Estate Sale Finds in 2010!

[radiotvnut]

I had a feeling it would work!

[drh4683]

I went to a sale in the northwest side of Chicago, at 6224 W. Fletcher Ave, which is Zenith country, but somehow this 1968 RCA Victor CTC-35 showed up! The plant is up on the northwest side just down the road from this sale, so its safe to say these people were not part of the Zenith family like so many were at one time. In Chicago, if you were part of the huge electronics industry that was once here, you either worked at Zenith, Motorola, Admiral or Western Electric, and think about all the smaller ones like well gardner, hallicrafters, Seeburg, Rockola, etc. So much was here and its all gone now.
As for the sale it was a very nice home on the outside, but completely untouched on the inside. Untouched to the point of plaster and paint chips falling off the walls. Most likely the resident Mrs. Mueller was a widower since 1972 and just lived in the house and nothing was ever touched to keep up with it. I've seen some homes that are unreal how untouched they've gone. Some look like they were untouched since world war II, including the contents of the home. Its amazing how some people live for 50-60 years in the same location and things never change in that time period. I think its neat, its a great way to look at history and see how things really were.
Got the set for $5.00. They said they said it was working but when I tried it, nothing happened. Totally dead, not even tube filaments lighting up. could have had a dead outlet though as I think they moved the tv to the location that the pic was taken. Now that I think about it, its probably a switched outlet since it was next to the door.
The set saw some hard use thats for sure. The cabinet has some rough scratches. Its been in use untill atleast 1983 as there is a repair tag from November 11, 83 in there from an RCA service tech. Typical hack tech though, just slid the chassis back in, no screws or anything of the kind to keep it in place. Its all complete though. Original CRT with no cataracts but has a slight case of green halo. Interesting.

[Chad Hauris]

That's a nice looking set...the knobs seem to be the style like are on my Mural TV's. I hate it when the chassis isn't fastened back to the cabinet....one time I went to tip a set up on its side I bought at an estate sale to put it on a dolly and the chassis wasn't fastened and fell over, luckily it didn't damage the CRT.
Also I notice there looks like an "auxiliary" 6AQ5 tube near the power transformer...I know some of this style of chassis had a transistorized audio output but then they went back to a tube due to problems with it.

[drh4683]

Todays sale was at 245 Elgin Ave in Forest Park. It was an early 1900's two flat. The upper level did not look like it was lived in since the late 60's. I like these old two flats as the upper living level is most always the untouched and "forgotten" portion where time just stays still.

The lower level looked like it was updated last around 1970, all avocado appliances and even avocado woodgrained kitchen cabinets. Nice clean house.

Sure enough, a nice clean Zenith 4 tuber made its appearance as I walked upstairs. It was just sitting on the floor under a table of christmas decorations. This set is in great shape, it was well taken care of. Fortunately, it didn't suffer from identity theft either, all the stickers and tags are still attached to the back cover. Its model F4001W, built in November, 1974 for the '75 line. This is a special Zenith, this is the very last of the 4 tube hybrids. Its also the last of tube type Zenith TV's all together. This was the cheapest set you could get from Zenith next to a 16" model, however, being the end of an era, this set has no frills like AFC, dial lights etc. Its just a basic TV with a detended UHF tuner. It even had a sticker on back that I never saw before, a Zenith QC inspection tag.

Its not your typical zenith though, I can't say this one "works like a Zenith" because it doesn't. Its got no high voltage. You can hear the horizontal oscillator ringing though. Im sure the trippler died out on it. Fortunately, it survived all these years hidden away upstairs knowing I would save it one day.

I never get bored of these sets, ever since I was a kid I loved 4 tube hybrids. Especially broken ones because that gives me a reason to take them apart and bring them back to life.

[radiotvnut]

Nice! That makes two 4 tube hybrids saved by VK members today. I have one just like this that was missing the knobs and was full of problems. It was actually one that had been given up for dead. I've done a good bit to mine; but, need to do more - including replacing the focus divider. One day, I hope to find one of the fancier older versions.

[zenithfan1]

Nice find Doug, I have faith that a nice, clear picture will be on that set very soon

[sampson159]

what a great set.the picture on a hybrid zenith is as good as any ever made.we had very few of those in the shop days.when we did get them,the picture was unbelievable.i remember once we had a fairly new sylvania 19 with an inline black matrix crt.along side it was a hybrid zenith.the zenith blew away the sylvania.much brighter and sharper.everyone who came in the shop made the same comment.gave me the idea for the 70s showdown in my shop over a year ago.love to find me a zenith hybrid!

[drh4683]

Considering these are zenith's economy set at the time, the picture was fenominal. Lots of TV shops used to hate me calling asking for tubes parts etc. when I was a kid when I would mess around with these. There was only one shop and its gone now "Kens TV" in Lombard. I specifically remember him telling me how many of these 4 tubers he sold and how great they were. He said people would walk in the shop and see one going and it was sold right now, nothing could compete "and to this day, you can't beat the picture on one of those" he said. I agree.
I imagine these outsold much of the competition at the time hence why I used to find so many of them. Great sets they are. Ironically, I was just telling mark the other day that if I let go any of my parts 4 tube hybrid sets, I'll need something right away. Sure enough, it almost happened. I've got one of these in complete junk condition but working. It'll be the new parts set to get this one going. I guess I better keep my 4 tuber parts sets, you never know what you need. I've been working on so many RCA sets lately, it'll be nice to be "back home" working on a Zenith again.

[old_tv_nut]

The "Steen?" Where did they get that name? I wonder what the other model names were that year, too.

Edit - Wickipedia says "Jan Havickszoon Steen (c. 1626 – buried February 3, 1679) was a Dutch genre painter of the 17th century " - wonder if other models that year were named after painters?

[Robert Grant]

I've seen talk before on AK/VK about the Zenith 4-tube hybrids. I'm just really curious what functions the "last" 4 tubes did (guess: HO, damper, HV and focus?).

It's also interesting that they would get so close to solid state and not reach it.

[AUdubon5425]

How 'bout that! Two hybrids saved in one weekend.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by Robert Grant

I've seen talk before on AK/VK about the Zenith 4-tube hybrids. I'm just really curious what functions the "last" 4 tubes did (guess: HO, damper, HV and focus?).

It's also interesting that they would get so close to solid state and not reach it.

HOT, damper, H-osc, vertical output.

[drh4683]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

The "Steen?" Where did they get that name? I wonder what the other model names were that year, too.

Edit - Wickipedia says "Jan Havickszoon Steen (c. 1626 – buried February 3, 1679) was a Dutch genre painter of the 17th century " - wonder if other models that year were named after painters?

You're search on the name "Steen" led me to investigate the other names in the Zenith catalog. For the longest time, I couldn't understand the meanings of all these names for the TV's. They were always European surnames though.

The mystery has finally been solved. I checked many of the names from the Zenith catalogs and all of the names are indeed well known european painters and artists from about the 17th century. It makes sense why they chose those names considering TV's also produce an image. If I knew anything about european art, perhaps I could have saw a pattern in this long ago...

I noticed that some of the names in the 60's brochures are named after chicago suburbs like "The Lombard", "The Lisle", "The Glen Ellyn" and "The Berwyn" for example. I always thought that was interesting too as that was one obvious pattern I picked up on.

Thanks wayne.

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by drh4683

The mystery has finally been solved. I checked many of the names from the Zenith catalogs and all of the names are indeed well known european painters and artists from about the 17th century. It makes sense why they chose those names considering TV's also produce an image. If I knew anything about european art, perhaps I could have saw a pattern in this long ago...

I noticed that some of the names in the 60's brochures are named after chicago suburbs like "The Lombard", "The Lisle", "The Glen Ellyn" and "The Berwyn" for example. I always thought that was interesting too as that was one obvious pattern I picked up on.

Thanks wayne.

So are there also sets named "President", "Prime Minister", "il duce", "Der Fehure", etc. to go along with my "emperor"?

[drh4683]

Originally Posted by Carmine

So are there also sets named "President", "Prime Minister", "il duce", "Der Fehure", etc. to go along with my "emperor"?

Thats correct. I have a president and a prime minister, both of which are smaller but higher end consoles.

Yours being the highest end model was in a class all of its own. Apparently the emperor outranks the rest.