Curtis Mathes Update
 

I took the chassis out of the CM yesterday and found almost as much dust under it as I did on top. There were also two wires that were nearly burned in two and corroded from being up against a 20 watt resistor. After cleaning underneath and fixing the wires, and cleaning the controls, the picture improved quite a bit from when I got it home.

I watched it for two hours, and then had the unpleasant surprise of the damper tube shorting out! :eek: I was glad to see that the circuit breaker worked as it should. After replacing the damper, everything was back in order.

My photo below didn't come out very well, but gives an idea of it. What is it that makes getting shots of the CRT so difficult?

DRH... nice Airline and Zenith! Seems lately that we've been getting a better variety of brands in color sets. :cool:

Zenith 24NC31Z
 

I recently got this Zenith from a friend here in Texas. It has the 24NC31Z chassis (Sams 803-4). Possibly a late-65 model. It plays, but so far no color. The 21FJP has great brightness, and the "green halo" found in many Zeniths... but not too bad. I have the degaussing coils disconnected right now because the disc capacitors on them look very unhealthy!

The cabinet needs a small fix done on the top veneer. The rest of it could probably get by with a good cleaning, but i'll probably refinish it all.

CTC-16
 

Here is a view of my CTC-16 with newly installed CRT. Sorry for the poor picture quality (I need to get a good digital camera). I remember watching Bonanza on a CTC-5 when I was a kid in New York. I thought a rerun on a local channel would be appropriate. I am about to do a sweep alignment and critical convergence. I only spent 10 minutes "roughing" in the setup adjustments prior to this shot. It has been lots of fun and I look forward to finding an Aldrich one of these days!

Harold

Great shot!

Harold,

Great lookin' RCA! :cool:

Harold,

Nice set! Ah, watching AZNANOB in a service mirror while tweaking the controls in the back! ;)

Rob

Charlie,

That Zenith looks sweet! Do all of these have that green tinge that looks like a precursor to cataracts? Mine have it slightly as well! Does anyone know what the deal is on this? Did Zenith get their CRT's from a different manufacturer than RCA at the time?

Rob

Rob:

Zenith had their own picture tube manufacturing facility. The name of the company was the Rauland Corporation. I don't remember its location.

Steve

Rauland
 

Rauland was located in Chicago.

SteveK,

I know of Rauland. They even made their own version of the 15GP22 and were subsequently sued to cease and decist (sp?) by RCA I'd heard. I didn't know that they were an arm of Zenith.

Rob

Originally Rauland was a separate company and was Zenith's vendor for CRT's. When B&W set production exploded in the early 50's, Zenith bought Rauland.

rauland
 

Rauland as you know, was a subsidary of zenith in chicago. Their plant is (still is, but shut down) in melrose park, IL. I live just a few miles away from the plant. I can take a picture of the huge "zenith" sign that displays over the I-294 tollway here in chicago. Too bad though, it does not light up at night anymore since zenith is gone:(

OK, Rob, per your request, here is a snap shot of my New Old Stock '64 Packard Bell color set. As you can see, even in this bad shot, the thing is still pristine new and in fact has never been turned on (Variac time!)

It's model #21CT9-Walnut, basically the same as a 21CT7 (service manual BC-0125 schematic). The color tube is an RCA 21" circular shadow mask kinescope #21FBP22-A, with the separate glass faceplate.

This set was manufactured and assembled at the old Packard Bell factory which was at 12333 West Olympic Blvd. here in Los Angeles. Ah, the good old days....

Neat little showroom stickers still on the screen as you can see . Of course the owners manual and other goodies are still in a sealed bag stapled to the back of the set. :^)

Packard Bell didn't make the greatest color TV's in the world, but this is a neat little artifact from the good old days.

SteveH,

Great collectible! Congratulations. Where did you find this treasure?

Rob

It came from a Detroit store that went out of business in the late '60's and all the stuff put into storage. The grandson of the store owner looked through the stuff (finally) in the mid 1990's and put some of it up for auction. Basically a bunch of old toasters, etc. There was a stereo system and a few TV's, one this Packard Bell.

A TV collector bought it and brought it to Los Angeles, but it started to burn a hole in his mind; one can't watch the set through the stuff on the screen, but one doesn't want to remove the stuff off of the screen either. So, this guy found himself just staring at it, off. Last year he had enough of this stress and put it up for sale. I snapped it up.

Now it's burning a hole in MY mind... :) :rolleyes: