Zenith Flashmatic
 

I finally found one of these. I've been looking for one since I first learned about them, nearly 20 years ago now. It's all there except for the remote. The cabinet needs some work, and note the brightener (I needed to put the CRT tester up to 8V to get the needle to budge at all.)

Cool find!

If you can't find any 21" replacements, send me the number and I'll check if any of my 21" spares are can sub. I can bring one to the ETF meet.

Nice score! I have always wanted one in my collection.
Also admiring that nice old tek scope in the backgroung

The set appears to use a 21AT,AL or a 21CBP4 can be used.
Electrostatic 90 degree CRT. The only set that I seen that used 2D21 gas thryratrons in the remote circuit. :scratch2:

Magnetic deflection CRT.

.

Using electrostatic focus.

jr

I meant that, E'stat focus and magnetic deflection. :thmbsp:

I got my Flashmatic off eBay years ago, had to drive almost 1000 miles round trip in one day to get it. It had a bad CRT also, but a local collector gave me an excellent one.

It is the 21ALP4 - Thanks, I'd like to make it to the etf this year, but it'd be at least a two day drive.

I think the Philco mystery control radios used a 2A4 thyratron in the remote receiver.

That's a Tek 545A. I bought it way back in 2001, it came with the CA plug-in, but I have a 1A4 in there now. Around 2010 it lost the HV and I had to replace a capacitor, otherwise it's worked well since. But the triggering isn't as stable as it once was and it's slowly getting worse. I figure I'm going to eventually have to look into it.

This one was in Tucson on CL. I wonder how many of these there still are. Of all the TVs in my collection of ~40 sets, this was the one I wanted that was the hardest to locate. In comparison, my oldest is a 630TS, and I've had 3 of them, and I never particularly looked hard for one like I did for a Flashmatic.

I remember the Tek 545A :o.
There was one or two in my electronics class, they even worked :o

But, I do like mine better :P
https://imgur.com/a/U5mvTBT

But if you want REALLY OLD, I can pull out my Tek rm503/ room heater!

I did a few favors for a guy once; he never seemed to have any money to pay me back but one night the phone rang. He was at the auction barn and had "bought me something". That's how I ended up with my Flashmatic. It also had a dead crt. My thought is that the chassis was so good on those Zeniths that even a good tube could be run to death. I found a donor, I think a 21CBP4, came from a cheap Silvertone table model. To my eyes the fit is a little different up against the mask.

Those 50s and 60s Zenith B&W sets with power transformers were built like tanks, and ran for years.