Quote:
Originally posted by nasadowsk
Hmm, I'll have to look into that.
Now - when was the 25LC20 chassis made, anyway? Was this early or late in Zenith roundie land? I know pre '64 - the set doesn't have UHF at all (but a click stop for it, but hey! someone stole the strip in that slot!)
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I'm not at all sure, but maybe there never
was a strip for the UHF position in Zenith TVs made before 1964. I once had a Sams Photofact for the 25LC20/Q (the Q after the model number denoting Space Command remote equipped); the picture of the set on the front of the folder seemed to be of the 25LC20, VHF only.
Generally, the only way to get UHF channels on any TV made prior to April 30, 1964 was to use a UHF converter ahead of the set's own tuner. The VHF tuner was set to channel 5 or 6 to receive the converter's output (whichever was an inactive channel in the set owner's area--either channel 5 or 6 are always unused in any TV market, since the two channels are adjacent to each other) and all UHF tuning was done at the converter.
Some markets, such as Fresno, California, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Youngstown, Ohio, et al. (areas which got their TV stations after the FCC quit issuing new VHF licenses), only had UHF TV channels and still do today. Back in the '50s, when these stations first went on the air, TV receiver dealers in those cities marketed specially-built all-channel sets (and, of course, converters for older VHF-only receivers) before they were available in markets with only VHF stations. I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland and remember when the city's first UHF station (PBS channel 25) went on the air. The year was 1965 and we had just gotten a 17" Sears Silvertone all-channel b&w portable TV. While the VHF reception from our three network stations (channels 3, 5 and 8 at the time) was good, reception on channel 25 was terrible in our area, which was about 30 miles southwest of the transmitters. I later found out what part of the problem was, while watching channel 25 sign off one night; the PBS channel was only running 1 megawatt ERP, and we were trying to watch it just using a UHF loop antenna in our near-fringe area!
BTW, I now live in a definite fringe area for all VHF TV channels and FM stereo radio (45 miles from the transmitters) and have cable for TV, as does just about everyone else here in my small town. The irony of it is, however, that all four of Cleveland's UHF channels (except PBS 25) come in here just great, using rabbit ears. I have discovered as well that the PBS channel I had such problems with back in the '60s (again, channel 25) now has a translator station just about five miles or so from my hometown, and another one not too terribly far from where I live today. I guess translators aren't dead yet.