Met up with freakaftr8 (Shawn)

[compucat]

I'm 41 and my first TV was a 12" mid '60s Zenith B&W that was given to me at age 15. The set was old but useable when I got it and I changed a few tubes and learned how to adjust it. I had it for six months and then the flyback finally went bad. I've been a Zenith fan ever since. I have been tinkering with electronics all my life and even tried to work as a TV repairman in the mid 1980's. I never could make any money in it as the "disposable mantality" was starting to take over. I now use my love for and knowledge of electronics to indulge this satisfying hobby.

[Tony V]

I'm 38 and been tinkering, repairing and collecting tv's, radio's and record players since i was 6. Unlike other kids that age that managed to take them apart, i was able to get them working and put back together. When other kids were mowing grass or gathering up bottles or cans for spending money, i was fixing stuff for the neighbors instead. I got out of it for awhile in my teens when i started messing with cars and the local shops and parts houses were starting to close down. I rediscovered my passion for electronics in my 20's when the internet came to be and i found that parts were available again and have been back into it ever since. I originally had the goal of owning and operating my own tv shop but the times changed that. I ended up being a mechanic instead. In those early years i read every book about electronics i could get my hands on. Regular books bored me but anything having to do with electronics i was like a sponge and absorbed everything. Christmas and birthday presents were easy for my family as all they needed to look for was either electronic books, tools, or testing eqipment for me to work on stuff with. My first two sets that i remember having was a set of bakelite 16 inch tv's. One Motorola and one Admiral, both made in 1950. Most kids my age bedrooms were loaded with posters and toys, mine looked like a tv repair shop
-Tony

[Carmine]

I guess I'll chime in on this as well... I'm 35, and my first memories of TV are of my grandparents 1968 Zenith color set. I suppose that set would have been around 8 years old by the time I had any real memory of it. My grandfather was the kind of guy who either fixed things himself, or had some kind of connection to somebody that did it on the side. So I remember the back being off that Zenith being fascinated with the glowing glass bulbs inside, and the extra "tubes" that my grandparents kept in a living room coffee table.

I remember being sad when somebody gave my grandfather $50 for the Zenith when it developed a color-rainbow problem (3.58 crystal) and somebody decided it wasn't worth fixing. They also had a 1976 19" Chromacolor II. Pretty much everybody in my family had Zenith sets, so I guess somebody appreciated the difference.

The first set I ever got was a mid-sixties 17" B&W Zenith that I found at the curb and a friend and I dragged home in a wagon. At that time, (early/mid 80s) you could still find tubes and testers. I remember this series set had a toasted 4BZ6, so it was an easy fix, and it worked great after that.

For a while, it seemed like I was fixing everybody's old basement tube sets. Man it sure seemed like most of them were Zeinths with simple tube problems... Guess they sold really well in the Detroit area!

Just like Tony V, I got into cars as a teenager, but never dumped my old TV sets. Soon as I bought my first house, it was game-on for old TVs, lol. Problem is, I don't have the greatest basement for TV collecting. Whenever I get my "keeper" house, you can bet I'll remedy that.

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by David Roper

I was about 10 when I got my first old TV, a ca 1951 17" tabletop. As fluid as my collection has been over the years I still have that old Motorola.

I'm 'bout youz guyz age, so it's scary to realize the first pre-war TVs I ever saw (at Henry Ford Museum) were at the time as old as the earliest VCRs are now.

Wow.

I still have my first set too... A Magnavox 23" early 60s table model with remote. It lost vertical sweep in about 1978, and I've been A-gonna fix it all these years. Since then, it's been through a house fire, been moved 10 times, and survived the Northridge Earthquake. It's lost it's safety glass, has some scrapes and bruises, but I still have it!

And about being scary that a VCR today is about as old as the prewar you saw.... How about this: One of my trucks is now registered as a California Historical Vehicle, is insured as an antique, and I'm old enough to have bought it new

Charles

[freakaftr8]

Yeah, but we are all young at heart right!

[Kiwick]

I'm 28 and i'm having fun with vintage electronics since i was 4... i began by tearing apart old radios and TVs to get the speakers (who knows why) and by 10 i was already able to repair record players and cassette recorders.

I started collecting whole TVs when i was 15 and i got my first car--a Haflinger pony with a buggy i got as a christmas present from my grandpa... this first allowed me to hunt and haul complete sets back home... of course the growing pile of old TVs in our basement quickly got me in hot water with my parents, but then they slowly got used to it... now there are about 50 TVs and countless stereos in there...

[radiotvnut]

I just turned 31 and I have been collecting tube electronics since I was 12. I still have that first Silvertone radio! A 1936 model with a gold airplane dial and tuning eye. I beleive my first B&W fix was an early '60's 17" RCA with the knobs on top of the case. I actually used that set in my room for a long time. My first color TV fix was a 19" Zenith space command chromacolor II. I regret letting that one go. I've actually had an interest in electronics since I was very young. I would bring home old radios, appliances, etc. just to tear them apart so I could see how they worked. The bedrooms of my classmates was always filled with video games, baseball cards, etc. Mine was (and still is) filled with TV's and radio's. By the time I was a teenager, everyone else was out getting into trouble while I was at home stuck inside a TV. It goes without saying that I got made fun of big time for my hobby; but, that didn't stop me. While most of the people my age boast about their 6000" flat panel TV's and their megawatt surround sound system; I still use (and enjoy) my vintage equipment. I'm just glad to see that there are more younger people interested in this stuff.

[fsjonsey]

I'm 17 and started collecting antique radios when I was around 8 Years old. I branched out to HiFi equipment at 12, and TV sets at 15.

[Randy Bassham]

And about being scary that a VCR today is about as old as the prewar you saw.... How about this: One of my trucks is now registered as a California Historical Vehicle, is insured as an antique, and I'm old enough to have bought it new

The car Momma and I bought new the year we were married, a 1971 VW Karmann Ghia Coupe has been considered an Historic Motor Vehicle for 11 years now. Wish I still owned it.

[kbmuri]

Yeah, they're making me feel old too. My beater Ford pickup is a "Historical Vehicle" now. I remember my parents '64 Zenith roundie being purchased, new.

Ok, I'm 46 and change. My dad was a TV repairman in the '60s. He taught me how to test tubes on his Sencore TC-131 when I was 7 or 8, and that was "my job" when he took me on a servce call or took a set home. My first TV was a red and white Magnavox portable I got at an auction for one dollar, broken. Fixed it the same day and put it in my room. Back then it was rare for a kid to have his own TV. Later I had a job one summer (1974?) repairing b/w motel sets for a local owner of 5 or 6 seedy establishments, 35 bucks a set fixed price, delivered broken, returned fixed. I also took care of the neighbors. Forgot about TVs when I got into cars and girls in high school in the late 70's (although I did salvage a curbside tube stereo and set it up in the garage so I could work on cars in proper tunes). "Life" gobbled me up for 25 years. Then got back into radios again when eBay became mainstream, 7-ish years ago, say 2001. Got back into TVs about 5 years ago after rescuing a Capehart 333 from a fishtanker (the other eBay bid was by a college frat house in Chicago). Got absorbed with it after discovering AK. Now the darn things are all over the house.

The red and white magnavox portable would be a nice find. Or maybe it was a zenith. It was a long time ago...

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by kbmuri

Ok, I'm 46 and change. My dad was a TV repairman in the '60s. He taught me how to test tubes on his Sencore TC-131 when I was 7 or 8, and that was "my job" when he took me on a servce call or took a set home. My first TV was a red and white Magnavox portable I got at an auction for one dollar, broken. Fixed it the same day and put it in my room. Back then it was rare for a kid to have his own TV. Later I had a job one summer (1974?) repairing b/w motel sets for a local owner of 5 or 6 seedy establishments, 35 bucks a set fixed price, delivered broken, returned fixed. I also took care of the neighbors. Forgot about TVs when I got into cars and girls in high school in the late 70's (although I did salvage a curbside tube stereo and set it up in the garage so I could work on cars in proper tunes). "Life" gobbled me up for 25 years. Then got back into radios again when eBay became mainstream, 7-ish years ago, say 2001. Got back into TVs about 5 years ago after rescuing a Capehart 333 from a fishtanker (the other eBay bid was by a college frat house in Chicago). Got absorbed with it after discovering AK. Now the darn things are all over the house.

The red and white magnavox portable would be a nice find. Or maybe it was a zenith. It was a long time ago...

Holy cow...I'm 43 and also started on a TC-131 (6GH8 setup: 6-D-11-B) tube tester! I burnt up my Dad's - ran a 6 volt tube on 8 volts and left it for a day or so. Dad was pissed - we got him a B&K 747 to replace that. I got a TC-131 a few years back on eBay - still haven't plugged it in, more of a sentimental piece.

My Dad taught me the business too. Started when I was about 5 or 6, by sorting resistors and working my way up to fixing B/W sets in his shop. The Navy got 22 years from me, but I've returned to my roots. When I'm not doing something productive, I'm spending time with my Dad...fixing RCA's, Sonys and Funai crap.

To the youngsters - you truly are the heroes here. With so many others absorbed in the next "i" product(s), you all are plugging away restoring our American treasures. My hat's off to all who save even one vintage set!

Cheers and many thanks for the thread,

[Chad Hauris]

I'm 30 and have been working with tube type radios/amplifiers and phonographs since I was about 8 or 10 and got into TV's when I was probably around 12 or so, then got into the business of jukebox, phonograph, tube type organ and tube radio repair in around 2004.
I have been doing mostly jukebox and organ repairs at our shop recently and I haven't done much TV repair over the last couple of years...I have a back-log of so many sets in my collection which need repair but am working to get many of them to my downtown Midland office from my house and barn where it will be a lot easier to work on them and use them.

[kbmuri]

Kinda kills me that my dad passed on before I got back to my roots. He undoubtedly would have gotten audio out of the Admiral Roundie From Hell. I envy Findm is still able to do that. My dad had me salvage, test, and sort tubes, so when somebody came by and needed a good used 6W4 or 1B3GT I could say "got it" or not. If I found the right one, in a timely manner, and got it to the "customer" before he left, I usually got an Eisenhower dollar for my trouble. Those always seemed like more money than a paper bill. It's probably been 20 years since I've seen an Eisenhower dollar, for that matter.

Funny, I have a TC-131 I got off of eBay and almost never use it because it's sentimental. Funny to hear somebody else out there did the same thing, I mean. And memorizing the setup numbers almost to the point of not having to look in the manual (12AX7 = 12-F-10-B/G-3).

I bought a TC-136 for my workhorse, use it constantly. I don't think there's any difference between the two, except cosmetics. Oh, yeah, the 131 has a CRT cable and socket but I never found any documentation on how to use it. Anyone?

I have to second your bold comments. I'm the youngest person I know personally who still knows what a vacuum tube does. It's a lost art and I was surprised by the number of 20-somethings that chimed in. I still personally know a few kids who can work with me on a vintage Hot Rod, but even those guys are dying out. With everything disposable and the throw-away mentality. Something arcane like vintage TV, I'm pretty much alone. It's nice to see a few "youngsters" in the mix. My hats off, too.