Estate Sale Finds In 2008!

[zenithfan1]

Beautiful picture and a great score! Good job! I really like the looks of that set.

[zenithfan1]

I just realized by reading the story on the set that this is the one I called about a week or two ago. The guy told me the same story about the set, he also said he was going to send pictures of it to my email and never did. I figured someone else got it. Oh well, at least it went into good hands. I was a big Bozo fan as a kid and thought it would be cool to have that tv. Could I at least come see it run sometime?? Thanks for saving it Doug.

[zenith2134]

Man oh man, DRH...that picture is nothing short of incredible. Analog is king in my book, too FWIW. Audio and Video. With the right gear, it blows away digital to my senses.

Again, you have a very special collection brewing, man! I always admire it when I see these posts.

[Findm-Keepm]

Doug,

Quite a collection you have now! What are you going to do with it later in life? Here's a tongue-in-cheek possibility:

Saturday, September 14, 2058 -

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry Announces Major Acquisition

The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry has completed an agreement to acquire nearly 700 20th century Television receivers (TVs) from noted Chicago TV collector and restorer Doug H******.
The significant acquisition includes consoles, portables, remotes, advertising items, all with extensive provenance documentation. The acquisition encompasses the major portion of Mr. H******’s massive collection of finely restored TVs dating to the 1950s. Noted items from the collection include over 350 TVs from Zenith, a major Chicago manufacturer of televisions..
"We are extremely pleased that the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry will be home to these important Chicago items," said Mr. Norris Wacker, curator of the Museum’s electronics collection.. "Many of the items in the H****** collection perfectly complement the Chicago focus of the museum, and the strengths of his collection—particularly in early color—will greatly expand on the existing strengths of the museum's other Chicago-related collections."
Mr. H****** said that he is "very pleased that these sets I've come to love so much will have a compatible home at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry," and added that he looks forward to the $34 million dollar wing the museum is adding to house the collection.
Mr. H******’s collection and restoration efforts have been featured for years on AudioKarma, an audiophile/videophile website beginning in 2003; and Mr. H******’s own website dating from the same era.


Just a joke, but what a fine collection you have!

Cheers,

[drh4683]

Found a rather unusual set today. Something Ive never ran across. Its a 1977 RCA CTC-89 with remote control. It was found at a sale at 916 Lafayette Ave in Aurora.
I considered not going to this sale as it was in a bad section of Aurora. Aurora has a pretty bad reputation for crime. Like most of Chicago suburbs, they continue to decline and nothing is being done to save whats left of them. Makes one wonder what the future holds. Thats another story though that I could go on and on about.
Considering I just recently survived a CRT implosion, I figured my luck was still strong so I went ahead to the sale.
I found this set sitting in a bedroom without a bed, with its original RCA hi-cart. Ive seen many of these odd hicarts around, but never saw what kind of TV would have been on them. So today I got the best of both worlds, the TV, and finding out the kind of set that went with the commonly found empty cart.
I never had a set like this before, and never saw one before either. Seem like late 70's RCAs rarely show up, especially with remote. Its a typical primative remote as you can see. Its even an ultrasonic, which must be one of the very last from RCA. The set was made in September of '77. So it just turned 31. It doesnt seem like this set should be over 30 years old! When you first look at it, you'd think its from the early-mid 80's.
I noticed it was a Color Trac too. I kind of considered not taking the set at first. Then I decided to power it up and see what it was all about. The remote had good batteries in it yet. Plugged it in and it turned on. Pressed the channel changer button and the dial drum rotates! That sold me on it, motorized varactor tuning. You never see those! What also sold me is that it had the original cart and the set is in mint condition. The picture blew me away too. THe picture is as good if not better than a zenith chromacolor II. It has 8 preset UHF channels. Opened up the control door, which is designed to be completely removable. Also to note, the long vertical control door is actually pot metal! None of the presets were tuned, the indicator bars were all the way to the end like it would have been after leaving the factory. The channel windows on the dial drum all had letters A-H for UHF too. No channel digits were ever installed.
I didnt know what to expect as far as the chassis was concerned. I bought it for half off, which was only 5 bucks. My kind of deal.
When I got home, I pulled the back off to dedust it. I was expecting some "modern" looking chassis layout, like a mediocre sized circuit board and nothing else. Well, I was pleasantly surprized with what i saw. A nice big chassis, like an XL-100 which plug in modules, but the chassis was a horizontal layout. The power supply and HV sections were still point to point wired. Even has a seperate remote control chassis, similar to that used in the 60's sets. So its not a cheaply made set. It must be one of last "good" ones though. Good meaning, circuit boards/modules mounted on a steel framed chassis, and individual pots mounted to the rear of the chassis. I really like this one, and would make a great everyday TV.

[zenith2134]

Excellent find. Found a CTC-89 curbside a couple of years back but the green was totally weak. It was a single-knob tuner with electronic presets also from '77. This is a delta gun set, correct?

[drh4683]

yes, it is a delta. Another reason why I like it!

[radiotvnut]

Nice find! And, getting the original remote and cart makes it super nice! That set brings back a memory of one a lady gave me years ago. I put a CRT in it and sold it. That was back when I sold every TV I fixed to fuel my antique radio habit. I'd almost forgotten about it until I saw your set.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by drh4683

The picture blew me away too. THe picture is as good if not better than a zenith chromacolor II. It has 8 preset UHF channels. Opened up the control door, which is designed to be completely removable. Also to note, the long vertical control door is actually pot metal! None of the presets were tuned, the indicator bars were all the way to the end like it would have been after leaving the factory. The channel windows on the dial drum all had letters A-H for UHF too. No channel digits were ever installed.
I didnt know what to expect as far as the chassis was concerned. I bought it for half off, which was only 5 bucks. My kind of deal.
When I got home, I pulled the back off to dedust it. I was expecting some "modern" looking chassis layout, like a mediocre sized circuit board and nothing else. Well, I was pleasantly surprized with what i saw. A nice big chassis, like an XL-100 which plug in modules, but the chassis was a horizontal layout. The power supply and HV sections were still point to point wired. Even has a seperate remote control chassis, similar to that used in the 60's sets. So its not a cheaply made set. It must be one of last "good" ones though. Good meaning, circuit boards/modules mounted on a steel framed chassis, and individual pots mounted to the rear of the chassis. I really like this one, and would make a great everyday TV.

I agree with you, Doug. I also have an XL-100, very late 1990s vintage (CTC185, bought new in 1999) that has only had two repairs in eight years...and even survived a fall off the stand about two weeks ago, the only "damage" being slight color distortion that I was able to clear up with a few passes of an old speaker magnet. I don't know to this day whether the auto-degausser in my set has failed or just what happened (the shadow mask was bent slightly when the set hit the floor, or...?), but I do know I was very surprised and pleased to have gotten rid of the color splotches so easily. (I had visions of a smashed CRT and other horrendous damage to the chassis.) They haven't returned; in fact, the TV's picture is every bit as good as it was when the set was new. The only thing I've noticed is that the picture is slightly out of focus for a few seconds, until the TV warms up. Once it's warm, the picture is beautiful.

The picture quality of XL-100s, as you noted, is every bit as good as (if not better than) Zenith sets. I would put my XL-100 up against a Zenith Sentry 2 any day of the year.

RCA/Thomson finally got the bugs with the RF tuner out of their newer TVs, beginning with the CTC203 chassis (so I've read here), by mounting the tuner separately from the rest of the set. The on-board tuner in those late-'80s-'90s RCAs was a bad idea from the beginning; I can't help wondering why it took them so long to get the message and change the design.

[zenithfan1]

Great find Doug! I've never seen one of those before either. Very nice, well made design. That thing will last for many years to come. And the ultrasonic remote, makes it an unbelievable deal. You are having a streak of good luck!

[Chad Hauris]

Very nice set! I have noticed too that on almost every TV/VCR with a varactor tuner I have seen, the UHF presets/numbers are not set up. Either people were using cable boxes or just did not watch UHF. Very rarely, some of the presets are set to local UHF channels but often the numbers are still not installed.

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by drh4683

THe picture is as good if not better than a zenith chromacolor II.

Blasphemy.

Hate to be off-topic Doug, yet hardly worth a new thread...

Did you get the e-mail I sent from my work? I'd really like to see some of the cleaned-up & working pictures of that Zenith set I gave you, as I'm sure other AK'ers would too.

[sampson159]

i will post pics of my zenith chromacolor 25 inch set and my nib xl100.i will let ak ers make the decision.i had forgotten how good those rca sets really were until i got this from that auction.very close yet different.i cant make up my mind.you guys can!

[batterymaker]

Y'know, Doug, I'm jealous. When I was closer to your age, I used to go to sales, auctions and the like, just like you're doing.


But then I got married.

And had a kid.


Now...


Ain't got no money.

Ain't got no space.

Ain't got no time...


So keep on doing those sets. I'm living through your glories...LOL!

[drh4683]

Went to 6 estate sales yesterday. Found two sets, one of them was an absolute surprize of a find.

First sale I went to was at 619 Huber Ln, in Glenview. Typical late 60's two story house. Green shag carpeting in the living room must have been 6" in length. Never seen shag carpet that extreme before. Even up the stairs!
Anyway, I found this nice 1961 Zenith portable in a blue steel cabinet. It had this orange tag that reads "Not working". I figured it couldn't be. So I plugged it in and it really didn't work! Every so often you might run into a non working zenith, but its a rare occurance. This one has no HV. It also has this unusual completely not ergonomic 3 pointed tuning dial. Obviously styling supperceeded engineering in this case. It does look cool though. It was marked $1.00. It was half off, so $.50 takes it home! My kind of deal!

The 3rd sale brought me down to Blue Island, IL at 2318 Krueger Ave. It was a typical 1950's brick ranch. Very typical type of home you find throughout the chicagoland suburbs. When I walked in, there was nothing to old as far as TV's. Had the usual new TV on the old TV cart in the living room. Both bedrooms had "newer" sets. So I go down to the basement as a last hope. As I turned at the base of the stairs I saw for a split second what appeared to be the side of a large TV on a TV cart. Two ladies stepped right in front of it so it blocked my view. I quickly went over to it and when I saw it, I was completely stunned. Finally, I found one of my "must have" sets! Its a 1969 Zenith 25" steel cabinet concentric tuning set. Ive been looking for one of these for years. It even had the original gusdorf cart. I finally found the TV, not the empty cart!!!!!
It was sitting in the basement exactly as you see it pictured. I didnt have my good camera with me, so I had to use my motorola i-580 cell phone to take the pics. The set was marked at $15.00, but anything at this sale under $20 was half off. So I got it for $7.50.
There were some 20+ women at this sale, so I didn't have any help at all to move the set. I didn't have my appliance cart with me either. (I was unprepaired yesterday, but thats when you find the sets...). I waited around for a few minutes expecting someone who was capable of helping me move this thing out of the basement. Well, I gave up and I just informed everyone I was going to be moving the set and to stay clear. I bear hugged this tank of a set and climbed it up the stairs vertically so I could get through the door. Stupid idiots still came to the basement door and down the stairs when I was on my way up, totally in my way acting like "oh, what do I do". As soon as I got up the stairs I immediately had to set it down. My heart rate was pretty intense. Picked it back up and brought it out to the truck. You know how it is. you pick up a huge TV by yourself and everyone has to throw in their .02 cents "wow, that looks heavy" etc. I got the set outside without a scratch. This set is like new still. Just a little dusty.

I have not plugged it in yet. So i don't know what Im in for, but looking through the back, its completely original. Looks like another survivor that missed the hack tech repairs and not missing the back cover screws! Its a model Z4519W with the 16Z8C50 chassis. I'll do a slow power up on it and see what happens. I never had one of these chassis before. I'll post better pics when its all tuned up. Whats even better is that there is a TV tag on the back from where it was purchased and the day it was purchased! I love this type of stuff when its still on the TV. It reads "Burr Oak TV", "First in Blue Island in Sales and Service" Written on this tag in pen was "Purchased new 1-25-69, 2yr CRT, 1yr Parts, 90 day war." I looked with my flashlight on the inside to find the date stamp on the side of the cabinet. It was there, dated 1-7-69. The set was sold just a little more than two weeks after it was built. Didn't take long!

These are so dang hard to find, any 25" zenith table set from the 60's or early 70's. Its been a pretty dry summer for tube color sets at the estates. So this was a nice way to give me some more confidence that some are still out there!