Overrun by Zenith modules!!!
 

I was looking for a particular one and had to pull all these out of my closet tonight. And they were in the back, way in the back, way way in the back :worried: Behind all the other stuff I don't know what to do with. First a layer of crts, ok I knew those were there, no problem. Then a reel-to-reel I don't even remember picking it up, put that out. Move the old 1930s scope first. A few old dial phones, some old clocks, a few old lamps. Then a layer of battery powered 1920s radios, move those, then what I had completely forgot I had, mechanical typewriters, lots of heavy ones, :wtf: was I thinking when I got those. Finally I get all the Zenith modules shifted to the front. And I blocked myself in the closet. :para: So I shifted stuff around for a while and finally got out after a bit. The point of the story: don't buy so many mechanical typewriters! :no: That and I was hoping someone could point me in the direction of a Zenith parts list to look up the part numbers to see exactly what I have, while I have these all out. I can look inside the box and see if it's a tuner, power supply, or whatever, but I would like to know exactly what year/model Zenith set each one of these fit, and I don't know how to read the part numbers or know these later model sets well enough to tell exactly what it is just by looking. I would like to catalog what I have and maybe unload some ones I don't want so I don't have to go through all this again.

all i can say is WOW......

If you're chromacolor still has the chassis layout in it, it will tell you what module numbers perform what tasks. As for the rest of millions of modules you have, Perhaps someone here has a parts book for zenith...

Adam, If those are the ones from Bob's shop on Pico, the ones in the brown boxes are System III boards (1978-2005). I know he also had a bunch of Chro II boards, which if you got them, are in the yellow small boxes.

The System III boards are not for any particular set. There were dozens of models over sometimes 4 or 5 years which used the same module, even 17" sets using the same main board as 25" sets. (such as 9-160, etc).

There is a Zenith pamphlet called the CRST. That has a cross reference of model numbers, modules & swapping, and retail price. I have an old one, but I think you can ask for a new one free from any wholesale Zenith parts house (such as Andrews 1-800-289-0300). Only thing is that you need an account with them. In LA, you can also try Martin Distributing. The have a retail counter, but I don't have their number handy. They moved from Olympic & La Brea, but are still somewhere in that neighborhood.

Charles

Is there a simple way of telling the later model stuff from the late-70s through mid-80s System 3 boards, because if I have any of these modules from the bad-CRT years, and I think I might have several modules from these years and newer, because I looked at all of them and don't recognize some of these boards at all, I'd like to clear some space by selling or just tossing them rather than putting them back in the closet. But then I don't want to do that unless I'm absolutely sure I'm not tossing something good. I'm not really concerned with looking up stuff I can clearly recognize as chroma II or early sys III. But I'll see if I can dig up one of those Zenith pamplets anyway, because it would just be useful to have.

I'm looking for modules myself for a System 3, 1982 vintage 25 inch console Zenith:

SY2585P2 - model number

175-2030 tuner
9-190 module
9-186-01 module high voltage
9-181-02 module (this one especially, I dtill have that "red screen" problem from time to time)
9-181 universal replacement

That center picture is just screaming for the question Just how big is that closet anyway?

Bill R

I've been in that closet, and Adam is REALLY talented at packing stuff in there! I was amazed.

Charles

I got your HV module, but it's a used one, so I don't know if it's good or not. *** I just took a closer look at it, it is actually a 9-186-06B which looks unused in a reused 9-186-01 box. *** I may have your tuner if it hasn't already been claimed, I'll have to get back to you on that. I don't have any of the others unless a 9-181-10 will work. If you want any of what I have just send me a message. I'll send to you them just for the cost of shipping only.

That center picture is just screaming for the question Just how big is that closet anyway?

This isn't a very big apartment, but that is a big closet, it goes underneath the stairs which go up to the 2nd level of the building its about 4' wide by 8' long.

About the modules, it's the 09-900s and higher I'm talking about, for example 09-1118, 09-1128, I have somewhere between 5-10 of these. They seem to be a whole chassis on one board with tuner, HV and everything, none of the good old System IIIs I've seen had a chassis like that, if these are from the notorious bad CRT Zeniths of the 90s I'd rather save myself some closet space.

Adam,

I was thinking, and I bet you have a RARE RARE RARE module in that lot... About 20 years ago, the shop where you got those modules got a call to convert a System III 19" table model from 32 volts DC to 110 AC. It was a family who moved out here from a place which was on 32 volts. I remember being fascinated with that, and how I was told that by federal law, some mass-produced household items still were required to be produced to run on 32 VDC in the late 70s & early 80s. And this Zenith was one of those. The original module was, if I recall, a 9-160-RUR. That was the only one I've ever seen, and it might still be in those boxes. I saw it as recently as the 90s in that back room at the shop. Probably not worth anything, but it's a curiostity and should not be dumped...

Charles

I looked and it wasn't there, I have lots of those 9-160s, but they're mostly 06s, with one 03 and one 05. I'm not going to get rid of any 9-160s anyway, the only ones I am thinking about getting rid of are these 09-900s through 09-1200s whole chassis on one board ones.

Wow, System III is LATE for 32 volts-wow! If that was so than there would have been other 32 volt sets all along, right? But there could never have been very many of them. It would seem like by the seventies the number of folks relying on those old plants would have to be down to the dozens. How many areas of this country would be so remote to be off the main lines, but still close enough to pick up television?

Many thanks, PM is on it's way.

Chuck

DE KA3WRW

I am also surprised, but that's not the latest 32-volt item I've seen... I was really excited when I went to All Electronics (a surplus store in LA), and found a huge pallet of REALLY NICE 10-amp digital automatic car battery chargers for $5 each, new in box, like the ones that cost about $100 :banana: ... Then I saw why: They were for a 32 VDC supply. Too bad! They were really good quality Sears units. This was about 5 years ago, and the chargers were very new-styled.


Then I can also point out some new $2,000,000 houses near Los Angeles which still have to be on cesspools, since they haven't gotten around to putting a sewer in yet in 2006!

Charles

Didn't the British have something similar where some farms had their own DC generators. I think I've seen some real old TV ads over there where some of their TV's can run on something like 48 or 50 volts DC.

Chuck

DE KA3WRW

Do you have a 9-605-05

I never knew they built that set. It wasnt in any of the sales or service
litt.
As far as being in the sticks NTSC on VHF can easily go 200 miles. When the
Boston stations used to go off at nite all the NYC VHF's had a watchable signal at apx 200 mi. That from a low elevation with a big antenna.
Used to be common up in northern N.H. to see TV antennas on towers
just to squeeze out a few more stations, probably from PQ & in french.
With a little ducting the Boston & Portland stations probably made it over the
White Mountains also.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

Sounds like you have a pile of modules from the one board
sets. I dont see much good there. They also made a better chassis
with 2 boards. One for signal the other for sweep / PS. Those may be worth
saving. Then there was the "Digital System 3". Those boards are rare & often contain NLA parts. They were the best of the best & often had Bose audio.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

This thread is old! Since I posted this (14 years ago) I've moved from Los Angeles, to Michigan, to Tennessee, back to Michigan, to Wisconsin, then here to Arizona. I still have a few boxes of CCII era modules, but sold most of that system 3 stuff long ago. When I moved from Los Angeles to Michigan (in 2009) I sold (or gave away) a lot of stuff before I went.

EVen so, keep your eye out for any 9-181-02 or higher and 9-186-01 or higher.

BTW, I remember in the late 1980;s when WTAE-TV went off the air in Pittsburgh, there were times I received WRC-TV from Washington DC on channel 4, most likely tropo.

What were the old TV repair pros expected to do with the bad modules? Send them back, throw em away or keep and repair?

There was usually core charge/value associated with the old modules I've read.

Speaking of being in the sticks and having large tower antennas and 32V Delco Generators, my dad's parents lived in an old family farm in Culver, Indiana (yes THAT Culver, that's home to the Culver Military Academy), and the farm was built in 1920 by my Great-Great Grandpa Poland and the house was the first home in rural Marshall County, Indiana to have Electricity in the form of a 32V DC Delco Generator that was housed in the basement of the farmhouse, and it also was the first house that had indoor plumbing in Culver, Indiana at the time.

My dad told me when he was a kid in the late 1960's and early 1970s (he was born in 1962) his parents had an old Color TV that was hooked up to a large 75' Tower Antenna and they were able to pick up WGN Channel 9 out of Chicago on their TV during the day, and the section of Chicago that WGN-TV Studios were located in was about 125 miles from Culver, Indiana, and I always thought it was interesting.

In fact here in the middle of the Midwestern USA where its basically nothing but flat land for miles around I wouldn't of been surprised if VHF TV Signals wouldn't of traveled maybe 350+ miles.

Unfortunately ALL of the TV stations in Northcentral, Indiana, and even in Northeast, Indiana adopted UHF early on (all of the mainstream channels ABC, CBS, NBC, plus a few independent stations and Fox when it came into existence) were all UHF Stations and no VHF Stations left in all of these areas, the original ABC Affiliate station in Northcentral Indiana was on UHF Channel 28 (then later on moved to channel 58, then to 57, when a local Fox Affiliate came into existence in the late 1990s, which the Fox Affiliate took over the original ABC Affiliate's Channel which was 28), the local CBS affiliate was (and still is) on UHF Channel 22, the local NBC affiliate was on UHF Channel 16 (and still is), and there was a couple of local independent stations like WHME which was a local Independent Station that was owned by a local Christian Ministry called "World Harvest Ministries" out of South Bend, Indiana, which was (and still is) on UHF Channel 46, and then TBN (Trinity Broadcast Network) had a station for a while on UHF Channel 67 (it didn't last very long, it went away right around the time of the Digital Transition), and then there was a WB (now CW) affilliate on UHF Channel 69 for a while before it was moved over to UHF channel 25 a few years before the DTV Transition (around 2004).

If you had a giant outdoor tower antenna with a rotor then you could also get the stations from Northeast Indiana (Fort Wayne, Indiana), and also Kalamazoo Michigan, and also Chicago stations (as previously mentioned) all of these examples mentioned were in the pre-ATSC OTA Television era.

Just a little interesting fun fact about TV channels in Northern, Indiana

Analog TV reception along the east coast was interesting after many a weather disturbance, during warmer weather. A low-pressure system creates a front along which signals effortlessly propagate. Having lived in suburban DC, south-central and eastern PA and visits to SE Florida afforded any many opportunities to witness this phenomena.

One of my favorite memories of these co-channel e-skip events at my present location was when all (7) NYC VHF channels had both pic and sound on a 1970 Zenith 16" color.

Using a mid-sized JFD LPV "fringe-rated" antenna on a rotor, then about 180 degrees in the opposite direction on other nights, Washington DC's 4-5-7-9 made a rare appearance (though only 90 miles away, DC transmitter antenna height is lower) and much closer, Baltimore's 2-11-13 were normally received so it took a freak event to blow them out in favor of NYC's 2-11-13.

The one last analog was KYW-3 Philadelphia and after June 2009, stayed on with announcements at least 8 months afterward. I suppose FCC assumed all the troglodytes farther out in the mid-state had no consistently received channel, and I could get no others. KYW's A-3 signal penetrated almost anything within 40 miles of NW Phl. I thought it appropriate that Phls' 1st channel (Philco's WPTZ) was the last analog to go.

Your freak event was this:..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_propagation