Any value to a '90s RCA F20551WN?
 

Trying to figure out what do do with this mint closet queen I have stashed away. It's a 20" table model/monitor model RCA F20551wn from 1992, black w/walnut sides and top. Looks like this one:http://www.showroom411.com/Media/Dir...20CRT%20TV.jpg

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BPC era sets you literally can't give away here...Not even the trash men or thrifts take them anymore. About the only folks who need them are retro-gamers who have 'light gun' games (like Duck Hunt for the NES).

If you can find a use for it such as a monitor for a home security cam, or it's intended use that is one way to deal with it.

You could also keep it in the closet as a spare for your daily use set. BPC sets tended to be reliable, and they are easier to get parts for now at 20+ years old than a flat panel set a with a month left on it's extended warranty....

Some of the lytics and sweep section caps are high enough voltage to use in tube gear if you feel like making it leave in pieces (a favorite way to relieve stress when worthless junk I don't feel like fixing is handy)....

If that set still works, you might be able to put it to good use as a second set in a bedroom, den, etc. Hitch a converter box and an antenna to it and it should work just fine. I had (still have) an RCA 19" TV from about 1999 or 2000 that still works (the antenna connector broke after the first six months, :no: but the set has worked great ever since), although I put it in my bedroom when I got a flat screen some years later.

RCA televisions didn't have serious problems (to the best of my knowledge and belief, anyhow) until Thomson bought them out in the '90s. At the start of the decade, they started using an onboard tuner design that, as the name implies, soldered the RF tuner directly to the TV's main PC board. These tuners often developed cold solder joints at the ground points around the tuner shield; this often caused noise to enter the "jungle" IC (a chip with many leads that practically ran almost the entire set, since it contained much of the TV's circuitry) and eventually destroyed said IC.

RCA (Thomson) eventually got enough often bitter complaints about the problems caused by the onboard tuner that they finally started mounting the tuner remotely from the main board; this first appeared in the CTC203 chassis and has been used in every RCA CRT set since. It wouldn't surprise me if they used the same tuner mounting scheme on their flat screen sets, although I have been reading lately that "RCA" branded flat screens are very bad news when it comes to reliability; that is, the tuner may not cause any problems in these sets, but other problems related to cheap parts, etc. just might send these sets to the landfill (after the warranty expires) sooner rather than later. I personally would never own a late-model "RCA" flat screen television for just that reason.

The set looks newer than a '92 is that the date on the
back ? Also what is the chassis # ?
In any case most TV's have no true value except to a SMALL group
hobbyists and then rarely much.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Not necessarily Zeno, I made a search on the net and I found the same model number and was a 1991 ;)

However, I tend to agree that in any case most tv's have no true value except for sentimental value..

Two generations ago you would've never seen this! "What, give it away or throw it away. I paid $500.00 for that thing, a month's wages."
I have first hand experience in this, as I bought and sold used TV's and other electronic items. :scratch2:

CTC166 chassis, per RCA. Service data dated 2/29/92....

Yeah, looks like I'll have to toss it unless I can find it a home. Not worth the hassle to ebay it with fees and shipping to deal with. Thanks.

Zeno you're right, the picture the OP posted is a set from the 00's, I'm not even sure Thompson made that set, I think they bought them from a Chinese company.

OP's is this cabinet style that was very popular.

Chinese made?! If that's the case, dump it.

OP's isn't, just the picture he posted is. The last RCA sets - I'd say starting around 2004 were really cheap and nothing like the earlier ones. Chassis was Daewooish and the cabinets were as thin as a plastic milk jug.

Yes, that's the style. Were actually kinda nice looking sets, with the symmetric speaker layout.

i have on that looks just like that but mine is from 1988
i had to replace one capacitor in it

http://s312.photobucket.com/user/jma..._0368.jpg.html
http://s312.photobucket.com/user/jma..._0374.jpg.html