[Jeffhs]

I don't know if anyone here can call what I have a collection, but I have two Zenith tube radios, K731 (AM/FM, 1959-60) and H511 (AM BC only, 1951). No room anymore for televisions (except my 1999 RCA XL-100, my main set, and a 1995 Zenith Sentry 2 in my bedroom) since I moved to a very small apartment nearly four years ago, but, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I used to collect old TVs like crazy back in the late '60s until 1972. I had to give that hobby up in mid-1972 when we moved (years before I moved to where I live now), however. The story on all that is in one of my previous posts, so will not be repeated here.

I enjoy looking at the pictures of the old sets you guys have, though, especially the Zeniths (I've had a passion for anything made by Zenith Radio Corporation for many years). Doug's 25MC32 looks like a set we used to have in the electronics lab at the high school I attended (must have been a very, very popular model in the early '60s; seems like they pop up everywhere in this forum).

I am amazed that the only problem with that Zenith of Doug's was a disconnected focus lead on the CRT socket. That's great when one can get a set working with little or no fiddling, or just minor repairs. Many, many perfectly good TVs, radios, stereos, etc. wind up on treelawns every week just because of small, easily repaired problems such as disconnected wires, bad tubes or, believe it or not, just because the set's cabinet doesn't match the decor of the owner's living room (the last often happens immediately after a remodeling job). Many of the sets I had back at my former home fell into the "only thing wrong with it was/is a bad tube" category; one or two new tubes and I had a working set (I had a white Admiral 21-inch table model like that, only I didn't have to do a thing to it; I just brought it home, lugged it down to the basement, hooked it up to the attic antenna, plugged it in--and two minutes later I was watching a crystal-clear picture from one of the Cleveland stations).

Of course, there were the sets that had major problems; these I used as parts sets. I had a Philco Microgrid 390 21-inch console that worked (again, right off the bat, as soon as it was powered up) for quite a while, until the CRT base came off in my hand one day as I was working on the set. I managed to get it going again by soldering (carefully, so as not to crack the glass) the CRT socket leads from the chassis to the wires extending from the now bare neck of the tube. This got the set working for a short while, but one of the leads eventually broke off, ruining the tube (but not before falling across one of the other connections and making a small spark; to this day I don't know why that didn't blow the set's own line fuse, or the house fuse on the line to which the set was connected).

I cannot begin to imagine how some of you manage to have so many TVs in your basements, garages, etc. My collection was small enough to fit in one half of my basement, but the lists of sets some of you have (I've seen most of them) look as if, as at least one person has said here, you could open an antique television museum.

I hate to think, however, of the job most of you are almost certain to have if or when you sell your homes. I have read of cases in which the former homeowner has left old TVs in the basement, etc. after he/she leaves, but, IMO, such a course of action would likely be impractical for most of you, given the size of your collections. I had to give up all but three of my sets (a 1964 RCA-built Silvertone color roundie and a 1961 Philco 19-inch B&W portable which eventually became my main set, not to mention a late-1960s Sharp 12-inch monochrome portable) when I moved the first time, over thirty years ago.