62 Zenith 23" B&W console

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Adam

It's working good, the only thing I replaced was a damper tube. I hauled this home today in the trunk of my Grand Marquis, and I was actually able to fit it in there completely and I could close the lid! … which was good, because it rained hard on my way home. 16H22 chassis, it's got two speakers, one on each side, and a good strong CRT.

That's the best kind of TV find, one that only needs a tube to get it working again. I had many sets like that, trash finds, when I lived in a house with a basement in the '60s and '70s. My pride and joy at that time was a 1963 Zenith 23" console I picked up in 1969, at the north end of the street I grew up on. That set was missing all but two tubes (HV rectifier and the CRT), but after replacing all the missing tubes, the set rewarded me with a razor-sharp picture and outstanding sound (my set had a 6BN6-6BQ5 audio system with a 6x9 oval speaker and tone control). The CRT, amazingly, was very strong and bright after six years. My best guess is that someone must have filched the tubes out of the set before I got to it, although the back cover was still on and none of the screws were missing.

Nearly broke my heart when I had to give up that TV three years later (long story and OT) after all the work I had put into it up to that point, but I enjoyed the heck out of it while I had it.

The picture on your Zenith TV looks fantastic for a 54-year-old set. Does yours have the original CRT? If it does, the former owners probably didn't watch it much (perhaps just the evening news), but even then I would expect the tube to be very weak after all those years. Most TVs of that age that still have the original tube are using a brightener; even then, I find it difficult to believe that after 54 years the tube has any life left in it. My best guess is that your set is on its second or even third CRT since it was new.

I don't see a cable box or converter box anywhere near the TV. How are you able to watch DTV subchannels without such a converter? At least one of Lansing's network TV stations (and its DTV subchannels) are on a UHF channel (the ABC affiliate, as I found out from a search on TVGuide.com), so you would need a digital-to-analog converter box or cable to receive DTV stations on a VHF-only TV such as your '62 Zenith. The only other thing I can think of is the converter or cable box is not shown in your picture of the set.