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Old 03-07-2014, 01:59 PM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
<----Zenith C845
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fairport Harbor, Ohio (near Lake Erie)
Posts: 4,035
That's a fine TV. Should make a good picture once the set is restored. That the set has lasted over 40 years and probably still works speaks volumes for the quality of the true RCA televisions. If you do try to test the set before beginning to restore it, I'd bring it up slowly on a Variac so any chassis problems can be seen (and corrected) before any damage occurs. This set deserves to be restored, as it again very likely has a lot of life in it yet. The only thing I'd wonder about would be the condition of the CRT. After four decades plus of use, the tube is probably weak and the gray scale tracking may be off. It wouldn't hurt to check the convergence as well.

I have an RCA "XL-100" Commercial Skip CTC185A7 TV that still works great, 14 years after I bought it new. I put the XL-100 in quotes because, according to an RCA representative I spoke with on the phone some years ago, this is simply a model name that meant nothing then (by the '90s) and still means nothing today. XL-100 was used with RCA's first all-solid-state televisions and formerly meant "extended life 100-percent solid state", but RCA held on to the designation even after the company became Thomson. I don't see "XL-100" on today's "RCA"-branded flat screens, so the model name has probably, even likely, been retired. It's just as well, since the term has outlived its usefulness and former meaning.
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Jeff, WB8NHV

Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002

Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.
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