RCA CTC4B "Gainsborough" picked up in San Francisco

[ChrisW6ATV]

After receiving a much-appreciated tip from another collector, I was able to bring home this 21CT664U set last night. It is missing the back, and the CRT is broken but the cabinet is in excellent condition, except for a drink stain and a couple of thin scratches on the top. The chassis is also nice and clean other than normal dust accumulation. The CRT "was" a 21AXP22A with the code 6048 on its connector, so I am guessing it was replaced after maybe five years of use. So, now I need to start a hunt for a good one.

[StellarTV]

Hey Chris, glad you got that! I got a tip on that yesterday, but I just couldn't see driving almost two hours to take a risk on something that was already out on the curb for free with no contact info. Noticed the ad was taken down fast... I had my fingers crossed it wasn't a tanker.... or worse, that person who makes the cat condos with the little dangling catnip mouse.

Way to go!

[Steve D.]

Nice find! Rare model.

-Steve D.

[snelson903]

vary nice , too bad about the crt .

[hi_volt]

That cabinet looks to be in excellent condition. Nice save!

[Kevin Kuehn]

Beautiful set!

If you look in through the neck with a flashlight, you may find the gun assembly embedded into the shadow mask. Looks like it may have been launched forward when the neck snapped.

[Phil Nelson]

Ooh, nice! If you run across a stash of good 21AXP22s, let me know

Meanwhile, it looks like my adapted 21FJP22 will work, although I still haven't done any of the color setup, and have various other loose ends to tie up in my CTC-4 restoration.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[John Marinello]

Probably did that while moving it to the curb.

[Username1]

Yah, it sucks to think it may have survived sitting all these years, and then got
broken just recently..... But anyway it is a nice looking set, keep yer fingers
crossed a picture tube will come from somewhere to you...... Good Luck...

[oldtvman]

Nice set

[oldtvman]

I hate that when you can see the after-effect of the gun assembly going thru the shadow mask.

[stromberg6]

Congratulations on a wonderful find!! Hope you can find a good 21AX, but if not, you can drop a 21CY, or a 21FB into the mask and set that up. Need to be sure that the anode connection doesn't arc to the yoke flange, otherwise, a relatively easy install.
Good Luck!!
Kevin

[ChrisW6ATV]

Thank you all for the nice comments, and for the suggestions about all-glass CRT substitution. The cabinet is in such nice condition, I kept looking at the back edges and elsewhere to see if it had been refinished-but it has not!

Regarding CRT substitution, the CTC4's yoke mount is interesting-it appears to be just about held in air by three metal rods that go to cabinet anchor points above and below the CRT near its front. That seems to me to potentially allow a glass CRT to be attached somehow to the front of the cabinet without needing to clamp the yoke onto the new CRT, which would be a big challenge otherwise. In fact, I also have a CTC-5 that may need a glass CRT as well, and I am going to look at similar mounting options for that set's yoke and CRT.

[mstaton]

Glass tube conversion with pics

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=253870

[Phil Nelson]

This article describes how I converted my CTC-4 to use a glass CRT:

http://antiqueradio.org/RCACTC-4ColorTelevision.htm

It's not very difficult.

The article isn't finished (nor is the restoration), so I haven't hooked it up to the rest of my website.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html