How can it work so perfectly???
 

This past Saturday I found this absolutely gorgeous, near mint Zenith Space Command 200, from about 1957 at an estate sales here in Minneapolis. What was so amazing about this television set it after about two minutes of running and adjusting the horizontal and vertical holds, the set ran like its brand new. The picture is amazingly stable and the tube so very bright! I cannot believe my eyes, normally I have to spend months recapping, adjusting and restoring a set of this age back to working condition.

Has this ever happened to any of you guys??

http://www.automaticwasher.org/TD/JP...9-23-17-44.jpg

and we found the space command remote was right behind the TV!!

http://www.automaticwasher.org/TD/JP...9-23-22-13.jpg

Wow! Very nice, indeed. Even the cabinet is almost pristine. Did you refinish it? or was it just very well-kept?

Also, I'm not much of a vintage TV scholar; is that remo the "clacky" one which used tiny ultrasonic tuning forks to send the commands?

No refinishing here, just a warm damp cloth cleaned off the dust and brought out the shine. Yes the space command remote in the ultrasonic kind, its very cool.

With a Zenith, this happens often! Very rarely do I see a Zenith from the 50s or newer that fails to at least try to work. I picked up a late-50s 19" table model sitting out on the road in Lake Tahoe, and it worked perfectly. Didn't even have to adjust anything. I passed it on to another collector, and he put it into daily use for awhile.

Charles

My grandmother has a late fifties zenith that has a picture like that. I still power it up every few months, to keep it going. :yes:

Beautiful set.

We had a Space Command when I was a kid. I was utterly fascinated by the ultrasonic remote and ended up "repurposing" the remote control system for other purposes after the TV died. I've since added a couple of Space Command remotes to my collection, but I'm still hoping to find a set. I'd be thrilled to find one as nice as yours!

--Dave Sica

It's a Zenith, my Flashmatic worked well as found, it had been serviced over the years but not recapped.

Magnavox is another brand like that, I've never found a Maggie Phonograph with a non working Amp.

The Zeniths are like that. 7 out of the 9 Zenith b/w sets I've had (ranging from 56-83) worked more-or-less as found.

In March I bought a Zenith console which the seller very plainly stated did not work. I was told it had been acting as the stand for his grandparents' color TV set for the better part of 40 years.

After replacing a fuse and swapping a couple tubes it was playing pretty good for a non-working set:

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...img_5775_1.jpg

Mwahahah! Don't you love people who are utterly clueless about electronics?

>The Zeniths are like that. 7 out of the 9 Zenith b/w sets I've had (ranging >from 56-83) worked more-or-less as found.

I always buy the '48 to 51 models they never work when found.
Terry

The porthole-era Zeniths were overbuilt with too many components to go bad. By the mid/late 50s, though, they were really hitting their stride. The only issue I have with B/W Zenith sets from the 50s is that the original picture tubes always seem to be very weak. Just my luck? I have a hard time thinking of a tube-chassis Zenith that either worked when I found it or came back to life with almost no effort. I have a very similiar Space Command 400; I've never done a thing to it. I'm not even sure if I ever took the back off! It does have a pretty washed out picture from what I recall. I haven't powered it up in maybe 5 years.

I've had the opposite luck, all the 50's and 60's Zenith B/W sets I find have a strong tube (except one). The late 50's B/W's almost always work as found, the best in B/W IMHO.
I WISH I could find that exact set, you have found a beautiful example. These almost always work but still beware of the "white time bomb" ceramic caps in there. The late 50's Zeniths have quite a few but only go bad when you least expect it. Took 10 years of occasional use on my Cherry cabinet '58 top tuning console. I need to recap it now as one popped but the set still plays fine.

One of my Zenith b/w sets, a 1961 19" in a metal cabinet, has a weak tube, the rest were ok. I wish I could find a 48-51 Zenith, the porthole is one of the few sets that I still don't have that I'd really like to pick up.

Very nice! That looks remarkably like the first set I remember.

Chief

One of the ones you got from me in that big package lot of TVs a few years ago, was found lying in a flood control ditch out on Dillon Road in the middle of the Coachella Desert... Been there for Heaven knows how long in 120-degree heat, and it worked! It had a really banged-up cabinet, if I recall, and maybe concrete splattered on it.

Charles

That's the one. The only things really wrong with it were the weak crt and the shaft on the fine tuning control was broken (which I've since fixed) After I had used it regularly for I think more than a year in as found condition, a resistor went bad and screwed up the horiz sync. Then I did recap the whole set, but it didn't really need it. I polished up the cabinet to get the concrete off, and put back together and repainted the plastic crt bezel. But the cabinet's still a little scratched up and has a very small dent on the top (I'm using it in the basement now) If I ever come across a good crt for it, I'll do the bodywork and repaint the cabinet.

Not mine. I have a 60 Zenith Remote table model 16" with 300 series remote.
Worn out remote, switches on tuner sparking, motor wouldn't shut off, tv has blown caps.
This set needs lots more work.
Bill Cahill :no:

In 2007 I picked up an early 60s B&W Zenith SC 300 that was still in daily use at a home in Detroit. It was being watched when I arrived at the house, and the whole room smelled like warm vacuum tubes!

The remote works, the CRT is marginal... I suspect that may be from lots of use. The cabinet was destroyed, and spray-painted gold.

I took it as a mercy find. (The rest of the house was falling down around it!) I figured I can do whatever I want to the cabinet of this set and feel no guilt.