Early tv techs faced color challenge

[Adam]

I often wonder what it was like for guys repairing sets back then. As much as I like watching early color sets, I do prefer working on b/w, which is why my ctc-10 has been sitting for so long while I've fixed b/w sets all summer. And by the time they went to solid state I don't like to work on them at all, I really don't have much idea what I'm doing anymore, and I can get just as good of a picture if not better out of the tube sets. I've wondered if any of guys back then thought like I do and got out of tv repair in the mid-70s when everything was going solid state.
It's interesting to hear how people were so excited by color tv when it was new, if anything I've had the opposite experience, when I first got interested in tv's in the mid-80s I thought it was exciting and different to have b/w when everyone else had color. But when I get my ctc-10 going I'm going to get some early 60s color shows on dvd and try to recreate the experience of early color. Now if I could only get a few modulators that operated on different channels, then I could still get some use out of the remote, I find that I hardly ever use remotes anymore because I'm always running my sets either off a dvd player and rf modulator, vcr, or uhf converter.

[Captain Video]

Where I live it seems that ALL TV technicians from the old days became EXTREMELY happy with the fact that at some point there were no more tube type televisions to repair. I know a bunch of them, some are still in business, other are retired, and they all but one seem to absolutely despise tube televisions. It is rather frustrating and irritating, really. Since I know just a little of electronics, I need someone with knowledge to put my sets working again. Those who are collectors and/or restorers of these old beauties lives just very far from me - in other states, so I would have to ship sets to other parts of the country. The old techs near me all seem to think that tube TVs only gives troubles, and that SS are way easier to repair. In no way they want to repair any tube type TV set anymore. I think that they are ungrateful, because, in my understatement, the period on which TV techs made more money were the days of tube type televisions. According to a fellow vintage TV collector "those were the days when the TV techs made a lot of money, these sets needed frequent maintenance [ he said that the average 50's TV received the visit of the tech something like 5 times a year ], a guy repairing TVs could easily [ his words ] pay his house, educate his children and get a car" .

I just remember the conversation I had with the man who was the first Admiral authorized servicemen here in my city. It was years ago, when I began my collection, I had just bought my first antique TV, the 17 inch bakelite Admiral from 1953, and I was very excited. Talking to him was like getting a cold shower - with my clothes on. He scorned the brand, saying: "Admiral? It was something to ADMIRE when it worked right!" And then went with the same bla, bla, bla, that I would became very used to hear on the following years that "those sets are worthless the trouble to repair, etc" . Last question I made him had also a sad answer - It was a long time since he sent to the dump all promotional material from Admiral he had from the days he had his shop.

[RCAkid]

Captain Video wrote: The old techs near me all seem to think that tube TVs only gives troubles, and that SS are way easier to repair. In no way they want to repair any tube type TV set anymore.

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Well for what its worth, in my experience with modern, so called "tv tecnicians" only a very few these days even have the board/component level skills to even remotely repair a set. In the late 70's and 80's, you just changed the modules. Of course it was easier and of course they made more money on SS due to the designed simplicity of the module system. Tube sets took patience and solid troubleshooting skills to track down a problem therefore it took more time and money to locate that problem

Of course there were many techs who knew better and repaired the module but the system was simply designed to cut down on labor costs. Now of course, there is no repairing modern sets and they are just throw away at this point. They are such junk anyway, who would want to repair it?

Many of today's techs are no better than the old B/W tech that just swapped tubes. Not trying to offend anyone, that is just my opinion from my experience.

Of course, tube technology was not as reliable in reference to mean time between failures, but often it was just a tube and you moved on, continuing to enjoy the television set.

The few techs that do still know how to repair at the board level, don't want to touch a tube tv due to our very litigious (sp) society. I remember a tech that used to help me with my CTC-21 back in the 80's. He constantly told me to "get rid of that damn thing, it is nothing but trouble." He often got burned on repairing a tube set and after he repaired the failure, a short time later, something else failed, ususally a cap and he got griped out as if it was his fault. Ultimately, since he was trying to give good customer service, he would have to go back and pick up the set or chassis and find the problem. The customer didn't and often doesn't understand the reality of aging electronics and would gripe him out about having to pay for an additional repair. He often ended up making the repair either at a minimal cost or free of charge and ended up losing money on the repair. He finally quit accepting tube sets period and was so hacked off with the situation, he wouln't even talk about tube sets again.


Just my two cents