The Original Family Zenith

[Arcanine]

How often can a person say, they know the entire history of a set that's as old as this one? The date sticker on the back says 1982. Purchased brand new by my mother in 1982 for a weekend house in Northern Wisconsin! So it never really saw a huge amount of use in the beginning.

It was around when I was an infant. I remember mom playing the original NES on this TV. I was born in 1986, and this was the family TV at the time.

We moved to the Lake Geneva area in 1987, and the TV came with. The TV was then replaced by a Philips in late 1989, and this set was relegated to the hobby room in the basement until we moved from that house in 1996. It saw weekly use in the basement hobby room, but only a couple hours at a time. It used to have a Panasonic Pop-Top VCR plugged in to it, and I would watch movies on it. That VCR died just before we moved again.

By 1996, it was pretty old. It was just placed in to storage in the basement. I pulled it out though the years and used it a few times. Until today the last time I turned it on was 1998! It was very sleepy when I woke it up. The tube had very much gone to sleep. I let it run for a few hours and it cleared right up with in the first hour of use and still produces a clean and sharp picture.

None of the pots are scratchy, nor are the channel selectors. Everything still works as it did when I put it away.

It's had it's scrapes and bruises over the years. The cover for the speaker and controls is long lost (Anyone have one that might fit??), and the speaker was damaged by me when I was a kid, because I liked to stick pennies in it, so dad snapped off the plastic that covered the speaker so I would stop putting pennies there (they'd rattle and I thought it was funny).

[Olorin67]

Nice set, zeniths from that era were very well built and seem to hold up well.
My family's first color TV was a 1969 19" zenith, I still have it. I want to restore it but will try a few B&W sets before I tackle it. It went out around 1985, on a really humid day, arced something in the HV section. Probably just a fried cap or two. Over the years I parted out a couple similar curb find sets, so I have spare parts and a flyback.
next time I visit my mom I want to look at old photos and figure out what kind of B&W set they had before that.

[dieseljeep]

I wonder if the set shown, is the last of the System 3 sets, with the 9-160 sweep module?
It seems like, the 1982 models still used it.

[Arcanine]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I wonder if the set shown, is the last of the System 3 sets, with the 9-160 sweep module?
It seems like, the 1982 models still used it.

No, I don't believe it is a System 3. I looked inside and none of the boards appear modular.

[DavGoodlin]

I worked for my first Zenith (with Sony and Admiral) Dealer in those days.
The impression as a new set, they were as good as the Zeniths of up to 15 years before.
Im not surprised it was sleepy, those 80s sets seem to bounce back when I find one

[zeno]

Its right at the change over to the 9-181 series. Still
modules but not as many. Could go either way but looks
more like an S3 especially the CRT color.

73 Zeno

[radiotvnut]

I believe the newest 9-160 set that I've seen was a 25" system 3 console from 1983. The 9-181 sets came out in '82 and during that time period, they were making both 9-160 and 9-181 sets.

[Electronic M]

It's nice to see something kept by the family of the original owners that long.
The closest I come to that TV wise was a 1976 23" Quasar WID set that can be seen in a linked youtube video in the What I want post linked in my signature....We had that until the late 90's-early 2000's....My curiosity (wanted to know why sound started before picture and turned it off and on repeatedly) killed it in the early 90's when I was 3 or 4 IIRC.....Boy would I like another one of those.

The radio that started me collecting was my Grandpa's 1963 Zenith AM/FM...Still works, and now it's mine.

I've also got a 1918 GE brass blade fan that still works and was from a relative of my grandparrents.....Those fans are just plain IMMORTAL especially if oiled from time to time....Also saved from oblivion a 40's GE that was my grandpa's work shop fan.

My Grandparrents on mom's side saved a lot of good stuff (and a lot of stuff in general), and I was lucky enough to be around at the right times to get and save some of the good stuff....

[Arcanine]

Actually the funny thing is, this is not the only set my family is the original owners of. We have a Sony KV1314 I think, or something of that variant number.

The Zenith has always been in our life. My mother divorced her first husband in 1983, and married my father in 1984. She had this set when she was still married to her previous. She kept it, and many other things when it was all divided. The Sony was not, her Ex-Husband got that set.

In 1991, the Sony set, and many other things were given to us by the Ex-Husband, as he had no use for them. The Sony TV was subsequently given to me that same year as my first personal TV. I used it though the duration of the 1990's, and discontinued use of it in 2002. I still own it, and it still works. That set is the reason I am an avid and passionate Sony collector now.

By this time, the Zenith was living in our basement as the exercise room TV, and I used said room as my cool, after school room to watch cartoons on, simply because the Zenith had a bigger screen and I liked watching it more.

This remained routine until we moved in 1996.

I've held on to the Zenith my self, knowing as it gets older, it would become interesting, and relevant to watch and own, and I hold the bragging right to say my family is the original owners of it, that it's not just something I nixed from someones trash pile.

I enjoy watching it daily again. And I will continue to enjoy watching it.

[TVTim]

That is a really cool story. I wish I had some of the TVs my mom and dad bought over the years. They are all gone. Keep that set and the memories will always be with you.