Zenith, Weekend find

[Countryford]

So, on Thursday, I went out doing my weekly Goodwill hunting trip. Here the CRT TVs are only $1.00 at Goodwill. I can find 1970's and 1980's TVs that work for $1.00. Anyways I went to his one Goodwill and spotted this Zenith TV right away. I quickly grabbed it and ran. Got it home and checked it over. The majority of the caps have already been replaced. The verticle output tube was broken. I've ordered a new tube and will see what it does once I get it in.

[DaveWM]

wow a portable color tube zenith, I what a nice score. Please get some pics with the back off.

[Countryford]

What gets me, is that people complain about Goodwill or other thrift stores not having anything. Well I do go to them at times and find nothing to bring home. But then other times I go and find some good stuff. This is probably my best score that I've had in a while. I almost didn't go to this Goodwill location, it is a bit of a distance from me. Looking at the tag, it was priced on the same day I purchased it. Then to top it off, is that it was only $1.00. I know I'm bragging a bit, but heck.

Anyways, I'll get some photos of it with the back removed.

[Kamakiri]

Looks to be about a 1970 maybe? Well done!

[Countryford]

Looks to be about a 1970 maybe?

They were still making all tube TVs in 1970? I thought by then that they were all solid state?
Either way, I'm happy with my find.

[TVTim]

Wow.

My local Goodwill no longer sells TVs. And the local Salvation Army doesn't take older TVs with out the RCA jacks.

[Kamakiri]

Originally Posted by Countryford

They were still making all tube TVs in 1970? I thought by then that they were all solid state?
Either way, I'm happy with my find.

I have an RCA CTC-53 color portable, that I believe is a 1973. I think that's about as late as they went, except for porta-colors of course. Your control setup looks much like my '69 Zenith console, so I'm guessing '69-'70.

[zeno]

Originally Posted by Countryford

They were still making all tube TVs in 1970? I thought by then that they were all solid state?
Either way, I'm happy with my find.

Yes almost everyone did. Yours is a 14". Zenith replaced it with a
solid state 13" in 1976.
It is basicly the the same as the 16" sets. IF strip is transistors
& a few others. UHF is continuous not detent so pre '74 IIRC.
Also it looks like yours uses hi focus voltage & thats good.
Nice well built sets.

73 Zeno

[bgadow]

Just think, by you purchasing this Zenith that store will be more likely to sell the next old set that shows up, instead of tossing it. These TV's are real tanks...nobody else was building portables like this.

Most of the manufacturers had some tube chassis sets in their lineup into 74-75.

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by bgadow

Just think, by you purchasing this Zenith that store will be more likely to sell the next old set that shows up, instead of tossing it. These TV's are real tanks...nobody else was building portables like this.

Most of the manufacturers had some tube chassis sets in their lineup into 74-75.

Bryan, That one looks vewy vewy familia...

I do beleive you may have dropped one off like that a few weeks ago. It is a 14CC14, 1972 model. It has only one small issue with tint range, otherwise it works great.

We rarely see other than BPC-SPC sets in thrift stores like Tim said.

[snelson903]

our goodwill stop selling them last year , there scrap happy around here .the salvation army store still sells them ,i score 3 late 70's and early 80's 13 inch color last week from there they all worked and the 70's rca still had the remote ,i found a 70's 13inch color zenith with the orginal tone bar type remote and owners manaul still with it about 2 months ago.

[radiotvnut]

What's the model/chassis number of that Zenith? We can probably narrow down a year from that information. I think the last year for a tube Zenith TV was '75 ("F" line).

[sampson159]

we sold tons of these sets in the 80s.perfect for the bedroom.these were awesome with fine.sharp pictures.dont think one ever came back for repair.

[bgadow]

Dave, I started to mention that one! I don't recall doing much of anything too that one, maybe replacing a cracked tube or some such. Interesting to take the back off and compare the Zenith to, say, an RCA or GE from that era. (compare them on your bathroom scale, while you're at it!)

[Countryford]

The chassis is a number 14CC14.
I replaced the vertical output tube last night. I got a picture and sound. The picture was slightly fuzzy. I also checked the other tubes and discovered a tube in the tuner was bad.(I should have checked earlier). Anyways, I've ordered a new tube for it and will also clean up the tuner and do a couple other things as well.