Oddball 13" Zenith and other '80's TV's

[Jeffhs]

I've had an interest in Zenith TVs, stereos, audio, anything Zenith for years, and still do (had a large collection of Zenith TVs at one point and still collect Zenith radios, not to mention reading anything I can get my hands on pertaining to Zenith entertainment gear), but until now I never knew they had an "omni electronic tuning" color set. Was the electronic tuning for UHF only or did that tuning knob work for VHF as well? If the latter, this TV is indeed unusual, as the only other type of televisions that had continuous all-channel tuning at that time were (and still are) the small 5" offshore-built battery-AC portables with AM-FM radio. I'd keep it, if only for the novelty of the tuning system.

BTW, I agree that TVs, like everything else, have come down drastically in price these days. Today, more than ever, or so it seems, it isn't practical to have a new TV repaired once it is out of warranty; the repairs would cost more than the set sold for when it was new, except in the case of huge flat screens that sell for thousands of dollars. The latter are worth repairing perhaps once or twice out of warranty, but after that, considering depreciation and other factors, the sets wouldn't be worth repairing a third time. Then again, maybe the very large flat screens are made using quality components, such as Nichicon capacitors, that do not fail after just a year or two, so they will easily last five years or so. You get what you pay for.

Your comment regarding the person who turned down a 1993 RCA console color TV made me wonder if the person realized the set will not work without either cable or a converter box. My best guess is that person, if they had accepted the TV, would have been very disappointed when they found out the set does not work on an antenna. Even today, almost five years after the DTV transition, there are still people who just don't understand why their old CRT TV doesn't work unless it is connected to a converter box or to cable. The "needy" person you mentioned seems to fall squarely into that category.