1976 Zenith Chromacolor II
 

I went back to my friend Danny's house today with a friend from my local radio club. While I was there, I picked up a late 60's Zenith B&W portable and a 1976 Chromacolor II 13" table set. The B&W is still in the car, but I brought in the color set. It has a really great picture on the TV guide with a static picture, but when it shows actual TV, brights are too bright and darks are too dark. I've heard if this phenomenon on other TV's but I don't know what causes it. And also the horizontal output is very loud. This TV was supposed to go to LovesZenith in Mobile, but he never claimed it so Danny said I could have it.

Here is a screenshot. I really wish I could upload more than one picture per post.

Nice catch. I recall a thread from a while back asking what happened to all the 13" CCII sets.

Looks to me like the contrast is turned too high and the brightness is a little low.
If it's a 1976 model, it must be that heavy beast with the power transformer. A lot of set for a 13" model. :thmbsp:

I watched it for a while and it did improve a little. Who knows how long it sat. Maybe the CRT just had to wake up. The high pitched squeal in this set is annoyingly loud. And I LIKE that kind of stuff. I've never heard it this loud in a TV. And yes, this set is EXTREMELY heavy.

Yeah, no more room left in the car for that one, and I won't be in the Atlanta area for a few months. Glad to see it went to a great home!

Here's a photo of the model tag. I will be taking it apart and cleaning this set thoroughly tomorrow. It will look real nice once I get Novus all over it.

Very nice set. While being built in '76, it's actually a 1977 by model. It was built on the 40th week of 1976 at the Chicago Austin Ave plant. I have the Space Command 600 version of this set. They are indeed little boat anchors.

The set is the 2nd year of that chassis. When they first
came out I unpacked one & it looked so good it was
in my car in 5mn. Run it a few days then go
through the adjustments.
For squeal tighten screws around the FBT. Be careful of
screws on the FBT. If you tighten them too much you
can crack the core. It can also come from the yoke area.
Use a plastic probe to poke around & find it.
Also you can use a paper towel tube to track it down.

73 :smoke:Zeno

Thank you for the information, Doug. Very cool that this set was made in Chicago, I thought it was made in Springfield, MO like my December 1983 set. I watched your video of the 1978 CCII. That set is very nice. Amazing that all the paperwork was saved.

IIRC, there is a 10uf, 315V capacitor that can dry out and cause the picture to be too bright and it will sometimes be darker on one side. This capacitor will be either part of the multi-section filter can or it will be a separate capacitor.

What you basically have is a 25" chassis that's stuffed into a 13" cabinet. I've got the remote version in my shop that someone gave me several years ago.

Intersting that they would do that, radiotvnut. So what you're saying is that the chassis in this TV is strong enough to drive a 25"? These are among Zenith's best solid state creations if you ask me - bullet proof.

I have a PAIR of them...one is a 13GC10 I think..the other a 13HC10.. The GC10 worked the last time I tried it...but had soft focus...the other one had a short somewhere on the vertical B+ line..I believe the tubes are great in BOTH of them. I do NOT believe I have EVER seen a bad CRT in ANY of them I have seen !!

In my time on this earth...I think I have SEEN a TOTAL of less than TEN of these little wonders...including a few in the late 1980's...which I fixed and sold..

IMHO...these are the VERY BEST 13" color tv sets EVER MADE !!

I'm sure the chassis has some circuit changes to make it compatible with the 13" tube and the chassis is physically smaller; but, the basic circuitry is the same as what's in the bigger sets.

Over the past 25 years, I've seen lots of 19", 23", and 25" CCII's, as well as a fair amount of 17" models; but, saying that I've seen 3 of the 13" variety would be pushing it. When it came to 13" sets, I think most people bought the lighter weight, less expensive imported models.

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