Did you know you can buy an RCA...

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

But the JFK stuff DOES look like it was made in a different century than '63...

That was probably because color TV was still a novelty in 1963, having been introduced only nine years earlier. Most people still had b&w TV sets at that time, with many smaller cities' TV stations not yet equipped for colorcasting, so most folks saw the JFK assassination in b&w unless they lived in or near a major city and/or had wealthy neighbors -- remember, a color television set cost close to $1000 in the 1960s, and that was for just the TV. Three-way entertainment centers of that era sold for much more, so most families fortunate enough to afford color had to settle for a standalone television, usually the cheapest, lowest-end set they could find. This meant, in most cases, a metal-cabinet 19-inch roundie. The three broadcast networks in existence at the time (NBC, ABC, CBS), moreover, were still telecasting mostly b&w programming, so even if one watched the JFK assassination on a color set he or she would see it as monochrome. However, the event probably, even likely, was not even telecast in color to begin with (again, because colorcasting was so new), so one would see it as b&w regardless of the type of set he or she was viewing it on.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

most families fortunate enough to afford color had to settle for a standalone television, usually the cheapest, lowest-end set they could find. This meant, in most cases, a metal-cabinet 19-inch roundie.

I don't think so!
While a 19" roundies (19VP22 & 19TP22) did exist as a short-term step between the 15GP22 and the 21AXP22, by the time that smaller metal cabinet sets were introduced (such as the RCA CTC19 series) rectangular tubes (such as the 19EYP22) were used.

jr

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

I don't think so!
While a 19" roundies (19VP22 & 19TP22) did exist as a short-term step between the 15GP22 and the 21AXP22, by the time that smaller metal cabinet sets were introduced (such as the RCA CTC19 series) rectangular tubes (such as the 19EYP22) were used.

jr

When I read your post, it reminded me (I had all but forgotten) that I had a 16"-17" Sears Silvertone metal-cabinet table TV (don't know if the chassis was an RCA clone or not) in the mid-1970s -- a trash day find. The set had a rectangular CRT, was all-channel and worked very well, even on rabbit ears in the basement, in the Cleveland suburb in which I lived at the time, although it worked much better when I connected it to the attic antenna -- especially on UHF, as I expected it would, as that area was not the best on earth for color TV reception using indoor antennas.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

When I read your post, it reminded me (I had all but forgotten) that I had a 16"-17" Sears Silvertone metal-cabinet table TV (don't know if the chassis was an RCA clone or not) in the mid-1970s -- a trash day find. The set had a rectangular CRT, was all-channel and worked very well, even on rabbit ears in the basement, in the Cleveland suburb in which I lived at the time, although it worked much better when I connected it to the attic antenna -- especially on UHF, as I expected it would, as that area was not the best on earth for color TV reception using indoor antennas.

Cool! Did it look like the small Silvertone shown on "radiola guy's" site, here:

http://radiolaguy.com/Showcase/VintageTV/Sears_5170.htm

The close-up shots of the chassis don't look like anything that RCA made (that I have seen, anyway), but RCA perhaps licensed some of the circuitry to Toshiba.

jr

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Cool! Did it look like the small Silvertone shown on "radiola guy's" site, here:

http://radiolaguy.com/Showcase/VintageTV/Sears_5170.htm jr

Yes, except mine was a table model in a black metal cabinet, IIRC.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Cool! Did it look like the small Silvertone shown on "radiola guy's" site, here:

http://radiolaguy.com/Showcase/VintageTV/Sears_5170.htm

The close-up shots of the chassis don't look like anything that RCA made (that I have seen, anyway), but RCA perhaps licensed some of the circuitry to Toshiba.

jr

Back in the mid-60's, Sears had two suppliers for the 18" table models. Toshiba and Sanyo. The Toshiba's were a little higher end. The Sanyo's had more CRT and Flyback failures. Most customers had maintenance agreements on those models, for at least a few years.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Back in the mid-60's, Sears had two suppliers for the 18" table models. Toshiba and Sanyo. The Toshiba's were a little higher end. The Sanyo's had more CRT and Flyback failures. Most customers had maintenance agreements on those models, for at least a few years.

Hmmm. My Sears 16" set (don't know the vintage or, for that matter, whether the chassis was made by Sanyo or Toshiba) was working perfectly when I rescued it from the curb. I guess the former owner got tired of it or wanted a set with a bigger picture.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

This meant, in most cases, a metal-cabinet 19-inch roundie.

Originally Posted by jr_tech

I don't think so!
While a 19" roundies (19VP22 & 19TP22) did exist as a short-term step between the 15GP22 and the 21AXP22...

Even though all of the post-15GP22 round-CRT sets had "21-inch" tubes, they have 19-inch-diagonal pictures, by more recent standards. It seems that most color-TV ads I have seen from the 1960s mention the square-inch size of the picture rather than the diagonal number. I wonder if that was already an early response to the misleading CRT-size-versus-picture-size issue.