How to work an old tv?

Question

I was just given an old tv for my home office. I know that its a Zenith, it has a AFC button and antenna. UF channel 2-13 knobs and then channel 14-83 knobs. This is a little before my time so any help would be great. If you could tell me how to get more than just my local PBS channel that would be great too. I also don't know what any of the letters stand for, if anyone could point me to a website or tell me how to work it that would be a great help!!

Answer 1

Attach an antenna to the antenna input. Some older TVs have different looking inputs than the new ones. If there are two inputs, one for VHF and a separate one with two screw terminals for UHF, you can attach a modern antenna to the VHF one. For the UHF input you can either use a separate UHF antenna (they typically look like a loop of wire about 7.5" diameter or a bow tie) or get a little device called a UHF/VHF splitter.

To tune in channels 2-13 you just turn that knob to the channel you want. There should be a secondary dial to fine tune these stations. Commonly this was a ring that surrounded the 2-13 dial.

If you want to watch channels 14-69, the knob marked 2-13 will have a position marked "UHF" or something similar. Turning the knob to "UHF" (or whatever) will select the other tuning knob 14-69. With the first knob in the UHF position, just turn the 14-69 knob until you see the channel you want.

The AFC button tells the TV to try to make some automatic adjustments. I suggest that you adjust the TV the best you can with the AFC off and then turn it on to see if it improves the picture.

You will probably find a bunch of smaller knobs for adjusting the picture quality. These may be hidden under a door on the front of the television. See the first link below for general directions on adjusting these.

This type of TV was not cable ready. If you hook it to an analog cable system you will only get channels 2-13. To get analog channels above 13 on a cable system, you would either need a cable box or a VCR with a cable ready tuner.

It might be easier to find someone over the age of 50 to show you how to adjust it.