Aunt Edna's Old Tv

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Searching Craigslist a week ago, I found an ad for "Aunt Edna's Old Tv". It was a one sentence ad saying that the seller had a 1949 Sentinel that was in bad shape, but looked like all the tubes were there. I replied just for the heck of it, and they actually responded! I picked it up today, not quite sure what I was going to get.....

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It's a 17" set from 1954-the only one in that screen size Sentinel made that year, so I guess they were using up the old stock of their 17" tubes. The lady who owned it was selling the house, and clearing out. This was in fact her Aunt Edna's television, that they inherited from her in 1980. For the rest of that decade, this WAS their only tv! She said it never broke down, they just finally got a modern color set.

I did power it up briefly, and the sound and raster came up, so this must be a pretty indestructible set. Not surprisingly, the crt is pretty worn, testing lower than anything I have ever tested before. But it's been cooking at 8v for a while now and appears to be coming up...