How do I get my 50's TV fixed?

[Lissa]

@Imasquare

Those prices are the original retail price of the TV sets when they were new - not the current value.

There are people who collect old TV sets so there is some sort of market for them. Maybe you could list it on eBay with a reserve price so that it only sells for at least what you are prepared to pay.

Yeah, Beware of Doug already pointed that out.

The second link I provided is to a site which actually sells old TVs. The prices there range from $200 to $600.

[Belrix]

My father-in-law repairs old electronics as a hobby. Pretty much WW-II and before is his area. He’s got a number of 20’s era radios that work. Apparently, no surpise, getting parts is a big challenge. There’s this underground network of tube swappers out there.

There’s almost certainly somebody out there who can fix this. I’ll get in contact with him and see if there’s a way to contact these hobbyists. What area do you live in?

[BMalion]

@Lissa

You know, if you couldn’t get the original innards to function again, you might be able to take out the picture tube and put in its place a small black-and-white TV of the same size. Keep the innards stored away in a safe place in case TV technology ever evolves the way medical technology does. Like Walt Disney’s head, people of the future might be able to bring the original components back to life.

call John Titor!

[Rodd_Hill]

Did you catch last week’s Cavalcade of Starson DuMont?

[scotandrsn]

Just remember that you need to fix this sucker soon, as analog television broadcasts are currently scheduled to cease permanently after February 17, 2009. After that you’ll need a converter box to pick up digital television signals.

Of course, the original blackout date was supposed to be this coming New Year’s Eve, so don’t worry too much.

[Daffyd]

@Belrix

My father-in-law repairs old electronics as a hobby. Pretty much WW-II and before is his area. He’s got a number of 20’s era radios that work. Apparently, no surpise, getting parts is a big challenge. There’s this underground network of tube swappers out there.

There’s almost certainly somebody out there who can fix this. I’ll get in contact with him and see if there’s a way to contact these hobbyists. What area do you live in?

I’m not too local to your father-in-law - I’m in Toronto, Ontario… but you never know, somewhere out there is someone who can fix old TV’s in Toronto - I can feel it!

[Sunspace]

@gotpasswords

Hehe…

For the benefit of the uninitiated, I figure I ought to say what a hot chassis really is. It’s essentially a frame ground, similar to how things are wired up in a car where the frame or chassis is the electrical return to the power source. In a car, that’d be the battery. In a hot chassis TV or radio, it’s the powerline.

A hot chassis means the entire works are connected directly to the AC powerline. If the house is wired properly, the chassis will be at the neutral/ground potential of the powerline, but if anything’s reversed along the way, the entire innards of the set will be a “live wire” with 120 volts on it, just waiting to shock you.

Very dangerous to you and to any line-powered test equipment you may be using, such as signal generators or scopes.

Which is why you should always plug suspicious or unknown equipment into an isolation transformer and then provide your own ground reference.

[Sunspace]

@Daffyd

I’m not too local to your father-in-law - I’m in Toronto, Ontario… but you never know, somewhere out there is someone who can fix old TV’s in Toronto - I can feel it!

Well, given enough time and equipment, I could learn to… but I don’t have a connection to the Underground Network Of Tube Enthusiasts… yet…

[Sunspace]

@scotandrsn

Just remember that you need to fix this sucker soon, as analog television broadcasts are currently scheduled to cease permanently after February 17, 2009. After that you’ll need a converter box to pick up digital television signals.

Of course, the original blackout date was supposed to be this coming New Year’s Eve, so don’t worry too much.

Daffyd’s in Canada… we aren’t going to be turning off our analogue TV any time soon.

[Common_Tater]

[QUOTE=Belrix]
Apparently, no surpise, getting parts is a big challenge.
/QUOTE]

Not really. No need to be underground anymore in this age of the internet and auction sites like eBay. LOTS of radios were made and still more to be found in garages and attics. Tubes are easy to find, plentiful and usually cheap. In an odd twist though, Asian collectors have taken a liking to American made electronic gear and snapped up a lot of the classic stuff at very high prices, esp. audio gear and certain 1930’s output tubes like the 45 and 50.