Found a 1979 XL-100 15"
 

Nothing like a 15" portable with the footprint and weight of a 19"

This is the second one of these I've found, the other one has a Silver cabinet.
The CRT seems a little soft but it looks good after it warms up.

For $5.00 I couldn't leave it.

Sweet I had one just like this with a really weak crt. I really wanted it to become 1 of my main sets because I liked the styling. Forgot which CTC number it was.

Nice find. I've had a few of those; and, when they're right, they have a very sharp picture.

There was one in a local indoor flea market for maybe 2 years. Every time I was in there I would see that RCA in the corner of my eye from a distance and think it was a Portacolor. I think the last time we stopped in it was finally gone. I'd have bought it for $5, too. (but not the $45 they were asking locally)

Giv ya Ten fer it...Dubble yer Munny....But at that price, YOU gotta ketch th' Shippin'....

i had 2 of those sets.one in my daughters bedroom and one in my sonns.those were very,very good sets that lasted for years.good score!

CTC-87. I have one that looks just like yours, EC333W is the model I believe. It's the set we keep in the bedroom and has an excellent picture.

That's really neat, great save for that price! I found a 15" Sharp dated July 1976, but I don't have that much space anymore. If I don't break down and get it, hope it goes to a good home. I don't know if there are tv collectors in this area though.

I paid about $3.00 for a similar set (also made in 1979) at a garage sale back in 1995. I also had the 1978 model with the silver cabinet that I paid $50.00 in 1990. Didn't keep it very long, there were so many problems with it that I sold it to a TV repair shop for 5.00 back in 1991.

One trick to do to implement a "brightner" is to wrap an extra turn on the flyback for the heater. I think most RCAs of that era got the heater voltage off the flyback, usually 3 or so turns of wire. Of course, there isn't a whole lotta life left in that CRT, but you can squeeze a little more out of it.

Would a Beltron CRT restorer work on CRTs like these?

That last Quote " I couldn't leave it". is going to be my downfall. You wouldn't believe how many sets can accumulate in a short amount of time. Weight is an understatement. Like the 13" Zenith with a large power transformer and Space Command. Heavyyyyy.

Like most of us I can't seem to pass over sets either.
Here is an October 1979 manufactured RCA XL100, Model ED 339WR I recently picked up at an estate sale. Only a 13" screen but this set has the footprint of a microwave oven. The original paperwork was with the set as well as the original 4 button, half round remote control. I suspect this set saw little use. The coax input still had its original plastic protector covering it.
When I brought the set home I was without cable service while waiting for the satellite system to be installed. I used the set over a weekend with a set top convertor box and my ancient outdoor antenna. It has a great picture.

I have that same exact set, bought it at a yard sale for $5, Have a remote with it too but it's not exactly fully functional (only the volume buttons work)

I had a very similar set in the early 80's, I bought it along with a couple other older sets at a Govt surplus sale for $10.

Mine had been dropped and the back had broken off and the PC board cracked.

I soldered the PC board and glued the back mounting posts back on and it worked great!

Back then a working 2 year old Color TV with a remote for $10 was a killer deal!

It died on me a few years later and I never bothered to fix it.

My grandmother has that exact same one, except the caps probably need to be replaced. The color is all off. I think the only reason why she hasn't gotten rid of it is because it just sits on a ledge in the corner of her basement. Last June when I set up the DTV converter box on it, it looked like no one had unscrewed the antennas since October 1979.

Here are 2 more toys I picked up at the same sale. Got them both for their styling only - I certainly don't need any more sets.

The ColorTrak has as good a picture as any I have seen on a CRT set. I had it connected to the satellite, and had an old Emerson vcr playing 007 tapes. It dates to February of 1988. Model FPR 520 WR.
The old Electra Bearcat III scanner is just plain cool - and it has the added bonus of having the local weather channel crystals already installed.

All 3 items totaled less $ 21.00

That's an interesting looking set!

Memory's a little vague, but didn't summa these (not RCAs necessarily) have a low value resistor like 2.2 ohms or so, in series with the heater, mounted on the socket board? I seem to remember "brightening" a weak CRT by shunting this resistor. Or maybe i wuz dreaming it. :boring:

Probably what needs to be done on mine, the audio is a bit crunchy and distorted sounding.

For some odd reason I remember internal flyback arcing on those. It looked like horizontal circuit problems and after fighting one for days I finally changed the flyback. I remember two resistors always opening in the vertical circuit causing no vertical sweep (220 k?)
Audio problems were generally a touchup of the quad coil. Other than that they played fine.