[veg-o-matic]

Well, color me embarrassed....

Yes, I really did verify that the fine tuning knob was twiddling the f-t slugs. I saw it with my own eyes every time I had the tuner out of the cabinet.

Can you tell where I'm going with this?

Yesterday it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, when the tuner was mounted the slugs weren't turning. It was a long shot, but I figured it would be easy enough to experiment with.

So I pulled the channel/fine tuning/UHF numbers dials off the set and put back only the channel and fine tuning. The UHF dial was the last one in the "stack" so that's the one I removed.

Lo and behold, the fine-tuning actually worked! I now have a good picture, good sound and good color!

Woohoo!

Of course, the set still needs to be converged, but still. Oh, and the picture looks a lot better than the photo shows. I might have been a little shaky at the time; see below.

I guess to pay for my stupidity, I got majorly defibrillated last night. While doing the static convergence I managed to touch something I shouldn't have.... Yow! Practically knocked me on my a$$, and the smell of burning hair (or flesh) was potent.

But at least I've learned my lesson. Yes, I will remember this for next time.

Thanks to all who helped with this little project--couldn't have done it without you!

veg