CT-100 on eBay
 

Tube has enough vacuum to keep the heaters from burning up at least.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RCA-Victor-Model...item2eb4e453fc

Bogus refinishing job. The color's all wrong. The back of his cabinet looks more authentic than the front.

Phil Nelson
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

The one at ETF has a lighter finish as well, could that be a factory color? I agree that it looks strange with the darker color showing on the rear facing wood. :scratch2:
jr

The finish is wrong but since they usually need redone anyway it doesn't matter much. If the CRT is good it's worth the opening bid, that's a big IF.

Hopefully someone in the San Rafael area can do an inspection and report back to us.

Fading is common over time, especially with exposure to bright light. When I removed the CRT bezel on mine, you could see a big contrast with the original finish that had been covered since new. The original color was redder as well as darker.

Phil Nelson

Pretty obvious the guy knows what he has....Wonder if its on anyone's database ?

I'm near San Rafael
 

But its been a long time since I did any electronics - used to work on tube hi-fi, guitar amps, and the occasional TV - 40 or more years ago.

Is there any easy way to tell if the CRT has vacuum - aside from the filaments lighting up?

Small tubes I remember had a silvery coating that would turn to white dust if the vacuum failed ,,,

The crt has a silvery getter as well, which turns white from exposure to air. You really need a crt tube tester to get any more info than that since the set is nonfunctional at this point.

A 15GP22 CRT can have a silver getter and still be gassy enough to not work.Here's an example from the ETF Site

I believe this was a rebuild that failed shortly after it was done.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/images/PURPLE-GLOW-1.jpg

Even if the tube is under partial vacuum, it could light the filiments have silver getters and still be gassy.. As sure way to test for vacuum integrity is to use a hand held high voltage tesla coil high frequency generator and apply it to the neck of the crt. If the neck gets a purple glow, the crt is gassy. If no purple glow it will have a good vacuum.

If it is not gassy and a crt checker shows good emission, then you have a useable crt.

Corona discharge in the HV cage and loss of HV would normally alarm me, but based on what I've seen here at the convention I'm no longer alarmed at CT-100's that do it.... 2 of the operating ones (one of which is a model 5) give off enough ozone to clean all the air in the building. lol

BADLY sun bleached. I had one that was blond on one side, and deep red elsewhere. That RCA red lacquer finish is very easily bleached.

Just to clarify; the only "factory issue" color was red. There were custom order sets in blond (I had the knobs and pencil box and insert from one), but those were special order only, and I only know of one besides the one my parts came from. CT-100MBO was the model tag. Same situation as the 1940s RCA 641-TS console combo. I had a 641-TS in bleached blond, which had special light brown bakelite knobs (as did the CT-100MBO). I got the 641 from the original owner, who ordered it and waited 6 months.

Charles

So the custom order CT-100MBO would have been much lighter than the lighter set at ETF?

http://www.earlytelevision.org/rca_ct-100.html

Now it may be an optical illusion, but in the third picture on the ETF page, the "pencil box" looks more "gold" than red, and the grille cloth looks lighter, but perhaps these items have faded as well.

jr

Yikes! That ballast resistor seems to be drooping at a very scary angle!

Gilbert

The ventilated cover is held on the ballast base with a few little metal tabs. It's easy to bump it in that exposed position and leave it a bit crooked, even when the base is securely plugged in.

Phil Nelson

About these 15GP22's with vacuum and good filaments that may...
 

have air inside and thus soon to total ruin...
Is such equipment accessible or within budget to: Place CRT in total vacuum chamber that one can then drill tiny hole in safe place to evacuate completely and apply proper sealant to new evacuate hole and glass to metal seam all while under controlled vacuum?
I have not read of this but it sounds doable to me.

priceses dropping?
 

It's interesting to see no one's bidding yet. Are the prices for these sets dropping? Wrong color, unknown status of electronics, weird "fire sale" of set all of a sudden that's been sitting around for years. The only thing these people know is that they want $2K and need it moved in less than a week. Sounds like a dream to me.:rolleyes::no::sigh:

Many people use esnipe or similar software to place a bid in the last few seconds of an auction.

The cabinet color should not be a huge negative. Toning lacquer is cheap.

I only mentioned it so that people don't get the idea this is a common cabinet color (or good refinishing practice). If you're going to refinish a cabinet, why not make it look authentic? In the overhead view, looking down at the CRT, you can see the original color on the inside edge.

Phil Nelson

...

prices dropping?
 

talked to a contact today about the ct100. They were honest when talking about the set.At some point, one tube was replaced w/ a diode. Turning on the set recently caused the diode to melt and liquify. A proper replacement tube was used and no HV present. The FBT has bad arcing out of the side of it now to the HV reg. tube. IS there anyone with ANY spare FBT for these sets? New or used.

Yes... It was "limed oak" color (basically painted yellowish off-white with tan grain filler in the mahogany wood). The knobs and pencil box were light beige in stead of the brownish reddish color on the familiar CT-100s.

Charles

My Two Cents
 

For the record keepers, the chassis serial number is B1111566.

It looks to me like it was striped of the original toner finish, and then clear coated over in its natural wood. Not original, but not too bad looking. Hopefully it's not a poly finish.

Also, the cabinet and lid number is 472. The control panel insert number to follow.

Bump!

2.5 hours left, and no takers!

What is the slightly darker rectangular area on the front panel under the control door?

It's a snap-out wooden panel, which conceals more controls. If you scroll down (and down, and down) in this article, you can see it in various pics.

http://antiqueradio.org/RCACT-100Television.htm

Phil Nelson

Carnac says it's 472. :)

Went bidless.

I sent him an email, let's see if there is a response.

ct100 observation
 

Probably nothing?? look at the ballast resistor just above the area
where the cover is tilted down,there is a black spot.
Possible short????

If only I had a couple of thousand and lived on the east coast :drool:

If the ecconomy gets worse and prices drop who knows, maybe I'll be able to get or piece together a merrill on my shoe-string collecting budget.

Tom C.

East coast won't help you much on this one...

OOPS! That is one of the worst typos I've made yet.

I heard through the grapevine that the seller accepted an offer for slightly less than the intial bid and that it will be picked up today.

I'll let the people who are more directly involved post the full details because after stories get passed along sometime things get muddy.

John

Well, one thing I can say is that it is not me. Thought I should clarify that since I am geographically close and was at least ever so slightly interested if the price had gone a lot lower.

If so, it wan't me. He didn't reply to any of my messages. Hope one of us gets it though!

It's HEEEERE!
 

I am the guy who made a deal to buy the CT-100 after no one bid on it. I could not afford to spend the opening bid amount, so I made a deal for a lower amount that was acceptable to the seller, and I picked up the set tonight.

Details:
-The front panel insert is not #472, but is #733, 753, or 793. It has had some holes drilled in its inside surface to make room for the shafts of some replacement pots that were added, and one of them is through part of the stamped number. Two of the original dual-shaft pots have been replaced by a total of four new pots, visible in a picture that I will post later.

-Some work was done on the HV section. A solid-state replacement was installed for the 3A3 rectifier; it later went bad and a tube was put in again. Another tube was replaced by a solid-state diode as well, apparently; I will investigate further. I will post a picture later.

-The set has a temporary back panel that is from a Zenith Service-Saver TV. Again, a picture will follow.

Here is my first try at inserting a picture. Please let me know if the size is appropriate.

http://70.36.238.5/ct100/IMG_0355small.jpg

Congratulations on the acquisition!

I understand that someone tried to test the CRT. Any word on the results?

John

I HOPE the CRT's good, but even if it ain't, just to HAVE a CT-100 is sumpin' pretty special, in my book...Congrats !

This is purely conjecture on my part, but I think the restorer might have installed that SS HV diode as a easy way out of fixing a bad HV fillament winding on the fly.

Congrats!

Tom C.