Zenith roundie alert near Salem, OR
 

She's a looker!

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http://salem.craigslist.org/atq/2451042602.html


Is this the one with both VHF and UHF tuning? I see 2 knobs...

http://images.craigslist.org/3n43m03...0a81cc1199.jpg

This is like the one I picked up in Nashville. Paid $125, but it does work. 1964 model I think.

I emailed the guy to inquire about prices. I'll see what he says. Not too long of a drive from Boise. the zenith is definitely worth the drive. :)

I picked it up today it came from a little farm house way out in the country down a old dirt road built in 1916. I got the set home and was disappointed to see a brightener hanging off the the 1970 RCA Colorama picture tube. I decided to test the tube any way and was shocked to see it tested good 78 on red and green and 76 on blue don't know why someone put a brightener on a good tube:scratch2: needless to say I removed it. The lady said it did not work but I decided to bring it up slow and see what I got and another shocker it worked good color and sharp image:banana: the controls and tuner are dirty and need cleaning and could use a little convergence touch up but it has a nice picture.
I will post a picture of it working later it is setting in the hall and not much room to take one.

Good job!

At least one of us got it. I was itching to take a road trip. Hows the 1959 RCA?

It does.. the UHF and on off and volume are all set together Kinda neat.

I have not done anything to to it yet it is just sitting till I decide what I want to do with it.

Perhaps the lady you bought this set from thought it didn't work because it wouldn't receive anything with just an antenna. Even now, two years and 11 days after the DTV transition, some folks just don't get it that a converter box or cable/satellite are necessary to watch digital TV on an analog set as old as this one, or for that matter, any analog television set.

was just curious. would be nice to find something like that around here for a change. Not too much stuff in the Boise area. Some old B&W sets and lots of radios. Need to keep hitting the estate sales.

Maybe they had the brightner set up to reduce th voltage. So the crt would last longer?? Or to isolate a short. I have that exact set.

Isn't a brightener an autotransformer that actually increases the filament voltage? Or did they have a switch to make it an isolation transformer. Could it be that the set stopped working and a "repairman" thought this was the problem. Anyway, looking good and looking forward to seeing it work...

Nice save, glad someone was able to pick this up. Even better: it works!

This thing says Color Brightener CB 380 and does not have a switch to make it a isolation transformer. Did they ever make one that lowers the filament voltage to make the tube last longer? I have never seen one does not appear to be tampered with its all sealed up.

Damen wonders >>> I . . . was disappointed to see a brightener hanging off the the 1970 RCA Colorama picture tube . . . the tube . . . tested good . . . I . . don't know why someone put a brightener on a good tube <<<

Well first, one needs to stop thinking "today" and put one's self in a "1960's frame of mind."

>>> it came from a little farm house way out in the country down a old dirt road built in 1916 <<<

I don't know about Oregon, but in western Tennessee, those farm roads were wired for pre-WWII loads. When air conditioners became affordable for home use in the rural areas, it was not uncommon to find line voltage at 90 volts during the heat of the day and at 130 early in the morning.

The voltage problem was so bad that the shop that I worked for would recommend against buying a color set if you were on a rural line. We actually installed variacs with a voltmeters on some of the B&W sets to keep them from being fried.

A probable scenario:

Low line voltage caused the horizontal and vertical sweep to pull in, and the resulting high voltage drop caused the image to bloom thus filling out the sides. This caused a not-too-sharp service man to diagnose a bad CRT, instead of low voltage, but it did improve the low brightness.

James.