You Don't Find Too Many 1987 Model TV Sets with Rotary Tuning

[Jeffhs]

I feel the same way. I have Time-Warner cable, broadcast channels only. I have not heard one thing to date as to when or if they will phase out this level of cable service, but I'm not concerned in the least. TW is digital anyway, with the BB (bare-bones as I call it, broadcast only) service probably making use of conversion schemes not unlike those $40 DTV converter boxes for TVs still on antennas. I suppose this will be phased out eventually, but since there are so many analog TVs still in use in this country, I don't see it happening for quite a while.

I have not seen any new-in-box knob-tuned analog TVs lately. I think the government allowed the sales of these older sets until stores exhausted their inventory, but afterwards the only sets these stores were (and are to this day) allowed to sell were digital flat-panels.

BTW, I wonder if Zenith's 12" digital B&W solid-state TVs from the early '80s (those that are still in use, if any) would work without modification (for broadcast channels only) on digital cable systems. Were these sets truly digitally tuned? I'm thinking (but am by no means certain) these sets had digital tuning systems almost identical to that used in Zenith's larger System 3 non-remote color sets.

[joemama99]

My cable company switched to all digital last june.They gave me a cheap little motorola converter that I had to have activated just to get my limited basic locals
only package.It does include the secondary channels(rtv,this tv).
I am going to give it up because I can get those channels and more from my
30 foot outdoor antenna.When they were analog,I got a lot more channels.

[Findm-Keepm]

Double rarity: Tatung 19" metal cabinet sets with rotary tuning from 1988! They were lowest-bidder-gets-the-Navy-contract sets. The sets had a wierd configuration - manual pushbutton degaussing, an isolation transformer with a clamp-on heatsink, and no interlock - the 4' cord stayed with the set.

My first thought was they were hospital sets, but the manual degauss was a Navy requirement, as ships changed direction/lat/long all the time. if the picture got a little squirrely, just tap the deagauss button to get back the good pix. We had one in my shop that was on almost 24/7 for several years, with nary a problem. Other shops had problems with theirs - mostly bad electrolytics. I had to get real creative to find capacitors that fit and were available onboard. Taiwanese sets with mil-spec parts - go figure!

Cheers,