Why Aren't 12" B&W Sets Collectible?

[Sandy G]

Yeah, I'd like to have one of those odd-duck Sears color sets from the early-mid '60s we had B4 my dad got that Porta-Color...Thing was JUNK...it was made in Japan, I think...Never have seen one on You-Know-Where, so maybe they're all gone...think it was a 17" or 19" or something like that...Sears lost their butts on that thing, we bought the Extended Service Plan...we had the repairman down here almost weekly...I really think the damthing just didn't like us...My dad sold it to a co-worker, he had it for years, & it never gave any trouble...

[JCFitz]

Originally Posted by superdeez

I love Chrysler F-bodies! Although a 318 would be much better.

I miss my car I had in high school.1977 Dodge Aspen R/T.360 w/Holley 750 4 barrel.Had a big cam,dual point ignition,shift kit in the automatic tranny and dual exhaust with glass packs.It would fly.I once burned all the tread off the rear tires power braking in the school parking lot.Trouble is it was too much for me to handle and I ran it off one too many roads trying to take curves too fast.Was in near mint shape when I got it.My uncle as a joke wanted to know if he wanted him to get a mallet and dent the roof when I got rid of it,the only body panel not dented he said.Shame I tore it up.It would be worthy of taking to a car show these days if it was in the condition I bought it in.I had a Volare station wagon after that I bought cheap.Much slower than the Dodge so I didn't wreck it.It overheated so bad once it seized up when the lower radator hose busted.Started and ran the next day.New thermostat and hose and I was back in business.Drove it another year.Those iron block Chrysler motors were tough back then.

[Celt]

I seem to recall GE or RCA offering red, white and blue 12" B&W TV's during the 1976 Bi-Centennial. Anyone have one of these?

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by Celt

I seem to recall GE or RCA offering red, white and blue 12" B&W TV's during the 1976 Bi-Centennial. Anyone have one of these?

I've got one of the red-white-and-blue bicentennial GE 12" B&W sets; it uses the SF-series tube-hybrid chassis. RCA also made a red-white-and-blue B&W portable for the bicentennial, but doesn't seem to be as common as the GE one. The RCA was a solid-state set; I don't know the chassis or model #, but the 'regular' version of that set is very common; the cabinet has rounded sides and is usually white in color with a black front facia.

Not to be left out, Zenith also offered a 'bicentennial' 12" B&W set, but rather than change the cabinet color to red/white/blue, they took a different tack. If I remember correctly, the plastic cabinet of that set was printed in a way that resembled wood flooring, superimopsed with part of the Declaration of Independence.

[bgadow]

I had one of the red/white/blue GE sets when I was a teenager. I recall that I had ridden my bike into town and this yard sale had 2 bw sets. One was an Airline 9" and then there was this GE. I thought they were both interesting but only had money for one. It worked but something in it would overheat-I can still smell that scent if I think about it! I was pretty helpless back then when it came to fixing things so it got tossed. It occurs to me that among the 3 makers (GE, RCA, Zenith) the GE was probably the only one made in the USA.

[Chad Hauris]

That's right...it seems like all the RCA b/w portables starting in 1973 or so? were made by RCA Taiwan. Most of the later model b/w tube type sets also had tubes made in Taiwan or Japan. Not sure when Zenith started foreign manufacture of the b/w sets but I think all the tube type sets were American made.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

That's right...it seems like all the RCA b/w portables starting in 1973 or so? were made by RCA Taiwan.

A small point of trivia: The Radio Shack TRS-80 computer's monitor was really an RCA B&W TV set minus the tuner, IF strip and audio circuits. The video cable entered the cabinet where the volume control would have been. The "TRS-80" badge on the monitor hid the holes where the tuner knobs went. It was a hot chassis set, and the video signal passed thru a high speed opto-coupler (6N135) for isolation.

[RetroHacker]

And, don't forget - the optocoupler was powered by the computer. The thing took regular composite video - but was only meant to work with the Model 1 - It used a five pin DIN plug that carried the video signal and 5v to power the optocoupler. I guess there wasn't a convenient source of 5v inside the television...

Also, the hole the video lead went through was stil labeled with a V, for Volume. But, I guess, they didn't need to change the molding any, since V could also mean Video.

-Ian

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

A small point of trivia: The Radio Shack TRS-80 computer's monitor was really an RCA B&W TV set minus the tuner, IF strip and audio circuits. The video cable entered the cabinet where the volume control would have been. The "TRS-80" badge on the monitor hid the holes where the tuner knobs went.

Correct! Also, this is apparently why the cabinets of TRS-80 computers ended up with that distinctive "battleship-grey" exterior color. When Tandy approached RCA about buying TVs (*) to use as monitors for their new 'home computer', RCA informed Tandy that the plastic cabinet for that set was available in either grey or simulated-woodgrain finish. Tandy chose the grey color, and then had the computer cabinets made up to match that color. ...And the rest is history...

(*) I read somewhere that the first run of TRS-80 monitors was actually made up from "leftover" sets that RCA had in the warehouse when they were doing their regular model changeover (hence another need to use a "stock" color for the cabinet). Keep in mind that Tandy didn't figure that the TRS-80 computer would be much of a seller-- at first, they only produced about enough so that each Radio Shack store could have one to display, but figured most of them would probably sit around unsold for a while.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by RetroHacker

And, don't forget - the optocoupler was powered by the computer. The thing took regular composite video - but was only meant to work with the Model 1 - It used a five pin DIN plug that carried the video signal and 5v to power the optocoupler. I guess there wasn't a convenient source of 5v inside the television...

To get some +5V internally, all you'd need to do is wrap a few turns of wire around the flyback ferrite core (like the way they got filament power for tube high voltage rectifiers), rectify and filter it and use a voltage regulator IC to get local isolated +5V. I've done this in a few hot chassis TV sets to get baseband video into them.

Also, I found it easy to feed regular composite video along with some +5V into my brother's TRS-80 monitor. Fed it Star Trek video from a VCR playing back a videotaped Star Trek show. Thus "computer geek heaven, Mr Spock using the ship's computer presented on a computer monitor".

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by Whirled One

Tandy didn't figure that the TRS-80 computer would be much of a seller-- at first, they only produced about enough so that each Radio Shack store could have one to display....

How right you are. In 1977 I attended the Radio Shack press conference in NYC to introduce the TRS-80. They had me on a list to receive one. When it arrived a few days later, the shipping invoice had been altered. They had replaced a Radio Shack store address with mine.

It was an important launch for Radio Shack. Tandy himself attended.

That TRS-80 is one of the things I could never quite toss out. It was up and running about a year ago. That RCA b&w monitor is a bit dim and tilted, but never required service.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

Not sure when Zenith started foreign manufacture of the b/w sets but I think all the tube type sets were American made.

I don't know when Zenith actually began manufacturing small SS portable TVs offshore either. However, I had a Zenith 12" b&w solid-state portable, bought new back in 1978, so they were already building their small portables offshore by then, or perhaps a year or two earlier (I see SS 9" Zeniths from 1977 and even '76 on ebay quite often, and I think--but I am by no means certain--the Spirit of '76 portable was solid-state as well). Mine was a darned good set, though--lasted me 22 years and was still working very well when I got rid of it in 2000. Should have held on to it, as it would have been a classic by now, if not actually collectible. I think that, or the Spirit of '76 model (again, not sure), was one of Zenith's first solid-state b&w portables. Zenith must have made a blue million of these small portables in the mid-to-late seventies, though, as they pop up on ebay all the time. The only thing I didn't like about those portables was that they used one large PC board for the entire set, rather than using a hand-wired chassis.

I guess by the mid-'70s the hand-wired era had ended for Zenith; witness the extensive use of circuit modules in their Chromacolor and Chromacolor II large-screen color TVs by this time as well. My great-uncle bought a Zenith Chromacolor II 25" console in 1974, had a few repairs done on it (including a new CRT under warranty when the original cracked after the first six months), but the set just kept going and going...like the Energizer battery. The set was still working, as far as I know, when he moved several years ago, but since the place he moved to was much smaller than his former home, the Zenith had to go. I don't know whatever became of it, but if someone bought it from him or if it stayed in his family, the new owners wouldn't have been disappointed as that set, like all Zeniths before LG got hold of the company, had a great picture and even Color Sentry. It probably still does have a good picture to this day; as I have said here before, the older Zeniths don't die easily or without a fight. If only the new Z-branded LGs were this good.

[bgadow]

I am pretty sure I have some early 70s bw Zenith tube sets that are Taiwan made. I cracked one of them open and it had a handwired chassis that looked very much like the American ones. When I get a chance I'll take some pictures.

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

Not sure when Zenith started foreign manufacture of the b/w sets but I think all the tube type sets were American made.

Actually, at least some of the later tube-hybrids were made offshore; I've got a 1975 12" B&W Zenith tube hybrid that's made by Zenith Taiwan.