If you had one of these...

Mar 6, 2008
1,078
Catalina 1999 C36 MKII #1787 Coyote Point Marina, CA.
It is a TV remote control. Has metal bars in it, when buttons are pressed its hammer striker makes the selected bar vibrate at ultrasonic frequency. The pick up is a soanalert on the TV. Volume up/down makes the motor rotate the shaft on the volume control. Chanel up/ down rotates the shaft on the TV tuner. I had not seen this one as it has 2 layers of function for each button and it is for color TV. Next generation transmitters used ultrasonic soanalert battery operated without clicking sound. Then infra-red LED replaced the sound devices.
So do I get A+ ?
Haro
 

SFS

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Aug 18, 2015
2,065
Currently Boatless Okinawa
We had one for a black and white set in the late '60s as I recall. Only had two buttons. I took that TV to college and was still watching it in 1982. My (then) wife and I had it in Married Student Housing, and I would fall asleep to reruns of The Rockford Files. TV sets lasted back then.
 
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Jan 4, 2006
6,444
Hunter 310 West Vancouver, B.C.
Geez ..................... ours wasn't wireless like yours. It was connected to the TV with a long cable.

Guess we were in the middle-middle class of our neighbourhood :frown:.
 
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Jan 1, 2006
7,039
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
I still call a TV remote a "KaChunker" which resembles the noise the TV made while changing channels. When I went to buy my first TV after buying a home I couldn't understand why someone needed some device to change the TV channel without getting up. We had longer attention spans in those days.
 
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Jan 1, 2006
7,039
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
That sounds like the joke about Soviet TV. 2 channels. When you switch from the government channel the second channel says to go back to the government channel.
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
My grandmother had one exactly like Brian's picture. You could change the channel by rattling a set of keys too.

To think they now make TVs that only can be controlled by remotes.

-Will
 
Aug 28, 2006
564
Bavaria 35E seattle
I still call a TV remote a "KaChunker" which resembles the noise the TV made while changing channels. When I went to buy my first TV after buying a home I couldn't understand why someone needed some device to change the TV channel without getting up. We had longer attention spans in those days.
We had a classy name befitting the Upper Middle-Class status: a "clicker."
 
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Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
We had a classy name befitting the Upper Middle-Class status: a "clicker."
Yep, that's what we called it also. "Hey, hand me the 'clicker'." Was what we said to each other because not only was it annoying to get up to change the channel, but also to get the remote in the first place.

-Will
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
I don't remember the TV repairman coming to the house by the time we had the "clickers". Before that, however if your TV broke, you called a TV repairman who actually came to the house. TVs were big and heavy. He unplugged your TV for at least ten minutes before he would get in there and start swapping vacuum tubes. I thought the little dot that slowly faded in the center of the screen after you turned it off was fascinating.

The biggest problem was that the TV didn't "act-up" when the TV repairman was there.

-Will
 
Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
I remember watching Gilligan's Island on an old (small) B&W with rabit ears that we covered in aluminum foil. Sometimes you had to hold the antenna for the picture to be clear so I just stood next to the TV holding the antenna. I always thought the professor was the coolest member of the gang and Mary Anne the hottest. I think Mary Anne had a thing for the professor so that probably contributed to my fandom :biggrin:
 
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