[Dave A]

Bryan,

The TV-123 saga is the best story of the bunch. Of the six listed on Steve's site, I have had possesion of three of them. There are one or two others suspected to exist but no one can confirm them.

My first came from a retired Philco engineer who sold me a CT100 ten years ago. It was rough and I kept the chassis, CRT and sold the cabinet...the one that ended up missing at the refinishers as I remember from previous posts. He also had a 123 on his sun porch which was a greenhouse for his orchids. Whatta veneer wreck. I pulled the chassis and still have it for parts. The cabinet was beyond saving with the dampness on the porch. I took it out of charity and did not know what I had. Set #1.

Another local RCA engineer was selling his and I got it about 5 years ago. He had worked for Philco early on and got it there. He had a spare chassis also that is not included in Steve's count. The chassis' were different in that one had a beefed up rectifier on a add-on chassis. This set went to another AK collector. Set #2.

I sent that one on and it was replaced by the 123 that Chuck A documented a while back on AK. It had been a prize on a national game show and was/is in great condition. Chuck did the recap and it now awaits two small doorknobs. The big one failed and that was replaced. Now one of the others is gone and I need to get both to do it right. Any doorknob collectors out there?

It is a cantankerous beast and very hard to set gains/backgrounds to get a good pic. Set #3.

The odd thing about my 21CT55 is my mindset about it when it came back. I just threw it together and powered up and it worked. It was no different to me than a CTC7 in my mind. Just another 21" color set when you look at it from the front. I had to step back and remind myself that this is a jeeped-up CT100 and should need tender loving care to do anything at all. It lit up and now I have some work to finish. I would be curious to see how this second generation fits in with Pete's efforts on V1.0. No pressure Pete!

Stay tuned and if you are near SE PA, stop in for the tour.