Zenith 19" BW - 1977 found

[AlanInSitges]

My grandparents, who lived way out in the boonies in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, had one of these. Color hurt their eyes, according to them, so they stayed with B&W.

They had quite a memorable setup, at least to a 12-year-old who spent the summer out there. They lived in a valley, and had two different antennas on top of two different mountains, connected by 450-ohm open ladder line. One got the Chattanooga station, and the other was a huge yagi that picked up a couple of stations from Knoxville. I don't know for sure how far away the antennas were from the house but do remember going with my uncle in the jeep up to clear brush from the big one during one of my visits, and it must have been a mile or more.

Evidently at some point one of the antennas had been struck by lightning and ruined their old TV, so the antennas were connected to a lightning arrester next to the house, then to a matching transformer, then regular twin lead ran inside the house where it ended in two clothespins. You never, ever, ever, left those clothespins connected to the antenna terminals (grandma had a switch to make sure the kids didn't forget) unless you were watching the TV, and there was always discussion of the weather before doing so. I can remember a couple of times where phone calls were made up the valley - on a party line! - to ask if it looked like a storm was coming before the TV could be hooked up.

Good times.