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  #1  
Old 06-06-2013, 01:14 PM
AVeturri AVeturri is offline
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Saved an '88 RCA color from the curb

So, my friend alerted me to an old knob tuned tv set buried in a pile of construction debris.
Turned out to be a January, 1988 RCA color 13"...nothing special, really , it was built in Taiwan. Just happy to save it from the landfill.
But it is clean and works well! Very well in fact..the CRT is plenty bright and colors are spot-on.
I'm gonna take the back off and check out which chassis it uses. Pics to follow.
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Old 06-06-2013, 01:19 PM
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That would have to be one of the last knob tuned RCA's and probably uses a CTC135 chassis. I have the '87 GE 19" version that uses a CTC136 chassis. The CTC135/36 were the last decent ones before Thomson took RCA/GE down the toilet. GE bought RCA in '86 and within a couple of years, they handed the whole thing over to Thomson. So, yours could very well be a Thomson-era TV.
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Old 06-06-2013, 02:58 PM
AVeturri AVeturri is offline
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Well, you were correct, radiotvnut! It is a CTC-135D. Inside, it looks as if this thing was used only a few times in 25 years.
The CRT has an EIA of 169 yet it was made in Singapore. High-Voltage is 22kilovolts.
Something unusual I have noticed on this RCA is that the UHF only tunes up to channel-69, instead of the usual 83.
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Old 06-06-2013, 03:19 PM
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Sometime in the mid '80's, the FCC took away channels 70-83; so, that's why the later sets stop at channel 69. I've never looked to see how high up my '87 GE goes; which, is the bigger version of this set.
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Old 06-06-2013, 03:48 PM
AVeturri AVeturri is offline
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Interesting. I guess those were the UHF channels which the early cellular phones used?

So what's the general feeling about the CTC135? Anything I should look out for..failure prone parts for instance... ?
I am interested to see how the non-USA-made CRT stands up versus the USA-made one in my CTC-120

The innards really are immaculate.. it's a shame people just throw everything in the garbage.
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Old 06-06-2013, 04:30 PM
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The CRT's were very reliable, even the foreign made CRT's. The main trouble I had with the CTC135/36 were on electronic tuning models that used an MTT series tuner module. Those would develop loose connections inside the module that would cause all sorts of strange problems, including shorting of the horizontal output transistor on the main chassis. Of course, none of this applies to your set because it uses a standard rotary tuner.

Besides lightning strikes, I can't think of any chassis problem that I've seen on one of these. I'm sure others who were actually in the repair business have seen more of these and can tell you more than I can; but, these seem to be very reliable. Most of the ones that I worked on were the electronic tuning models and many of them were gifts from people who no longer wanted them.

I too am amazed at the number of working items people will throw out. About a year or so ago, my neighbor was moving and threw out a 13" knob tuned Goldstar color TV that was about the same age as this set. I brought it home and it worked fine. I ended up giving it to a friend and I think he still uses it.
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Old 06-06-2013, 11:12 PM
AVeturri AVeturri is offline
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Good to know...thanks.

Watched some over the air NTSC on it tonight, on my low power station channel 10..courtesy of one of those agile modulators.
"Videodrome" from 1983 seemed fitting .
Despite the rain, the pic and sound quality was near-perfect at over 200 feet distance in the toolshed. Using a 300ohm dipole to receive.
It would have been flooded out if i didn't save it!!
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Old 08-31-2016, 08:44 PM
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This is a great TV!

It is a workhorse of a chassis. I use mine constantly. The tube is better than a new set. After this era, the sets were pretty much cheap junk IMO....At least this one has a metal frame around the chassis.
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Old 08-31-2016, 08:44 PM
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....
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Old 09-01-2016, 11:29 PM
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Smile

Quote:
Originally Posted by AVeturri
So, my friend alerted me to an old knob tuned tv set buried in a pile of construction debris.
Im glad she got a new home

I hope she gives ya many years of happiness
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  #11  
Old 09-07-2016, 07:30 AM
kf4rca kf4rca is offline
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I picked up an old ctc120W from the roadside last week. Has a rotary tuner with varactor presets under the door. Full of dust but it still works. Looking at the schematic, looks like it would be easy to add a video input.
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Old 09-09-2016, 09:02 AM
RCAZenith RCAZenith is offline
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That's cool! I hope you enjoy it. I've been wanting a knob tuned set for years, just no room to put one at present.


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  #13  
Old 09-09-2016, 09:41 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AVeturri View Post
It would have been flooded out if i didn't save it!!
a little rain never hurt anything.... You can completely submerge a set in water, let it dry for a week without applying power, then once dry power it up again and all will be fine. I've gotten sets working that were left outside for years.

The only thing that may make a set beyond repair is if it sits submerged in acidic/alkaline corrosive liquid....Like say a set that was in a basement that had a sewer/drainage back up flood for a day or more...That may dissolve traces and corrode/short/open irreplaceable transformers etc.
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Old 09-09-2016, 02:43 PM
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Yes I have used rain soaked sets no problem. Ones that have taken sea water are a different story...I suppose even those can be salvaged if you do a freshwater rinse right away.
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Old 09-09-2016, 08:11 PM
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Sweet set. I have one very similar that I got off craigslist a few years ago. Nice find!
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