another roundie saved

[timmy]

well yet another roundie this one now is an rca new vista tube stereo and turntable not sure what year, maybe 1964? no UHF but has a good 21fjp22 the scale is 200 or more is good this one is, red 400, green 400, blue 260 and its almost always the red that gives the lower reading but its good. how about the huge cateract........ and i think its bonded, fun... but its half off already.

[tvtimeisfun]

Hey Timmy great score on your RCA roundie keep us posted with pix on your journy to bring it to life Timothy

[timmy]

sure this ones gonna be fun...

[mstaton]

What is the chassis number? CTC-? Yes you will have to do cataract surgery.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by mstaton

What is the chassis number? CTC-? Yes you will have to do cataract surgery.

It's a CTC15. Probably a late '63 or early '64 model.

[Jeffhs]

Hi Timmy -

Another console--first the Maggie combo, now this one! I hope you have room in your basement or elsewhere in your house for both sets, as combos take up a lot of room.

The front panel of your RCA kinda-sorta reminds me of a CTC-12 clone Silvertone 1964 VHF-only 21" roundie color set I had in the 1970s. It was a good set and worked well enough to watch while it lasted (the picture, however, was terrible; out of convergence, hum bars, no color sync half the time, etc.), but a circuit board cracked in 1973 and made the set instant junk (I did not know much of anything about repairing cracked circuit boards or much else related to color TV servicing, being only 17 years old and in school at the time). I've told the entire story of that mishap several times in this forum, so will not repeat it here.

As others have said, good luck restoring your new-to-you RCA combo. These sets were very good when they were new, having been made by the original RCA Victor Company which pioneered NTSC color television in this country, so they are not junk like today's cheap offshore-made sets (grrrr) with the "RCA" block logo slapped on the front panel -- almost as an afterthought.

Your RCA combo will serve you well once you restore it to its former glory. These sets were built well and will last years once they are at peak operating condition, so be prepared to see that wonderful RCA color picture once your set is working. Hook up a converter box between your antenna and the set and you will also have remote control of the set's basic functions, which I do not think your set has as it is. You will also receive many more channels (besides your locals) with the converter box, depending on how good your antenna is. You are in the New York City television market so you'll be getting all the NYC broadcast channels plus Antenna TV, MeTV and any other digital subchannels your local stations offer. The LiveWell Network (LWN), for example, will be on a subchannel of your area's ABC channel 7, WABC; as to the other digital subchannels you'll just have to scan around and see what you can find.

For now, if you have cable, your set will receive channels 2 through 13 without a cable box; just connect the cable to the set's antenna terminals (through a 75-to-300-ohm matching transformer if necessary) and use the set's VHF tuner to select the station you want. However, if and when your cable operator decides to move all channels (including broadcast) to one or more digital tiers of service (as Time Warner Cable has done with some channels, but not the broadcast ones and many cable channels, on its systems in my area near Cleveland), you will need a cable box, with the TV's own tuner set to channel 3 or 4. Don't try to use the TV's own tuner to select channels with the cable box or converter box connected; if you do, you will lose the signal immediately.

[miniman82]

This should be in the early color forum, it's a roundie for crying out loud! lol

[timmy]

yes it is a ctc15 and no i really dont have room for these combos it is getting tight here. so now i have a 63 sears silvertone, 63or64 rca combo,65 magnavox combo, 66 motorola, and a 47 fada. the fada not done yet and the rca the others are done but not enough room. i may have to live in my garage if i keep finding these gems because they cannot be in dampness, that ruins them, we all know that.

[timmy]

does anyone have a diagram of the transformer taps for this rca stereo power supply. it is by itself at one end and it just has 2 tubes and a power transformer. it seems one tap may be bad. i think it may be the red and green that feeds the 2- 200v 100uf caps in series, but dont know what voltage should be there. and there is a single tap thats not being used and maybe i could use that if i know what the voltage is supposed to be on the red and green wire. this power supply chassis is a rva274. all it seems to have is heater voltage for the 2 tubes but all the caps are dead, no voltage at the caps or the diodes. caps were changed diodes test good.

[timmy]

update on the tuner amp-power supply unit it turns out that the main tap off the transformer that supplies the b+ for the tuner was dead so i just clipped that wire and used grid voltage and a rectifier diode and back fed the power supplys b+ circuit and the caps in the unit are 200v and 350v but the grid gave me around 150v and it plays great no ac hum very good volume. i never did find out what the voltage was from the transformer going to the b+ circuit. if i had a schematic it would have been alittle easier. its probably is a little under voltage but thats better then over voltage and since it sounds great thats the way its staying.

[consoleguy67]

You should contact bgk283 about the RCA. Bruce has an enormous wealth of knowledge about RCA sets.

[timmy]

ill keep that in mind for sure, but for now im in good shape.

[ctc17]

Be carefull with the combos....once the 'gods' find out you will adopt them they will be showing up at your door daily.

You are getting some easier to work on more standardized sets now. The 15 is a major flyback eater, but most of the clones flybacks will work if you are willing to do the research on adapting them.
Lots of interchangable parts on that set

[timmy]

Originally Posted by ctc17

Be carefull with the combos....once the 'gods' find out you will adopt them they will be showing up at your door daily.

You are getting some easier to work on more standardized sets now. The 15 is a major flyback eater, but most of the clones flybacks will work if you are willing to do the research on adapting them.
Lots of interchangable parts on that set

well the flyback is said to be ok but who knows until i get it going and besides i found a nos rca 113383 +fly277 coming as a spare. cathode currant number 1....

[timmy]

heres after the cateract removed and the face plate fell right off, got lucky with this one.