Picked up more zenith sets!

[drh4683]

Just found 5 zenith early 70s 4 tube hybrid sets. Got them locally from a tv guy I know. He sold me 5 of these sets for $40. I was glad to come across these, as I always liked the 4 tube hybrids with the plug in modules. In the second picture, is by far the nicest one of the 5, and had a defect. Had a bad zener diode in the vertical circuit, as the picture was short and "jittering". It works pretty nice after the repair. I got another one of those little 16" sets, the upper right of the 4 pictured. The other 3 are the 4 tube hybrids.
I always liked the 4 tube hybrids, as these sets I had tons of years back. It was like every other weekend, Id come home with another from either the curb or the resale shop. Im keeping maybe two of the 5, so 3 will be available for anyone who wants them.

Here is the order from left to right, top to bottom:
1973, 19DC22
1970, 12A10C15
1971, 19B25C19, with the "gyro drive" uhf tuner (flywheel on the tuning shaft with gear reduction for smooth tuning.) You can go to channel 14-83 with one good spin of the knob!
1973, 19DC28. Whats really rare about this set, is that it is a "special" chassis that was for hospital/hotel use. This has factory coax inputs, no built in antenna! It came from a motel around here acording to what I was told. Its got many hours on it, looks like alot of componets have been changed, including the flyback. Probably a tv in the lobby that just never got shut off.

In the last picture, is a 19CC19Z from 72. By far the nicest set of them all, just fixed it today.

[drh4683]

the 19cc19z.

[Rob]

Doug,

Looks like these sets really get your mojo going. That is a hearbeat waveform. Is that your heartbeat?

[captainmoody]

Good deal Doug! Those are hard to find around here. It would take most people a couple years or more to round up that many sets, You got them all at once!

[drh4683]

That picture was perfect timing to get that trace immage. It was a bayer commercial and snaped the pic at the second that showed up. Kind of interesting

[Jeffhs]

If you look very closely at the screen of that Zenith which shows the heartbeat waveform, you can just about make out the words "as prescribed by a doctor." That's what gives it away as being from a Bayer commercial.

[drh4683]

Got another hybrid going, a 4B25C19 from 71. Needed all new static convergence pots as the originals were seized. They were junk, lubricating them did nothing to free them up. Luckily I have a bunch of convergence boards that I was able to swap parts from. Did some choma alignment to get the color tracking back in line. Looks and works like brand new again. This is only a year older than the other set that looks similar to it, but the chassis is different. This is a rather odd chassis, there is a speprate "chroma control" on the side of the set, it takes place of the contrast control, then you have color commander on the front of the set, which is a ganged control for color and contrast. There is a specific order in which these controls must be set (by the user!) brightness must be very dim, then you advance the color commander, then adjust the chroma control. Once you have the chroma control set, you should not need to adjust it, only adjust the color commander. It was a detailed procedure explained in the service manual. It tell the service technician to make sure the owner fully understands this operation.

Basically, I dont think too many of these sets survived. Obviously most everything is gone today no matter what, but these sets didnt hold up 10 years, as the controls were improperly set and the crts were drivin too hard (exessive contrast, high bightness) and killed them. This set has a replacement sylvania crt from 4-7-77, so about 6 years of use and this set was done. I was surprised to see that someone acutally had the crt replaced in a set like this. Well, it works good today, thats the main thing.

[Charlie]

Great picture, Doug! Nice looking set!

Where do you find time to do other chores and "honey-doos" or go to work? Is it one of those situations where nothing around your house works except the vintage televisions?

Congrats Doug!

Anthony

[drh4683]

Basically, after my 8 hours at work (piping systems engineer), Im home watching and servicing electronics. Its kind of a part time thing, I also do small engine repair for lots of friends and people at work etc. Im always bringing something home to fix for someone, it could be anything with an engine, or anything that plugs into the wall. you name it. Once someone finds out your handy at fixing things, your name spreads like wildfire. Before I got into the trades, I was working at the service department for small engines at a local rental center, in high school, I worked commission at carmens TV service on VCRs (that was a joke). Now,
My house is like a residential service shop for everything including cars. My nieghbors say my driveway looks like used car lot with all the old cars. Only thing I need to be responsible for is paying the bills and ready to go at work each day. Never had a GF, the above listed is probably the reason.

[andy]

I know just what you mean about word spreading of someone who can fix things. I've been doing electronics repairs since I was in school and I'm still amazed at who calls me. When I was in high school, the president of Penn State University brought over his VCR for me to repair! I've had plenty of work from local businesses too. Now why would someone making $300k a year, or a medium sized business want a HS/college student to repair their expensive electronics? I can only conclude it's because of bad experience with the local repair shops, or large stores like best buy.