But Its Not In HD!

[long_time_DNC]

Yeah, the 1khz tone was annoying, but on the Seattle stations, they only ran it over the indian-head test pattern for a few minutes before they shut it off and all there was left was white noise and snow. Oh yeah, Looney Toons! When cable came along, they carried a station from Vancouver B.C. that had Looney Toons every weekend...

 

[Santa Clause]

Our antenna was mounted on a pole on the side of the house. One end of the pole on the ground and the other end high enough so the antenna wouldn't touch the roof. We didn't have a rotor so me or my younger brother would reach out the window and turn the pole by hand until we got a good picture. In the winter the pole would freeze to the ground and we would thaw it by dumping a kettle of boiling water at the base. My parents have Directv now but still use that antenna for OTA from Bangor.

 

[kikenovic]

my first own TV was a handout from grandma (pliers not included). Didn't care it was BW, I could watch TV and play NES on my own schedule. I can relate to all the adjustments, the pliers, the coat hanger, the electrical discharges, the horizontal/vertical hold.

 

[Cosmo Blatz]

The first TV I watched was at my friend Davey's house. A huge box with about a 7" TV screen. The vertical hold had a mind of it's own. We had to sync our eyes to the rolling picture. Davey's parents complained to the dealer about the rolling picture and the dealer told them "all TV's do that". My parents didn't buy a TV until years later. When my parents did buy, they went big. We got an Admiral 24" SuperCascode! We must have had the service guy to the house at least a dozen times fixing that TV. I remember once, the high voltage section was arcing really bad. The service guy asked my mom if she had any plastic sheeting. She said well, there's the shower curtain? He ended up using a piece of shower curtain to stop the arcing. That fix worked! The repair guy was really nice and used to let me watch him do the repairs. He was a phone company lineman during the day and repaired TV's in the evening. I changed my first 'picture tube' when I was still in high school. I knew it was 'kind of dangerous' - my parents didn't know - so they let me do it. LoL! Saved a ton of money D.I.Y.'n that.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Color TV came into our family in the late-60's with a Sylvania console 25" set. It still had all the typical knobs and adjustments, but they were behind a brushed aluminum door on the face of the right panel. The only knobs on the front? The channel knob (still only went from 2-13) and a volume knob... Color TV was amazing! I remember thinking that it just can't get better than this!

 

[concord]

...and once in a while get some distant channels like channel 2 from Utica...

You mean you really wanted watch channel 2 ? I think it's still the place to go to get experience doing the news and weather on a string budget! I don't recall what was on 2 specifically, but remember watching Sunday movies like Abbott & Costello, Laruel & Hardy and Henry Aldrich (his friend could wiggle his ears at the girls). And Monster Movie Matinee, then in the evening, parents would watch Disney, Wild Kingdom and Ed Sullivan Show.

 

[fred555]

Decades now shows the Indian Head test pattern during a segment featuring old commercials.
Its funny it seems they have starting showing it right after it was mentioned here.
What a coincidence.