Vacuum Tube Televisions

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Fyrefox

Well-known Member
In the earlier years of television, they were powered by vacuum tubes, devices which needed to "warm up" before they would function and your black-and-white TV would work...so if you wanted to watch a show, you needed to turn on the set several minutes beforehand, then gradually the image would appear. Vacuum tubes would need replacement rather often, and as they weakened and malfunctioned the picture might dim, roll, become distorted, or go out altogether. The repairman was a frequent visitor to the house, and when he had to "take it into the shop" for work, you'd likely be without television for days, as probably there was only one set in the house that was watched by everyone...

...flat screen TV's? -- Non-existent! Most TV's were big boxy affairs, mostly with screens small by today's standards. Remotes? -- What are they? To change the channel, you'd leave your seat and shuffle to the set to work a mechanical tuner which itself could malfunction with age.
 

Our first RCA tv had a blond color finish and was in a metal cabinet. I think it was a 15 inch. We could get one station, and on a good day maybe two. After awhile, we got one of those rotor antennas and moved big time up to thee channels. The picture left a lot to be desired.
 
I remember back in the 50's when the repairman would come. Days before the appointment my Mom would always say to my Dad, "I hope it's not the picture tube." I guess that one was the most expensive to replace. We had an antenna on the roof of our house. It seemed we had a lot of hurricanes back in the 50's and my Dad was always climbing up on the roof to replace the one that had come down in the wind. Finally we graduated to the rabbit ears which my Dad fiddled with for each station.
 

Remember these old machines in the stores?

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I remember taking all the tubes out of a radio once and going to one of these machines. First round through almost *all* tested bad or weak. So I did a round 2, fewer tested bad.... Long story short, by the time I finished several rounds, NONE of them tested bad. Back to square one. :confused:
 
I don't remember those machines, maybe they were around but my parents never used them. Our neighbor was a repairman and would service our TV anytime we needed. We paid him, of course, but we never had to wait. It was an expense for households, I know that. The first big deal improvement were the ones that swiveled, remember?

The first so called portables weighed a ton. Screens were small and living room tv's were inside a cabinet. You rarely moved them! Roof antennas were some kind of contraption and big. I remember my Dad going up on the roof and turning it for better reception. Storms could damage them too. Bunny ears were big when they first appeared, getting rid of the monstrous roof antenna!
 
I remember all of the above!!!

I also remember calling "dibs" on the couch when I had to get up and change the channel or one of my siblings would steal my seat and I would end up on the floor! I spent quite a bit of time on the floor watching television in those days. I also remember us kids becoming the human antenna when the reception was bad, our dad would have us grab the rabbit ears and wave our arms until the picture cleared long enough for him to hear the news.

Our old wooden television had an open compartment in the back under the actual television and our cat used to enjoy sleeping in there when the television was off.
 
Aunt Bea said:
I remember all of the above!!!

I also remember calling "dibs" on the couch when I had to get up and change the channel or one of my siblings would steal my seat and I would end up on the floor! I spent quite a bit of time on the floor watching television in those days. I also remember us kids becoming the human antenna when the reception was bad, our dad would have us grab the rabbit ears and wave our arms until the picture cleared long enough for him to hear the news.

Our old wooden television had an open compartment in the back under the actual television and our cat used to enjoy sleeping in there when the television was off.
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Geez, I hadn't thought about this in years, but I remember that, too. We also used to put little "flags" of aluminum foil on the rabbit ears, which helped sometimes.
 
We lived in farm country a long way from town so TV reception was almost non-existent. One rancher hired me to come live with them when I was 14. My job was to run up the steep hill behind his house, quickly climb the TV mast antenna, then turn the antenna slightly this way or that until he could actually, sometimes get a bit of a picture. It still wasn't worth watching. ;)
 
Our first set arrived on June 1st 1953 It was 9 inches wide, My dad later bought a gadget that strapped to the front with webbing that looked like a goldfish eye, it was supposed to make the picture bigger.

My mother was 50 years old the next day on June 2nd and my dad bought the TV as a birthday gift. It was also the first TV in the street and by coincidence June 2nd 1953 was Queen Elizabeth's coronation.

The neighbors flocked in to see it, the house was packed and I mean packed and they were struggling to see in the windows too.

The really funny thing is my mum was running around trying to make tea for all the "guests"
 
tnthomas said:
Yep, my dad and older brother were electronics hobbyists, so we(they) fixed our TV our(them)selves. We used to take a walk down to the Thrifty Drug store, and use the u-test-m machine to see which tubes were bad.

PS please read the links above, they are interesting. ;)
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My dad used to take tubes down to the hardware store to test 'em on one of those machines. I would trot along and thought the whole process was quite fascinating.
 
OMG, I remember all this stuff. The dreaded "take it back to the shop"! The repairman would show up with this HUGE suitcase full of tubes. Somehow he would find the right one and magically the set would work again.
 

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