Videokarma.org TV - Video - Vintage Television & Radio Forums

Well, here I am to introduce myself. Hello! (just realized this is really long, sorry. TL;DR: I like old TVs, live in Europe)

I grew up in a little town in Missouri, USA, and all during Jr. High and most of High School (late 70s, early 80s) I worked in the town's TV shop, installing antennas, helping with TV repairs, and selling new Quasar TVs during the SuperModule/DynaModule era. I had always been fascinated with electronics and had my own small repair shop in the garage mostly fixing up and occasionally selling old TVs and radios that had been gifted to me by people in the church, found in the trash, etc. At one point or another I had a Predicta Siesta, several bugeye Zeniths, a Sylvania Roundie, a GE PortaColor (half of whose weight was made up of roaches), A CTC16, and more five-tube radios than I can remember (they weren't called All American Fives back then).

One day I discovered computers and quickly forgot all about the stuff out in the garage. Years later dad died, mom sold the house, and they hauled all of my long-neglected TVs, and a pile of vintage Sencore and Hickock test equipment off to the dump. :tears:

I went off to college, had a career in IT for a while, got bored and somehow wound up halfway around the world with a small burger empire in Spain, completely forgetting about the hobby of my formative years. I happily threw out a Panasonic plasma that broke and replaced it with a new 4K Philips like it was the normal thing to do.

And then, about six months ago, YouTube randomly suggested I watch a video from Mr. Carlson's Lab ("hi there."). He was explaining how a triode amplifier worked, which was something I kinda knew as a kid, but not really. It was fascinating. I started watching some of his other videos, then one day that led to a Blueglow Electronics video (Dynaco amp restoration) and I think that was the moment something in the back of my mind woke up. Maybe it was nostalgia, or maybe it was a something more, not sure, but I was really excited to find that channel. I found a couple of TV guys doing videos and while I was way more into TVs in the past, the channels just didn't resonate with me. Until. I stumbled across bandersentv's channel about 3 months ago, and well, heck. This guy is living the dream, man! Dude's got Predictas and GE coaxials and so, so many bakelite Admirals piled three high!

Screw Netflix, now when I get a day off I binge an entire Predicta restoration.

And I'm obsessed again, with these same TVs and other equipment I loved as a kid. It's actually kind of emotional. I found an old Marantz amp and recapped and cleaned it up, and I just bought a beat-up RCA Senior Voltohmyst from some guy in Italy that I can't wait to get started on.

The bummer is that I'm living in Europe now, and have a business and a family here. And we don't have Predictas, nor bugeye Zeniths, nor Philco Miss Americas featuring Touch-Panel Tuning and Wraparound Sound with the Hyper-Power chassis. In fact, Spain doesn't have many old TVs or hifis at all, and the ones I do find are so alien to me that I wouldn't know where to begin. Our version of eBay is pretty much limited to malaise-era HH Scott and Fisher rack systems being offered as "vintage" for more than they cost new.

But I really, really want to get restarted repairing and collecting some of these sets. One option would be to adapt to the electronics we have here, but to which I have no emotional attraction at all. The other option is to bring some of these over occasionally, which will be expensive and logistically...interesting. Longer term I have even started considering a move back to the states when I retire, something that was not even a thought a year ago.

Anyway, thanks for listening, and thanks for all the great information and stories here. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute here and there as time and money and TVs permit.

alan