RCA must have made a zillion of these jokers!
 

This RCA 12" B&W was given to me by a friend a few weeks ago. When I saw it, I figured late '70's or very early '80's; but, it actually is an '84 model and uses the KCS204 chassis. The only thing wrong with it is the power switch is stuck in the "on" position and an inline switch has been placed in the AC cord. Otherwise, it's a good playing TV to have been made in Taiwan. I know RCA was making these sets in the '70's; but, I was not aware that they stayed around until at least '84. Like I said, RCA must have made a zillion of these!

I'm not sure when they stopped making those 12" b/w sets, but I've had a few from the 80's. The newest 12" b/w I ever had was an Admiral from 87, I had a similar RCA I from I think 1980, and a 1982 12" b/w Zenith.

I did have a newer Thomson era 12" RCA B&W; but, it had a different chassis and was overall cheaper built. I think it was made around '88. There's an '80's 12" GE B&W at the SA for $15. It does not have the popular "XB" chassis that was used during the '70's and early '80's. This one looks like a rebadged goldstar; but, it does have a GE address on the back. The last 12" B&W I saw new was an ACTION brand from the mid '90's. It had a regular rotary tuner and ran off a wall wart. They were very poor quality sets and I think they sold for $29.99.

I just love 12" B&W sets. Right now I only have two, a 1978 GE and a 1978 Matsushita built Quasar which works great except the horizontal hold pot is going bad. I'm trying to get a hold of what I think is an early Seventies set which I think is among the last hand wired tube type 12" sets. It is in a yellow cabinet and has the picture controls on the right side of the cabinet. It is made before the detent type UHF tuner was required.

I have a few 12" b&w sets. One is a 1978 Magnavox (built by Philips Video Corp of Taiwan) which is totally discrete SS and is a good performer; and the other is a '75ish GE with the SF chassis. Also a good basic set, especially for a hybrid. One particularly interesting set I've got is a Panasonic speed-o-vision from about 1973-4. Its SS, and has instant-on! CRT is still really bright though.

I did find one of those RCAs once from 1981 or so, same exact set looks-wise.... They tend to last for a very long time. I threw it away though since I had way too many 12" b&w's at the time.

I saw 12" B&W sets at Fry's up to at least the late 90s. Cheap-o brands, though. (KTV, Kawasho, Alaron, etc etc). They were selling for $33 or so.

Charles

I've got a 1987 B & W Emerson 12". It's got a Goldstar tube in it. I bought it from goodwill 2.5 years ago. It had a short in it when I got it but it was a super easy fix. A wire had somehow made contact with a capacitor.

One really recent 12" B&W set I briefly owned was a KTV KTV1210CLR. I can't remember if the boilerplate stated it was made in 1992 or 2002. Two very unusual features for a 12" B&W were it's electronic cable-ready tuner with OSD, and it's cabinet color - CLEAR!.
I had brought the set for $5 at a thrift store while on vacation in Upper Michigan, to use for TV DXing, and left it at the resort when it was time to return home (the set was then thrown away).
The clerk at the thrift store told me that the set came from a prison in town, that they were the only sets sold in the prison store. The cabinet was clear so that the television set could not be used to conceal drugs or weapons.
Picture was not very sharp nor bright, DX performance was decent, however.

Rob

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I wouldn't mind finding one of those 12" Zenith's from the '80's with the direct entry channel keypad. I've only seen one in person. It was at a yard sale back in the very early '90's. It played fine; but, they wanted $25 for it. I left it because $25 would have been all that I could have gotten at the time.

I'd like to find someone local to hand-off my 12" collection to. I have some tube/hybrids from Zenith, Magnavox, Philco-Ford, GE, RCA, and some later sets from Curtis Mathes & Boshei. I have one of those instant-on Panasonics, too, though I think mine has tubes. Most of them are sitting, unloved, out in the shed.

in 81,82 rca would run a promotion buy a color 25" console and receive a free 12" b&w tv. it generated a lot of sales we gave quite a few away. steve

Well, picked up another one from an older lady that my Mother knows. This one being a '77 model. The case looks almost identical to the '80's sets; but, the chassis is of an older design (KCS203). The chassis in this set actually had a plug in IF module, while the newer chassis (KCS204) is a single board design. When I powered up this set, it came to life with vertical height problems. Then, the picture collapsed to a horizontal line. This makes the third one of these little sets that I've found over the past year - an '84, '81, and '77. I ended up giving the '84 model away.

I'll post a picture of the '77 model soon.

Speaking of B&W sets from the late 70's, it turns out that the computer monitor that was sold with the TRS80 computer was a modified RCA B&W TV set. The "TRS80" plastic logo on the front hid holes in the cabinet where the TV tuner would have been, and there was a space where a speaker was to mount as well (behind the grillwork under the CRT).

They used a wide bandwidth opto-coupler to get the baseband video from the computer to the hot chassis modified TV set. a 6N135 IIRC.
http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...1&d=1254204466
Of course any computer/TV/Star Trek geek is required to play episodes of Star Trek on one of these monitors...

I have a early-mid 80s RCA B&W 12" set that I bought new as a bedroom set. The interesting thing for me about this set is that it doesn't have the usual click-stop tuner, but instead one that is more like a radio tuner which is continuously variable, with a toggle switch to choose either VHF or UHF. I haven't seen anything like that before.