Works in a drawer, IL, $75 eBay

[Jeffhs]

I saw the message for Bryan (HeathkitTV) just now. The picture of the Sears color set with the tilt-out control panel reminded me of a similar design Admiral used on at least one of its color consoles for the 1966 model year. Did Sears get the idea for the tilt-out control panel from Admiral or was it the other way around?

Let's see, I've been posting here for about a year now and sign the vast majority of my posts with my name (Anthony) yet am still confused with someone else? Bryan is bgadow.......

Hey Captain, that set is a distant memory but that pic does look very familiar....can't be sure at this late date although I do seem to recall the color and tint controls. Am pretty sure that the overall styling was that typical Spanish Mediterranean flavor.

Below is a photo of a 1965 Admiral with a tilt out that I swiped off the TVhistory site.

Anthony (not Bryan)

[Jeffhs]

[QUOTE=heathkit tv]Let's see, I've been posting here for about a year now and sign the vast majority of my posts with my name (Anthony) yet am still confused with someone else? Bryan is bgadow.......


Oooops! Sorry about the mixup. Sometimes I post my replies in a hurry and get things confused. I guess I'll have to read my posts and replies to others very carefully from now on, before I submit them.

Kind regards,

[drh4683]

Jeff,
Zenith had their own version of the preset UHF, known as the "ultramatic UHF tuner". It was a very unique rather complex mechanical system, it was not controlled by buttons either. WHen the tuner was tuned to preset station 1, you would dial in the channel and that was it. Just continue that for all 6 presets and you were all set.
The way the tuner "memorized" the channels was by how much a set screw would pull/push a cam connected to the UHF tuning shaft. There were many return springs and loading springs. It was a cleaver system and looks pretty neat.
I have a space command 600 console with that tuner, and has a gear reduction for the UHF tuner as much torque is required to turn the mechanisem. When you change channels, you can watch the tuning knob spin fast 3 times while it advances to the next channel! Zenith introduced that tuner in 1968 for the 69 models and they lasted through around 1972. Some b/w zenith portables had the ultramatic but you dont ever see them. You dont see ultramatics on any zenith set. I immagine they failed as most of the mechanical components are plastic and broke. I had to fix the channel stopping lever on mine with epoxy when I first got it, the tuner didnt work. I assume the ultramatic TVs didnt last as long because of failures in the mechanics as the sets aged. Molded plastic mechanics insure failure. From the owners perspective, why keep a TV that you cant even tune! Figure most sets with the ultramatics didnt stay in homes as long as TV set with conventional tuning.

Anybody have an ultramatic tuning zenith?

Otherwise, I dont recall RCA having a mechanically preset UHF selector. Motorolas system works nice, just like a car radio. I think the ultramatic and the moto WID sets were the only preset UHF sets (that you could easily change the presets on. I know some sets you could get a UHF channel strip)

That's my aunt and uncle's TV. I remember how cool those were with all the buttons and stuff. Had a decent pic too. Thanks again for the memories.

The RCA CTC-48 and some others had a tilt-out drawer with slider controls for bright, contrast, color, tint, tone, and a sharpness I think.

[Chad Hauris]

There were several different styles of the RCA tilt-out drawer...there was one model that was an XL-100 from around 1973 that had a long narrow drawer with knob controls all in a single line...then the slide controls of the CTC-48, also the knob controls in the drawer of the CTC-39 and late model CTC-38.

Some of the Japanese sets such as Hitatchi and Sony had a UHF knob with 6 or seven detented positions and a slide rule tuning dial...to set up the presets you would click the knob to the desired preset and then turn the fine-tuning knob and observe the slide-rule dial to set the channel...it would then mechanically remember it.

I do have an Ultramatic Zenith set, haven't used it for a little while, it is a power-tuning but non-space command color set. It doesn't seem like the UHF portion of it worked quite right.

In the picture you can see the Sony UHF slide rule dial and preset setup, this set appears to be from around 1969.