need advice on starting a potential buy help!

[technicolor]

Got a lead on RCa colortrack, mid 70's. Of course it's the proverbial hasn't been used in 15 years but worked at that time

Do i just fire it up there and hope for the best? He ain't asking much, but if it shot, then i'm just getting rid of his garbage.

What's a cheap or free way safe way to start up a system that has been sitting for awhile?

I'm picking up a magnavox tomorrow that fits that bill as well.

I was wondering if leaving them in a hot dry basement that has electric heat, maybe put it close to the heater and try to dry out any moisture.

Is there some type of spray i can buy?

[radiotvnut]

If it's a solid state TV, you'll probably be safe with firing it up. Even the tube sets from the mid '60's and later can usually be fired up without extreme risk. Anything older than the mid '60's should probably be powered up under more controlled conditions because the older tube stuff is more likely to have bad capacitors that can take expensive parts with them when power is applied.

The very first generation colortrak TV's from the mid '70's were built like tanks and used a fold-down chassis. Starting in '77, RCA cheaped out on their chassis design. They are still decent sets; but, are not nearly as good as the older XL100 and first generation colortrak chassis.

[sampson159]

i agree with radiotvnut.the first colortraks were very dependable and desirable sets.fold-down chassis was the best color set rca made,period.as good as the zenith chromacolors in my opinion.crts were very good too.the later versions were ok but the crts seemed to be bad.i either way,i would get it.dont see these sets anymore

[radiotvnut]

I think the chassis numbers for the first colortrak was CTC74 for the 19" and CTC81 for the 25".

I've seen a lot of '77-'80 25" RCA's with weak CRT's.