With the transition to cable and digital TV, how does television restoral stay active? With radio there are plenty of AM stations or shortwave to still receive but with the old televisions, you either feed them with DVD or cable which sort of defeats the purpose of using them and relegates them to nothing more than a black and white monitor. The question of AM stereo and the death of it spawned this question in my mind. If AM radio went away I would expect the radio hobby to die with it

the funplexity of TV's is greater than radio. Personally I like to work on them, esp use of the scope to look at wave form patterns. An all tube color TV is truly a work of art.

Collectors feed vintage TVs from various sources, such as DVD/VHS players, analog cable, and digital-to-analog converters for OTA reception. You can also use an in-house broadcast setup as described in this article:

http://antiqueradio.org/HomeTVTransmitter.htm

I also have a house full of restored antique radios despite the fact that AM radio programming in this area is worthless. As with TVs, you can feed them from alternate sources such as an FM tuner, iPod, computer stream, etc., and re-broadcast on AM with an SSTRAN AMT3000 or the like.

Collectors have a lot more listening and viewing options now than back in Ye Olde Dayes.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Its Radio taken to the next level. Come on in and enjoy this hobby.

I use an Ebay purchased Blonder Tongue agile modulator as a whole house TV transmitter to drive my antique TVs.

Carl

Here is my solution:

viewtopic.php?t=150334

-Matthew

We can always make fish tanks out of em'- you can't do that with radio's.

For me there's never been anything to listen to -- in any reliable way -- on AM radio. I listen to hardcore industrial and stuff from the 20's thru the early 40's. So it was natural to use a transmitter to feed the radios. Never bothered me one bit.

Feeding my televisions with VHS, and now DVD and a downconverter, hence also came naturally. I understand that YMMV, but for me the transmission method is inconsequential.

My thinking is the complete opposite of this. Current broadcast signals (whether radio or TV) are completely irrelevant to the restoring and use of antique equipment, which is all about the technology, in my opinion. The best content to provide to antique TVs and radios is old-time programming, and that usually means in-house RF transmitters (whether through the air or connected by wire).

Antique TVs:
1- give you since of pride when you get them restored
2- great conversation pieces. Older visitors reminisce, younger ones ask what is it.
3- you rarely see 1950's vintage TVs in folks homes now a days.
4- many antique TV prices are appreciating - check Ebay.
5- I like playing mine during Holidays. At Christmas we play the classic "Its a Wonderful Life" movie like folks viewed it in the 1950's.
6- During special events, I like playing my Porthole TVs along with my modern flat-panel TV and amaze myself how much television has evolved. Ask young kids today to tell you if they know what "horizontal hold" or "vertical hold" means?

Carl

I like antique Radio's and Tv's because they fit the decor of my 100+ year old house.
my wife and i have been slowly furnishing our house with 20's to 50's tables, couches etc and it looks great.
a new tv or stereo wouldn't look right. i'm a retired A/V tech and my wife is a pro finisher so all bases are covered.

any new equipment we do have is hidden in a cupboard until used.

I have a uhf and fm transmitter(plan to add am soon) so i can watch/listen to my "household system" on vintage gear(i hook up a hidden vcr tuned to uhf for antique tv viewing).
watching an old B&W tv program on a vintage tv is a kick.We love old sci-fi.
and listening to newer rock on vintage radio is fun as well-lol.
most people dropping by are blown away to see antique furnishings with the old radio/tv's working in a antique house.

RonL

I'm not sure it's thriving with me, I have two disassembled TVs from the '50s (Predicta Holiday and a Raytheon 17") that I started to restore some years ago. I soon realized I was way in over my head and stopped!