The new acquisitions

[drh4683]

Met kc8adu at the ftwayne hamfest and all worked out well. Got all the tvs I had wanted for so long. I got a total of 4 sets, 2 from rca2000. The other set I bought from kc8, a 1970 rca portable color.
The first set pictued is a 1968 FL490W w/ ctc27XAA. this is the one kc8 picked up at the thrift shop. thanks to Doug for finding it (not me). This one is basically as mint as they come. I was totally blown away with how original and clean it was. I dont think the back ever came off the set, all original tubes, sticker was still over the HV control, all good signs of never being touched. the 3.58 6GH8 had a short and a new 6KM6 solved the barkhausen effect on UHF. Also, the UHF tuner was stuck thanks to dried grease on the shaft. A very annoying procedure. I actually have the original factory stand for this model FL490W. It was a throw in at an estate sale with a TV I bought. I didnt want it but they basically forced me to take it. Then I noticed dwights set at this stand, and this was the one! Good thing I held on to it for the last 2 years! I would be willing to bet that this tv has less than 50 hours on it, nothing shows any signs of aging or abuse. Must have been a bedroom set or a set in some unused room in the house. This always has been my most favorite set by RCA. Thanks guys for helping me get one of these!!!

[drh4683]

I believe this is the set that was in the 1968 movie "the odd couple" as I remember the side veiw of this TV on one of these carts.

[drh4683]

the inside is factory perfect still

[kc8adu]

to stay that nice i bet it spent a lot of time in its box unused.
then only played on sunday by the little old lady that owned it before salvation army got it.

[Jeffhs]

The TV set in "The Odd Couple" (the 1968 movie that inspired the 1970s ABC-TV series of the same name) had a slightly different front-panel layout. I don't honestly believe it was an RCA, although I could be wrong. (How to tell it's an RCA if all anyone ever saw of the set in that movie was the side of it on the cart?)

BTW, reading Doug Harland's post made me wish I could go to hamfests again as I used to 25+ years ago. The Fort Wayne one is a bit too far for me, and I can't get to the ones here in Ohio (I am 47 years old, don't drive, haven't been outside Lake County, Ohio since I moved here four years ago from suburban Cleveland, and haven't been on a vacation in 25 years; to add insult to injury, I haven't been anywhere west of the state of Ohio in my entire life).

I don't get out much at all because of the foregoing (the fact that I don't drive and I live in a remote area some distance from Cleveland), but I would like to get to a hamfest once in a while. I've been a ham radio operator over 30 years; my call sign follows my name in my signature. Most of the people I knew when I was starting out in the hobby, and until about ten years ago, have since passed away or have given it up for one reason or another.

I'd like to meet KC8ADU one of these days. Ham radio really isn't fun for me anymore, since I really don't know anyone here in my town, or near here, who is active in the hobby (the one man here in town who is an amateur radio operator refuses to have anything to do with me, for some reason).

I also wish I could help out more on this forum than I have. The fact that I don't drive precludes my volunteering for AK's Pony Express; is there any other way I can be of help here? Please let me know. I live in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, 30 miles east of Cleveland, near Lake Erie. Thanks.

[Sandy G]

Jeff- Know what you mean. With my interest in Boatanchors, I sometimes feel like a stranger in a strange land. Most of the hams 'round here are 440 mHz guys, & know little if anything about Tooobs. Hammarcrafters ? Oh, yeah. My uncle's wife's brother had one o'them things. Never could get it to work right. Television? Fergit it. Why do you want an old crummy teeveeset ?!? You ain't right, boy. You must be nutz spendin' money on them old things-why, you can go right down here to the Wally-World & gitchoo a bran-spankin' new one fer a lot less than you gonna have in that ole thaing....But sometimes, it is fun to talk to an older ham & see his eyes light up-& then get misty-when I tell him about my R-390s, SP-600s etc.-Sandy G.

I can relate with you guys. I don't drive either, and whenever I mention my interest in vintage electronics, people's eyes either glaze over, or they just ask "why?" Although I am not quite old enough to fully remember the "golden age of tubes" (I'm 43), I always remember being fascinated at seeing the tubes glow whenever our TV repairman was trying to figure out what was wrong with our set and had the back off (our first color set was a '68-69 Zenith table model that seemed to go into withdrawl if it spent more than a couple of months without a visit from our local repairman!) I still think that the older tube (and some early solid state) sets are better at picking up the fringe signals than many of the newer peices of junk around now!

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by Sandy G
Jeff- Know what you mean. With my interest in Boatanchors, I sometimes feel like a stranger in a strange land. Most of the hams 'round here are 440 mHz guys, & know little if anything about Tooobs. Hammarcrafters ? Oh, yeah. My uncle's wife's brother had one o'them things. Never could get it to work right. Television? Fergit it. Why do you want an old crummy teeveeset ?!? You ain't right, boy. You must be nutz spendin' money on them old things-why, you can go right down here to the Wally-World & gitchoo a bran-spankin' new one fer a lot less than you gonna have in that ole thaing....But sometimes, it is fun to talk to an older ham & see his eyes light up-& then get misty-when I tell him about my R-390s, SP-600s etc.-Sandy G.

Sandy,

Thanks for the prompt reply. You are so right--many radio amateurs these days (and most of the newly licensed ones, especially young kids) know only solid state and very little about tube technology, so when you try and talk tubes to these folks they have little or no idea what you're talking about. I am a member of an amateur radio club in this area, but it's the same kind of thing--most of the members know very little about vacuum tubes, although there are a few fellows who remember the tube era and have been very helpful when I have asked for help with my old radios.

Do you have an amateur radio license? If so, what is your callsign, and on what bands/modes do you operate? Judging from your mentioning amateurs in your area who are active on 440 MHz (a very popular band for amateur television or ATV), I would guess you are involved in the hobby to some degree.

I have been a ham myself since the age of 16 in 1972, and been interested in electronics since the age of eight in 1964. Started out in ham radio with a Heathkit DX40 transmitter and Hallicrafters SX101A receiver, with a loaded vertical antenna. Have had several rigs and antennas since then; my present installation consists of an Icom IC-725 all-band SSB/CW transceiver feeding a Barker & Williamson AP-10 apartment portable antenna (I live on the first floor of a two-story apartment building, so cannot erect outside antennas as I had at my previous residence). The rig is in my bedroom on an old computer desk, with the data processing equipment (computer, printer, etc.) in the main part of my apartment.

Also, I would be interested in knowing where your town is. I know roughly where large cities like Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, etc. are located in Tennessee, but have never heard of your area until now.

BTW, I have two television sets in my apartment, both on cable. (One of them, my CTC185 XL-100, is shown in my avatar.) TV reception is terrible here, 45 miles from the nearest stations in Cleveland (the transmitters are located in a suburb southwest of town), without it--in fact, most folks here don't even bother with outdoor antennas anymore; the apartment building in which I live is wired for cable, and as for folks here in private homes, when their old TV antenna blows down or is destroyed by high wind, etc., they just get cable or a satellite dish.

I grant you, the programming on the major networks leaves a lot to be desired, but the classic TV networks on cable (TV Land, Nick at Nite, etc.), IMO, make up for that. Practically all the shows I grew up watching as a kid in the '60s/70s are on these networks (for example, I like watching those great old detective series like Columbo, McMillan and Wife, et al. as much now as I did when they were new on NBC-TV in the '70s. I also like the reruns of other '70s detective shows such as The Rockford Files, Kojak, Starsky and Hutch, etc.; they are all somewhere on cable, especially on the weekends--if I can't or do not for any reason want to watch them live, I just tape them on my VCR and watch them at my convenience).

Do you have cable TV where you live, and if so, what shows do you like watching? Are any of them on the major networks?

One more thing (as Peter Falk's Lt. Columbo used to say on the '70s detective series of the same name). You mentioned a store (I think) in your post named Wallyworld. I never heard of that one before. Is that a part of a chain of stores mainly located in the South, or were you thinking of Wal-Mart?



73 (best of regards),

[Jeffhs]

Doug (drh4683),

I was looking at one of the pictures you posted of the TVs you found at the Fort Wayne hamfest, and was particularly impressed with the looks of the RCA in the first picture. I agree; that set looks as if it saw very little if any use, and was well cared for. It's unusual to find old sets like that in such good condition (that one looked like new). I hope it works just as well.

BTW, that set brings back memories for me, as we had the monochrome version of the same TV in high school in the '70s. The control panel on yours looks exactly like our sets did (minus the color controls, of course). When I was in grade school in the '60s, we had RCA B&W sets with the big light-through channel selectors I would later come to like so well (as I do today) and a 21" picture. Our sets were hooked up to a master antenna system, which downconverted Cleveland's PBS channel from channel 25 to channel 4.

[drh4683]

thanks for the compliments jeff. This really is probably one of my most favorite sets. I didnt expect to have one this nice, but thats a huge +. It works great after some adjustments. I do have a b/w set that resembles this set barely. Its a remote set that I picked up earlier this year.

[Steve D.]

Just a comment to those fellows who don't drive. If it is due to some physical disability I totally understand. However if it's because you are able, but don't have a driver's license,
what's the problem. Take driving lessons and get the license. You don't have to buy a car but if a meet or hamfest occurs in your area you can borrow or rent one and attend. One of you is only 47 and hasn't left the county the other is 43. If I'm being insensitive here, because of personal issues you are dealing with, forgive me.

FWIW, in my case (I'm 43), it is due to a physical disabilty. I can understand where you are coming from if the person has no mobility/disability issues, though. I know a few of these people as well, and I can't figure out why they don't drive, but to each his own, I guess.