1976 Quasar console at a thrift
 

I was doing my thrift store rounds today, and I spotted this 1976 solid state Quasar set. They wanted $10 for it, and if I had a car big enough to haul it, I would have gotten it. The power switch was broke and it would not turn on, but I'm sure that can be fixed. I called up my TV collector friend, and he said he'd take a look at it.

Here's the inside.

That was made after Matsushita bought Quasar from Motorola and the chassis pretty much looks Japanese. It also looks to have a ton of hours on it; so, hopefully, the CRT isn't toast.

Cabinet is similar to my childhood set, but the controls and chassis are very different.

When I first saw it, I got super excited because I thought it was a Motorola Quasar with tubes. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Looks a bit like mine, but this one seems to be higher end. Mine is a simple one speaker, knob tuned, BUT the tube is really strong and gives a very good picture.

http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=263773

Is that set knob tuned, or is it electronicly tuned, I can't see the knobs...

Set also uses the Zenith style power supply.
Top of line at the time.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Again, if I was able to transport sets this big by myself, I would have dropped the $10 for it. It would be fun to clean it up real good and get it working. I should probably also get a tube tester.

BTW what's the board on the bottom of the cabinet between the power transformer and the drawer? My Quasar is from the same years but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have it.

Remote set too, all right! :thmbsp: It uses a two-button clicker in the same basic style that had been in use since at least 1962.

Come to think of it I've seen three-button Quasar clickers, just not nearly as many, so who knows.

Its been years but IIRC the drawer had all the low level stuff &
the center had the sweep ckts. Lower priced sets & the 19"
sets just used the simple & MUCH cheaper pass transistor power
supply all on one board.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Those cabinets were too ornate and were poor sellers. I used to get mailers from the Quasar distributor and they discounted the fancier cabinet sets.
The set shown, is a remote control set.

The last time I even LOOKED into one of those sets....was in the early 1990's !!

I believe that "drawer" has a big module with pretty much ALL low-level ckty...called the "supermodule"...and I think that module on the bottom is the remote receiver. Deflection is on the side module--with the fly in a "can", supposedly filled with oil--and SEALED.. It IS a cold set with a VRT...but I NEVER liked the design of the chassis.....then...or NOW...

This one DOES seem to have a delta tube...I think ALL of the ones I worked on were 100 deg in-line tubes...which did NOT seem to hold up too well...

That thing has a 75 ohm coax terminal!? I've never seen one of those on a 70's era set!


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My CCII from 1976 has 75 ohm coax as well.

Those must be quite rare (tvs that old with coax input) There used to be a wide variety of antenna inputs on tvs without any real apparent rhyme or reason. At first there were just screw terminals, then you had sets with screw terminals and a coax. Sometimes the VHF signal was a coax input and the UHf was a 300 Ohm twin lead. Some sets have 4 screw terminals and a jumper that went into the 75 ohm input all of this with no apparent rhyme or reason. I grew up in the 90s and 00s, so by then, the singular 75 ohm coax was standard.

I have a 1972-73 first gen CCII varactor tuned flatchassis 25" Avanti that has coax for the VHF.

I have a mid to late 60's Setchell-Carlson school/industrial 23" monochrome TV/video monitor that uses if I recall the name correctly a PL-259 75ohm coax connector for the VHF...Oldest set I've seen with coax RF in.

I'd love to see pics. Just out of curiosity. It used to annoy me when I would bring home a small set and all it would have is the screw terminals. Now that I am older, I wish I had been able to keep my 13" Color GE and my 13" B&W Goldstar - both from the 80s, knob
Tuned and 300 ohm twin lead only.

This is an almost all !
VHF tuners had 75 ohm inputs. then a balun mounted on
the tuner & off to the term board at 300 ohms. Coax was a rarity in the
olden days for a down lead. You could have 2 matching
transformers & the balun all giving losses. So in the mid
70's coax VHF inputs became common usually with a 300 ohm
input that could be switched in for ears etc.

UHF tuners had 300 ohm inputs. They kept that for good reason.
If you compare RG59 with quality foam 300 ohm at UHF
freqs the loss of coax is much higher. So in a fringe UHF area
you could need an amp for UHF using coax.
Other way is to run separate antennas with coax for VHF & 300 ohm for UHF. Remember every time you add something EVEN a
connector there are losses especially at higher freqs !
Some combo antennas could run separate outputs also. Dont
remember but probably Wineguard & maybe Jerrold (GI), they were
the premier antennas then.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Too ornate? The only decoration I saw on the cabinet of the TV we're discussing is a large thing below the picture tube that looks like a door knocker. If there is anything more ornate on that cabinet, I must have missed it. This set, being either a 1st-generation WID Motorola TV or a Japanese knockoff (I also did not realize, until I read the posts here, that Motorola had been sold to Matsushita, before or after the Quasar models came out), must have been very expensive when new.

$861, the price quoted by VK member Dreamsbeard, was not unheard of for a new console color TV (especially a 6- to-7-foot long 3-way entertainment center) in the mid-1970s, although the same set as the one he has may have been priced somewhat lower in the United States. The major TV networks, except NBC, were not telecasting full color at this time (and wouldn't be for several more years), so color TV in the mid-1970s was considered a luxury item; the sets of that time were likely showing mostly black and white programming until at least the eighties. Remember the networks' announcements before a color program was broadcast? NBC: The following program is brought to you in LIVING COLOR on NBC, with the peacock showing its feathers; ABC: This is an ABC COLOR presentation, with the circular animated ABC logo; CBS: CBS presents this program in COLOR, with the letters CBS appearing, one after another, followed by the "eye" logo.

BTW, what on earth did NBC mean by the phrase "living color"? :scratch2:

makes me wonder how long twin lead connectors lasted.

Newest I saw were on a VCR from 1991

VCR,s had the 75 VHF & 300 UHF since day one til
I dont know. Latest 300ohm U/V were probably on low
end Korean jobs & 1st gen Chi-Com junk. Must have
gone away with knob-job tuners. I do remember some RCA sets
kept 75 & 300 ohm late. Not the stuff I remember as it really
didnt effect my job. 75 only simplified service. No need for
clothes pins, just stick on a push on connector. Fast but
we did go through them by the bag after being stepped on etc.

73 Zeno:smoke:

I have seldom seen them on anything but a knob tuned set. Is there any particular reason for that? Digital tuned tvs (usually bpc's) usually have only coax.

The Avanti has a thread on here (IIRC in curbside or rectangular SS sections) with scads of pictures, and my photobucket and possibly flickr accounts host those pictures. You can go find them if you want.

The S-C don't have a thread, but there is a picture or two out there. I don't have time to take pictures of it now with the ETF meet on the way.

Knob jobs had 2 tuners so 2 inputs.
Early varactors & digitals started with 2 TNR's. Then they
put it all in one pkg with 2 inputs. To make things cheaper,
smaller & better eventually built the matching & splitting into
the single U/V tuner.