your favorite/most durable set

[Adam]

I too like the Zenith b/w sets from that same era, particularly the ones in the metal cabinet with the remote. How long did Zenith make those with that same basic chassis design? The oldest I've had is from 1959 - newest is 1971. The 1980 16" set I have has a totally different chassis, but I've never had one (other than the little 9 or 12" portables) made between 71 and 80 so I don't know the last year of these.

I currently have 10 of these Zeniths, my favorite is the 1966 19" metal cabinet set with the SC300 remote, automatic shutoff control and a the dual speakers.

[earlyfilm]

The most durable and my second longest owned TV was a Sears.

Well, I always hated round CRT's because they cut off the corners of the image, so in 1965, as soon as I got settled in Long Island City and caught up on my moving bills, I purchased the cheapest non-round set that I could find -- a $210 floor model 16 inch color Sears (rebranded Toshiba) at a small Sears outlet that was closing. It was my daily driver and nothing went wrong until three moves later in 1972 when it developed an extremely annoying problem.

About every two or three days, it would simply shut down the picture and sound. The HV would remain and you could hear static from the speaker. At first the only thing that seemed to help was to turn off the set and wait a couple of minutes and turn it back on, and it was good for a couple of days.

Needless to say my wife was not happy with this problem. Tube checks and substitutions did not solve the problem.

I turned the set upside down and when working, all the voltages in the suspected problem areas seemed normal.

I quickly discovered that when the set went out, usually attempting to make the first voltage measurement would restart the set before you could get a reading. I tried leaving my voltmeter connected to the set to see what changed when the set quit. To save time, I quickly started measuring two points at a time with a pair of VOM's to check more efficiently.

After about three weeks with the set upside down, my wife started burning my ears about getting a new set, so I picked up a used round Zenith, with a rather weak CRT to buy some time.

A couple of days later when things quieted down, I finally noticed that the AGC shifted during the problem, so to determine if it was a cause or effect, I disconnected the AGC and jury rigged a pot and battery to manually control the AGC and discovered that this stopped the problem. The problem turned out to be an intermittent resistor in the cathode of the video output, which supplied the AGC reference or keying and I damn sure found it the hard way. The voltages both working and non-working were so close to normal that I had suspected nothing in this circuit.

After fixing, this set was then moved to our bedroom, where I removed the legs and placed it on top of our wardrobe so we could watch Johnny Carson while in bed. Getting up to shut it off was no fun, so I made up a long power cord with an AC switch on it. This set was in almost daily use from 1965, until we moved in 1984, at which time the seven foot ceiling in our home prevented its night time use.

With no need for the set, I left it in our unheated garage, but it occasionally it was brought out when our Zenith acted up. I think the last time was about 2002 or 2003, when our last Zenith croaked. At that time, it still worked, but the sync, convergence and tint drifted.

One resistor and the still-checked-good video output tube were the only repairs ever done to that set while it was in regular use.

Just before I moved in 2007, I turned the set on for the last time, and it still put up a watchable picture, but obviously it needed recapping after 42 years, and not knowing how rare the set was, I decided to neck the CRT haul the set to the junkyard instead of moving it. I now regret that decision.

The below link at ETF will show what this 16 inch Toshiba looked like when new.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/21_inch_color.html#sears

James

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by radiotron

my 59 zeniths been working great since i got it unrestored exept the horizontal problem but i already have that part

Let's get that part installed, so we know if we were correct in our findings.
It's a whole day later! We're not getting any younger.

[cbenham]

The most reliable set I have and the one with the best picture is an RCA 630TS that gets used for testing outboard circuitry I build and for testing of color wheel conversions I do. It has worked since I got it about 10 years ago and
has had a minimum of the original parts replaced.

Cliff

[tvtimeisfun]

Hello my favorite set is my 1954 Crosley console tv with the doors on the front it is a daily watcher my second set is 1953 Admiral table top with built in radio at the bottom of the set tube type tvs is the way to go....Timothy

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by cbenham

The most reliable set I have and the one with the best picture is an RCA 630TS that gets used for testing outboard circuitry I build and for testing of color wheel conversions I do. It has worked since I got it about 10 years ago and
has had a minimum of the original parts replaced.

Cliff

Wow Cliff, the color rendition on that is fantastic!

[cbenham]

Originally Posted by Eric H

Wow Cliff, the color rendition on that is fantastic!

Yes, CBS had a better color picture both before and after NTSC!

Cliff