how about portable black and white?
 

Anyone out there collect portable b/w sets? sure are alot easier to find! Atleast for me they are, they always work when I find them too! Especially zeniths, they go forever. Never found one that needed work with the exception of vertical adjustments etc.
How about this 62 zenith? Probably the most boaring styled tv I have ever seen as far as the oldies go. Its just a metal box with a big vhf knob! Rock solid indestructable zenith!

Portables
 

I have a Zenith very much like that.

I don't collect those but I wouldn't mind finding a 68-9? 19" RCA portable that I had as a kid.
They don't seem to be around much, I can't even find the 59 GE I have been looking for for years.
It's much easier to find a set from the 40's!

Eric

Knob?
 

Is that the correct channel knob on that set? The 62 I have has the numbers that light up in the center of the knob.

Eric

knob
 

fits too nice not to be correct The fine tuner knob fits into it perfectly, and the knob is identical color to the cabinet. The channel numbers align perfectly on the mark. Ive got a service manual for 60 zenith, and it shows the light through knob in the picture, but thats 1960. This one must be some kind of industrial type tv, possibly for hospital or motel use?

upon inspection.....
 

nope, no back light inside the tv, I just pulled the back off to see if theres a bulb socket in there. Not a thing. hope this means ive got the right knob on there? if not, oh well.

67 rca victor portable
 

I had this one up on early tv forum. This is a 67 rca portable with the impossible to find wireless wizard. Could not beleive it when I saw it at the thrift shop. The remote was duct taped to the top of the cabinet to the point of not knowing what was under it! Surprise! the neat thing about the tvs like this is that nobody wants them at the resale shop, so they sell for under $10. As captianmoody said, it makes is that much more fun! Cant agree anymore!

heres a wireless wizzard. no plink is heard on these remotes, the aluminum rods work alot higher frequency than the space commands

DRH,

what is that two-toned grey set to the left of your 62 zenith?

charlie

Correct knob
 

DRH:

Yes, that is the correct knob for your Zenith.

Steve

Zenith
 

Here's my Zenith, I thought it was from 62 but maybe it's a little earlier?

I think I paid $5.00 for this set, then I sprang for another $30 to have the tuner rebuilt because the plastic gears had turned to dust. I didn't do any other work on it.
The only problem now is the built in rabbit ears have a broken Bakelite mount.

This set is heavy, it weighs in at 52 lbs!

I couldn't get the channel number to show up in the picture.

61 silvertone
 

great set eric! Isnt it great when you find the old ones for cheap like that!
I found this at an estate sale for $5 in oakbrook, IL. This is a wealty area and the older people seem to hang on to there old tvs even when they are broken. This is were i find most of them! This one needed a new phase detector, which was a simple fix with two silicon diodes. this is called the "medalist". This one has the thick metal mesh on top for ventalation which looks neat. Also has the protective crt glass in front, so its very heavy!

i picked up this hybrid zenith about 6 years ago at a thrift store in nacogdoches, texas for 10 bucks. not attractive looking, but it's super clean. i think it's from 1971. this set produces a super sharp picture. the only thing i've done to it is clean out some dust. i use this set on a regular basis, and has been absolutely trouble free.

hey charlie, Ive got the same one. My dads friend gave it to me, and luckily he saved all purchasing paperwork as well as the manuals. Mine had lots of use, the crt was toast, but a rejuvinating brought it back to a nice bright sharp picture again! The tubes were all dated sometime in 72, and was bought 8-16-72 for a listed price of $105.00 at polk bros inc.!!!! One interested thing is that on the top of the back cabinet inside, there is a big strip of asbestos paper, was factory installed. Never saw that in any zenith portable before.

zenith
 

drh...

way cool! twins! if yours is from '72, then this one probably is also. seems i picked 71 possibly because of a date i found on a part inside it when i cleaned it out. it really wasn't very dirty inside, so i spent very little time messing around in it. it worked perfectly. never looked this one up... it just wasn't that interesting to me other than watching it since it played so well.

i think i know the piece of paper you are speaking of inside. i didn't realize it was asbestos!

OT... i see the teac in the background... is it a A4010S? got one of those here, too.

OT
 

sure is, A-4010-s. Garage sale find for $5.00!! the pinch roller linkages were all bound up, dried grease! That was an easy one to fix, the stainless cover comes right off and everything is there in front of you I had to do the same thing to my a3340s teac quad deck. Common problem for the teacs, dried up grease. Quite a time consuming repair. Fixed lots of those for myself and friends. I love those roberts 770X, I wish they did not have such a horrible flutter problem.

...

not portable but b/w
 

this is the last find of the amnesty day tv search. This one works (of course!) When do you find a b/w zenith that doesnt work? Ive never found a broken one, and this is zenith land. This one is near mint like the rca -24 I picked up. 14M23, 1965. at first I thought maybe this was it, a space command zenith. Nope, once again, I cant find a zenith with space command!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

portable black and white?
 

I have a good number of portable black and white sets, from the 1950's to the early 70's. most of them i got very cheaply, and some of them were FREE! I have two of the red and gold r.c.a 14" metal sets, from 1956, with the red cabinet, (one, i got last year, by the road), and two of the 8" rca's that look like them. i have several of the metal zenith 19" sets, that look like the one's in earlier posts, from the early 60's, (all were free, one, i found on i-71, lying under an overpass!), two of the '59 model zenith sets, with a metal cabinet ,and a 17" picture tube, with knobs on the top, on each side, a g.e, from 1959 or 60, plastic cabinet, and a g.e.from 1962, an 8" 1956 emerson, a 1970 solid state sylvania 12" , an rca kcs-153, 12" set, from 1965,(their first all solid state line-powered set,) and probably a few other sets, i can't think of right now. i ALSO have one of those 19" rca COLOR sets, from 1966 or 67, that was mentioned .i think it has a ctc27, or ctc-19 chassis.

My 1960 Zenith space command 300. Was used in the barber shop I used to go to, Got it sometime in the eighties from the owner of the shop when he retired it after having an if problem.
Finally got around to check it out and found the heater pins corroded on one of the if tubes, Now it works great!
Now that I remember, He replaced it with a Zenith 19" he bought new from highland appliance, The tube didn't even last a year! That was in the mid eighties when Zenith started slowly going downhill in customer satisfaction and quality:(

63 rca
 

Got this one at a resale shop long ago, one of the first to enter my collection about 11 years ago. In the early 90s I found the old 60s tvs, either b/w or color all over the place at garage sales and resale stores. Everyone thought I was crazy, a kid that wanted old tube type tvs. Thats back in the day when I had to tow my tvs in a wagon hooked up to my bike. I went all over the place with my bike and wagon looking for tvs at garage sales on the weekends. Big consoles strapped to the wagon going down the sidewalk with the wagon handle tied to the frame of my bike! Thats another story....
I recently found the factory NIB rca uhf kit for this tv on ebay. Blew me away when i stumbled across it and that the models matched. I wanted the uhf ever since I got it. Always hated that little cover slug rca put over the UHF hole. "For UHF tuner" This one always worked. Only had to change the contrast pot.

drooling with envy
 

Hey drh4683,

Love that '63 RCA "Sweet Sixteen" TV! In fact, it's my favorite 60's portable. I have one from the following year (model AF020J) with a different chassis (KCS152), but with the 16AYP4 CRT like yours. After 30 years, I'm still looking for a nice sample from that model year. When I was a kid we had a series of RCA portables, including a much later 16" set from 1969, but a neighbor kid had one of those '63's at home and I thought it was the nicest looking TV I'd ever seen and the picture was much better than on our '69 model. In later years RCA put crummy CRT's in those 16-inchers (16CHP4's used to lose focus from the day you took the TV out of the box :) and the adjacent channel rejection wasn't too hot in some of them. The first year was the best.

Anyway, let me know if you ever get tired of yours (or if Hell otherwise freezes over :D )

Doug E.

Hey Doug,

You have good taste in tv styling! Ive got two others that I am willing to trade/sell. I have a white and black one from 1966, a all white one from 1963. Here are some pics:

66 rca
 

Here is the 66 model. Both sets work! Have any color sets you would like to trade/sell?

Here is an green and white one from 67. This is a nice tv. Bought on ebay about a year ago. This one has a nice razor sharp picture. This is a keeper for my b/w collection. It would be nice to have the complete series of this design. Do you have any pics of your earlier one?

16" RCAs part deux
 

Hey drh4683,

Here's a pic of my '64 model AF020J ("The Funster" according to the RCA literature). Not as pretty as some of yours...gray front with dark gray handle and that strange greenish gray back. The CRT is a little dim, but the focus is still excellent. This TV still has all the original components including filter caps (which are a little weak--there's a little hum in the horiz. sync giving it a case of "the bends", which I was able to almost eliminate with a new 6GH8). I like to keep 'em as original as possible, so I haven't replaced anything other than tubes. It's amazing how these bounce back. When I got this one, the picture was so dim and blurry I figured the CRT was shot, but after a month it's pretty good.

I've had a couple of the '67 models before. They must have come in all sorts of colors. I've seen black and white as well as a brick red and white.

The one I'm searching for in my Holy Grail is the 6AB20MU, which apparently came out late in the '64 model year. This is the one the neighbor kid had. It has a white front, greenish-gray back, chrome knobs, the control panel is painted beige, and there are no chrome trim plates around the knobs as there are in the deluxe version. Have you ever seen one of those?

Regards,
Doug E.

Hi Doug,

Never saw one like the one you just described. The ones Ive got pictured are the only ones of this design that I ever found and/or seen. For some reason, rca b/w tvs are nearly impossible to find in my area. This is big time zenith land and thats all I ever find. This is also because the zeniths still work after all these years!! Here is a pic of another rca "Sportable" from 65. I found this one with the original paper work and manuals! This one had an agc problem when I bought it, quite a few resistors went way off value.

Doug (drh4683)

67 zenith
 

A couple years ago I was at a party at my cousins new house in chicago and the previous owners left a nice gift! It was this 67 zenith! They had it in the basement sitting on a work bench all by itself. This one worked of course which is a common zenith feature:) Needed a good clean up and it turned out nice.

my other TV is a Zenith
 

Hi Doug,

My living room TV is a 19" Zenith from 1967. (Nowadays I'm strictly a B/W guy; I threw out my 19" solid state color set back in 2001 and went back to toobs. I've never been sorry!) Mine has the regular 19" CRT rather than the squared-off one. I love it, because it works PERFECTLY and has a razor-sharp picture. I got it off eBay from a guy whose grandfather had owned it. He was obviously one of those anal-retentive people who take good care of everything. It had all the original papers, including the instruction book, an advertising brochure, the bill of sale, the salesman's card, and a slip of paper documenting the one repair it ever had: replacement of the yoke & horiz output tube. I'll post a pic when I get home. I agree that you find a lot more Zeniths, even on the East Coast. I think there are two reasons: first, they're more likely to still be working; and second, I think I read that Zenith sold a lot more B/W TV's than RCA. I seldom find a 60's era TV in thrift shops any more (but I live in a small town). When I do, it's more than likely to be a Zenith.

Getting back to the RCA's, another good thing about the '63 and early '64 16-inchers is that they use a 13GF7 vert osc/output instead of the 15KY8. The 'GF7 is the novar version of the reliable twin triodes like 6CM7, 6EM7, 15FM7, 6EA7, that last forever. The 'KY8 is about the worst toob RCA (and Sylvania) made. After a few years, just about every one of them develops either a sluggish oscillator section or a tired output section that causes the height to vary, sometimes wildly. Even the NOS ones I picked up seem to have problems. Maybe they get gassy. Have you noticed this?

Doug E.

my 67 zenith
 

Doug,

Here's a pic of my 67 Zenith. It's model Y2011C, chassis 14N33Z. The circuitry is almost identical to your 67 (which is probably chassis 14Y33).

I might be interested in the white 63 RCA, if you're interested in selling it. Does it work? Have any parts been replaced other than tubes? Also, how much work was involved in converting your other 63 to UHF? The only step I'm aware of other than mounting it & connecting all the leads, is to change the sound detector tube from a 6GX6 to a 6HZ6. Did your conversion kit come with full instructions? I think I have the right UHF tuner (KRK 112 or KRK 66) lying around somewhere and I might try converting one of these myself.

Thanks,
Doug

Nice zenith!
 

thats a nice zenith! Yes, you are correct my 67 is a 14Y33. I bought the UHF kit on ebay last year for $1.00 NIB! It came with the complete installation instructions. IT is the DK-152 uhf tuner kit. It was for models: 64-A-02 MV, 64-A-03 MV. Mine is the 03. If you need copies of the instructions, I will scan them to you. There is some wiring changes that need to be made (B+ lines AGC from vhf tuner etc) The neat thing about the DK-152 is that it uses the 3AF4 oscillator. Its the only tv I have with the tube type UHF. According to the manual, the newer production types used the nuvistor oscillator. It does not mention that the 6GX6 needs to be changed out though.
The 63 white rca works well. If you are interested, make me an offer. I have two other tvs as well you might be interested in. First one pictured is a 1960 emerson VHF only, gold metal case, plastic front and back. Needs a good cleanup but works ok. This one has the 5U4 rectifier and a sleep timer on off switch that works!! Some scuffing on the front plastic crt lens. Otherwise its pretty nice

63? westinghouse
 

Also have this 63 westinghouse. Nice shape, inside is like brand new. This one needs work, never worked on it when I got it from captianmoody. Horizontal is way off and needs vertical work, picture not full.

here is the inside of the emerson

and the westinghouse. If you want, you can have both emerson and westinghouse for $15 for both. Nobody wants portable b/w on ebay which is kind of sad.

Hey Doug E
 

I pass on so many B&W sets at the local thrifts, mainly because I don't know what the heck to do with em all :dunno: . People in this area tend to keep these sets until their houses are sold, and the new owners find them in the basement.

If you're willing to make a trip to Buffalo and give me my investment back (usually no more than $10 per set), I'll get a whole bunch :cool: . Ask Rob, I can usually come up with some really good stuff.

I've got this identical black and white black and white set :)

NICE:D Seems like quite a few of us on ak seem to have identical tvs, we just really dont know it yet:) That 67 rca has such a nice picture, it can compare to a zenith. Love that chrome rca victor handel!

That was my first one!
 

Hey drh4683!
Those RCA portables bring back memories! The all-white one in the middle was the very first vintage TV I picked up, back when I was a teenager many moons ago. Got it at a yard sale for probably 5 bucks. Ended up getting rid of it because it only got a couple of stations and used to get really hot on top around the tuner. Still, I really liked the little beast--seemed just the right size.

gotta love those rca's
 

Hey Veg-O-Matic,

I'm especially fond of those 16" RCA's too, and I like that screen size...it's just right for personal viewing, not too big & not too small :D And you can't beat the styling. Some other makes are slimmer or have more chrome, but there's something about the RCA's. I wonder if Vassos was still designing the cabinets at that time? And you're right, they do run hot. I think that's the reason RCA introduced a new chassis for '65 (KCS152) to replace the original (KCS146). The KCS152 uses a half-wave rectifier circuit producing 150V B+ instead of a doubler. Several new tubes were used that worked at lower B+ voltages to cut down on heat. Even so, the channel selector & fine tuning get pretty warm to the touch and the speaker cones sometimes warp because they're right in the path of the rising heat. I get the impression that RCA was late in realizing the potential of the 16" B/W market. Zenith, GE, and a couple of others had introduced 16" TV's by late 1962, but RCA didn't put out their "Sweet Sixteens" until June 1963. The KCS146 chassis was basically a cut-down KCS142, which they used in some 19" sets. The great thing is that there's 18KV on the CRT. The brightness on a new one is amazing...you can't turn it down completely!

Doug E.

Re: gotta love those rca's
 

You're not kidding! That thing gets hot as hell!

Mine cracked off around 1990 or so, and I ended up replacing just the chrome part of the knob with a damn near identical piece out of my knob drawer.

not exactly portable.....
 

Someone needs to save this nice 1960 zenith console!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...&category=3320