Crt fading away
 

Just as I suspected, the HDTV revoluntion would be ushered in with the flat panel tv. In a few years those crt based sets will be just a fond memory.

I guess I still have enough roundies to see me throught til the end of my time.

Ha Ha.

It is sad to say but it seems to eb a world trend ...the era of the CRT is over....or very close to it. It is already difficult if not impossible to find a CRT PC monitor.

I went shopping for a new TV the other day and in reality except for the chinese el cheapos, there is nothing but LCD or Plasma!!

One of the issues with CRT's is how they are manufacturered and the chemicals used in tube. Do you realize that there is about 4 ounces of mercury in each 25" TV tube? That is the big one.

Dave

I completely agree. I am a 15 year old freshman in high school and I'm really into electronics, started when I was 10, and it saddens me I was not around during the heyday of tubes. The way they work absolutely fascinates me, I could read about them all day. When our main TV started having trouble (vertical foldover) I ran across a very interesting read on how tubes work (google "picture tube info", it's the first link) and that really got me into tubes and how they work. The image quality and sturdiness of a quality tube blows anything else out of the water, and it is always interesting to take the back cover of a TV or crt computer monitor off and just look. I really wish I had been around 15-20 years earlier, back when LCD and Plasma were unheard of. Nowadays, when you walk into a store, all you see is crap made by Funai and Orion.

Too bad by the time I have enough money to buy stuff tubes will be a thing of the past.

On the other hand, if you really want a CRT PC monitor, there is no shortage of used ones that you can pick up for free or almost free.

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I totally agree with you, karmaman. I was in the same boat as you, lol, I missed the great era of vacuum tube electronics by a few years as well. Really about all ya can do is start collecting, and get hooked on it like most of us in here. Have you thought of electronics as a career? If so, you could focus on RF Communications and Broadcast Engineering like I did. The tube theory I learned on my own by messing around with vintage electronics and reading books on the subjects was useful in school and on the job as well. There are plenty of AM, FM, and TV transmitters out there that use varaiations of vacuum tubes in their finals. Theres things such as IPA tubes, IOT's, Klystron tubes, etc. that broadcast engineers deal with. At least it's one area of electronics where everything isn't completely solid state yet.

Yes, I know for a fact I am going to get into a career involving electronics. However, I really don't know what. I love fixing things, there's just a satisfaction to it you can't get anywhere else, but fixing computers/electronics is pretty much useless now with things like the Geek Squad and the "it's broken, let's just buy a new one" idea that seems to have taken over. Communications and Engineering sounds very interesting to me, do you have a link with any info?

Yes, broadcast is one of the few places where real electronic repair is still carried out, especially on transmitters. Most of the studio stuff is computers/IT work now except for the microphone though!
I am not in that business anymore but I can remember when tube type equipment was still used in the studios and there was tons of maintenance work that would need to be done in the studios such as cleaning cart machines and reel to reel machines, repairing tube type audio equipment etc. that just isn't around anymore.
A lot of the new transmitters especially AM are solid state now though there are many tube type units still operating.

I will send ya a pvt message with some info for you. When I was your age and still in High School, I used to hang out at 4 different local TV shops. (2 were in my town and 2 in neighboring towns) Unfortunately only one of them is still in operation, but back to my point - two of the shop owners tried to talk me into buying their business when I got out of school. I seriously thought about it, but in the end, declined due to the very fact that their business is dwindling because people don't get things repaired as much as they used to. One of the shops was a satellite dealer, and had tons of established c-band and DBS customers, so perhaps that wouldn't have been so bad of an investement, but still, even though I love working on electronics, I couldn't take the plunge. I guess the point i'm trying to make is, that you're better off looking elsewhere in the electronics industry for a career instead of consumer equipment repair. That's just my opinion though, but in reality, there are tons of electronics related fields, and are lots of choices for careers, so even if this particular type of electronics work is on it's decline, don't let that discourage you.

You're right, the IT industry is pretty much everywhere in broadcast engineering work. So many facilities are changing over to an IT based workflow. It's funny how the trade mags that I get offer tons of courses and webinars for the senior engineers who haven't had a lot of computer experience can learn networking and computer fundamentals.

There is a lot of newer equipment at my facility that I can't do component level repair on, because either I don't have service manuals for, simply don't have the time, or that my time is better spent on other projects so it's easier to just ship it off to a repair center.

...Yes there are tons of tube type transmitters out there. Tube type exciters are a thing of the past though, generally what you'll see is older transmitters outfitted with newer exciters. So basically you're IPA and final will be tube. The fully solid state transmitters are great though and truly are an engineering marvel. One of my favorites is the Harris DX series of AM transmitters, and their "digital modulation" scheme.

electronics feild
 

Well i must say i love electronics as well . I wish there was a carreer in tv repair and the tube era was still here but unfortunatly it is not . I mainly fool around with stuff in my basement as a hobby . I am seriously thinking of going to school to learn modern stuff like you guys were discussing .

Its a shame but the tv repair/consumer electronics feild is pretty much a dead feild . There is only one tv repair shop left here in my area . Which is sad becuase i remember the days when there was a lot of them . There was a zenith tv shop here in town that was there for like 35yrs and unfortunatly the guy closed shop becuase people stuck him with many sets becuase they rather buy new ones for what a repair costs .
There was a fellow i met in Michigan who does antique restorations and actually he is very good at it too . He has been trying to do it as a full time buissness however i dont think its working out for the guy . He seems to have a lot of trouble making ends meet . I guess its good as a hobby or side buissness but not more then that .

oldtvman, you're really good at starting a good, long thread with just a few words!

I had planned on getting into the electronics field in some shape or form when I got out of high school but it just never happened. I was shy & had trouble walking in anywhere and even asking for advice. I passed up offers of an internship at a radio station & a TV repair shop & I don't really know why. In the end I landed in the family business which has nothing to do with electronics. As I have mentioned before, the local TV shop owner made the prediction in the mid-80s that we would all have flat TV sets that hung on the wall, being fed by sattelite dishes the size of dinner plates. Had the revolution came in 1990 the industry might have gone in a different direction. I could have easily gone into the sales & repair business but not in this current marketplace. I actually know of one shop not far from here which has recently moved into a bigger location complete with an ad campaign, promoting a selection of flatscreens. I wonder if they can make it?

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Wonder how long Sanyo will keep making the HT30746, has be one of the last US assembled CRT sets around. Certainly has to be the last US assembled 30 inch widescreen HD set. Still was avilable as of yesterday when I saw one at Walmart.

Just picked up a CRT Sony Flatscreen HD for 849 bucks, with a 225 dollar gift certificate. Heavy, yes. Mammoth footprint? Yes.

Ass kicking??


YES!:music:

The current career for fixing consumer electronics involves driving around in a dump truck and helping people get rid of their disposable electronics.

Hahaha.
I am one of the few working in consumer electronics repair.I love what I do but sadly it's no way to make a decent living.Most surviving tv shops like ours have to take on warranty work to survive.Believe me plenty of this new stuff breaks under warranty and service contract.But we still get regular stuff in for repair.People even bring in and have repaired as small as a 19" regular tv or 13" tv/vcr or tv/dvd combo.They won't spend much of course.

I don't own the shop so i have to take what I get paid and it ain't a lot.Let's just say I rent my trailer out in the country much cheaper than the average apartment around here at around $400 a month.But if I had to move and pay more my budget would get pretty tight.Of course the boss has his own home but he's still paying the mortgage and he's 60 years old so he ain't rich either.He does own the building the shop is in outright so he doesn't have to rent.
There's a tech on a tv repair forum I belong to that has a big shop in
Phonenix,Arizona that's looking for an experienced tech that claims he's willing to pay $60,000 a year w/benefits so there must be money in repairing the new technology sets in the city.
I wouldn't want to move to get the higher money.That's clean across the country and all my family is here. I can barely stand the heat of summer on the eastern shore of Maryland let alone 100 plus degrees in the desert.
I'm used to living in a small town. a city of 3 million would be a shock
And the cost of living would probably make up for the difference in pay.
Plus it would be a nightmare to get my collection of probably 10,000 plus vinyl lps and 45s and 10 jukeboxes moved there.Thank goodness I gave up on collecting tvs.

I used to make more than my paycheck some weeks selling used tvs,vcrs and stereos at the flea market.But it started going downhill in the late 90s.The vcrs died around 2001 and the tv sales got pretty pitifil until I gave up in
2005 when I had to let a nice 27"tv w/a new remote go for $40 to move it
and a 19" tv w/ remote I struggled to sell for $20.If it had knobs or no remote forget it. Those sets wouldn't even bring $2 at the auction. Even the wooden Sonys that were remote wouldn't get a $2 bid.The last time I set up I struggled to make table rent.I ended up taking loads of vcrs and tvs to the dump.No tube sets were disposed of. Byan saved those.

The used market has even died for bigscreens. My boss used to not be able to keep a used bigscreen in the shop.He could sell a used one easy for 400-$500.He's got a nice modern silver Philips 55" he can't move.They always ask How much for the flatscreen? and we have to tell them that that one belongs to a customer.I have a friend that just got a Plasma and he can't use it because he can't unload the big projection tv he wants to get rid of.(no room and no storage place).The Plasma is still in the box after I warned him not to put it on top of the other tv because it would surely topple over.Nobody wants a big boxy projection tv anymore.I've exhausted everybody I thought wanted a big tv and he did too.The price dropped on the flat tvs so the demand dried up for a cheap used projection tv so they could have a bigscreen.

I don't know if I would have gotten into the consumer electronics repair business
if I knew that at almost 40 years old and with 18 years experience repairing tvs for a living and 5 more repairing them on my own as teenager I would only be making scarcely more than
someone who's been working at Circuit City on the sales floor for a while.(The one's they are firing now because they make too much...lol).

*sniffle*

I worked in TV shops back in the 1970s while going to college. Even then, they money was not that good. None of the the TV repairman that I knew were making a fortune.

The two that were doing the best had other income. One also ran a postal route 1/2 day. The other was retired military with who also had a security officer job part time.

This is one reason why I got a BSEE and went into electrical engineering. This has been great until now with interesting work and good pay. However, with all of the work now moving to China and India, who knows how long it will last.