Muntzing 101

[WA2ROC]

I heard the mention of the term "Muntzing" over in the Technical forum, and I though this may be a good time and place to post a link that explains what Muntzing really is.

http://www.national.com/rap/Story/0,1562,17,00.html

[W7TFO]

Sounds like the same technique used by modern allopathic doctors....

73DG

[WB2EMS]

Hah! I hadn't heard that term before, but remember growing up with Muntz TV's around the Rochester NY area and clearly remember people talking about the factory taking out parts one by one until it stops working, and then putting the last one back in. I think I even recall some of his commercials. I was in Boy Scouts at the time, so that would have been around 1966 or so.

Interesting character. He just made a different set of engineering optimizations than others chose to do, lower cost but only working well in the strong signal environment. For a lot of urban customers, that was probably a good trade off. In Rochester it probably was, which is probably why they were a known brand there. All the TV stations were on a nice hill in the center of the city and the suburbs were all relatively flat land along the lake plain east and west from there. From our house I remember being able to see the tips of the antennas on Pinnacle hill from the roof.

 

[The Slab Bacon]

I've heard simlar stories like that about Philco, and other radio mfrs "back in the day"
they used to refer to the clipped out versions as "competition models"

It was very apparent with some of the antique radios I've restored that just dont seem to have many parts under the chassis, and lead dress and routing makes all of the difference in them working or not.

[W9GT]

Interesting.  My Aunt and Uncle, who lived in Michigan had one of those Muntz TVs in the mid- fifties.  Actually, it worked quite well.   I heard also that the Muntz folks invented the "gimmik" capacitor.  Made by twisting two hook-up wires together to form a capacitor.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[Tom WA3KLR]

I still remember hearing the Muntz ads on the radio. 
The jingle went "There's something about a Muntz TV". 

[flintstone mop]

MAD MAN Muntz
Fred

[Opcom]

Absolutely! Remember the three tube projection TV Muntz made?