End of analog TV in Chicago
 

My Astro Dog antenna can still pull in WGN in chicago :D Last man standing.

That's a cool set. I had one of those over 20 years ago. Got it free, found a NOS CRT for it for $38, and got it running. I was in High School at the time.

I ended up selling it to a teacher, of all people, for $600. Well, he did beg and plead for a year to buy it.

Memories...

To think I was 17 when I repaired that Motorola. And then there was the Muntz set...

I had a blast in HS too. I was lucky enough to have the 'electronics' shop class all 4 years. 1st year was house wiring. 2nd year a little tubes then all transistors. 3rd & 4th years - work on whatever you wanted. This was the early 80s though so I ended up making a 'new wave' electronic drum kit :guitar:

I built my own Pay tv decoder in HS as an electric shop "project" :D

The thing worked GREAT!

Sometimes I miss those days. There was so much wonderment for electronics.
Fixing old TV's was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot.

Working on this digital crap with ROHS compliant boards you can't really solder on has really taken the charm out of the hobby.

There's NOTHING like a good tube set. :thmbsp:

Oh man, I'd forgotten about those :D I think RadioElectronics published instructions or maybe I got them mail-order? I thinkd they called it a sync-restorer. Mine only worked so-so, but loads of fun. I kinda miss looking cross-eyed at the squiggly video :tongue:

[QUOTE]Working on this digital crap with ROHS compliant boards.../QUOTE]

Is that the crap without lead? I've noticed my 20 year old solder works better than new stuff!

It was an ON-TV decoder. I used 1% tolerance parts. The thing was rock stable.

Well, didn't mean to hijack this thread, though. I'll miss analog. It has given me many good years in the hobby.

Restoring a vintage set will feel different now, without native content to watch on it.

NP. There are a couple Motorola VT71s and a suitcase on eBay right now.

I did a little test with my Blonder Tongue BAVM-z. I attached my DVD player to the input and a short wire to the RF output. I picked this up on the VT71 about 40 feet away.

There are a bunch of these on eBay going for about $10.

Dr Who anyone?

http://www.bobandersen.com/images/TS4H/drwhovt71.jpg

Nice! I'll have to try that myself!

Here's what they look like. The BAVM-z has a hardwired output channel. You can adjust the input audio and video levels and the RF output power.

The 'Agile Modulator' line lets you change the output channel on demand.

You might need some female RCA to co-axial adaptors to hook it up to your existing gear.

I have got to get some of those, I haven't found any yet. Probably looking at the wrong times. I wanted to build a multi channel output using those and a combiner like a friend of mine did so the Space Command sets can work other than getting cable. This way I could use converter boxes on my favorite channels plus a channel for DVD or whatever.

Great stuff!

I'm surprised the picture is that clear with just a short wire off the modulator. What antenna is the moto using, is it still hooked to that "astro dog," or are you using something larger. And the 2nd doctor is my favorite, it's too bad they lost so many of his stories. I've got 4 of these motorolas sitting in the attic awaiting restoration.

Good job! Looks very nice!

Gohan

I switched to a proper set of rabbit ears. The astro dog is actually a pretty lousy antenna. I used a vertical wire about 12 inches long on the modulator.

Troughton is my fav too. I've been watching the whole series (recons included) from the very beginning. I'm up to Moonbase :)