[jshorva65]

Yes, I vaguely remember the last of the tube sets (hybrids, actually). Of the hybrids, I seem to remember working on more Sylvania D12's, D14's, etc. back in the early 80s when most people had an all-transistor model as their main set and an older hybrid in another room. There were lots of CTC48, 58 and 68 chassis in living rooms around here at that time and an old D12, D14 or CTC38 in the "den" of the same house.

I started doing paid radio repairs for neighbors at age 8 and was being paid for fixing B/W tv sets by age 12 and learning to service color sets about the same time. That was how I paid for my audio gear, record collection, social life and gear to use in a series of nameless garage bands up through the college years. A 4-year EE Tech degree led to a series of temp jobs with contract engineering firms, more temp jobs in industrial machine repair, etc. with a few jobs at tv/vcr/audio shops in between the higher-paying industrial ones. I always had a preference for tube gear and did my first antique radio restoration at age 12. I still have that Atwater Kent model 40 in my living room. Still worked great last time I plugged it in about 2 weeks ago. The antenna I'm using is an old "loop" that was in with some surplus stuff and about half the size I'd like to have, so I can only pull in a few nearby stations.

Most of my "roundie" experience was with Zenith sets. My grandparents had two 24MC32's and a 25NC33. One of their neighbors had a 24MC32 and one of my neighbors had a 26KC20. All of those sets eventually ended up with me as their original owners switched over to remote-controlled cable-ready sets and I eventually sold them to people who liked the nostalgic look of the round picture at times when I was short on cash. I had a Sylvania D01 in the "den" of my previous house. Sold that set on eBay 2 years ago to help pay down the credit card balances that were run up by the remodeling I did before moving in here plus the company startup costs. Most of my credit card debt is hardware store and lumber yard purchases.