What was the first TV you ever fixed?

[radiotvnut]

For me, it was around 1990, shortly after I started collecting antique radios. Someone gave me an early '60's 19" RCA B&W set with the knobs on top of the case. It had no UHF tuner. IIRC, it only needed the tuner and controls cleaned/adjusted. I watched that set for a year or so, until I found a 19" Philco-Ford B&W set with UHF. I sold the RCA to a young married couple for $25 and they were glad to get it. I don't think that would happen in 2011.

The first color TV I fixed was given to me shortly after the B&W RCA was given to me and it was a mid '70's 19" Zenith space command CCII set. That one had a blown vertical output fuse. I promptly sold that one for $50 because having $50 to buy radios was more important to me than having a color TV in my room. That set did have an outstanding picture.

[YamahaFreak]

A 25-inch Sharp Linytron from 1982 or so. The largest turret tuner set I have (still!) ever seen. I was about 12. The set was arcing from the flyback casing to the HOT (?) heatsink. I wedged a piece of vinyl stripping between the two and the set worked perfect from then on.

I wish I still had that set! I remember it had a REALLY fuzzy picture; at that time, I didn't know to adjust the flyback's focus control. My parents dumped it when I wasn't looking.

[Sandy G]

Been better if you stuck a Penny in there...(grin)

[YamahaFreak]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Been better if you stuck a Penny in there...(grin)

I'd be set for the 4th of July

[bgadow]

I had tinkered on a lot of sets when I was a teenager but I have a hard time remembering one that I actually fixed. I recall a 12" bw Panasonic in a bright orange cabinet. The PC board was cracked all the way around. I probably spent the better part of a day bridging the gaps and did get it to work, though my poor soldering skills meant it didn't last. That was around the time of the first gulf war; I was hauling home a ton of junk sets right about then. The first set that I really brought back from the dead was a '50 Philco 12" which I recapped later in the 90s. (after I discovered the "miracle" of recapping, starting with a '39 Silvertone radio, I was transformed!)

[Electronic M]

The first set I restored was a 1953 Zenith.


I did make up a jury rig to fix the UHF tuner on a 1964 S0ny portable before that, but all other stuff before the Zenith met with no sucess.

Sandy, if you keep puting pennys in electrical gear you are going to have another house fire eventually.

[Sandy G]

Oh, I KNOW that...Trust me, I know enuff about this stuff to know when I'm Over My Head...And to then Fuggeddaboutit, & take it to Terry next time I'm down there...

[radiotvnut]

I remember those 25" Sharp's with the rotary tuner. I think they made them up until the late '80's-early '90's. They were probably the last ones to make a set that large with a rotary tuner.

[Adam]

I messed around with and collected tvs since I was 7 years old and I found an old 16" Zenith b/w out in the shed. But I didn't really get into fixing tvs until nearly 15 years later in the spring of '00 when I curb-picked a 1971 Zenith 19" hybrid color set. That set worked as found - but I was excited by my success with that Zenith and started looking for more old tvs and radios to work on. In June of that year I picked up a 1959 24" Magnavox b/w combo set. I had no idea what I was doing at first, but I had it going by September, I'd say that was the first set I really fixed.

[zenithfan1]

Mine was a 1980 Zenith (go figure) 12" B/W that we had since I was a baby (Still have this piece of くそ too) Anyways, the horizontal was all twisted up and out of adjustment like we've all seen but at 6 or 7 years old, it's a big deal. I got it going and told my mom, she still wanted to throw it out but I persuaded her not to.(obviously)
She was like "Are you sure it's fixed? What if it poops out again" I was rolling my eyes at her at this point.

[sampson159]

old bugeye zenith.i was a teenager when i found this pile.it was a nightmare.i worked on it for about a month before i got it working.first color set was a ctc 9.couple resistors in the if.i got service advise from mr dixon.that was the beginning of our friendship.i eventually worked for him and maintained a close friendship until his death.i remember when color was first on the market.the sets looked so good!there was a ct 100 in the window at hoermles in south columbus.not much color broadcasting in those days but when their was,parsons ave would be like flash mob!i was about 8 years old and my dad would take me down there on saturdays.he was going to purchase a color set in 1959.ctc9 i believe.get a loan from the city loan company and have it delivered.my mom found out and cancelled the order.we got a kelvinator refrigerator instead.it was around 1966 that we finally got a color set.

[old_coot88]

I was 14, and replaced the picture tube in the family's first TV. It was a little 14" bakelite "flat" table model Silvertone, series string with seleniums. The tuner was unusual, using ganged air-variable tuning condensers with switchable low-band/ high-band. Never seen another like it (in the flesh) since. Phil Nelson has a Capehart from 1948 with a similar tuner.
I guess the Silvertone would qualify for the Rectangular proviso of this forum since the CRT was the 'rectangular' type with rounded corners.

[jstout66]

Mine was a Quasar 2 console. This was before I started working in my Uncle's shop, but I would hang out there and already knew how to use the tube tester. "My" repair was easy. Customer brought in the Quasar 2 and I discovered the horizontal output went to air. Popped a new one in, and it worked!
I even wrote up the repair bill on it! Easy repair huh???

[ChrisW6ATV]

My first (non-)repair was on an 18"/19" B&W portable that I bought for $5 at a thrift store and brought home on the bus and then the El train in Chicago. It had poor vertical linearity that could not be adjusted better, so I bought a vertical output tube that made it worse. (Of course, now I know it just needed a 50-cent electrolytic capacitor.)

My first successful repair was in another 19" B&W set that was completely dead in our closet at home. I read one of those "TV Symptoms" books and tested all the tubes at the hardware store. One did not light up, and I had read what a "series string" was. A replacement tube brought it back to life, and I was hooked! I am still in the electronics business now, 35 years later, and I would not want to be in any other industry.

[timmy]

back in the day when i was 11 years old a tv shop closed next to where i lived and left hundreds of tvs both black white and color and had the chance to play with them as i did and found out what the red wire on the crt did when i got hit with it. so that was the first time fooling with tvs of that vintage, 1971 but the sets were fom the 40s,50s, and 60s. until my 1996 crt rca took a dump and was told 150.00 to come look plus parts i then decided to fix it myself and i did 2 times,over 15 years, and still works great.