[holmesuser01]

I started messing around with TV's in the mid 1960's. I was around 11 years old. I went to work in a real shop in 1975, and had a blast. Opened my own shop in 1979. I have fond memories of Sylvania tube chassis with lots of overheated resistors in the Y circuitry, lots of RCA flybacks, along with Maggotboxes. I remember replacing disc capacitors in the AF circuits on portable RCAs. We rebuilt alot of Motorola modules, and Zeniths... 9-160's and vertical modules, mostly, Oh yes, the early 70's RCA consoles with the MAH (or similar) modules where the module connectors would break if you looked at them wrong!!

I vividly remember taking in a full size Maggie entertainment center that took up all of the room on the sales floor, fixing it, and getting the aroma of hot urine allover the space. Seems that a cat used the set for its toilet. The owner couldn't be contacted right away, so we sat it outside and let it play for a day, until the stench went away. The set stayed with me for over 2 weeks before we got in touch with the owners, who then finally came and got it a few days later. During this time, I obsessed about it getting scratched, as other than the urine, the thing looked mint. I was so happy when it was gone, and the check cleared.

I never took an entertainment center into the shop again after that. I usually repaired them in the home, or pulled the chassis.