Hey fellow old set freaks.....time for the ball drop!

[Kamakiri]

We've always done this in years past.....make sure to grab your digi cam and snap a pic of the ball drop on your favorite old set

Mine this year (so far) will be the '54 Motorola that I got from Dwight, and had freshened up through Ed (Roundscreen).

[Big Dave]

If I don't forget, I think I'll do something wierd, as in group shot.

[Pete Deksnis]

Tim, good idea, plus I'll save ten bucks. Could take the train in but it's raining and besides for the first time in 39 years I can shoot the ball on a Merrill.

[rca2000]

And maybe, I'll put the '61 Zenith 16g27 19" BW on top and get a shot of BOTH of them, at 12:00.

I did this on the Roundie 2 years ago, and last year. I meant to do it on the 2000, but it is not up to par... intermittent video, and color, and the Channel knob broke off(%$$#@##$!~!!!)... SO, back to the ol' Zenith.

I'll try to get some pix's. for ya'

[NowhereMan 1966]

Getting ready, tonite's victim, an antique 1982 Zenith System3, my main TV set since 1983.

[rca2000]

This year the pictures did NOT turn out well, but I did as good as I could::

[Pete Deksnis]

Okay, here's my entry... ABC did the broadcast in HD this year. There's a one-or-so second delay putting the HD signal behind the analog, which is why the two shots are never identical. I'm happy with the color match between junior on the left and the old guy on the right... speaking of 'old' there's a shot of the setup with an old fart between those two beauties!

[NowhereMan 1966]

OK, the pics aint the greatest, I did one in flash to show the set itself much better.

[vintagecollect]

Those are terrific Pictures Pete, The color fidelity of a Merril is absolutely OUTSTADING, nearly identical.

I really hope someone finds a barn full of 15" GOOD color crts!!!

[Jonathan]

Those pictures are sweet! I really wish I had a set working but I didn't. I should have taken a pic on my working 5-303W. Moriah seem like she was turned on my Ryan Seacrest... Too bad I wasn't in his place last night.

Jonathan

[Big Dave]

I fell asleep and missed the ball drop. Next year.

[Eric H]

I was to lazy to hook up any sets this year.

I stopped the DVD of "A Night at the Opera" long enough to watch the ball drop and was surprised to see Dick Clark! I didn't know he was well enough to make it.

[kx250rider]

This is a '52 Kaye-Halbert Cambridge with a 253 chassis... This one has the weird 20" 20CP4 tube, not a 21". Annually since I got this Kaye-Halbert when I was 10, I have had it on for at least a few minutes of each Rose Parade.... Here it is this year in the photo. Missed one year due to a power failure from the Pico-Santa Monica Earthquake on New Years Morning in '80, but other wise the Kaye-Halbert has never failed to show the parade... Matter of fact I don't even watch the parade; it's just a goofy tradition with me to turn that TV on each year. Today it is threatening to have a vertical problem, so I will get to it before New Years Day '07

*Digital cameras, as we know, have a really rough time taking a CRT image

Charles

[Dave S]

I decided to bring the "good" Predicta home from work to run at our New Year's Day party. (In a desperate attempt to stay married, I only have one set, a Pilot 3" in the living room at home!) I figured our guests might enjoy seeing it (or maybe I'd find out who my real friends were if anybody saw it and started edging for the door.)

The "good" Predicta is the only set I've ever paid money to have professionally rebuilt from the ground up. Only problem was, I did this about six years ago and never actually got around to putting all the innards back together or firing it up. So there I was on New Year's eve, after the ball had dropped, puzzling over the connections (Yes, of course I drew copious diagrams and took lots of photos, but of course they all ended up "somewere else".) I decided to do a little web research, and on the way, I stopped in here and saw Tim's post. Made me feel better right away: I was really worried that I would be the only one in the world weird enough to be worrying about old TVs at particular moment (there were over 150 similarly crazy people here at the time!) and I saw that several of you had already posted your photos.

I found what I needed and went back downstairs and finished putting the set back together. Then while my daughter and I were watching the final few minutes of Dick Clark on it, I grabbed my camera to snap a photo. When I turned around, here's what I saw (see photo below).

Oh, well, I think it came with the famous "30 days or 30 minutes, whichever comes first" guarantee anyway! (Turns out the orginal integrators are all still in there and I suspect one is the likely culprit.) First project of 2006: back to the bench with this one.

Happy New Year!
--Dave

[kx250rider]

That is frustrating, especially when people are watching. It should be pretty easy to troubleshoot though.

Charles