Do you remember.... (late 70s GE)

[rpm1200]

I once had a 19-inch GE, believe it was late 70s but could have been early 80s. Plastic woodgrain cabinet. It was pretty unremarkable except for the tuner design. The tuner was quartz-synthesized, with a red LED display, that much was not too out of the ordinary. However rather than using channel up/down or keypad controls, it used a single knob for tuning. The knob did not rock and it was not a rotary encoder (like car radios and some home tuners use for tuning). It was an 82-position switch. I can't remember if it stopped at 2 and 83 or if it let you roll over from 83 to 2. It was not cable-ready nor did it have a remote. It did have VIR, with a VIR LED next to the channel display.
It was one of the ones that came with the service manual tucked into the back, and it illustrated the switching logic (the switches were multiplexed so that there were a handful of leads going from the tuning knob to the synthesizer and another set going to the 7-segment LEDs). I remembered that there was a lot of physical resistance on the tuner knob and it made a bit of a racket, in both senses similar to a knob-tuned varactor but more so. I don't think there were any AFC or fine-tuning controls.
I had bought it used, touched up some solder connections, given it to my then girlfriend (now wife) for the basement, it started acting up again so I took it back and ran it in my basement for a while, eventually disposed of it in the early 90s...
I remember the VIR worked OK, not stunning but functional, except on one channel where the color went way out of whack with it turned on. Even worse than what you could do by deliberately mis-setting the color and tint. I read at some point that some TV stations used the VIR signals for other purposes, which would throw off VIR receivers.
Anyone remember this thing? Anyone got pictures?
Thanks, Rob

[radiotvnut]

I think I tossed such a set not long ago. It was a 1980 model "EC" chassis TV with the type tuner that you described. The tube was not the greatest and I tossed it after I got tired of soldering. That chassis wasn't around long and that's a good thing. It used those double sided PC boards with the "griplets" and the chassis was not the easiest to service.

They also used that same tuner on the older "YM" chassis 25" sets of the mid-late '70's.

[Eric H]

I have in my garage a 1979-80 GE with the modular YC chassis I think.

It's a step below the VIR models and the tuner is the type you can set any channel on any position.

It was my first real, new color set back in 79, and I used if for 10 years with only one repair. (this one is a duplicate set, I sold my original in 89)

[radiotvnut]

Those YA's and YC's were far better than the EC's.

I seem to remember some of those electronic rotary tuners would tune the cable midband channels on positions between 83 and 2. I guess in the late '70's, that's probably all that was on cable.