that rarely have any ties to RF channel numbers, I guess a lot of that's gone by the wayside.

I really miss not being able to use the tuner in my vintage sets to change channels. People that were not alive during those times don't understand how things were.

Also, the networks had better shows then.

I run three VHF(3-7-11) and one UHF(45) B-T channel modulators so I can use any set with rabbit ears around my place.

Four of the Funai-made Magnavox/Philco DTV boxes run 24/7, connected to a roof antenna of course..

Its just like old times with a little bit of snow and ghosts sometimes but yes, TV writing is not very clever anymore so its all old stuff for me too.

Channel 3 is a CBS (3-KYW or 21-WHP) in honor of those classic "Westinghouse Broadcasting" call letters. Before that, 3-WPTZ in PHL was Philco's station!

Channel 7 is a local NBC (8-WGAL) can't use 8 but there is no 7 locally.

Channel 11 is used for METV, a throw back to 11-WPIX in NYC, which was an independent that showed great cartoons and re-runs of Star Trek:thmbsp:

Channel 45 is Grit, RTV or some channel that shows old movies, a tribute to WBFF-TV 45 in Baltimore, which often showed classic movies and was home to "Captain Chesapeake" who showed Popeye and 3 Stooges at 6-7am before we caught the bus.

Well said because we need to share this excess, thanks! :thmbsp:

Same thing here in BC. I see a local tube TV once in a blue moon these days.
There's stll all kinds of radios still hanging around, mostly console floor models but very few TV's older than the 80's.
I did miss out on a 1951 GE that local back in December and that was the first one I'd seen in a long time.

After driving back from getting my covid shot, I saw a yard sale with 2 mid century bakelite radios and 1 wood console radio. I slammed on my breaks so hard it made a noise. I bought a small table top bakelite 1950 Arvin tube radio for $5. Buying stuff online is nowhere near as fun as finding a vintage tube electronics in the wild. It is actually a good thing I never find any mid century tube TVs in the wild because I would not be able to pace myself when it comes to acquiring yet another TV.

See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHNEzndgiFI

I had two stepsons that couldn't grasp the concept of black and white televisions.

IIRC most flat screens have a color level control in menus that can be set to min for monochrome opperation....It wouldn't be hard to syrup-ticiously change that setting some April Fool's day and watch their reaction when they turn on the TV. :D

The Funai built convertors aren't as sensitive as the Zenith/Insignia units, but are more reliable. You need a real good signal. I use either Zenith/Insignia or Digital Stream. The same thing goes wrong with the Zenith/Insignia boxes, the 1000mfd 16volt capacitor in the power supply board. When repairing, that's the only one I change! :thmbsp:

Thanks! I was wondering if I need to do all of them eventually or that I missed a surface-mounted electrolytic.
The Funai get local RF (those not my DX choice either) and their best feature: when they lose power momentarily, it does not turn them off.
The Channel Master CM-7000s quit long ago, by far the best for storing channels as you rotate you antenna, but once scanned - virtual and rf numbers get duplicated and direct access tuning of RF is lost.

I have to try that! :thmbsp:

Don't throw the Channel Master boxes away. If you have a ESR meter go thru the main board and you will find at least half of the electrolytics bad. The power supply board needs every electrolytic changed. I increased the value of the power supply capacitors to at least double their value. Great boxes made as cheap as possible!
When I am not using mine, I unplug it.
The Digital Stream and Insignia boxes run 24 hours a day. Both of mine have had their power supplies rebuilt.

I did several of those and all I replaced is the 1000mfd 16v lytic. I suppose the proper way is to change them all, but didn't see the need, at the time.

Do y