estate sale finds again, for 2004

[drh4683]

back of the set looks cool. I could see the back from the picture window before I walked in!

[Jeffhs]

Hi Doug (drh4683),

This is only a hunch, but that sound you were hearing from your '61 Magnavox TV's speaker may have been something oscillating somewhere--maybe one of the video IF stages or even the 4.5-MHz sound detector went into regeneration, but it's difficult to say from this distance.

However, your set's picture looks good now. It's great when you can get an old set like this working that well. I haven't seen any of the early '60s Magnavox sets, especially with large screens (except one white French Provincial remote set), on this forum lately until now; most sets with the Magnavox name on them are made by Phillips today, and are of much lower quality than the originals--in fact, from what I've seen and read, the newer Maggies are built so cheaply (offshore, like everything else these days) it isn't funny. No wonder these sets (as well as the Thomson-built RCAs and GS-built Zeniths) wind up in the trash so often these days when they go bad (especially after a CRT failure.)


One question, though. Why on earth would anyone keep a TV set from 1961 in their living room for 43 years if the set isn't working, and possibly hadn't been working for years or decades? What did they use that Maggie for, anyway? You said there was a lot of "silverware junk" on top of it. I can only guess. . . .

BTW, the loose CRT base, not to mention the other circuit problems you found, doesn't surprise me in a set that old. It's a good thing you cemented it back on before it came off entirely, as when you lose the base on one of these tubes, you have a big job on your hands if you have to replace it. I once had a Philco Microgrid "390" 21-inch b&w console with the same problem, only the base came off in my hand one day while I was working on the chassis. I managed to solder the leads from the chassis to the wire stubs at the end of the CRT neck and get the set working for awhile, but eventually one lead broke off, shorted across a couple others, and of course it ruined the tube immediately. I don't know what it did to the rest of the set, but at that point it didn't matter anymore as I had to get rid of it anyway (I moved a few months later, so had to get rid of every one of my old TVs, including that Philco and a 23" Zenith b&w console, in a hurry).


Kind regards,

[drh4683]

Just picked this one out off the curb a few days ago. Its a 23DC14 all steel cabinet "chromacolor" set with space command 500. Couldnt believe it was a space command. Gotta fix it, but its going to take lots of work to bring it back.

[drh4683]

Got this remote set from dwight, had to finish off the restoration. he put a new fly in it last year. Had to work on the remote chassis, convergence, convergence yoke got replaced, as the original was craked and broken. What is so unique about this set is that it has motorized continuous UHF tuning. An inductive pick up off the IF coil (the inductive pick up is directly proportional to signal strength) in which the continuous uhf tuner stops as soon as the signal strength reaches its peak point to its tuned circuit. Very cleaver, and works perfectly. Basically, a removable wire loop over an IF serves a a secondary winding like a transformer. When the signal is strong enough, a voltage is generated in the lead which conducts a transistor to cutoff shuting off the channel selector relay. Thus the channel stops. Its an entirely basic, all electronic method of channel selection for both VHF and UHF. This cleaver set up eliminates star wheels, mechanical adjustments etc. All motorized color and tint controls. However, the set for some unfortunate reason has a volume stepper like the zeniths. I was never too impressed with volume steppers as you have 3 selectable volume ranges, and those depend on how the volume control itself it set. I always wondered why zenith never advanced to electronic ultrasonics. I love zeniths space command sets, but they are not as practical as rca's and mag's electronic. RCA in perticular is best, as you have a motorized volume control as well as motorized color/hue.
Im impressed with how nice the picture looks after servicing. The picture is so clean and crisp and the colors are outstanding. As an interesting note, I have observed that the frech provincial sets are most likely to have a remote option, as those who purchased this style of set were a bit more wealthy and could easily afford it.

[drh4683]

you can see inside the set is crammed with wires and chassis, all of which had to be removed in order to service the crt.

[drh4683]

when I had the chassis out, it got cleaned up and all tubes were replaced as nessisary. In this photo, you see the remote controlled tuner assy. Notice all the motors. That TMA weights a ton for its size!

[drh4683]

Here is the dial panel. All "motorized" tuner fuctions are performed by buttons along the top of the panel. UHF up, UHF down, VHF, and volume stepper.

[Chad Hauris]

I have found a couple of those type sets, just in the mahogany and pecan cabinets though. I had to re-tune another Mag. remote to operate the functions as the original was lost. One time I was thinking about adapting either the color or tint motor functions to adjust the volume, as I hardly ever have to change the tint/color, but never did it. I have found that these Mag. sets have some of the best pictures, beating out RCA...unfortunately 2 of mine have weak CRT's. That's the only bad part about a durable, well built set...people play it till the CRT gets so weak they can barely see the picture.

Zenith did make an ultrasonic remote control w/more than 3 volume steps, in 1979. It is electronic, battery powered, not the tone rods. There is also a manual volume pot on the set to set the maximum desired volume level. You can still hear the volume change by steps but there must be 10 or 15 steps from min. to max. volume so you have pretty good control.

[andy]

I know zenith made a very advanced ultrasonic remote for a short time. It had digital tuning with on screen display. The remote had a full keypad, power, volume and mute.

[drh4683]

Picked up this nice 1972 Motorola quasar. Needed some minor work to bring it back to good working order. Has instant on, so the crt got years of useless burning of the filaments, which of course weakened it pretty good.

[drh4683]

The inside is pretty nice. Its dated july 11 1972, all boards are dated 72. ONly a 4 tube set, for the deflection circuits.

[drh4683]

This set actually appears to be a hitachi, before the name "sharp" was bought by matsushita (panasonic). Its a 7 tube set, and works great. Its actually a pretty well built set, solid VHF tuner.

[drh4683]

Picked up a ctc22 ej507 known as the "headliner". I have the other ctc22, the ej505, which is basically the same set with different color cabinet and knobs. Has an IF problem and horizontal width problems.

[Tony V]

Hi Doug,
I used to have a Motorola/Quasar just like yours. I had it for years until the video board went bad in it. Since i couldnt locate another board and the crt was weak (yep, same problem) it went to the dumpster. I wish i had it back now because i stumble across the boards occasionally now along with the crt's. I had a Sharp like yours also. Was always a good player and it ended up at a relatives when their tv went finally gave up the ghost. As far as i know , they still have it and its still playing well. They use it in their bedroom hooked to a cable box so they have remote. Nice to see you found another CTC22..they are one of my favorite RCA portables.
Tony

[Jeffhs]

Doug (drh4683),

That is exactly why I never liked the "instant-on" feature of many early '70s TVs. As you noted, it takes hours off the lives of the tube filaments and weakens the CRT a lot, once the set has been constantly on for a few years. Another reason I didn't care for instant-on is that it could be a fire hazard, as the tube filaments in sets with this feature are on around the clock--whether or not the main power switch is on (in other words, the set is never completely off unless one physically unplugs it from the wall socket). Yet another reason I did not like instant-on is the fact that lightning strikes near the power line to which the set is connected would often damage (short) the instant-on diode, which is connected directly across the main switch. With the diode shorted, it is now impossible to turn the set off with the power switch. The only way to turn off the set in this case would be to pull the plug. I heard of a lot of people who just left their sets in that condition when the diode shorted, or else if they knew how to do it, they would take the back off and cut the diode out of the circuit. The TV worked just as well without the diode as with it.