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I saw one of those later KTV B&W prison TV's with electronic tuning on ebay, for an insane price. If I could find one priced at what it should be, I'd pick it up just for the novelty of it. And, don't forget those early '80's Zenith 12" and 19" B&W sets that had a digital keypad tuner with red LED readout. I've only seen two such sets in person. One was a 12" set in perfect condition for $25 at a yard sale, back around '90-'91. Since I wasn't into collecting TV's at the time and since $25 was about the most I could have gotten for it, I left it there. Then, around 2000-01, a TV shop gave me the 19" version. It had been in an accident and suffered a broken CRT neck and busted CRT socket; so, that one got junked. Now, I realize that I should have bought that little 12" set and tracked down a CRT for the 19". I know these are not high dollar sets; but, they don't turn up that often.
The last consumer grade 12" B&W sets I remember seeing were from the mid '90's, cost $39.99, had standard rotary tuners, were very cheaply made, ran off a 12V wall wart, and carried the "Action" brand.
I still see those last run 5" sets all over the place. Not long before the DTV transition, one of the local dollar stores had a ton of them for $14.99/each. They are cheap Chinese junk; but, are still interesting to play around with. And, they were the last B&W sets sold over here. What's comical is that I still see these being sold by ignorant sellers who think they are worth $25-$30 used.
One day, I'm going to find the perfect "non collectable" AC/DC 12" B&W and I'm going to mount the guts out of a DTV converter inside the TV. After making the correct electrical connections, I'll add switches to the outside of the TV in order to control the DTV tuner. Then, I'll have my "bad weather / power outage" TV and won't have the clutter of a seperate box.
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