1975? Zenith Chromacolor II model G4550P
 

Picked this one up yesterday out for trash. Missing power cord. Can't wait to start on this one. My projects are backing up tho.

I sold one of those brand new to the father of a girl I was dating. So that would make it more like 77 I think unless they made that model for a few years. It has the single knob varactor tuner IIRC. Don't spray any kind of cleaner in it if it seems touchy.

John

That's a great save, the CRT alone is money in the bank. I sold many of these after they started appearing curbside at 10-11 years old. There were usually very minor issues and of course, I replaced the HV hold-down capacitor. The 1974-78 models were ALL dependable and rugged, I even relocated the CRTs-chassis into older cabinets.

Those one-knob varactor tuners were the only annoying issue, especially when you NEEDED UHF. I forget what worked on them. The turret tuners were an issue too, along with the detent UHF tuners, that needed the shaft grounding springs cleaned.

I used to HATE doing those damn springs. Then one day the boss
was doing a house call on a junker & he put a few drops of WD40
on each one. Fixed it & from then on we had 100% cure rate on
them with no risk.
The one nobbers were OK for the Boston market but a place like
Hartford you needed mostly UHF. IIRC there was a mod to change
them to 6 VHF & 12 UHF but dont remember the details. The
slide rule varactor selectors get around the problem.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

Well, I finally got around to testing it. I tried it with my Intellivision game 😃

Looks pretty strong. I am a bit surprised it has conventional
tuners, not varactor tuners.
LFOD !

Is 1975 correct for the year on this one?

Jug looks pretty strong on this one. Nice save from landfill. Good luck on the project.

Ty, definitely. I always try to save whenever possible

G models are 1976. They came out in the fall of 1975.

Growing up we had an F chassis with the slide-up-and-down varactor tuner. It seems like it was always dirty.

Ah thank you 😀

Does anyone have a picture of this tuner style?

There are a few pics on the web of the remote version, which doesn't really look the same since it's missing the slidey knob and also the slidey volume control. Someone here has posted a pic of one once before (or maybe it was one of the FB groups) but I just spend 15 minutes searching for a pic and turned up nothing. Maybe someone has a Zenith brochure from 74 or 75?

Ah well, thanks for trying. Maybe something will turn up. BTW I did notice this set is missing the push pull knob for the power/volume. Anybody know where I could find one?

Is this it?

https://i.imgur.com/KyWEEsq.jpg

Oh wow. Don't recall seeing one of those. I might have tho. It's been awhile.

iirc, the button on the left was for Chromatic and when you pushed it in a little panel inside would retract and a little photoresistor would appear.

Yup

Mines on the right.

I have them but I have no scanner & if I did I would never
figure out how to send them
Anyhows they were on a slide rule with 14 positions. Any position
could be set to any band & channel ( VHF-L, VHF-H or UHF). The sets
came with a set of plastic numbers tabs from 2-83 with a few extras.
The tabs chose the band & each position had a multi turn pot
to tune the channel. Remote sets had everything behind the door.
Non remotes had a knob that slid up & down. The knob opened up
& the channels were tuned by a knob inside it if needed.
IIRC starting with G-line sets they switched over to 18 position
rotary selectors. 6 for UHF & all the VHF. That started with the
13GC10 chassis, the first in line CRTfrom Zenith & a fantastic set.
By H-line I believe all varactor sets were 18 position rotaries.
When old they did get very noisy but I dont remember any actual
complaints. More of an annoyance to the tech than anything.
Enuf fer now

Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

Ah, ok then. 👌