Estate Sale Finds In 2007!

[bgadow]

Not an exact fit for the thread but I thought it bared mentioning. Was at the flea market Saturday and saw the oldest TV they have had in awhile. A Zenith color console which I thought initially was a $ervice $aver but then I walked around front and it said "Solid State". No mention of Chromacolor on the set-I should have pulled the back cover to see what the chassis was. I'm guessing it was one of the pre-modular ones? Not too bad a shape, and only $10 (as was the late model Zenith console parked next to it). It was old enough that the crt had a green halo. Too white a phosphor to be Chromacolor, I think. This was a 25V set. Anyway, I went back and looked a second time but decided to pass. No room here, and I have no luck getting anyone to come down here and get the sets I've already rescued. It wouldn't surprise me to see this set sitting there for awhile. These booths are under a roof but no walls. There are several vendors in a row with lots of used electronics and the consoles usually sit until the particle board falls apart.

[3Guncolor]

Zenith never had a 25V set that was not Chromacolor that may have been a very early solid state set 1972 or 73 by 75 they used the chromacolor II crts.

[bgadow]

I was actually thinking the screen looked too small for 25", but maybe it's just that I didn't have much to compare it with. I know Zenith stuck with those 23V tubes for a long, long time but this had the more rectangular corners.

[3Guncolor]

As far as I know Zenith did not make a 23V soild state set until 1975 or 76. Before then the soild state sets were the top of the line at 25V. The early Chromacolor 25v tubes would go yellow around the edges. But by 1974 they used the one piece bonded tube without the safety glass glued to the tube.
Zenith had some early soild state sets by late 71 early 72 they are rare not a lot of them were sold.

[bgadow]

Well, fellas, I thought about that TV all week. I decided that if I went back to the flea market Saturday morning and it was still there, well, I would go ahead and get it. Indeed, it was still there. The vendor begged me to take it, no charge. Seems they rent the same space each week...once when they weren't there somebody dumped the two consoles in their spot. The market wouldn't haul them away and the vendor only had a car so they were just stuck with these monsters. They talked me into taking the late model set as well but when I got back to the space with my truck the folks were nowhere to be seen. It was enough that my wife and I had to load one by ourselves, so I left the other.

So...it uses the horizontal chassis, 25CC55. It was built the last quarter of '71 (meaning it was "in production" the same time I was!) Overall in decent shape. Some of you will ask, does it work? Come on now. This TV is 36 years old; it spent at least a couple weeks sitting out on the flea market grounds. (at least it was during a drought) The cord was gone. What do you think? It's a Zenith...of course it works! The picture does bloom/shrink quite a bit but that can't be but so hard to fix, right? One neat thing is that the UHF uses presets, lettered A, B, C, etc. If you press in on the UHF fine tuning knob a dial scale lights up and you can adjust them. The screenshot I posted is with rabbit ears out in the shed.

One of you WILL be coming to take this off my hands, RIGHT? It is free, and I'll help you load it. Just be warned that I will try to fill the rest of your truck up with other stuff I'm trying to unload! PM if interested.

[drh4683]

Estate sale find at 8227 N. Washington st. Niles, IL. Picked up this little 12" RCA Victor solid state "new vista" portable b/w set. I figured this set to be about a '67 at first. Like all RCA's my first check is for a model tag (it was still there!) model AG 005 J. I didnt work, sound but no pic. Could smell some ozone from the back of the set with a faint HV ring. Got it for half price at $5.00.
When I got home I took the back off to troubleshoot the HV stage. I do not have service data for this set, uses a KCS153 chassis. The set does use a 2BJ3 HV rectifier. I also noticed all the components had 1965 date codes! Apparently its a '65 model which surprized me. Im going to assume this is the very first solid state portable RCA b/w set. I dont recall ever seeing this model. The only early rca solid state portables Ive seen are the ones from about '67-'68 with the pop up control panel.

Trouble appears to be a defective damper diode. Its one of those TO-3 cased dampers. Horizontal output transistor checked pretty leaky too. Typical germanium semiconductors, very unreliable! All I need is to get the NTE numbers and should be good to go.
This is quite a well built rugged little set with a power trans as well! One thing I do not understand is the use of the name "New Vista" on a solid state set. I thought "new vista" was referring to the nuvistor triode RF amp that was used in the VHF tuner. This set is all solid state with exception of the HV rectifier.

[radiotvnut]

Hey Doug,
That set is a first see for me as well. Nice find. Will this set operate on 12VDC? I may be able to help you with the semiconductors. I have a bunch that I got from a friend of mine who stopped fixing TV's. Just let me know what numbers you need. I had a CTC40 RCA when I was a kid that had "New Vista Color" stamped on it which I also thought was strange since it was all SS except for the HV rect. I also had a little GE 12" solid state AC/DC set that was probably a little newer than your RCA. It also used a tube HV rectifier. And, no, I no longer have either set. The CTC40 had a bad yoke and CRT and I don't remember what happened to the GE. If I only knew then what I know now...

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by bgadow

One of you WILL be coming to take this off my hands, RIGHT? It is free, and I'll help you load it. Just be warned that I will try to fill the rest of your truck up with other stuff I'm trying to unload! PM if interested.

If that set was closer, I WOULD take it. I like provincial and Danish modern solid state sets... they seem pretty rare.

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by drh4683

The set does use a 2BJ3 HV rectifier. I also noticed all the components had 1965 date codes! Apparently its a '65 model which surprized me. Im going to assume this is the very first solid state portable RCA b/w set. I dont recall ever seeing this model. The only early rca solid state portables Ive seen are the ones from about '67-'68 with the pop up control panel.

I believe you are correct; that looks like an RCA "Minikin", which was their first solid-state B&W portable. I dunno why those say "New Vista" on them though, but perhaps they hadn't yet decided on some sort of new moniker ("Trans-Vista") for solid-state TV's.

[drh4683]

1970 RCA Trans Vista Color, model GM-711L, "Tarleton", CTC-40P. Purchased at 23W234 Cambridge Ct., Glen Ellyn, IL. Original thread on this TV can be found here: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...t=122071Listed Noted on "estate sale finds in 2007" thread for the record.

[drh4683]

Picked up a 1971 Zenith console color set. Was a great find as early 70's zeniths are my favorites and are hardest to find plus being a dual speaker danish modern cabinet design made it even better. model B4744W, 12B14C50 chassis. This is a hybrid chassis for course but still had plenty of tubes in it. The set was at 2234 Grove Ave, Berwyn, IL. Found it in the basement. Luckily a clean dry basement. The set was pretty dusty and didnt work that great when I found it. After looking around the basement, I found the original operation manual for the set.
I never had a 12B14C50 chassis before and have been wanting to find one. After looking at the service manual, the 12B14C50 was noted as the "top of the line TV chassis for 1971".
It has the ultramatic UHF tuner, which I have never had on a manual tuning set before.
While looking around the rest of the house, I found some other manuals that helped me determine what TV's they had. I found the manual and schematic for a rca CTC-11, which was long gone. I think its safe to assume this '71 zenith replaced the CTC-11 which would have been about 10 years old at the time. That CTC-11 was probably put into the basement. Then I found another manual for a 1990 Zenith console with the purchase date and info written on it. I think that TV replaced this '71 zenith, that was put into the basement in 1990 unused. The CTC-11 was probably thrown away in 1990 when this zenith was brought down.

This is just a guess of course. The '71 zenith was a well used TV, but well cared for. The CRT was dim when I found it, so it probably got 19 good years of service. Most tubes were changed over the years, but the CRT is still original. The set does not appear to have had any serious work done to it, the chassis appears to have never been pulled out.

So basically, this TV survived 17 extra years and should have been thrown away in '90. This would have been typical. In the early 90's I found lots of early 70's zeniths at the resale shop by my old home and at the curb. Im glad they decided to keep it.

I went over the entire chassis. I didnt need to rejuv the tube, just raised the heaters up to about 8 volts for 15 minutes and brought the CRT back pretty good, even at a cold start up its about 7.8 out of 10, green gun being the weakest at about 7.3. Tuner got pulled to check out the ultramatic drive components. Everything looked good and moved fine.
VHF tuner was pretty dirty and intermittent.
One thing was impressed me was the light up UHF scale for presets of the ultramatic tuner. The dial scale lights up when you push in the UHF fine tuner. Never seen anything like it before. Also, the VHF and UHF dial indicators are direct view, but angle up tward the operator. You can see in the one photo, the indicators do not face out perpindicular to the front of the TV. Also to note, the Outter knobs are the channel changer, while the inner knobs are for fine tuning. Complete opposite from how most TV's were designed.

This is the first year zenith used the V series CRT's, 25VAMP22 (more rectangular) The color circuits had some issues, hue was not adjustable and when you pulled you activated the auto tint gaurd, the screen went completely green. After looking at the 9-47 duramodule, the tech. incorrectly plugged one of the tint leads one pin off on the duramod. Corrected that and it worked just fine. Zenith also had that non tamper HV protection cover soldered over the HV control. As the set ages, component values change and the HV goes way up. The HV was at about 28 KV and still had plenty of range with the control centered bringing it back to a correct 25KV at zero beam.
Zenith manual tells you to jumper various connections if the HV is too high or low, yet if the HV control goes bad, just "reset the HV to 25 KV and resolder the plate". So you can safely readjust the HV without causing other circuits to go out of tolerance. Zenith only did this for two years then went back to the exposed HV control, probably because the techs didnt like it. Zenith also had that "hollow shaft" HV pots back in the 60's color sets. All in efforts to help keep the customer from touching the control as he would exposed himself to x-ray if brought up too high.
Ive had the same exact issue with the 12A12C52 chassis. Just unsolder the cover plate, bring the control back a touch and you're back to 25KV.

This set is working really nice now. I took it apart and cleaned it up, checked some tubes as nothing else was really wrong. Typical zenith, they just keep going!

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by bgadow

One of you WILL be coming to take this off my hands, RIGHT? It is free, and I'll help you load it. Just be warned that I will try to fill the rest of your truck up with other stuff I'm trying to unload! PM if interested.

The same person must come through California on their way to grab your set, and pick one up from me first

Charles

[bgadow]

Very interesting in that the solid state Zenith I found (above) has the same tuner setup/control panel as this one. The same push-to-set, etc. The difference is that mine says "solid state" on it. Also, the back does not read "$ervice $aver". That one was built late in '71. By the way, mine did find a new home thanks to a gentleman on AK.

[bre's dad]

Crap! Why don't people around here throw stuff liike that out! I've been putting ads out ASKING for old tv's like that and have no response! I guess people in central Indiana don't have or appreciate stuff liike that. Geez!

[Carmine]

I was just killing a little time on the web, admiring Doug's latest find. A hybrid or SS Danish-modern Zenith is one of my holy grail sets.

So I'm blowing up the thumbnail pics, and now I wonder:

Am I the only person who noticed this?



I may have discovered the reason you don't see this style of tuner very often... Or are you trying to tell us something Doug?