how about portable black and white?

[andy]

...

[drh4683]

this is the last find of the amnesty day tv search. This one works (of course!) When do you find a b/w zenith that doesnt work? Ive never found a broken one, and this is zenith land. This one is near mint like the rca -24 I picked up. 14M23, 1965. at first I thought maybe this was it, a space command zenith. Nope, once again, I cant find a zenith with space command!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rca2000]

I have a good number of portable black and white sets, from the 1950's to the early 70's. most of them i got very cheaply, and some of them were FREE! I have two of the red and gold r.c.a 14" metal sets, from 1956, with the red cabinet, (one, i got last year, by the road), and two of the 8" rca's that look like them. i have several of the metal zenith 19" sets, that look like the one's in earlier posts, from the early 60's, (all were free, one, i found on i-71, lying under an overpass!), two of the '59 model zenith sets, with a metal cabinet ,and a 17" picture tube, with knobs on the top, on each side, a g.e, from 1959 or 60, plastic cabinet, and a g.e.from 1962, an 8" 1956 emerson, a 1970 solid state sylvania 12" , an rca kcs-153, 12" set, from 1965,(their first all solid state line-powered set,) and probably a few other sets, i can't think of right now. i ALSO have one of those 19" rca COLOR sets, from 1966 or 67, that was mentioned .i think it has a ctc27, or ctc-19 chassis.

[captainmoody]

My 1960 Zenith space command 300. Was used in the barber shop I used to go to, Got it sometime in the eighties from the owner of the shop when he retired it after having an if problem.
Finally got around to check it out and found the heater pins corroded on one of the if tubes, Now it works great!
Now that I remember, He replaced it with a Zenith 19" he bought new from highland appliance, The tube didn't even last a year! That was in the mid eighties when Zenith started slowly going downhill in customer satisfaction and quality

[drh4683]

Got this one at a resale shop long ago, one of the first to enter my collection about 11 years ago. In the early 90s I found the old 60s tvs, either b/w or color all over the place at garage sales and resale stores. Everyone thought I was crazy, a kid that wanted old tube type tvs. Thats back in the day when I had to tow my tvs in a wagon hooked up to my bike. I went all over the place with my bike and wagon looking for tvs at garage sales on the weekends. Big consoles strapped to the wagon going down the sidewalk with the wagon handle tied to the frame of my bike! Thats another story....
I recently found the factory NIB rca uhf kit for this tv on ebay. Blew me away when i stumbled across it and that the models matched. I wanted the uhf ever since I got it. Always hated that little cover slug rca put over the UHF hole. "For UHF tuner" This one always worked. Only had to change the contrast pot.

[Doug E.]

Hey drh4683,

Love that '63 RCA "Sweet Sixteen" TV! In fact, it's my favorite 60's portable. I have one from the following year (model AF020J) with a different chassis (KCS152), but with the 16AYP4 CRT like yours. After 30 years, I'm still looking for a nice sample from that model year. When I was a kid we had a series of RCA portables, including a much later 16" set from 1969, but a neighbor kid had one of those '63's at home and I thought it was the nicest looking TV I'd ever seen and the picture was much better than on our '69 model. In later years RCA put crummy CRT's in those 16-inchers (16CHP4's used to lose focus from the day you took the TV out of the box and the adjacent channel rejection wasn't too hot in some of them. The first year was the best.

Anyway, let me know if you ever get tired of yours (or if Hell otherwise freezes over )

Doug E.

[drh4683]

Hey Doug,

You have good taste in tv styling! Ive got two others that I am willing to trade/sell. I have a white and black one from 1966, a all white one from 1963. Here are some pics:

[drh4683]

Here is the 66 model. Both sets work! Have any color sets you would like to trade/sell?

[drh4683]

Here is an green and white one from 67. This is a nice tv. Bought on ebay about a year ago. This one has a nice razor sharp picture. This is a keeper for my b/w collection. It would be nice to have the complete series of this design. Do you have any pics of your earlier one?

[Doug E.]

Hey drh4683,

Here's a pic of my '64 model AF020J ("The Funster" according to the RCA literature). Not as pretty as some of yours...gray front with dark gray handle and that strange greenish gray back. The CRT is a little dim, but the focus is still excellent. This TV still has all the original components including filter caps (which are a little weak--there's a little hum in the horiz. sync giving it a case of "the bends", which I was able to almost eliminate with a new 6GH8). I like to keep 'em as original as possible, so I haven't replaced anything other than tubes. It's amazing how these bounce back. When I got this one, the picture was so dim and blurry I figured the CRT was shot, but after a month it's pretty good.

I've had a couple of the '67 models before. They must have come in all sorts of colors. I've seen black and white as well as a brick red and white.

The one I'm searching for in my Holy Grail is the 6AB20MU, which apparently came out late in the '64 model year. This is the one the neighbor kid had. It has a white front, greenish-gray back, chrome knobs, the control panel is painted beige, and there are no chrome trim plates around the knobs as there are in the deluxe version. Have you ever seen one of those?

Regards,
Doug E.

[drh4683]

Hi Doug,

Never saw one like the one you just described. The ones Ive got pictured are the only ones of this design that I ever found and/or seen. For some reason, rca b/w tvs are nearly impossible to find in my area. This is big time zenith land and thats all I ever find. This is also because the zeniths still work after all these years!! Here is a pic of another rca "Sportable" from 65. I found this one with the original paper work and manuals! This one had an agc problem when I bought it, quite a few resistors went way off value.

Doug (drh4683)

[drh4683]

A couple years ago I was at a party at my cousins new house in chicago and the previous owners left a nice gift! It was this 67 zenith! They had it in the basement sitting on a work bench all by itself. This one worked of course which is a common zenith feature Needed a good clean up and it turned out nice.

[Doug E.]

Hi Doug,

My living room TV is a 19" Zenith from 1967. (Nowadays I'm strictly a B/W guy; I threw out my 19" solid state color set back in 2001 and went back to toobs. I've never been sorry!) Mine has the regular 19" CRT rather than the squared-off one. I love it, because it works PERFECTLY and has a razor-sharp picture. I got it off eBay from a guy whose grandfather had owned it. He was obviously one of those anal-retentive people who take good care of everything. It had all the original papers, including the instruction book, an advertising brochure, the bill of sale, the salesman's card, and a slip of paper documenting the one repair it ever had: replacement of the yoke & horiz output tube. I'll post a pic when I get home. I agree that you find a lot more Zeniths, even on the East Coast. I think there are two reasons: first, they're more likely to still be working; and second, I think I read that Zenith sold a lot more B/W TV's than RCA. I seldom find a 60's era TV in thrift shops any more (but I live in a small town). When I do, it's more than likely to be a Zenith.

Getting back to the RCA's, another good thing about the '63 and early '64 16-inchers is that they use a 13GF7 vert osc/output instead of the 15KY8. The 'GF7 is the novar version of the reliable twin triodes like 6CM7, 6EM7, 15FM7, 6EA7, that last forever. The 'KY8 is about the worst toob RCA (and Sylvania) made. After a few years, just about every one of them develops either a sluggish oscillator section or a tired output section that causes the height to vary, sometimes wildly. Even the NOS ones I picked up seem to have problems. Maybe they get gassy. Have you noticed this?

Doug E.

[Doug E.]

Doug,

Here's a pic of my 67 Zenith. It's model Y2011C, chassis 14N33Z. The circuitry is almost identical to your 67 (which is probably chassis 14Y33).

I might be interested in the white 63 RCA, if you're interested in selling it. Does it work? Have any parts been replaced other than tubes? Also, how much work was involved in converting your other 63 to UHF? The only step I'm aware of other than mounting it & connecting all the leads, is to change the sound detector tube from a 6GX6 to a 6HZ6. Did your conversion kit come with full instructions? I think I have the right UHF tuner (KRK 112 or KRK 66) lying around somewhere and I might try converting one of these myself.

Thanks,
Doug

[drh4683]

thats a nice zenith! Yes, you are correct my 67 is a 14Y33. I bought the UHF kit on ebay last year for $1.00 NIB! It came with the complete installation instructions. IT is the DK-152 uhf tuner kit. It was for models: 64-A-02 MV, 64-A-03 MV. Mine is the 03. If you need copies of the instructions, I will scan them to you. There is some wiring changes that need to be made (B+ lines AGC from vhf tuner etc) The neat thing about the DK-152 is that it uses the 3AF4 oscillator. Its the only tv I have with the tube type UHF. According to the manual, the newer production types used the nuvistor oscillator. It does not mention that the 6GX6 needs to be changed out though.
The 63 white rca works well. If you are interested, make me an offer. I have two other tvs as well you might be interested in. First one pictured is a 1960 emerson VHF only, gold metal case, plastic front and back. Needs a good cleanup but works ok. This one has the 5U4 rectifier and a sleep timer on off switch that works!! Some scuffing on the front plastic crt lens. Otherwise its pretty nice