My New CTC-7! The Whitmore and a mystery accessory....
 

I'm super excited to announce the addition of this amazing set to my overcrowded household. It is a very nice 21-RC-8975 "Whitmore" with remote. It has a strange attachment however.

It sits on a base with casters! This base appears to be commercially produced but not by RCA. It was made for this specific model too because it has "8975" written in grease pencil. While the TV is wood veneer, the base is hardboard with photo print sides and solid wood trim on front. The speaker grill is for looks only but there is a place cut out for a round speaker. There are no mounts however. But it matches the set perfectly!

Another thing I am not sure about is this 4 button remote. The books don't list it. the first 2 buttons are locking and jointly labeled "on/off/picture". The sound and channel buttons are momentary. It uses a 13.5 V battery and the buttons are METAL. It is sooooooo coool!

So next comes all the restoration. I've kept my "Darcy" alive for 30 years but I want to do this one really right. Caps up. As such, I'll be asking for a lot of advice because I am strictly amateur... Joe

Very nice find!

+1

Seems like a lot of roundie sets come out of hiding this time of year. Spring cleaning, maybe?

Ah HATE Yew !-Y. Sam, frustrated TV/radio collector...Seriously, EXCELLENT score ! Ya done GREAT !!

Cool set ! Good luck with it ! Does it work as found.....?

.

Congratulations on your most excellent find!

Niiiice!

An excellent find. This article has some CTC-7 restoration notes that you might find interesting:

http://antiqueradio.org/RCACTC-7ColorTelevision.htm

Mine worked pretty well after recapping and cleaning controls, etc.

That's one of the biggest wireless remotes I've ever seen. Second only to the old Philco radio Mystery Control!

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

http://antiqueradio.org/art/PhilcoMy...ntrolFront.jpg

I know RCA offered several optional base units for their various 50's era table model color sets. How do you know this isn't an RCA option?

-Steve D.

Congrats on your new CTC-7. We'll all be looking to see more photos as it's restored.

Phil Nelson - I just perused your page - http://antiqueradio.org/RCACTC-7ColorTelevision.htm and what a beauty! I love those old magazine ads, too.

Congrats on your new (to you) RCA CTC7 "Whitmore" color TV. :thmbsp: I'll be looking forward to seeing pictures of it in operation once it's restored. I am always interested in this type of restoration, where an old TV or radio is brought back to life after years or decades of storage or disuse. Once this set is restored and working again, it will work perfectly well with a DTV converter box and an antenna; just be sure the set's VHF tuner is set to channel 3 or 4 to receive the output signal. Since there is no more analog VHF or UHF TV in the U. S. since the DTV transition, it shouldn't matter which channel is used.

BTW, that "mystery accessory" you show in your post is actually a remote control unit for a Philco console radio; I don't recall what year. The controller must have come from Portland, Oregon since the tuning presets are all (or mostly) Portland radio stations. (I live near Cleveland, Ohio, but I do some AM radio DXing from time to time using a Zenith C-845 and am an amateur radio operator, which is how I know about Portland's radio stations.) If you can find the radio this controller goes with, you will have an excellent beginning to an antique electronics collection, if you don't have one already.

Good luck.

Yes, "Mystery Control" is what Philco named their wireless remote. You can read more here:

http://antiqueradio.org/PhilcoMyster...dioControl.htm

Regards,

Phil Nelson

...

I wonder if the battery is that crazy XX9 type. The used them in the first GE transistor radio. Three prong plug and a nine volt tap.

Why? At least in the Ft. Worth-Dallas area, which was was among the
very first to have color programming on every day. From 1954!

I actually appeared on a local color show in 1954 or maybe early 1955.
A kiddie's show.