A newby with a question

[suede]

So i just bought a 1957 zenith super royal with the swivel base in pristine exterior condition. When i turn it on it gets a "picture", well whatever you call the "snow".

So ive tried to hook its vhf hookup up to cable and to a dvd player (as there are no wires to connect to the uhf part, and it looks like none were ever there). Well the picture doesnt come in, just the snow with an occasional glimpse of a picture and no sound.

What should i try next? Opening up the back to see if there are uhf cables that have simply fallen into it or???

Sorry, im just getting into this. Any help would be appreciated. Id love to sit back and watch some old tv programs the way they were meant to be seen, on a tv of the era.

[DaveWM]

Snow is raster, no signal to modulate the crt beam.

you will need a 75-300 coax transformer to connect the cable to the vhf input on the tv.

select channel 3 or 4 and try adjusting the fine tuning which is prob part of the tuner, the outer ring. you may need to push in as you turn, however I am not familar with that model.

Now back to the TV a few questions, has it been gone over by someone that knows how to repair old tv's?

If not you should stop trying to use it until it has. You can do damage to the set, not to mention the possibe fire hazard. These old set can be repaired and work well, but there are parts in there that are 50 yrs old and long past the normal service life.

[Eric H]

Did you use an RF modulator with the DVD player?

My apologies if you already know this but you can't hook the composite output of a DVD player directly to the Antenna connector of the TV, same with the Cable if it's Digital or the Box doesn't have an RF output.

Otherwise what Dave says applies, try the fine tuning, try rocking the tuner back and forth, sometimes the contacts inside are dirty after 50 years.
Do you get any kind of noise from the speaker, static, white noise?

[DaveWM]

oh and the fact that you get snow is a good thing, that means you have a functioning high voltage/sweep/yoke. a screen pic of what you are seeing would be helpful. Just remember only for a very short time until you get it looked at. Worst case is you can burn up something that is hard to get, like the power transformer or flyback transformer. If those go its gets expensive. where you are now is pretty good, esp if you get sound.

If your handy and have some electronics background or are are just wanting to learn, the folks here can prob talk you thru it. It would be good if you have used a soldering iron before and have a basic understanding of electric circuits, but not a requirement. You can learn a lot by just reading.

Warning, old set have dangerous high voltages, enough to really cause you some serious bodily harm, even death, so if you are not willing to be EXTREMELY careful then its best to leave it to some one that has the knowlege and tools to fix your set. The sets cans store a signifgant charge for quite a while, and the CRT's have a very real implosion concern. Not trying to scare you off, but since we have no idea of your background or skill set its important to let you know what you are dealing with when you remove the back of a set.

[bgadow]

Your set most likely does not have a UHF tuner-they were optional back then and most people didn't pay extra to get them. Those are good sets with a well designed chassis. Once the bugs are worked out you'll have a nice performer.

[Phil Nelson]

The biggest chore in restoring an old TV is usually replacing capacitors, which you can read about here.

http://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm

If you browse through the restoration section of my website, you'll find other articles that give you a general idea what's involved in making old TVs work. It is not just a matter of replacing a tube or two, as it was when the TV was only a few years old.

If you have never worked on any old tube device, you might want to consider getting a cheap plastic 1950s tube radio and practicing on that. That will build your confidence and, if you do make a beginner's mistake, you won't risk frying your TV. The radio also won't have such high voltages. Safety first.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[suede]

Well I used one of the old coaxial pieces that screw into the line, then have the two prongs out the back to hook this up. Ive run a lot of old tv's before, just nothing this old by a good ten years. I tried rocking the tuner back and forth to minimal success. A slight improvement. I turned the sound all the way up and got a very faint noise.

Ive only played with tube radios before, basically just replacing the cloth wires, tubes that tested bad and whatnot. But im just replacing parts, i havent a clue as to what im doing or makes them actually work. Ive read up on it and.. 95% goes over my head.

I can send an email of some pics of it to someone if it would help out, as im fairly computer illiterate and dont know how to post them yet.

But ive an uncle who did repair tv's back in the late 60s and early 70's, he said hed help me with this. Just it would have to be several weeks as we dont live very close together.

[DaveWM]

sounds like your uncle is the way to go, good luck on it, keep us posted. I recommend you hold up on any more testing until he has a chance to go over it.

[Charlie]

Did you try adjusting the fine tuner? It's on the back of the set.... not on the front as others are. There's also a course fine tuner in there... just a hole... I think it's labeled as "bull's eye adjustment" with an arrow pointing to it. You can use a small flathead screw driver to adjust it. Before adjusting it, place the fine tuner knob in a middle of the road position. In case you have to put it back, remember how many times you turned it.

[bgadow]

It could be a loose or bad tube; if it were me I would start by jiggling the tubes in the video circuit to see if any difference was made. Could be a dirty tuner.