Picked up another one.....

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by mkoser

I wonder, did they ever put that "instant on" feature in any tubed radios?

Battery filament tube radios would come on very quickly, and could be thought of as "instant on". I have a clock radio that has a battery tube set that "docks" into the clock part. The tubes were ones like 1R5, 1T4, 3S4 and such.

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by RetroHacker

As far as collectible value, I doubt it has any. These sets are extremely common. And they almost always work. But they're wonderful televisions, and have a very nice picture.

Yeah, those 12" B&W Zenith hybrids are pretty common, and they made them for several years at that. They weren't very expensive when new, but they do seem to be pretty nice performers-- better than, say, the GE SF-chassis hybrid sets from the same era (though I think the GE sets were made in USA, which, come to think of it, would have been kinda odd for a 70's-era low-end B&W set).

[Chad Hauris]

Here is a video I made of a 12" 5-tube Zenith hybrid showing the chassis and tubes. I still need to hook it up to a good signal source and check tuner performance...wasn't able to get very good reception on rabbit ears. I said on the video I thought it was made in Korea but actually it's Taiwan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_rIG19SUa0

The set uses completely point-to-point wiring on terminal strips except for the solid state modules. It doesn't use the solder cone terminals like the American Zenith sets.

A few tube radios did have the instant on feature, using the diode like in the TVs...I have a Westinghouse FM-only set from the 60's which does.

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by Old1625

The stuff from Taiwan is still OK; it's the stuff from China ya gotta watch out for.

YEP! got that right!!!
Oh, and Chad, that video is cool. Thanks for sharing!

[compucat]

Originally Posted by mkoser

I guess it does look like everyone has one of these sets.

Thanks again,

matt k.

I don't have one but after reading this thread, I might have to start looking for one. My first TV was a 12" Zenith and I have loved Zenith sets ever since. I don't know why but I have always had a thing for 12" black and white TVs.

[bgadow]

I'm not so sure I don't have one of these, too! Been so long I can't remember what it looks like, probably woodgrain. You could build quite a collection of these 12 inchers in not too much space. Not much money, either. With some ingenuity you could have every cable channel on at the same time!

[Jeffhs]

Another way the instant-on feature was often damaged: Lightning strikes near the power line often shorted the instant-on diode across the switch, locking the latter on; the only way to turn the TV off in this case would be to pull the plug. Many times set owners would actually remove the shorted diode from the switch if they knew what they were doing and where to look (or had a TV service person do it the next time the set was in the shop for repairs), but most of the time, if the set still worked with the diode shorted, most folks just left it alone and turned the TV on and off either by plugging it into an outlet controlled by a wall switch or else simply pulling the plug when the set was not in use.

I never cared for instant-on because of the very nature of the feature--it kept the tubes warm all the time, which actually was a waste of energy; a real irony considering that sets with instant-on were made in the 1970s, during the energy crisis when we were supposed to be saving energy every way we could, rather than wasting it. A point was also made in another post that these always-on tubes were also burning up the tubes' cathodes for no reason that made sense when they were not in use, which could (and almost certainly did) actually shorten the lives of the tubes in the long run. Today's solid-state TVs with remote control and electronic tuning, however, are not completely off when the switch is turned off, either. The CRT or the TV chassis itself are not drawing any current because they are off, of course, but the remote receiver, not to mention the backup supply for the channel memory, are still on and drawing current when the TV power switch is off. Not much (probably well under one watt), but nevertheless the set still draws power. I read an article on the Internet some time ago about so-called "phantom electronics" that are not really off when the switch is in the off position; it's the same thing--there's always a small amount of current going to such systems as memory backups and the like (when backup batteries are not used). Many if not most devices (such as TV sets) with volatile memory systems either have backup batteries or a keep-alive voltage constantly charging a capacitor; the latter is supposed to maintain channel settings and so forth for a certain amount of time after a power outage. Bear in mind, however, that this time frame is usually very small, on the order of a half-hour at most; it is usually much shorter, especially in battery-powered devices. if the capacitor holding the backup voltage is allowed to discharge, the system to which it is connected will immediately lose all its stored information. I have an All for One universal remote control with such an arrangement; if one waits too long before changing the batteries (I think the limit on mine is ten minutes), the backup voltage will disappear and the remote will revert to its default state, losing all information previously set by the user (channel scan lists, macro settings and the like).

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by mkoser

I wonder, did they ever put that "instant on" feature in any tubed radios?

I have collected radios for a long time, and never heard of one with "instant on." I suppose many radios were solid state by the time this feature came along with TVs. Radios seem to come up faster than TVs, anyway.

Phil Nelson

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by bgadow

I'm not so sure I don't have one of these, too! Been so long I can't remember what it looks like, probably woodgrain. You could build quite a collection of these 12 inchers in not too much space. Not much money, either. With some ingenuity you could have every cable channel on at the same time!

LOL! I did that back in the '90s with a whole bunch of 12 inch sets. At the time that is about all I collected, I didn't have much money and lived with my parents then. My mom hated these things but was nice enough to loan me money when I needed it. I started driving in '98 and then I drove her nuts bringing sh..stuff home! By that time I also was making my own money fixing and selling lawnmowers that I picked up in the garbage. Good times then.....

[Spinning Head]

My sister got one of those hybrid Zeniths for Christmas in '74 or ’75. She brought it back from college Christmas of '83 broken. I was a freshman in high school at the time, and had started tearing apart TVs. But this was the first set I fixed. My sister was disappointed, as she had been hoping for a new color set. As I recall it was the video output transistor, which was socketed. I substituted a part from Radio Shack. It worked for a good ten years after that, and then the video failed again. I guess the part wasn't quite a good sub. I'm not sure what happened to the set after that. Last I saw it was in a closet at my parents. I think my mom may was planning on giving it to charity, but who knows it might still be there. I know for sure it wasn’t instant on.

[Keefla]

as far as i know the set i own was never serviced. it was a bedroom set so it really didnt get much use but still going 33 years and not needing service is pretty impressive, and the set still works 100% like new, still doesnt see too much use either as i only have 1 set ( the sylvania) hooked up in my apartment in my bedroom. i do hook the zenith up now and then to try it out. last time i used it was actually this past christmas to watch the national lampoon christmass vacation movie on when tbs aired it.

[bgadow]

I was just remembering a story from elementary school...the topic was lightning and its effects, and one girl in the class mentioned that after a strike their set wouldn't turn off and they had tp unplug it. That was pretty spooky to me back then-Ikinda pictured it holding a charge that kept it going. Only much later did I learn.

When the fuel crisis hit, instant-on was outlawed, or close to. Not much of a issue as solid state had about taken over anyway.

[Jeffhs]

I have a Zenith Sentry 2 19" TV that has never been serviced for anything in the nearly 13 years I've owned it, but the set hasn't seen much use in the last eight years either (it was my main set from 1995-1999, then when I moved to my apartment I bought a new RCA and put the Zenith in my bedroom; I haven't used the latter much since '99 except to cross-check when I have cable trouble, and to test it once in a while). Still makes an excellent picture on cable. I expect to have this set, and my RCA CTC185 in the living room (which has had only one repair in the last eight years, and that only to fix a broken antenna connector) when the analog TV stations sign off and all TV goes digital next year; the latter set also makes a great picture after the onboard tuner issues were resolved, as I'm sure the tech who repaired the antenna connector must have done.

For Kurt E.: Your sister's Zenith TV gave her excellent service if it has only had one part replaced in 18 years. If she wants to use the set yet some time in the future, go ahead and replace the video output transistor again; it will be worth it. Zenith was still the original Zenith Radio Corporation based in Chicago in the 1970s, so their TVs were still fairly good quality, although a lot of their small b&w portables (and all their radios, before they went out of the radio business) were being made in Taiwan or Korea by 1976 or so; I had a Zenith 12" b&w portable, bought new in 1978, that lasted 22 years and still was working great--original CRT and not a bit of service done on it. The Zenith brand didn't turn into junk until Korea's LG Electronics bought them out in the nineties.