BPC 27" Magnavox
 

Although this set does not fall into my collecting interest, here's a 27" Philips-Magnavox that someone gave me the other day, along with a 20" RCA CTC186 from '99.

I can't remember the chassis number of the Magnavox (27Bsomething); but, it's the one right after the chassis that used the 100uf, 200V cap behind the flyback that always failed and took the HOT with it. I think this is the chassis that had the little blue disc cap in the HOT collector circuit that would short and burn. Anyway, this set was assembled in Greenville, TN and has a USA-built CRT. The CRT has an EIA code of 312; so, that indicates a Sylvania tube. Actually, the picture on this set reminds me of the older GTE Sylvania's from the late '70's-early '80's.

This is a stereo set; but, oddly enough, only has an RF input. I cleaned it up and advertised it locally for $50 OBO; but, no one has even made an offer. As nice as this TV looks, I'll keep it if I can't get at least $30 for it.

I think this was the last decent Magnavox chassis. After this one, they went to using a Chinese-built chassis and LG/Philips CRT's. In fact, a lady brought me a 2006 19" made in china SPC Magnavox and she wants me to fix the cheap plastic buttons that broke. I super-glued them back together; but, will giving her a universal remote and advising her to use the remote as much as possible.

The CTC186 RCA is the nicer 20" model with A/V jacks and it has a very nice picture after I adjusted the focus and the greyscale.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...psefccbfb6.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps8bcfaee1.jpg

So the CTC186/187 were in production at the same time? The 1998 set by a dumpster down the street recently was a 187.

Lots of RCA chassis numbers were in production simultaneously. For example, CTC-117, 118 and 120 produced for a span of many years at the same time.

Last September, we stayed in a motel that had a 25" CTC177 from '99. By then, the CTC203 was already out; so, don't know why they kept the 177 around that late (that one may have been a special motel set). I want to say that even the CTC169 was around until '97-'98 and was used in some of the higher end home theatre TV's. I think the first 169's were from around '90 or so. I think I read somewhere that the 169 was the longest running of any RCA chassis.

The CTC175 was used in 19"/20" sets with no A/V jacks and was a hot chassis set. The CTC176/186 was used in higher end 20" sets that had A/V jacks and used a switching power supply. The 177/187 was basically the same chassis as the 176/86; but, was used in 25" and larger TV's in all configurations. The CTC185 was a dog that I didn't really care for and was used in TV's 19" and bigger. The CTC203 was used in 19" through 36" sets, with the early version chassis having the same crap tuner on board. The later 203's had a solder in tuner that could be replaced. The 203 was a pretty good set; but, the 32" and 36" ones would eat flyback transformers and all 203's had a coil in the horizontal drive circuit that would have cold solder connections, resulting in intermittent HV and eventual blowing of the HOT. After the 203, RCA went way to Chineseezy for my liking (ATC010, ITC008, M134C, etc). These were cheap crap sets that ate flyback transformers more often than a CTC39 ate 6GH8A's and the buttons would become intermittent and cause the TV to do strange things by itself. I finally got so I wouldn't even take in any of the later RCA's.

Why was the CTC185 a "dog", as you put it? :scratch2: I have a CTC185A7 19" RCA set that still works very well after 13 years; the set has its original CRT as well, which makes a great picture. The only problem I ever had with that TV was the antenna connector, which broke off the tuner PC board after about a year or so; the grounds around the on-board tuner were resoldered at the same time the connector was replaced, so I never had one bit of trouble with the tuner. Otherwise, the TV has been working great and is now in storage. Were there some runs of the CTC185xx chassis that were more troublesome than others? :scratch2:

So RCA, or what was left of it by that time, went from the CTC136 in 1987 (my XL-100 for example) all the way to the CTC169 around '90... that's some rapid-fire chassis releasing, or a bunch of numbers were skipped. What gives? Just curious. Wait, it just occurred to me, before I pulled the back on my XL-100, you said it was probably a 130 or 136; apparently some numbers were skipped there. Why, I have no idea.

Back in the 80's when I worked for the RCA Smirnoff Labs, the chassis numbers tended to increment by tens for similar sets. For sets with comb filters it went CTC 101 to CTC 111 to CTC 121 to CTC 131.

Technically, the CTC146 was supposed to replace the 136; but, there was a period where both of them were made at the same time. There were others such as the CTC150 series and 160 series that were used in larger screen sets during the time of the CTC130 series.

The CTC135 was used in 13" sets and the CTC136 was used in lower-to-mid line 19"/20" sets. The CTC130 was used in some higher end 20" sets and in 25"/26" sets.

Yup, my 136 has a 20" jug. Mid-line set I guess, stereo tuner.

You have to also count projection sets, RCA made a lot of there own.
There are possable engineering sets that never got released, I
know of a Zenith that was never sold but had a chassis number
and even pictures of it. Could even be strange things like
no chassis # with 13 in it or 666..............

73 Zeno

There, fixed your sign-off line for ya. :D

Anyway, regarding that last part: that reminds me of a local funeral home whose street number is 2666, I thought that rather unfortunate. Enough of that though.

What might the chassis number be in my 1982 19" ColorTrak with ChanneLock Remote?

That reminds me, the CTC169 was used in some RCA projection TV's, as chassis PTK169.

hi Jon A.
'82 colortrak with channelock remote would likely be CTC117. mine had on screen display and the add/remove channel buttons under the door.

Thanks. I'm not familiar with that one. Mine has a LED channel readout. No RAT keypad on either the TV or the remote. All buttons behind door.