Estate Sale Finds In 2008!

[kx250rider]

A friend of mine found a CTC-16 combo at an estate sale in Encino, CA. It's in a provincial cabinet, mint condition, but has a newer Kenwood turntable in it. I haven't gone to see it in person, but I may go today or tomorrow. The estate liquidator thinks it's worth $1000s, but I put in an offer of $20 through my friend who was there. Liquidator is going to talk to the estate owner, who evidently wants the house empty post-haste. I have the feeling I'll get it for $20

Charles

[Gianni]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

I have a GE set which uses a 5-tube chassis...can't remember what the tube numbers are, but the functions are:
1. Horiz output & damper
2. Vertical output, oscillator, and feedback diode
3. Video output and AGC keying
4. 1st and 2nd IF
5. Sound detector and output
This set does not have a seperate horizontal oscillator tube or transistor that I can see...somehow it uses feedback off the flyback to make the oscillator work.

I think in the set in question here it uses a transistor for the horiz osc and it probably has the IC sound discriminator and transistor audio output.

...What about:
- tuner,
- synchronisme separator ( only a diode? )
- sound intermediate frequency,
- extra hight voltage rectifier ( a valve? )

I have the schematic diagram of a 12 tubes Irradio set from the 50s who has a PL81 pentode as an auto-oscillator horizontal final stage.

[cfranz]

Wow. You gotta take me with you. I'm over in Oak Park. You can keep the TVs. I'm just looking for stereo and albums.

[Chad Hauris]

Originally Posted by Gianni

...What about:
- tuner,
- synchronisme separator ( only a diode? )
- sound intermediate frequency,
- extra hight voltage rectifier ( a valve? )

I have the schematic diagram of a 12 tubes Irradio set from the 50s who has a PL81 pentode as an auto-oscillator horizontal final stage.

Gianni, yes I think I forgot these functions! The tuners are completely transistorized. I think the sync separator is in the same tube as the AGC keying and video output. I'm not sure what the sound IF is...may be a transistor stage but will double check. The HV rectifier actually is another tube.

[Gianni]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

Gianni, yes I think I forgot these functions! The tuners are completely transistorized. I think the sync separator is in the same tube as the AGC keying and video output. I'm not sure what the sound IF is...may be a transistor stage but will double check. The HV rectifier actually is another tube.

Thank you!

[drh4683]

There were 5 sales I went to today. Found three sets, all at the same house at 1915 Buckingham Ave in Westchester. Entered the house at the back door and first place was to the basement. I heard a TV playing and it was a '74 RCA mural TV (hotel set) had the built in AM FM radio. Same exact TV I had growing up, except this one is mint. Ours saw tons of use my brother and I beat it up over the years as kids. So it was nice to get another one in nice shape to see what ours used to look like.
Looked around and then saw a very interesting set with the doors open! Its a 1971 GE table color set! Even had its original factory cart. Never seen a table set with swing out doors. This set is like new. Just needed a good dusting. Ironically, this one appears to have never been serviced, just like the cheapy b/w set I picked up last week. Didnt expect to start finding GE TVs all of a sudden! These are as rare as the motorola's.
This set reminds me of a big portacolor. Its all plastic cabinet with some type of composite plastic swing open doors. Needs some work, but the CRT is bright so I have something to work with. My first GE tube type color set that is not a portacolor! Like any GE TV its a cheap set, but this must have been a "high end" cheap set since it has the gaudy cabinet, light up dials and light up buttons on the control panel. Pretty neat. Full of compactrons inside. Still yet to pull the back off though.

Went upstairs and the finds were not over yet. In the living room was this 1961 space command 400. The TV still worked, still hooked up to the antenna and still plugged in! The remote chassis was off, so the tubes didnt boil away. The TV still worked, and good! Its hard to believe a TV to still be "in use" for almost 50 years. Obvioulsy it saw little use, but the fact that it was still in the front room hooked up! Didnt see any other TVs upstairs. There must have been another set they used more frequently.

Heres some interesting facts though. The man that lived in this house (Edward Bratyanski) worked for Hotpoint Corp. (originally a chicago based appliance manufacturer) as a quality control inspector at the plant on the north side of chicago. There was a large b/w picture on the wall in the basement of his 25th anniversary of employment party held at the plant on February 2, 1960! So he started working for Hotpoint in 1935! His wife Mary recently passed. There was alot of hotpoint stuff in the house as well as GE. Im guessing the GE TV was some kind of deal or gift since he worked for hotpoint. Im amazed how one of these sets survived after all these years. It probably had some kind of senimental value, so it survived. Just so you know, Hotpoint was its own company until 1967. thats when GE bought them.

[radiotvnut]

Looks like you had a good "TV day" as well. Did you by chance buy that record player sitting next to the RCA?

[Carmine]

Wow, I hope 2008 will be as good (or better) as 2007 for you. This Saturday was my first luck at estate sales in a long stretch.

That house looks like it could be down the street from me! It seems that like Detroit suburbs, Chicago has a lot of brick houses. But in all my travels through the Chicago area, the houses seem to have extra tall foundations (i.e. at least twice the number of steps up to the front door) with very few garages. This style of 1-2 steps up and detached garage in the back yard is by far the most common in the 50s-60s vintage Detroit suburbs. However, like most other good things from that era it seems to have gone out of fashion and the "new" style appears to be a 25' driveway and attached garage. The great thing about this is how you get front-row seats to all your neighbor's garage junk, and whatever eyesore cheap car they drive. 1/3 of the front of your house is a door for your car! Home aesthetics are apparently now measured in the number of cheesy-fake peaks you have on your castle roof.

Back to the TVs...

Wow that GE is ugly, and I'm pretty tolerant of gaudy cabinets, but wow. Good that you saved it, 'cause I doubt many survive.

Was that Zenith hooked up to the VCR on the top?

[zenithfan1]

That is the nicest SC 400 B/W I've ever seen.

[bgadow]

Great to see that GE! I'm assuming it's the series string chasss, like C2 or CE? Somebody on here has (or had) a very similar set, with the doors and everything, except it was a very early GE solid state set from about '72.

Man, I really wish we had sales like that around here. I am starting to see a few advertised but they are all newer houses, people who moved here to retire. Not much in the way of old electronics to be found like that.

[drh4683]

I picked this RCA table set that was on craigslist. It was on the way home from work in Hillside so it worked out well. Surprisingly, someone else called who really wanted it but it was after I called to claim it. the man who owned the set was the original owner, immigrated to the US from Poland in 1970. He bought it after he got married in 1975. He was right, the tag on the back says February, 1975. Model FT505W. Actually the set is in really nice shape. I thought it would be a bit banged up, but not at all. Just dusty. He said he never had it serviced, always worked great. Thus, all of the back cover screws are still on the set and that means nobody was in there hacking up the circuits. He Just didnt need it anymore, but didnt want to throw it away. It was sitting on a card table in the corner of the basement. Both antennas are even intact and working! A good clean up will make it like new.

Its a CTC-58, which is a new one for me and the cabinet has many similaritys to the tube type sets. Its the vinal clad metal cabinet, plastic back and the tilt out control bin, just like you'd see on a CTC-38. It works fine, great CRT. Tuner needs to be cleaned as well as the brightness pot.

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by drh4683

the man who owned the set was the original owner, immigrated to the US from Poland in 1970. He bought it after he got married in 1975.

In my experience, both with estates and buying homes, Polish people (especially immigrants) take very good care of their stuff. The furniture and appliances are 50-years old, but you can eat off the floor.

[vintagecollect]

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[zenithfan1]

That GE w/ swing out doors is the same one Monty Hall gave away in '71/'72 on Lets Make A Deal. It has the same knobs and tri color badge that my '72 has. Nice set but that cabinet is really something....... It is cool that it still has its original stand. You always seem to find the good ones, Doug. Maybe we should all move to your area! LOL!

[Gianni]

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