What Is Your Favorite Set?

[Electronic M]

Vts1134, sandy's story seemed to be set in the late 40's (I may have mis-read it) when owning a TV was not exactly cheap.

Now a days TV's are so common and cheap I can see someone doing that for the heck of it.

[zenith2134]

Alas, every collector has 1 or 2 or more sets playing the role of "shelf-queen" I know I do..even if they work/are restored, they just end up sitting and get used a few times per year for whatever reason.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Vts1134, sandy's story seemed to be set in the late 40's (I may have mis-read it) when owning a TV was not exactly cheap.

Now a days TV's are so common and cheap I can see someone doing that for the heck of it.

But it did happen! I remember reading about many installations 200-300 miles from the nearest TV station, where huge rhombic antennas were constructed, perhaps to just catch a few fleeting glimpses of TELEVISION, perhaps on a summer day! Not much ROI, but great fun!

Also, perhaps some set owners moved from cities where TV existed to areas without TV.

My wife grew up in a hilltop community* next door to the home of a local appliance dealer, who got TV signals from about 175 miles away, years before TV came to our town. As a child, she was not impressed, but years later, I added the little bakelite 7" Philco to my collection!

jr

Edit add: * About 1100 feet above average terrain.

[vts1134]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Vts1134, sandy's story seemed to be set in the late 40's (I may have mis-read it) when owning a TV was not exactly cheap.

Now a days TV's are so common and cheap I can see someone doing that for the heck of it.

When some one walks into my apartment and sees my TVs it immediately becomes the topic of conversation.
When some one walked into a home in the 40s and they see a TV I imagine it was WAY more of a big deal and the topic of conversation, even if it wasn't able to pick anything up. It was a status symbol as much as, or more than, a device for watching programming.

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Sandy, that tale adout the admiral is very amusing. I assume there were no local stations in that area back then as who would go to the trouble to haul that thing up a hill and set up a power suply if there was an easier way to get a station. If that area was a TV signal "dead zone" though why would they pay for a TV to watch static on?

Yeah, that place is the highest site around, they had power up there, & he had some sort of antenna. We didn't have TV around here til late '54 or so, that's one reason we rarely ever find VERY early sets here. I used to go up there in the '80s w/a JVC CX-500US-a 4.5" color set/cassette/radio combo, & could pick up all manner of stations that we didn't have on the local cable TV system. In fact, the "Master" antenna for the cable TV system was up there. People started going up there & using it for a "Lover's Lane", doing dope deals, shooting at the antennas, etc, & now you can't get up there anymore, its locked off.

[Komet]

Probably my favorite set is my 1974 Philips 26C365 "Mantegna", with multistandard chassis KM2. One of the most complex set ever built... A real monster, with three convergence panel, dozen of modules, miles of wiring...

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by vts1134

I've paid for TV's that I haven't even plugged in...quite a few actually .

So have I. And, I have many vacuum tube amplifiers that have not been plugged either.

[Sandy G]

Got all manner of TVs I don't play, radios, too, guns I have NO INTENTION of ever shooting....Its a SICKNESS...(grin)

[vts1134]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

....Its a SICKNESS...(grin)

That's what my wife tells me every day.

[Giulio Maiocco]

Hello, these are some of my favorite sets:

1950 Philips TX500: the first commercial TV Philips built with the current (until digital conversion crap) 625 lines standard. Yes, it's quite uncommon in Italy, only 6 are known to exist and it still works really good after a restoration. It uses a 12" round tube, quite similar to the American 12LP4, but built by Philips. I got this set with an almost NOS crt. It uses the smallest horizontal output tube produced (except for the UL44, but this was never common), a noval based affair called PL81

1954 Geloso GTV1002: the successor of the first produced chassis that must be considered a prototype, the GTV1001 from 1952 (I have this too), it was completely built in Milano, comprehensive of all the components, CRT excluded. Geloso had an agreement with RCA, so all the CRTs are produced in the USA, it uses the synchroguide circuit. Needless to say, I'm still amazed it still works as good.

1955 Radiomarelli RV102: based on a GE chassis with few modifications, the most noticeable being the equipment in the horizontal scanning section (it employs 2 6AV5GT and 2 6AX4GT), this TV must have been quite expensive in it's heydays as we had tubes tax and it has a gorgeous wood cabinet. Thanks to the help of my friend Don Lindsly, now it has a brand new 21EP4 CRT and the image produced is simply stunning. Too bad the a**hole seller packaged this TV really, and I mean really bad, so it sustained quite a lot of damages to the knobs and cabinet

Yes, as Sandy G says, this is pure SICKNESS. Just look at the photo called "laboratory"

Cheers

Giulio Maiocco

[Sandy G]

Giulio- "Laboratory"- I love it ! Just goes to show that a lot of us are basically frustrated Junior-League Mad Scientist Wannabes....(grin) Very nice collection there, Paisano !