Sharp '69 12 inch tube portable

[Jeffhs]

I had a Sharp TV exactly like that one in the early 1970s. It was a great set while it lasted, but it only worked three years before the tuner developed an intermittent connection somewhere. I was able to get it working after a fashion by propping the VHF tuner shaft up with a screwdriver, but that was only a temporary "fix" which didn't last long. These days, if I still had it, I could set the tuner (intermittent connection and all) on channel 3 or 4 and use it with a converter box or on cable, but unfortunately that set is long gone. I don't know what ever became of it now, 40+ years later.

BTW, I just thought of something regarding these Japanese-made tube-powered TVs. We talk a lot about offshore-made TVs, radios, etc. these days, but sets like the Sharp we are discussing here are examples of TVs that were made in Japan, then imported and sold here, so Japanese-made TVs aren't new. I'd say they go back as far as the early 1960s. Think about Japanese-made transistor radios, which were showing up on our shores in the '50s. It was just a short step from there to Japanese-manufactured TVs, a trend that continues to this day. The only difference is today's flat screens are being made by factories in China and elsewhere. Insignia-branded flat screens, for example, are manufactured by XOCECO in China and sold in this country by Best Buy (Future Shop in Canada).