[Jeffhs]

Big Dave,

You need not have all the channel strips in the tuner if you only use the set on cable (as you discovered). In fact, for a set such as yours running on a cable box, all you really need is one strip, for the output channel of your cable converter. As a matter of fact, back in the 1950s and early 60s, some people would remove all the unused channel strips from a turret tuner, leaving only the strips for their own area's local channels. I read of this in an old DIY TV repair book years ago. It was also mentioned that this dodge would save wear and tear on the tuner, as it would be possible to arrange the strips in numerical order for the channels in one's local area. One could then switch instantly from one network station to the next, without having to flip through unused channel positions. (Great for sets with remote or front panel power tuning.)

Another trick was to set your TV's fine tuner to midrange, then set the oscillator slugs in the channel strips for a properly tuned picture and sound. This way, one could flip from one channel to another without having to adjust the fine tuning. Of course, normal oscillator drift over time would require the set owner to readjust the slugs, which could be why this dodge never really caught on; most people found it far easier to readjust the fine tuning when changing channels. The only advantage I can see to presetting the oscillator slugs would be, again, for sets with remote power tuning, so the set owner would not have to get up and manually adjust the fine-tuning control when changing channels with the remote.