Zenith roundie story

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by mattdavala

Hi Guys,

Two years ago there was a mid 60's Zenith color roundie on ebay being sold in California. The seller did not know of its working condition.

I wasn't a AK member at that point, but I did read a post from you guys discussing this TV. I should have registerd and posted, but didn't. Well call me silly but I spent around 400 for freight to get it up here to Hillsboro Oregon. You guys were saying whoever was bidding on it probley has no idea what he's doing. Or something to that effect. I took a big gamble.

I have always wanted a roundie, and even though its a late model 1966 it still had a hand wired chassis. I knew the CRT and flyback worked before it was shipped, the owner taking photo's. Screen was all fuzz.

Got it home and took the back off the TV. VHF leads had fallen off the terminal. Attached them. Bingo. Beautiful picture!!!

Man did I luck out! The TV had sat unused in storage for 30 years, and the CRT was replaced the the previous owners uncle. Really low hours. CRT bias control is full counter-clockwise, and red screen control is maybe 1/4 of a turn before I got a red line.

Its been a daily viewer for two years now, and only had to replace the damper, HV rect, and regulator. I just put a picture of it on my Avartar. I have no other way to post pictures of it because pic size is over 800KB.

I'll see if I can look back in the old postings to find the discussion.

-
Davala

Congratulations. You were very fortunate to have found a TV that still works as well as yours seems to, even after being in storage for 30 years. I had a similar experience with a 1963 Zenith b&w console in 1969. It was a trash day find, seemed to be in good condition as far as the chassis and cabinet went, but someone had filched every one of the tubes (all but two, actually--the CRT and the 1J3 HV rectifier) and I had to replace them all. But it was worth it--the set worked extremely well after I put the last tube in, plugged the set in, connected an antenna, and turned the TV on. Beautiful, razor-sharp picture on every Cleveland network station. I was using just the attic antenna in my home (no cable in '69; we didn't get cable where I lived at that time until 1982), but I tried the set on rabbit ears and it worked just as well. Just goes to show how well Zenith TVs were made in the '60s.

The picture on your Zenith roundie looks good, but it doesn't quite fill the screen vertically. Have you tested the tubes since you've had the TV? The vertical osc/output tube might be a bit weak; however, until you can get a new tube, you can compensate for a weak tube by adjusting the vertical height and linearity controls (they interact with each other, so you may have to fiddle around a bit to find the proper settings); also, any adjustment of the vertical controls may and probably will have an effect on the convergence. A color bar and dot generator is required to properly reset screen convergence; I wouldn't try to do it by eye--not again, anyway, as I will explain. I tried that once with a 1964 Silvertone roundie I got from one of my neighbors in my hometown in 1970; even using the horizontal line produced when the service switch is in the "service" position, I couldn't get it right.

I don't know what vintage your set is, but since it's a roundie I'd personally spot it somewhere in the '60s. No matter. Zenith TVs of any vintage from the '60s through about 1980 are well-built sets, great performers and very reliable. By the mid-'80s or so, however, the quality of these TVs started to slide downhill and have been doing so ever since, especially since Gold Star bought out Zenith in the late '80s. Those "Zenith"-branded GS sets are terrible, in performance and reliability, so I've read in these forums. Also, the CRTs in almost all Zenith TVs made in the '90s are prone to early failure, mainly by shorting after about two years. The short takes out much if not all the video circuitry as well.

I have a Zenith 19" table model remote set in my bedroom, however, that seems to be the exception to the rule. That set still makes a beautiful picture, still has its original CRT and works very well, even though the TV was made in 1995, twelve years ago. The set has only about four actual years of usage, though, as it was my main watcher at my previous residence; when I moved to where I live now, a small one-bedroom apartment in a small town 35 miles east of Cleveland, the Zenith went in the bedroom and I bought a new (at the time, seven and a half years ago) RCA CTC-185 for the living room. However, the Zenith is now used mostly (almost exclusively) for cross-checking when I have trouble with my cable service, although I used the Zenith for about two weeks when the RCA was in for repairs. I test the Zenith every few weeks just to see if it works; it still works as well as when it was new.

Again, congratulations on finding a Zenith roundie that works as well as yours does. That's rare, as anything that's been sitting around idle for three decades is bound to have some problems when it is put back into use. Enjoy your set and for heaven's sake, hold on to it, as they don't make them like that anymore. It seems to me that it was well worth the $400 or so you spent to have it shipped to your place in Oregon from California. That set is living proof that, in Zenith's heyday, "the quality goes in before the name goes on."