1981 rca xl100 color
 

i have a 1981 rca xl100 13 inch or so color with a ctc107c chassis. would this set be worth repairing and holding onto. the problem is it has sound but no picture just snow so maybe if it has a nuvista tube in the tuner maybe thats the problem but it is solid state.:scratch2:

Just got one of these myself. The power switch is bad, which means I have to open it up, and then I'll likely clean the controls.
I will hold onto it, these were pretty good lookers.

If yours is also a one-knob tuner, it has a pot for each channel, even the UHF's.
These sets were infamous for dirty pots and switches, so I would start by cleaning the channel 3 & 4 pots with DeOxit.

The Nuvistor tube was long gone in tuners by 1981.

Hm, I ought to try that with my '83 CTC115 before checking for bad solder joints.

If it has varactor tuners they were known for bad conections in
control assy & a coil near the flyback IIRC.
If an old style tuner probably the RF amp is bad. Could also be so dirty it wont work. Also be sure its getting B+ either 12 or 24V to the tuner.
BUT WAIT !! do you have actual audio or just the off channel
waterfall sound ???
Let us know & also the type of tuners it uses.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Well, in mine, just the off-channel sound along with snow on the screen. Around here it was known as a Newfoundland snowstorm. Mine has single-knob varactor tuning.

Newfie jokes, my friend from NB tells them all day. More of
them than Polish jokes. On to TV's.

CTC115 no coil on this one. Also no seperate control board
just selector & tuner. Clean the hell out of the switch. After
that get out the meter I can have you check some voltages.
Worth the effort, very nice sets.

CTC107C Coil is L103 near flyback. Looks good but often cold
anyways. Wires between tuners & MSC*** board go cold
where they enter. After that same deal, get out the meter.
All common problems, put may T-bones on the table for me.
Written on manual "snowy after warm up, U5202 "
I think he meant U2502 band switch & tuning voltage IC in
the MSC*** board.

73 Zeno:smoke:

well i acutually didnt put a cable wire to it yet but i now the person i got it from and he says it has sound but the picture is just snow like it has no cable wire on it at all. and the tuner is the old type like the ones you would see in the old 60s rca sets and there is no nuvista so ill check for power at the tuner for starters.

You mean its an old mechanical click tuner with a separate UHF tuner?

Probably just needs a good cleaning.

I'll have to crack open my own set tomorrow. I had a lot to do today, a huge load of laundry for one, and it's like Mardi Gras in the laundry room. I hope it's the pots that need cleaning, I don't have a multimeter yet. ESR meter and basic tools first. That set took on a lot of soot from exhaust from the looks of it. I seem to have a knack for finding garage-dweller sets. Took the crowbar to one that wasn't worth fixing because getting rid of it whole would have cost me, kept two. Well, two out of three ain't bad. ;)

The CTC-115 is a solid chassis from what I can tell. I had a 19" color set with rotary tuner with the -115 and it worked as found. Yes, all the usual cleaning of the controls and tuner are essential on mostly any set this old.
I had to pass up a CTC-89 from the late seventies this week. It was as clean as can be, but smoked and blew the fuse at power-up. Not exactly worth 20 bucks. A few years back I had a CTC-89 from 1977 from the curb and the green color channel was as dead as could be. It worked fine otherwise. I thought the video output board had intermittents or a bad driver transistor, after scoping the chroma demod stage, but it turned out the green had basically no emission as tested.

No kidding? I thought the 115 was exclusive to portables. This is a 9" screen set with the channel knob on the side.

A set that did what the 89 did, I'd think it should have been let go for free.

Yup, there is one very similar on Craig'slist here now. I am more interested in the 1980 Zenith system 3 19" that a neighbor is digging out of storage for me.
You may be surprised just how many old sets are still in hiding out there if you look..

Hard to know where to look here aside from Kijiji. My 1973 Zenith was a small miracle really.

Word of mouth, my friend. Craig's and eBay are a crapshoot. Thrifts are great if you like 1997 Daewoos LMAO! Have not tried Kijiji yet.
Around my neighborhood, I'm known as "The guy with the TVs" at the estate sale and garage sale circuits.

I'm not that well known here. That may change though with the next place I'm looking to do a step placement in, it's much bigger and isn't severely understaffed.

After buying roughly 5 tv sets in one summer at various estate sales, I earned my nickname. The one guy laughed and told me, "I should be paying you to take it!" It was a 1984 Sharp 13" color with remote for 5 bucks. I got it because it had composite input plus an A/V output block.

Strongly recommend a meter first. ESR is nice but you can mine your
junk chassii for caps & other small parts. You learn more to if you
find the problem & not just replace every cap thats "bad". Save a lot
of $$ too. Meter has lots more uses & what gets used the most. Good luck.

73 Zeno:smoke:

yes its a click type tuner like the old ones and it has a separate uhf tuner as well.

OK
I asked cause you cant have a classic dead tuner snow but audio.
When you hook it up take a screen shot. May be something simple
like the fine tune off. Since it has old style tuners you can disregard
what I told you, only applies to digital tuners.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Chances are good that you just need to clean the tuner. It's not terribly hard to do.

I've done hundreds of them, but not even one in the last 20 years.

Good luck!

For when I do get a multimeter, any recommendations for particular models?

Fluke is a very good meter but very $$$. They are sold on e-bay rebuilt.
Just be sure you get the manual & leads and it was meant to be
sold in US or Canada. Look at this one. Does caps also so its
a 2fer.

http://www.amazon.com/Fluke-115-Comp...productDetails

There are others out there from abt $20 but you get what you pay for.
A fluke will last your life odds are. Also has many more fetchers.
Only bad thing it only goes to 600V, but there are few times you
use it that high.

73 zeno:smoke:
I

ok tuner clean is in order for now ill check back with you guys on an update. i am disapointed that i dont have the number listing for the crt to test but the numbers i have for the 13 inch crt are close so if the plug is the same then i may try it at 6.3 volts just to see how good the crt is.

Almost all modern CRT's use 6.3 filament. Use the most common set-up for similarly numbered CRT's. The pin-out for your CRT is:

Filament 10 & ?? ( blurred ) probably 9
red K 8
Blue K 11
Green K 6
G-1 5
G-2 7
Focus 1 ( always separate on socket )

73 Zeno:smoke:

the crt is a 13vbp22 and i could not even use my tester from 1978 because the crt takes a weird plug. it must have been a new type in 1981.

I'm sure there is an adaptor around somewhere. I remember these little sets vividly.