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Old 12-30-2017, 01:50 PM
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Adam Adam is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Phoenix, AZ
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There actually is a motor in ones like mine that physically rotate a switch. It's just not something that's accessible from the front. Rather, there's buttons on the control panel behind the door for changing the channel (called power-tuning). The motor is inside the set behind that panel, the switch it rotates is actually two switches that are sandwiched between two circuit boards. (one changes the channel and one changes which number lights up to the left of the panel) You can preset 14 channels, and which frequency each channel is set to is controlled by 14 little thumbwheels on the control panel.

The first Zenith remote set was in 1956, something called the flashmatic (the remote looked like a ray-gun and used visible light directed at photosensors on the set) The first Zenith space command ultrasonic remote was in 1957 (which does have manual knob-in-front tuning, and a motor to rotate the tuner - I have a '57 SC200 21" B&W console). The last that has a motor to physically rotate a tuner to change the channel was probably in 1979. (I have a '79 19" color table set with the SC1000 and manual tuning, but the knob is hidden behind a door)

The first year for the Avanti was, I believe, 1972 because I've seen them with the hybrid chassis, and they made them at least until '79, because I've seen System 3 Avantis. I know for certain there were non-remote Avantis with knob tuning. But as to whether there was ever a remote Avanti with manual tuning - I've never seen one, but that doesn't mean they didn't exist. I can take a look through my Zenith manuals later and see if anything comes up.
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Last edited by Adam; 12-30-2017 at 02:21 PM.
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