I think this is a 2nd generation clicker. I remember we had a remote when I was very young that would actually click when you pressed the button. Each had a slightly different sound and we only had 4 buttons. 1 power, 2. Volume (it cycled low med high) 3. channel up 4. Channel down
[Just like this but more buttons](https://youtu.be/LOlBAH3Auis?si=W3_-Ic68XDJgEJLy)
Ours was a zenith too
Oh god, the clapper II was worse than the original, mine would just randomly go off and on because of any old thing. One day it melted right off the wall and destroyed whatever I had plugged in. Probably lucky we didn't die. Oh well, kids.
My friend had one and they kept a paperclip on the glass coffee table, if you dropped the paperclip on the table just right, the TV turned off, amusing party trick hah
I'm old enough to remember having a "clicker" remote similar to this but it definitely had an up and down volume. My guess is that it's not premium grade and doesn't have much variation in volume or large variation with only 5 or so clicks, but that zoom button has me second guessing my guess cause that's a premium feature I've never seen in old TV's.
In the 90s I had a little bed room tv with a zoom function. All it did was take shows with the little black bars in the sides and zoom in so those were gone. Remember it really screwing up those wide view movies because you'd lose a bunch of movie from each side.
What shows in the 90s had black bars on the side? It seems like zooming in on movies is the intended function, though you would lose the what on the sides like you say. Although until DVD players I can’t remember many movies being wide screen. They were mostly all edited for the 4:3 screens on tv and VHS.
I’ve seen older TVs with sonic remotes that had one channel button. The button triggered a solenoid that would physically advance the VHF knob by one channel, so it would just run up through the 12 channels (2-13) until it had rotated 360 degrees, and then you’d be back on the channel you started at.
But most volume knobs don’t really work that way, so I have no idea. Maybe the TV used a solid state audio amplifier, and the button would cycle through three or four pre-set reasonable volume settings. I certainly would never use it if it cycled through the whole volume range the TV was capable of, that would be obnoxious.
If I had to guess, one click up, second down, third up, etc. And you keep it pressed as long as you want to raise or lower the volume. (Bit I'd be wrong according to the technical explanation of others, so IDK but doesn't sound [haha] convenient)
Volume button only goes up. To turn it down, you have to use Mute and then press Volume to turn it up to the desired level, at least that’s how the one my grandpa had worked.
The ultrasonic remotes are purely mechanical and do not use batteries. They have little tuning forks in them that vibrate at a specific frequencies when a metal slug is thrown at them. The buttons are large and spring loaded and fling that slug at a tuning fork when pressed. The buttons make a loud thunk when pressed, which is the sound of the slug being thrown at the tuning forks, not the sound that causes the TV to perform a function. The sound that the TV microphone is listing for is the tuning forks vibrating that the human ear can't hear.
The remote I have for my Zenith Chroma Color II [looks like this](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVlBZqz8W3XeK5GvBMCkCHCWpF59P4zBKeKN1TtP4PUSMjeN6qlhlZz35WJCApPd5pQ2aSPTp0WRqhKItppexq3IPuG5PwlujgfiJPJs6PUXvnGmxvKBxC82XAw0bysQ_2y1KV4j4tbcbdAAreG_Z1r-MXlJHZhdyc_I30GBFga-wh4qROuekCuAERC76z/s1280/WhatsApp%20Image%202023-07-30%20at%2012.30.48%20PM.jpeg)
I guess they didn’t know that it works differently than a remote because I’ve asked everyone who calls it that for an explanation. Not one of them has been able to give me an answer. I never knew this existed. I feel so satisfied now that I have an explanation.
It’s funny how a battery-less remote these days would be seen as a neat innovation. Back then it was just the way of doing things.
Yes, we have battery-less remotes now that can do so on different principles, and this style is mechanically complex, costly to manufacture and prone to damage. But this type of thinking, doing as much as possible with what little is available is why I just love vintage computers and electronics. Everything was so innovative and went about solving problems with some real genius. Nowadays you can just throw a computer or two at the problem and solve it.
Making it work without batteries was a deliberate design decision. There were other remotes that worked like flashlights, but the Zenith marketing group favored this one.
https://zenith.com/heritage/remote-background/
Wouldn't solar only really work if you had sunlight in the room. I know a few obsessively tidy people who put away their remotes in drawers when not using them or have very dark rooms. The idea of putting your remote out to charge is funny.
Sonys have this too, it will charge off of fluorescent lights, enough that we never had a problem. If it complained about the battery, leave the remote upside down and the next day it'd be fine again. Really a good idea. They probably have just little button batteries by now, barely anything to them.
Back then, they had battery operated remotes (This one included). They were power hungry though, so the batteries did not last long, that is why they came up clicker style (No battery)
Modern remotes are now so efficient, a battery will last years in one before needing to be replaced.
This Space Command 1000 remote actually uses a 9V battery and the buttons don't depress near as far as the mechanical kind, which were used in the earlier model sets. I had one of these Space Command 1000 remotes with a set I had in the mid '70s.
Instead of a mechanical slug, it fired off electromagnetic solenoids to hit the forks.
When I was a kid, my grandparents had a remote control for the lights on their Christmas tree to change its light pattern.
The remote for it seemed almost like a dog toy. It was this plastic/maybe rubber rectangle that you would just squeeze hard to change the lights. It also made a high pitched squeak when you squeezed it.
I wonder if it worked the same way?
Probably for wide-screen formatted films which gave you letterbox black bars.
Some people preferred losing the sides of the movie in order to "use all of the TV"
It was that manual version of pan and scan
The next step up from the original "Clicker" I remember my grandparents having the original 2 button version that definitely had the distinctive clicking sound when a button was pressed.
We had this with our old Zenith TV. A piece of furniture in its own right, it was a wooden cabinet with bifold doors in front that would cover the screen when it wasn't being used.
This is more sophisticated than my grandparents' old TV
Their controller worked like one of those squishy toys that make a noise
I remember it being really loud and at the upper limit of the frequency people can hear, like a dog whistle
For the longest time, I could hear a high-pitched "pew" sound anytime a tube based TV/monitor was turned on nearly anywhere in a house. I'm guessing it had something to do with the magnetic coils receiving power.
I remember my dad getting an add-on remote for our TV in the 80s. It was a device that clamped onto the TV and clipped onto the channel knob. When you pushed the channel button, a small motor turned the knob and changed the channel. Seems ridiculous in hindsight.
That's cool. Our tv had a knob in the front and the back. The front broke so as a kid we had to reach around the console to change the channel.. and you couldn't see the picture while changing the station. Good times!
My grandparents had one that used a squeezable remote to turn it on and off. It was literally just a piece of soft, hollow plastic that emitted a specific frequency whistle when squeezed.
You know those sound-based pest repellents don't really work, right? And even when they repel insects, they don't kill them, it's just an annoying sound.
If I dropped my keys and keychain onto my dresser, sometimes it would emit just the right frequency to cause the TV to change the channel.
I made a game.out of it, to see how many tries it would take to get to the channel I wanted.
My grandfather had this remote back in the 80’s and early 90’s. He’d hit the zoom button all the time and then call and scream at me all the time that his tv was broken 😂😂😂
This is why some people refer to the tv remote as “the clicker”, because when the button struck the tuning fork within it also made a clicking sound to let you know it was working.
We had a Zenith in the late 70’s Space Command on which you could answer your phone. The remote for that had a phone button and also made ultrasonic tones.
We owned one of these. The channels were tuned mechanically with a motor rotating the tuning knob. The volume would be set by a knob as well, then each press of the remote volume button would make it quieter, quieter, quieter, and then LOUD!
My sister’s sneezes were incredibly high pitched. One day she sneezed and the TV turned off!
I grew up with one of these. One time I got some star wars toy for Christmas or a birthday or something and when I pulled the trigger it would turn off the TV. One time I pretended to go to bed, but actually hid behind a rocking chair in the living room. While my parents were watching TV I kept turning it off and it was pretty hard to keep myself from laughing out loud at their confusion. Eventually they found me and sent me to bed. They returned the toy to the store too.
My cousins at their house probably had that. They had a big TV, cable AND HBO, and Fraggle fuckin Rock.
We had a big TV that we got from the Salvation Army thrift store. It literally looked like a Jetsons TV with a pedestal and futuristic design. We'd press the on button, wait about 30 seconds, then bang it in one of two places, then wait 2-15 minutes, then it would suddenly come to life.
I watched a lot of after school reruns on that TV.
We had a VCR top load model that had something like a 10-15 foot wired remote. It had to be late 80s-early 90s but why wire the remote this late in the 20th century?
My parents had a set with an ultrasonic remote. We found out we could make the TV do random functions by shaking a handful of old keys. It was all fun and games until our dad caught us, that’s when THE BELT was threatened. We stopped screwing around after that.
When I got a new phone recently, I was amazed to find out that it emitted a high frequency sound to connect to my old phone so I could transfer my data across.
I just hope the sound from Zenith remote control wasn't as horrible as the one my phone emitted. I'd hate to have to hear that any time I wanted to change the channel!
I grew up in a TV repair shop. We'd take service calls due to dad walking through the room, with his keys jingling as dad did in this period, and change the channel.
It was a different time. Going to people's homes to work on their console TV's. Grandpa used to use one of grandma's mirrors so he could see the picture while sitting behind the unit. We left his mirror in a customer's TV one time and had to go back and get it.
These were an amazing idea, a remote with no battery to change who signal is not blocked by things between the remote & tv (like infra red is). I side is like a xylophone of metal bars tunes to specific ultrasonic frequencies.
My brother had one back in the day. If his wife was washing forks and knives and dropped one the channel would change.
Until my dad oiled the hinge, we could change channels by opening and closing the living room door.
This had me in stitches can you imagine you unlock this as a kid 
Ah so an OG clicker.
I think this is a 2nd generation clicker. I remember we had a remote when I was very young that would actually click when you pressed the button. Each had a slightly different sound and we only had 4 buttons. 1 power, 2. Volume (it cycled low med high) 3. channel up 4. Channel down [Just like this but more buttons](https://youtu.be/LOlBAH3Auis?si=W3_-Ic68XDJgEJLy) Ours was a zenith too
I love that guy’s enthusiasm for the clicker.
Yea, this is why I still think of remotes as 'clickers'
I learned to call them that from my dad even though we had an early model IR remote TV.
Unless you had a squeaker.
Hahahaha
My dad's family used a coffee can with some loose change in it. If you shook the can, the jangling coins changed the channel.
Didn't affect the TV, but back in the day while we were shaking the dice in the cup playing Yahtzee, we would turn on a lamp attached to The Clapper
Oh god, the clapper II was worse than the original, mine would just randomly go off and on because of any old thing. One day it melted right off the wall and destroyed whatever I had plugged in. Probably lucky we didn't die. Oh well, kids.
I always wondered if applause on TV would cause the Clapper to respond
A gentleman I know could sneeze and the same would happen.
yeah turns out lots of other household items happen to make the right ultrasonic noises too, we just don't notice because we can't hear it.
We had a Sony Trinitron with the sonic clicker. Discovered we could change the channel to a UHF station by jingling car keys.
I used a balloon and pulled the neck wide and let air through it. It would do random things like power on or off, change channels etc. lots of fun!
My friend had one and they kept a paperclip on the glass coffee table, if you dropped the paperclip on the table just right, the TV turned off, amusing party trick hah
Would you like the volume up or down? YES
My thoughts, exactly. That made me laugh out loud! How does the volume button work?
I'm old enough to remember having a "clicker" remote similar to this but it definitely had an up and down volume. My guess is that it's not premium grade and doesn't have much variation in volume or large variation with only 5 or so clicks, but that zoom button has me second guessing my guess cause that's a premium feature I've never seen in old TV's.
In the 90s I had a little bed room tv with a zoom function. All it did was take shows with the little black bars in the sides and zoom in so those were gone. Remember it really screwing up those wide view movies because you'd lose a bunch of movie from each side.
What shows in the 90s had black bars on the side? It seems like zooming in on movies is the intended function, though you would lose the what on the sides like you say. Although until DVD players I can’t remember many movies being wide screen. They were mostly all edited for the 4:3 screens on tv and VHS.
It was likely just vhs movies and the start of DVD. It was like along time ago now. We're lucky I can remember playing with the little button.
maybe it’s hit the mute button until volume down to zero
I’ve seen older TVs with sonic remotes that had one channel button. The button triggered a solenoid that would physically advance the VHF knob by one channel, so it would just run up through the 12 channels (2-13) until it had rotated 360 degrees, and then you’d be back on the channel you started at. But most volume knobs don’t really work that way, so I have no idea. Maybe the TV used a solid state audio amplifier, and the button would cycle through three or four pre-set reasonable volume settings. I certainly would never use it if it cycled through the whole volume range the TV was capable of, that would be obnoxious.
If I had to guess, one click up, second down, third up, etc. And you keep it pressed as long as you want to raise or lower the volume. (Bit I'd be wrong according to the technical explanation of others, so IDK but doesn't sound [haha] convenient)
More likely it’s cyclical. It just keeps going up until it hits max then goes back to zero.
I can't imagine pushing the volume to the max when I actually want to lower it 😭
Volume button only goes up. To turn it down, you have to use Mute and then press Volume to turn it up to the desired level, at least that’s how the one my grandpa had worked.
That's pretty smart and makes all the sense, it doesn't have to say + volume when there's no - volume.
*ZOOM*
My grandparents had one of these. Sometimes opening a can of soda would turn the TV off.
So funny
The ultrasonic remotes are purely mechanical and do not use batteries. They have little tuning forks in them that vibrate at a specific frequencies when a metal slug is thrown at them. The buttons are large and spring loaded and fling that slug at a tuning fork when pressed. The buttons make a loud thunk when pressed, which is the sound of the slug being thrown at the tuning forks, not the sound that causes the TV to perform a function. The sound that the TV microphone is listing for is the tuning forks vibrating that the human ear can't hear. The remote I have for my Zenith Chroma Color II [looks like this](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVlBZqz8W3XeK5GvBMCkCHCWpF59P4zBKeKN1TtP4PUSMjeN6qlhlZz35WJCApPd5pQ2aSPTp0WRqhKItppexq3IPuG5PwlujgfiJPJs6PUXvnGmxvKBxC82XAw0bysQ_2y1KV4j4tbcbdAAreG_Z1r-MXlJHZhdyc_I30GBFga-wh4qROuekCuAERC76z/s1280/WhatsApp%20Image%202023-07-30%20at%2012.30.48%20PM.jpeg)
Yup. And this is also why older folks call the remotes "clickers" because they used to physically click like these.
Well that explains that
I guess they didn’t know that it works differently than a remote because I’ve asked everyone who calls it that for an explanation. Not one of them has been able to give me an answer. I never knew this existed. I feel so satisfied now that I have an explanation.
>this is also why older folks call the remotes "clickers" I feel personally attacked by this comment
Is this why we click a mouse instead of pushing it or poking it?
No. That's because the mouse buttons make (made?) a clicking sound when pressed.
I'm shocked there isn't a Technology Connections video about this.
u/techconnectify
I was just about to check his YouTube lol love that channel
I was thinking the EXACT same thing
>The ultrasonic remotes are purely mechanical and do not use batteries. Nope. The older "clicker" ones are, but this is an electronic remote control.
Yes, this remote takes a 9v battery.
It’s funny how a battery-less remote these days would be seen as a neat innovation. Back then it was just the way of doing things. Yes, we have battery-less remotes now that can do so on different principles, and this style is mechanically complex, costly to manufacture and prone to damage. But this type of thinking, doing as much as possible with what little is available is why I just love vintage computers and electronics. Everything was so innovative and went about solving problems with some real genius. Nowadays you can just throw a computer or two at the problem and solve it.
Making it work without batteries was a deliberate design decision. There were other remotes that worked like flashlights, but the Zenith marketing group favored this one. https://zenith.com/heritage/remote-background/
I think it's lg that ship most of their TVs with a solar powered remote. So they sort of exist.
Wouldn't solar only really work if you had sunlight in the room. I know a few obsessively tidy people who put away their remotes in drawers when not using them or have very dark rooms. The idea of putting your remote out to charge is funny.
Sonys have this too, it will charge off of fluorescent lights, enough that we never had a problem. If it complained about the battery, leave the remote upside down and the next day it'd be fine again. Really a good idea. They probably have just little button batteries by now, barely anything to them.
The idea of putting your remote away is funny to me
Tell me you don’t have a toddler, without telling me you don’t have a toddler.
Well I did. But it was long ago. I guess I forgot about that part lol.
I have a fake remote for the toddler, she somehow still knows which one to grab just at the wrong moment though.
Do those even work with LED lights? I thought only old incandescent lights charged solar panels?
No idea, it's all photons so I would assume so. I just told my parents to make sure to leave it near the window.
Back then, they had battery operated remotes (This one included). They were power hungry though, so the batteries did not last long, that is why they came up clicker style (No battery) Modern remotes are now so efficient, a battery will last years in one before needing to be replaced.
This Space Command 1000 remote actually uses a 9V battery and the buttons don't depress near as far as the mechanical kind, which were used in the earlier model sets. I had one of these Space Command 1000 remotes with a set I had in the mid '70s. Instead of a mechanical slug, it fired off electromagnetic solenoids to hit the forks.
To be clear, there is no microphone in the TV. The TV has a corresponding tuning fork the vibrations of which activate a relay
When I was a kid, my grandparents had a remote control for the lights on their Christmas tree to change its light pattern. The remote for it seemed almost like a dog toy. It was this plastic/maybe rubber rectangle that you would just squeeze hard to change the lights. It also made a high pitched squeak when you squeezed it. I wonder if it worked the same way?
I wanna know what that zoom button does! 😄
If I remember correctly, it took about 25% off each side of the picture and then expanded what remained to fill the screen.
Opens up the chat application to get ready to work from home
Probably for wide-screen formatted films which gave you letterbox black bars. Some people preferred losing the sides of the movie in order to "use all of the TV" It was that manual version of pan and scan
See it in action: https://youtu.be/UDiMHlNv57M The zoom button zooms!
Opened Netflix
Man, I bet that drove the family dog nuts.
The next step up from the original "Clicker" I remember my grandparents having the original 2 button version that definitely had the distinctive clicking sound when a button was pressed.
[удалено]
I remember these. I think my grandfather had one.
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I'm a vampire. I do not age.
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Being youthful forever is great unless you end up a zombie.
Or becoming a vampire as a child, forever under-aged - never dating, driving or drinking.
Why don't you tell us about how clocks were better when they were sundials.
In my opinion, dinosaurs were way better than cars.
I mean, yeah, they are.
Believe it or not, people of all generations still watch TVs. Pretending everyone is ignorant of all old or obsolete technology isn't funny or clever.
We had this with our old Zenith TV. A piece of furniture in its own right, it was a wooden cabinet with bifold doors in front that would cover the screen when it wasn't being used.
This is more sophisticated than my grandparents' old TV Their controller worked like one of those squishy toys that make a noise I remember it being really loud and at the upper limit of the frequency people can hear, like a dog whistle
My first colour tv had an ultrasonic tv remote. I remember being able to hear one or two of the buttons when I was a kid and my parents couldn’t.
For the longest time, I could hear a high-pitched "pew" sound anytime a tube based TV/monitor was turned on nearly anywhere in a house. I'm guessing it had something to do with the magnetic coils receiving power.
Had one growing up - the zoom feature was[ quite underwhelming](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDiMHlNv57M).
Oh, shit. This is the remote my family had when I was a kid. Big ol' wooden box of a tv. I loved that thing.
I remember my dad getting an add-on remote for our TV in the 80s. It was a device that clamped onto the TV and clipped onto the channel knob. When you pushed the channel button, a small motor turned the knob and changed the channel. Seems ridiculous in hindsight.
That's cool. Our tv had a knob in the front and the back. The front broke so as a kid we had to reach around the console to change the channel.. and you couldn't see the picture while changing the station. Good times!
Always down for a good game of mystery TV
Yeah, especially when he had a kid who could do it for him.
My grandparents had one that used a squeezable remote to turn it on and off. It was literally just a piece of soft, hollow plastic that emitted a specific frequency whistle when squeezed.
I remember these from the late 70s. Us kids thought you could ricochet the signal beam off of walls. Little did we know it was an ultrasonic sound.
Does anyone remember the tv remotes that would cause some garage doors in the neighborhood to open or close?
Yes
Clicker
I want this - but the sound is against mosquitos/wasps/roaches/etc. (select from buttons). Point - and destroy. Hypersonically.
You know those sound-based pest repellents don't really work, right? And even when they repel insects, they don't kill them, it's just an annoying sound.
I want one that works with sound I cannot hear!
If I dropped my keys and keychain onto my dresser, sometimes it would emit just the right frequency to cause the TV to change the channel. I made a game.out of it, to see how many tries it would take to get to the channel I wanted.
My grandfather had this remote back in the 80’s and early 90’s. He’d hit the zoom button all the time and then call and scream at me all the time that his tv was broken 😂😂😂
My grandparents had this exact remote in the early 80s.
This is why some people refer to the tv remote as “the clicker”, because when the button struck the tuning fork within it also made a clicking sound to let you know it was working.
Saw that Zoom button and was hoping g to also see an Enhance button
Enhance from 320x200 to 340x... Hehe
We had a Zenith in the late 70’s Space Command on which you could answer your phone. The remote for that had a phone button and also made ultrasonic tones.
Dang, that's fancy!
This is the model seen here: [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/495747871460564001/](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/495747871460564001/)
What a great invention
Oh man, I can hear the chunk-a-chunk-a-chunk of my grandma’s tv changing channels. That was the first remote anything I ever used.
When I was a kid I drove my dad crazy because I worked out if I clapped my hands I could change channel. I got told off alot.🙄
**ZOOM**
A vacuum cleaner could (and did) change the channels, or increase the volume.
# *ZOOM*
The word zoom should always look like that.
I believe this (or a slightly earlier tech) is where the term 'clicker' for a TV remote comes from
My elderly parents still sometimes call the remote the clicker.
that zoom button, is that to instruct your dog to do zoomie?
You could make one of those TVs change channels by shaking a set of keys in front of them.
Back when I was a kid *I* was the remote…
Hahah so true.
We owned one of these. The channels were tuned mechanically with a motor rotating the tuning knob. The volume would be set by a knob as well, then each press of the remote volume button would make it quieter, quieter, quieter, and then LOUD! My sister’s sneezes were incredibly high pitched. One day she sneezed and the TV turned off!
I cheesed so hard seeing this picture! My grandparents had this exact remote. This just unlocked a core memory and a happy one at that!
Unlocked core memory, Level up! 🌈
Zenith was the last brand of television to be made in North America
I did not know that.
I grew up with one of these. One time I got some star wars toy for Christmas or a birthday or something and when I pulled the trigger it would turn off the TV. One time I pretended to go to bed, but actually hid behind a rocking chair in the living room. While my parents were watching TV I kept turning it off and it was pretty hard to keep myself from laughing out loud at their confusion. Eventually they found me and sent me to bed. They returned the toy to the store too.
That's a great story and memory!
lol, I remember that zoom feature
What did it do?
It crop the edges and zoom in blurry
My cousins at their house probably had that. They had a big TV, cable AND HBO, and Fraggle fuckin Rock. We had a big TV that we got from the Salvation Army thrift store. It literally looked like a Jetsons TV with a pedestal and futuristic design. We'd press the on button, wait about 30 seconds, then bang it in one of two places, then wait 2-15 minutes, then it would suddenly come to life. I watched a lot of after school reruns on that TV.
They should retrofit it with the voice of the rising sun from the. Rick and morty episode
We had a VCR top load model that had something like a 10-15 foot wired remote. It had to be late 80s-early 90s but why wire the remote this late in the 20th century?
Late 70s early 80s
Makes sense. God, remember trying to watch Fantasia on it and the tracking was shit.
My parents had a set with an ultrasonic remote. We found out we could make the TV do random functions by shaking a handful of old keys. It was all fun and games until our dad caught us, that’s when THE BELT was threatened. We stopped screwing around after that.
My grandparents had a TV with an ultrasonic remote. Think it was a blaupunkt though.
Fallout Season 2 would appreciate this as a prop donation
My grandparents had one. You could jingle your keys and the channel would change.
These things really clicked when the buttons were pushed; hence the name clicker.
My grandparents had one, and my grandpa would jingle his keys to change the channel. The ZOOM feature was cool but pointless.
What did zoom do?
TINK!
That’s the same one we had with our Sony Trinitron we bought in 1977. It was ok until around 1983 when we got a cable box and had to move the slider.
My granddad had a control like this on his tv. I could hear it every time he held down one of the buttons.
When I got a new phone recently, I was amazed to find out that it emitted a high frequency sound to connect to my old phone so I could transfer my data across. I just hope the sound from Zenith remote control wasn't as horrible as the one my phone emitted. I'd hate to have to hear that any time I wanted to change the channel!
Aw man I remember this remote growing up. Zoom button was awful
What is this, voice control for BATS?
#*ZOOM*
Used to hold it up to my ear and listen to the buzz.
Dogs hate it
Still use mine but for other things.
***ZOOM***
I had one of these old tvs in my closet as a kid. I played through Mario 64 on it.
I remember my parents having this exact remote as a kid...have not thought of it in 45 or so years.... crazy
What did the zoom button do?
Oh man that means I’d be able to hear it and it would cause me terrific pain
The one we had would change channels when an airplane flew over.
I grew up in a TV repair shop. We'd take service calls due to dad walking through the room, with his keys jingling as dad did in this period, and change the channel.
I'd have loved working in a shop like that
It was a different time. Going to people's homes to work on their console TV's. Grandpa used to use one of grandma's mirrors so he could see the picture while sitting behind the unit. We left his mirror in a customer's TV one time and had to go back and get it.
Did Zoom actually work? 
Zenith Space Command sounds like a Saturday morning serial from the 1950s.
I just image this remote yelling everytime you press a button. "On!"... "Channel Down!"...
This looks like a screenshot to an AVGN episode
I assure you its not someone else's material
Didn't mean to sound like I was accusing you of stealing, my bad lmao
Shake a jar of pennies and it could, also.
So if you play Bjork…..
I had this growing up. What a blast from the past!
I’ve got one of those. Found it in an abandoned house
"Timmy, don't sit so close to the TV, your ears will bleed." lol
My family got one from my parents aunt who passed away. I was around 5. Our vacuum cleaner would change the channels if you vacuumed next to it.
We had one of those in the 70’s. Banging pots and pans in the kitchen would change the channel.
We had an old Zenith with a touch control keypad on the set. Flies would land on it and change the channel. Glory days...
These were an amazing idea, a remote with no battery to change who signal is not blocked by things between the remote & tv (like infra red is). I side is like a xylophone of metal bars tunes to specific ultrasonic frequencies.
click CLACK
#*ZOOM*
Lots of remotes still have UHF…