Sandy it's great to see you again 😀

My love of old TV's started when I was 7 years old. One of the times my mother had the RCA Victor man out for repairs on warranty I sneaked around the back of the set. It was a thrill to see all those orange light bulbs in action. It was just too neat. Today, even seeing the face of the picture tube light up for the first time in many years. The thrill is still there.
Bill Cahill

I agree Mr Cahill .



EDIT : http://tuberadio.heavenforum.com/ind...c8c9de9e96fd7d ( doesn't work for me )

All I see there is a gray screen with a white rectangle.

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My dad was an electrical engineer, so I grew up around the technology of the 1960s-'70s including, you guessed it, old TVs. At one time I had half our basement full of old TVs, from every major TV manufacturer of the time except Magnavox. My pride and joy was a 1963 VHF-only Zenith 23" b&w console I rescued in 1969 from a trash pile, with a little help from an old friend (that set was in a heavy walnut cabinet and weighed the proverbial ton, so I couldn't possibly have lugged it down to the basement myself). The set was missing every tube except the CRT and HV rectifier, but when I turned the set on for the first time after installing the last new tube and got a picture from a local Cleveland TV station (I grew up in a Cleveland suburb some 30 miles from the stations' towers), I was thrilled. That great picture (my console Zenith TV had 3 video IF stages) was also what got me interested in Zenith TVs, radios and such.

I was very disappointed when I read decades later of Zenith's demise, but that's material for another thread. I still have a small collection of Zenith radios from the early '50s to 1981, all but two working quite well.

This is a great thread. Our first color set was a Penncrest (J. C. Penny's) tube set made by Panasonic. What a thrill having a color tv was. Not only were sets back then great, but tv shows were funny and wholesome. I watch very little new stuff and find I watch ME tv or Antenna tv mostly now. I love nostalgia. I worked at a tv sales and service shop from age 16 until like was 26. That was back in 1975. We sold and serviced RCA, Zenith, and Sony. We were a factory authorized service provider back then. I just love the style products back then had. Sony's were at their hey day in late '70's up till about '85. I spent a lot of money on Sony electronics. I liked Zenith slightly better than RCA, but now it's sad America has no manufacturer of tv anymore, except in name. I have a RCA roundie CTC 9 chassis, a Sony 5-303W, a Sony KV4000, and a Zenith radio console from 1946. I'm so glad to have a few pieces to remind me how great tv products of yesteryear were. It's great reading everyone's comments. By the way I'm now 58. lol

I remember this too. I'm 65 years old.

65 here too .I been in those roundie color NTSC standards old dog ~ when or shortly after you could buy Roundies ,+ newer even after the 60's early '70 s rect.screens a career change in the early 70's paid better.

The immediate families first color was a huge 21" roundie bonded safety glass ~1962 -1963 maybe CTC 12 clone Curtis mathes color TV combo matched frt. facing 6 speaker am fm phono with a not bad P/P 6BQ5 output tube stereo in it but it wasn't a Fisher or Scott..I fixed it a few times too many like most of those if you used them .

I ultimately trashed the too cheap BSR record grinder in the folks hardwood and veneer Curtis Mathes living room color TV /Stereo aircraft carrier for a better Sonotone 8T ceramic pick up and way better more modern but still idler wheel Garrard Model 50 overarm stacker for the folks when I got my Dual 1019 spindle stacker and the Stanton 500E I took out of the Garrard model 50 from my room with my way better frankenstein stereo 4 6L6 PP 2 dual 12" 3 way DIY speakers rig that could entertain a block party and sounded good playing just about anthing. short of a spendy separates setup.

I was short timer ,but with a ~3yr formal electronics education ) no E.E. sheepskin that paid well and instead after a while at lucrative back then factory trained automotive computer diag.job(s)not to many could do all that back then ouside if the import F.I. techs. and I did that also .



I advanced to usually demanding and often exciting multi jurisdictional corporate management positions and a generous retirement now.

As most of us know some of those roundies had maybe 22 vacuum tubes in something like a RCA ~ CTC 12 chassis or clone + delta gun CRT and they could put the hurt on you or frustrate you getting something to watch you could recognize on it and when you did it keeping it the same color twice the next time anybody used it for the life of the TV sometimes and I'm not sure the color TV live camera & any color broadcasting was all that stable but thats not in my wheelhouse at all LOL.

I preferred the RCA ,Magnavox and Zenith in that order with all the usual variables about that including never owning a Zenith TV and working at a Magnavox A.D.back in the day ,

We serviced anthing that was practical to repair and some I'm not so sure of like MY RCA CTC XX roundie maybe ~ 1966 table top model I never fixed when the PCB boards started to crumble in it and picked up a new 25" Hybrid (mostly tube ) black shadow mask in line Magnavox that lasted plausibly well with decent pix and after that a 1979 solid state Magnavox star TV that had a better pix but was a lemon including at just at 3 yrs losing the red gun and a PLL tuner ASIC and having to put a compatible AA rebuilt in line black shadow mask CRT and PLL Tuner ASIC in it ,

Most of the RCA were not bad up until Thompson SA sold the brand in the mid to late 1990's or something like that to Technicolor and they became PRC /RCA name only junk. .

I never followed Zenith beyond the 1930's -1940's tube large radios . I had a 1937 8 or 9 tube all band big tuning eye flywheel tuning black round dial I liked in the mid -late 1960's I wish I still had and also a late 1940's Zenith radio phono console w/real nice inlaid wood and fabulous book matched veneer with a black marble top with low band FM and AM and an obligatory 12" electromagnet speaker I converted to a 3 spd phono & ~ post war IIRC Loctal vac tube Transoceanic .

A lot a lot of folks liked Zenith radio and the TV's but they only stayed hand wired as extraordinarily long as they did because they were broke anyway but I liked the radios I had and relatives Zenith TV nude CRT roundies had good pictures but I thought the later rect. Color Zenith they had if not the usual RCA rect. color all pushed green to much :tounge:

After my Magnavox Starr lemon ,25 Years of Sony , 2 Toshiba CRT and LCD since , a range topping 2013 Samsung 64f8500 1080p plasma , 2013 1080p 42" LG LED ,with 2 recent 2013-2015 1080p & 4K HDR 40"-55" Sonys LED/LCD respectively and in here my new 55" 4K HDR 1000+ QDOT Samsung LED/LCD TV all here now .

Nostalgia wise I can see the appeal of the old dog American rect. color CRT TV ,Some Trinitrons and Wega FD CRT more so for me delta gun nude (no flat safety glass ) CRT roundies all day but not for daily drivers not so much today but I dont have the gear for setting those up and the convergence and specifically HV probes Degauss coil or tube /CRT testing and maybe unobtainable or nearly so spare parts and circuit diagrams specifically .


OTOH some years ago you couldn't give me a Samsung TV ,I had new Sonys (lots of them) mostly since 1994 but given I just had to put a new salvage mainboard & LED bar in the LCD panel and and fix the PSU/ LD board in the 2015 4K HDR Sony 55X850C and out new LED lamps in the 2013 1080p Sony Bravia LCD panel both inside of two years and both TV prohibitively expensive to have fixed in or by a TV shop you can keep the new Sony Bravia subsidiary TV's and my 2013 1080p Sony had a cheap (+frc) +2 bit dither panel and never made accurate color , it was exasperating to chase good color on that rubbish like and old & unstable roundie.

The new Samsung HDR 1000 TV took to a conforming electronic LCD panel calibration @ my variables and picture settings and options I did above crushing blacks or low intensity color shadow details and below clipping whites and color detail here very fast and very well like nuttin` I ever saw given the panels incredible 7000:1 contrast and 1474 NIT 10 bit color rage below a 6000 NIT tonemap HDR TV can't even do yet .:tongue:

My 3.5 X brighter 2016 4K 55 KS 8000 Samsung 4K HDR 1000 QDOT Samsung FA01 panel code binned TV in here runs way cooler than the 55" Sony 4K HDR X850C out in the family cinema (now) so that's better quality LED and thermal designs and this ultra black,ultra clear ,moth eye flagship Samsung Direct active edge dimming LED/ LCD panel that allows all that also @ less wattage, 1.5 " thinner and lighter TV ,and both edge lit too ,

By comparison my 3.5X dimmer 2015 4K HDR Sony is a simple frame dimming and terribly Edge bleeding mostly 4K SDR (only 418 NIT ~3870:1 contrast ) Ford TV and the 2016 Samsung is a swift state of the art Bentley turbo 1474 NIT 7000:1 contrast pristine blacker than black for LCD and one of the brightest TV still in 2017 ,active edge dimming LCD TV and a planned upgrade in here by now anyway ! :tongue:

~65 here

Aye , We can allow an argument that Hays code film / NAB programming mid century wholesome TV in most ways outside of ethnic and cultural diversity was better for society somehow but everything else changed around it too and not necessarily for the common good in either case but that was the usual and now absurd alt left that brought that change .:tongue:

There is too much gratuitous violence and vulgarity on TV and film without making the production really any better now ,

Hollywood ,the alphabet TV networks and the blue coasts are wholly detached from America and have no regard for same or Americans .

Sony XBR CRT was "THE CRT TV "to have writ large until they all quit making them .

My last new CRT was a decent NIB 2003 Sony Wega XBR FD HD ready 36" flat tube boat anchor and followed by a ~spendy NIB 2005 1080p Sony 55" SXRD High-Definition 1080p slim table top rear-projection TV that wasn't bad at all if the prohibitive cost light engine didn't blow up like most of them .


I have a legendary ~2014 Samsung PN64f8500 1080p plasma in one room and a decent 2015 Sony UN 55X850C 4K HDR Triluminos LED/LCD TV in the family cinema that was in here both from Best buy NIB .

In here on the wall is my NIB superlative new 3.5 X brighter 2016 4K 55 KS 8000 and a KS9000 Samsung 4K HDR 1000 QDOT Samsung FA01 panel code binned TV.like mine is still one of the brightest ,blackest ,wide color and best HDR LED/ LCD TV you can get like a Sony X930E and the flagship Sony 9ZD and Q9 Samsung .

2017 Sony X930E ,9ZD and this 2016 Samsung KS8000/or a KS 9000 and 2017 Samsung Q9 are still the brightest TV in 2017 and with Sony and LG OLED as good as it gets for retail TV's ,

hat ALL yous guys hav said, & thn som..

I like old, antique and vintage things. Whenever I saw one of those things I would think how life was back then. It's like being transported back to when there is no internet and life is moving slowly.

All through the years it was RCA. Well, I've learned some rotten things about that company, especially with "The General" running the place, but, I stll have a warm spot for them.

That has grown to when I re build one of my new find Junker wind up machines, and, it starts playing again, the thrill's still there.

Is your forum already working? I just check awhile ago and it is not working.

I found a really small TV set. My family thought I'm silly because I still prefer watching on it. They said why I'm making things hard for me. Hahaha!