1983 Zenith 19" color Space Command

[PUNK DUDE]

Picked up a 1983 Zenith 19" color Space Command today for $5. Cabinet looks to be in very good condition- no scratches. Noticed tape on the door that covers the keypad and customer controls. So, maybe the latch might be no good. Remote works, but keypad on hand unit shows its age. Buttons on remote seem to work fine but markings on many of the buttons are worn off. Might try to repair cosmetics on hand unit but that sits kinda low on my priority list. Plugged it in and it lit up with sound. CRT looks to be excellent. It only took about 30 seconds or so before it came up to full brightness. Really great for a 30 year old set! Sharp focus and perfect gray scale and tracking. Was out in the garage with it so I only had a rabbit ear antenna available. I'm in a generally strong signal area but it appears all the stations around here are broadcasting digital, maybe even the low power UHFs too. Only station I could pick up was a Canadian UHF about 40 miles away or so. Of course the pic had heavy snow and color flashing in and out from such a weak signal. Verdict- looks like everything is working normally. So, probably about all I'll need to do is a recap, maybe touch up a few solder connections, clean all the controls and possibly clean the edge connector contacts. Now for the big question- Does it have the tri focus CRT? I don't have a photofact for it yet. I took the back off and it looks like there is only one focus lead going to the CRT socket. So, I'm kind of guessing it's a conventional focus CRT. The CRT type is 19VMLP22. The model number of the set is SZ1927W, production date 5/83. Guess my 1st task is locating a photofact for it. County Public library used to have a complete inventory of Photofacts but it's no longer there. Going to thumb thru the phone book tomorrow and see if maybe they relocated somewhere else. I was too lazy to get out the camera tonight and take some pics of the before state. Besides, I had no decent signal to feed it.

[radiotvnut]

I think you have the newer more standard style CRT. From what you describe, this sounds like a TV that uses the 9-186 HV module that stands up to the right of the main board.

This TV is too new to have massive capacitor failures; so, I wouldn't go to the trouble or expense of doing a full recap. The main capacitors that gave trouble with this chassis was the dual section power supply filter cap, some caps in the vertical circuit, and some of these sets had a small rectangular start-up board mounted to the HV/horizontal sweep module that contains one electrolytic cap that will cause no start up or intermittent start-up when it fails.

[zeno]

Punk
Nice catch. I am trying to remember when the Tri-focus aka EFL CRT
was used. IIRC it started in the H-line, my father got one. It was an
oval shaped 19" & one knob tuner. That would have had the upright
steel chassis with major changes to the vert & added a CRT module.
Also had plug in focus control on tripler. Dont know when it ended,
the chassis was last used on some of the K-line.

73 Zeno

[AVeturri]

SZ1927W had the woodgrained door with the top and bottom plastic tabs which often broke. My parents had this TV. Yellow LED tuner readout and a chromatic switch.
That tv made a fantaastic picture..I recall the remote was silver, Infrared, and said"computer space command" on it.

[radiotvnut]

I know the EFL gun CRT was used with some 9-181 series TV's because I've seen several consoles and portables that had it; but, most of them were early production. I do, however, have an '84 13" Zenith with the 9-181 board that uses an EFL gun CRT.

[Jeffhs]

I am surprised that TV is receiving anything on an antenna. Both this country and Canada now have digital TV, with no analog stations anymore, unless Canada's analog cutoff deadline is different from ours.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I am surprised that TV is receiving anything on an antenna. Both this country and Canada now have digital TV, with no analog stations anymore, unless Canada's analog cutoff deadline is different from ours.

You've been misinformed. Even the US has a lot of LP analog stations on the air. I can receive 2 of them here in NE Wisconsin.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Both this country and Canada now have digital TV, with no analog stations anymore...

You are forgetting low power analog stations which are still sanctioned to operate for some time to come.

[mstaton]

We still have 3(UHF) here in Boise, Home shopping, religious and Hispanic even though the all have digital counterparts.