CTC5 Pickup!
 

My wife went to an estate sale and saw this TV and wasn't going to tell me about it. She was already out in the car when she decided to show me the picture. I thought it was a CTC-7 but its the 21CD789 Whitby! CRT doesn't look necked from the picture. Not sure if its gone to air. Doesn't matter even if the CRT is bad. Its a statement piece and really rare in the Pacific Northwest.


25$ She only had a 20 on her. We got this for 20 bucks...

Nice set the crt looks like a newer one.

I was hoping for the AXP22. I'll find out tomorrow when I go to pick this up.

Looks really good for its age it may even work

Nice set. I was given one by a fellow collector a few months ago.... problem was the neck and all its hardware were gone, along with the back and knobs, front trim was gouged badly and the finish needed redone. I liked the cabinet enough I initially really wanted to restore it then the reality of winter closing in, not enough space and me having a nicer condition CTC-5 in a cheaper cabinet made me realize my best move was to sell it on to another collector.

Nice find, can’t beat the price. Hope the CRT is good.

Congratulations. I paid $100 for my Whitby in 2013. My CT100 in 2022 cost $100 which seems to reflect a downward trend is old TV prices?

I restored the exact same set 12 years ago. it is in our living room and is used regularly. I call the CTC5 an evolutionary RCA design but can be made to work very well.

I have no clue about TV prices, but I suspect they will drop for two reasons -

People who collect old TVs do so because they were buying TVs that reminded them of the time when they were kids and the programs they used to watch on them. They're/we're now getting older and our ranks our thinning with new collectors not keeping up with attrition.

The same thing happened with reed organs and windup phonographs. Reed organs can be had for the courtesy of dragging them out of the home and I'd guess Victrolas and other makes are probably down 70 percent from their peak some 20 or more years ago.

The second reason affects us all - CRTs (particularly early color ones) have a finite life and few of them are available NOS and the ones found as installed have God knows how many hours on them. No one is reproducing them for obvious reasons and there's no suitable way around them. At least with antique radios, a bad power transformer can be bought new or scavenged from another radio, and even IF transformers can be fabricated without too much effort from new parts, and of course the tubes themselves are still plentiful and probably will be mostly forever.

John

A bit of a heavy set! Looks like this set was delivered on Christmas eve of 56! CRT was replaced in 1962. I think it was put out of service after the on off switch shorted out. Burned and the wires crumbled and pulled right out of the switch back. Shorting them out to bypass the switch.

Pulled the horizontal output and damper as I tried reforming the electrolytics. I gave it a good 30 minutes watching the current draw drop. One can was slightly warm.

At 85 volts I got sound from my B&K through the tuner to the speaker. Powered it down and installed the damper and output tube. I didn't go above 105 volts and got a green raster. Definitely needs caps all around.

So what am I missing... How do I open up the front service panel? Mine seems to be really stuck and I don't want to break it off. Can't check the horizonatal hold or screen controls until its opened!.

The set still has all RCA branded tubes, even the two 5u4's, damper and horizontal output. Low hours even after the rebuild?

Promising having such a bright green raster at only 105 line volts.

Tube doesn't look tired

Without the service data yet I 'm assuming to access the service controls(screen drive and convergance) I need to remove the trim/CRT safety glass?

Thanks!

"So what am I missing... How do I open up the front service panel? Mine seems to be really stuck and I don't want to break it off. Can't check the horizonatal hold or screen controls until its opened!."

SAMS says remove 5 push-on knobs, then remove two metal screws. (The screws are missing from mine, so I only have to remove the knobs.)

Do not pull down on the wire springs in the top of the control box - these are for releasing the safety glass.

Get SAMS and RCA literature at
https://www.earlytelevision.org/tv_s...color.html#rca

I can't even get into the control panel to remove the push on knobs. Door will not pop out.


EDIT: I asked my wife for help. She got the door popped open pushing the button and using a screwdriver.

Push down the center golf tab and with a plastic credit card insert at the top and gentle pry open. I suspect the hinges are slightly rusted and binding.

Once the door is open, you can fix the hinge pins and free it up.