You may have heard Jim Carlye on the radio over the past nearly 20 years talk about his love of “vintage” electronics. The studios of WION have many vintage radios, some unique TV sets, and other oddities on display that came from his home when he moved to Ionia.
Hello! It’s me, Jim.
…and the latest of my projects is two vintage TV sets from teh 1960’s. They’re appropriately called “roundies” in collectors’ circles because of the picture tube. For only a few years, after color TV was introduced in 1953 (the same year as when WION went on the air by the way) “round” color television screens were the way you enjoyed color if you had the big bucks to buy a color set. After a few years, the rectangular screen we’re used to seeing was the norm.
So, a new friend near Detroit sold me two of these sets, and the second of the two is coming around nicely. The first one which came from his home needs a very expensive transformer that we can only get from Poland, yet it renders a good picture.
It’s taken some work including the changing of some tubes, many readjustments of the many controls in the back, and even a “rejuvenation” of the CRT (commonly called “Picture Tube.” ) I’m pretty happy with the results so far, but I’m nowhere near finished. Once finished, it’ll get re-homed as I don’t have room to keep it along with the rest of the bigger, heavier collection items…..
So, all these pictures are of the SECOND of two sets I’m working-on. We’ll show the other (first) roundie I bought in a future post. I’m pretty darn happy with this nearly 60 year old TV!
So, first, the “picture” with the set as-found, before any work is done on it…
And now, some more recent pictures. In the video above, the camera was being kind to the CRT…it was actually much more dim than it shows.
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