Am I the only one who...
 

desires to know who owned these TV's, radio's, etc. along with any stories about them or that surrounded them? I am watching a great and beautiful PBS TV special called: "The Canteen Spirit" which is about a train stop in North Platte, Nebraska where by accident the town's people started a huge effort to make an incredibly special moment happen for all the soldiers who passed through on their way to war from December 25,'41 to April 1,'46. They show people then and now telling of everything and 60 years after it happened they take some of those amazing people back to revisit. A ten minute stop allowed those dearly wonderful soldiers and volunteers to experience moments that bring tears to their eyes and mine 60 years later. To see those beautiful souls in the fresh photos and films makes me long to have any contact with any of them before they are gone forever. This is the primary reason that I love TV's and all who help bring such images and info to those of us who appreciate the past and everybody who made it possible for us to have all we have today. I could use any new TV to get the presentations but seeing the same images exactly as they were seen by the people I love makes the experience even more special to me. So, I thought of a TV I have from Omaha that somebody from the past bought new and took such good care of it. I just wish I could learn anything about the owner as well as I like to know about everybody to appreciate them as I believe most people wish not to be forgotten. I feel a strong sense of owing many people and I hope to become better able to do all I can to repay in any way possible.

No, you're not the only one, I've often wondered about the previous owners. Especially those sets and other things that give off "wierd vibes"

i think all of us feel the same way.mark is more dedicated to the history than any other person i have met in my 60+ years.the stories behind the sets are almost as fascinating as the the tvs there selves.i learned where my ctc-9 came from originally.it is interesting.it makes for good conversation.

A little off-topic, but still related...One of my R-390As is a 1955 contract Collins radio. Collins was the outfit that designed these wonderful machines in the 1st place, yet they actually made very few of them-most were made by the other some dozen contractors. Anyhow, '55 was the 1st real year of production. When I got this radio, it was in pristine shape, yet it didn't work-but if you know anything about R-390As, that is NOT a big deal. It LOOKED to my untrained eye to be all-original-all the modules looked to have been with the radio for all of its life, & there didn't appear to be any hacking or repairs, which is VERY unusual. I sent it off to Rick Mish, who is one of the "Gurus" of the R-390A world. He called me back excitedly & offered me $5K or 2 of his museum-class restoration jobs for this set, as he said I DID have a pristine 1955 Collins, w/Collins modules. The problem w/it turned out to be very minor. He asked me if I knew anything about it, I told him I bought-stole, really-it from Fair Radio Sales, & they'd gotten it locally. We figured it MIGHT have come out of some laboratory at Wright-Pat, or was some big shot's personal baby-even the front panel was unmarked, which NEVER happens in R-390As this old. In any event, it had NOT seen the usual level of wear, tear & abuse these guys were usually subjected to. Rick also said this radio had an extremely accurate VFO, more like frequency-counter territory than a radio, which led him to surmise this bad boy was a lab rat at some point. Yeah, I sure do wish these old veterans could talk-What stories they could tell !

Every set in my collection, radio, tv, even if it's a junker, gets an index card. On it I write make/model/description-and then I write where I got it and any other information I know about the set and its history. In some cases I need to type up a seperate sheet to put with the set. The real "keepers" in my collection are those sets that belonged to someone I know. It's important to write these things down-memories all have limits, and when we are gone nobody will ever know these things.

Somewhat related: I have written a brief history on many of the local TV shops. In some cases I have pictures and first hand information; with others I just have a name. I really, really need to force myself to do this up right and actually sit down with folks and do interviews. I can invision a small book of sorts that could be placed in local libraries. Maybe nobody else will find it interesting, but the TV repair industry has nearly left us, and if I don't document it, who will?

I used to keep track of the history of my sets, but the collection grew in the 80s until I had about 300 sets. By then I lost track of most of the histories, then it waned during the 90s to now about a dozen sets. I still have 3 that I got in the mid/late 70s when I was 9 or 10 years old, which are "keepers". I know the history on those, but the owners have long-since passed away. All 3 I got from their original owners.

Charles

Spin it as a story of days-gone-by, discuss the social aspects and include lots of entertaining anecdotes and I could see this selling very well. Good luck with it, I hope you write it some day.

One of our local newpaper columnists thought so:
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/02/tele...re-looking-dim

Cheers,

The thing I hate to see go is all the collective body of knowlege that is fast dying off. Having hung around mechanics & electricians all my life, I marvelled at all the little tricks thse guys used to fix things-the kind of stuff that NEVER gets put down in any book, save for a few cryptic "henscratches" in a greasy shirtpocket notebook. Newer, younger guys, if they can't look it up on one of these damthings, lots of times they're stumped. We had an old electrician, Charlie, who carried a lightbulb w/2 leads, a pair of Klein pliers, & a couple of screwdrivers, that was about it, but he could fix about ANYTHING. Man, I'd give my eyeteeth to know what he's FORGOT about stuff...Much less what he knows...

I'm glad somebody besides us is taking notice. I can remember a time when this town was loaded with TV repair shops and every one of them stayed busy. I think there are 3 left now. From what I hear, two of them only work on big screen, plasma, LCD, and other "new technology" sets and make most of their money on high $ check out fees. There is one shop that still takes in regular CRT TV's; but, he's not doing near the business that he once was. I rarely ever see anything older than 2000 in his shop. All of the real "old school" shops from around here were gone by the late '90's, most by the mid '90's. The owners either died or read the writing on the wall. A friend (who is now deceased) once told me that he saw the direction TV repair was going in the early '70's, when he closed up shop.

It used to fascinate me to walk in a TV shop and see all the various TV's sitting around. Old, new, solid state, tube type, B&W, color - people would still pay to have them fixed back in the late '80's to early '90's.

Concerning the article, I can relate to parts being easier to find for older equipment than modern sets. I currently have two Orion sets in my possession that need the 2SK2633 MOSFET in the power supply. I had to check with several places before I found someone that had it. I've junked later model TV's because the part was NLA are too expensive. Once, I tried to get service info on a late model 32" Advent TV. The company wouldn't sell it to me because I "was not an authorized repair center."

The fact is that companies don't want customers repairing their sets. That would cut into new set sales. The companies want you to keep "coming back for more" of their crap every few years.

I had a friend who was in the TV/radio business from the '40's through the early '70's and as long as he had his Eico 232 VTVM, he could fix most any tube radio or TV that you sat in front of him. There was no internet, no "help line", etc. back then. For the most part, the technicians either figured it out on their own or it didn't get fixed. He closed up shop in the early '70's because his health was failing and he saw the downward direction of the TV repair industry. He also started seeing solid state sets replacing tube sets and he didn't care to learn solid state.

Now, many "technicians" (not just TV) would be lost if they didn't have the internet, etc. to help them along. I'll admit that I've used information on the internet to get me out of a bind; but, I like to try and fix the problem before I go to outside help. I think many of these modern "techs" make most of their money on high up front check out fees. Then , your set sits in the same spot for months untouched.

If I was a veteran repairman back then, I wouldn't care to learn solid state either. Tube gear was considerably heftier and easier to work on at that time. I don't know many people who would prefer to work on a circuit board versus a point-to-point tube chassis set. But, these days just TRY to get a tube set repaired. I have been laughed at a few times asking about tube sets in repairshops.

Certainly is a dying profession, unless you focus on PCs and cell phones exclusively. Installations can also be decent, I hear. But to rely on customers having sets repaired? Good luck, unfortunately. And then you have the people who want their 3 year old Plasma repaired, but thats easier said than done.

A very wise senior citizen near my place was closing his AV shop after roughly 45 years of service in 2005. He had stacks of cool audio gear, test equipment, parts, TVs, etc. I gave him my Pioneer SX-838 stereo to get the dial string restrung. Figured its a bitch of a job, and he could use the work. He couldn't locate a source for dial string. Neither could I, on the internet. Anyway, a week later I called to pick up the unit and learned he had passed on. I went to the shop and the new owners had paid to get the entire shop hauled away, except for the pile with pending repairs for customers. (its now a flower store ugh) I'm talking, EICO, Fisher, Scott, Marantz gear. All gone. One set was left. It was a 1990's RCA console, one of the ones that looks much older than it is. The owner wanted to keep it since it worked. I took it from them after an argument and gave it to a friend who needed a TV. :thumbsdn:

Back when there were TV shops on every corner, color TVs cost $500 while new cars cost $3000, a 1/6 ratio. Now you can get a good flat screen for $1000, while an average car cost $20000 or more(1/20 ratio). This is one reason that TV shops are a dying breed.

Also, back in those days, the TVs were very basic, with a tube or transistor doing only one function, fairly easy to service. Now you have million transistor integrated circuits doing many functions, making the electronics much more capable, but limiting service. TV repair shops are just becoming obsolete.

As far as things being throw-away, this should at least be changed so that things are re-cyclable. There is a limited amount of resources in the world and a limited amount of landfile space.

When i find an old TV, I wonder about what it's displayed in its lifetime. What great or awful images have graced its screen? What news events did it display? It's one of life's mysteries.

Speaking of sets with histories, does anyone remember Armand Hammer,
of US-USSR business fame, who owned a trio of color sets that had once
belonged to president Johnson? IIRC, I read a story about this in Life many
years ago.