My New Zenith Portable

[mwplefty]

Here's a link to the video with the set hooked up to analog cable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLqQZZTngBY

Let me know what you all think.

[Sandy G]

Kewl !

[magnasonic66]

I like it! I want at least one manual tuning Zenith color set before I have to stop collecting. I hope you find out what you want to know about yours.

[basil lambri]

That is a cool TV! It has the Tri-Focus picture tube which was very good. Zenith quit using that tube in 1986 or 1988, I'm not sure when. I like your TV's picture.
I used to have a 23" Zenith TV with manual tuning from 1984 without the Color Sentry feature. I threw it away. I should have kept it.

[mwplefty]

Originally Posted by basil lambri

That is a cool TV! It has the Tri-Focus picture tube which was very good. Zenith quit using that tube in 1986 or 1988, I'm not sure when. I like your TV's picture.
I used to have a 23" Zenith TV with manual tuning from 1984 without the Color Sentry feature. I threw it away. I should have kept it.

I'm trying to figure out how old it is. Like I said I don't know the chassis number, which would help indicate the model year. I'm thinking 1978-1983 is a pretty good estimate.

[classictv80s]

Very nice TV, thanks for sharing. These videos of older TVs are among my favorite videos to watch on Youtube.

[radiotvnut]

I think that TV is from around '83-'84. I have an almost identical '84 model. The main difference is that mine has a standard VHF/UHF tuner. Mine has the tri-focus CRT with the 9-181 main module and 9-186 sweep module. Zenith started using those single knob varactor tuners in the mid '70's with their chromacolor II sets. It was used up until at least the mid '80's.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by basil lambri

That is a cool TV! It has the Tri-Focus picture tube which was very good. Zenith quit using that tube in 1986 or 1988, I'm not sure when. I like your TV's picture.
I used to have a 23" Zenith TV with manual tuning from 1984 without the Color Sentry feature. I threw it away. I should have kept it.

I had two Zenith 13" color portables in the late 1970s and eighties. The first one was model L1310C, bought new in 1979, and I had no problems at all with it the 20 years or so I owned it. My second set, bought just three years after the first one, had one-knob varactor electronic tuning and also worked exceedingly well, no problems whatsoever, for the 17 years I used it -- typical Zenith.

In 1969, when I was thirteen years old, I rescued (with help from an old friend) a Zenith 23" VHF-only b&w console, 1963 vintage, from a trash pile in my old neighborhood. I had to put all new tubes in it because the former owner or someone else filched all but two tubes (CRT and 1J3 HV rectifier). However, it was all worth it, as when I plugged the set in, connected it to the attic antenna, and turned it on after installing the last new tube, I was greeted with an excellent picture on all three Cleveland VHF network stations at that time. The audio system, with its 6BN6 gated-beam discriminator and 6BQ5 output tube, plus a 6x9 speaker in the TV cabinet and a tone control on the front panel, sounded so good I even patched an old Knight-kit mono FM tuner into it (by means of connecting the tuner's audio output across the TV's volume control) and was able to enjoy FM reception from every Cleveland station.

I kept that set for three years, until I moved in 1972. I hated like the dickens to give up that TV after all the work I had put into it, but my circumstances were such that it was impossible to move the set to where I'd be living, so out to the trash it went.


BTW, whereabouts in the Cleveland area are you? I used to live in Wickliffe, about 16 miles east of the city, before moving to Fairport Harbor in November 1999.

[zenith2134]

Great find! Can never have too many, right plenty?

[basil lambri]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I had two Zenith 13" color portables in the late 1970s and eighties. The first one was model L1310C, bought new in 1979, and I had no problems at all with it the 20 years or so I owned it. My second set, bought just three years after the first one, had one-knob varactor electronic tuning and also worked exceedingly well, no problems whatsoever, for the 17 years I used it -- typical Zenith.

In 1969, when I was thirteen years old, I rescued (with help from an old friend) a Zenith 23" VHF-only b&w console, 1963 vintage, from a trash pile in my old neighborhood. I had to put all new tubes in it because the former owner or someone else filched all but two tubes (CRT and 1J3 HV rectifier). However, it was all worth it, as when I plugged the set in, connected it to the attic antenna, and turned it on after installing the last new tube, I was greeted with an excellent picture on all three Cleveland VHF network stations at that time. The audio system, with its 6BN6 gated-beam discriminator and 6BQ5 output tube, plus a 6x9 speaker in the TV cabinet and a tone control on the front panel, sounded so good I even patched an old Knight-kit mono FM tuner into it (by means of connecting the tuner's audio output across the TV's volume control) and was able to enjoy FM reception from every Cleveland station.

I kept that set for three years, until I moved in 1972. I hated like the dickens to give up that TV after all the work I had put into it, but my circumstances were such that it was impossible to move the set to where I'd be living, so out to the trash it went.


BTW, whereabouts in the Cleveland area are you? I used to live in Wickliffe, about 16 miles east of the city, before moving to Fairport Harbor in November 1999.

Hi, Jeffhs! I live in South Euclid, OH in the east side of Cleveland.
I have a Zenith System 3 TV with a Color Sentry button made in March, 1988. I also have a Zenith Sentry 2 made in December of 1992. Both TVs work like new.
You know you said some time ago that the Zenith Sentry 2 model doesn't have any automatic color. I think it has some kind of rudimentary auto color. I found the Zenith patent for it at the website http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5124671/fulltext.html I can read patents for hours. It is a very nice TV. Zenith used to be a great brand.
I don't have much space but I will try to keep my 2 Zenith TVs.
I will send you a PM with my telephone number.

[Jeffhs]

PM sent.