Got an RCA G2000 and a "salesman sample" RCA today
 

So today I picked up an RCA 2000 off of Craigslist.
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...2&d=1616905626
The set was in a rural building that used to be an RCA dealership and probably is the previous owners home. The set was complete with the correct remote, hang tag and the sales and technical books, and also came with a spare chassis that had the velvet bag (full of knobs) that the remotes came in...The seller told me he sold 6 of the 2000 new out of that shop. While I was there I also bought an RCA 11" monochrome table set (the one that people on ebay mistakenly claim is a salesman sample) that appears to be an unsold display set(and a 7" electrostatic silvertone I plan to use as parts for an identical set). The little RCA he apparently would put on the floor in the empty space left whenever he sold a console to get a "What's that?" Reaction from customers.

The RCA 2000 works but has dynamic convergence issues and had a noisy picture from the DTV box feeding it (which he claimed was the antenna, but I know better). There's no battery in the remote so I need to figure out the voltage to test it at, and try and source the right battery.
Tomorrow I plan to variac the little RCA and start trying to combine the 7" electrostatic set with the one I got from Kamakiri years s ago.
I'm probably going to loan my Zenith Avanti to a friend and put the RCA 2000 where it was.

I've never seen that model. Wow.

We sold a few of the Trans Vistas from 69-71. Schematically, they're very close to the XL-100 which replaced them in late 1971. The Trans Vistas were pricey and most likely prototypes to see how they would hold up in the field. None of the ones we sold ever came back for service that I can recall. With the XL-100, RCA went all in with solid state with the XL being a partly modular TV to improve serviceability. RCA did continue to sell some hybrids along side the XL-100 that used sweep tubes, and those were also ridiculously reliable and had a great picture.

IIRC, the first Trans Vista used a HV rectifier tube and the later ones used a SS tripler or quadrupler.

Regarding the battery, if it's a single cell, I wonder if it's a 4V mercury battery. RCA used to use those in the early 60s small transistor radios.

John

Did that set come from the Cedar Grove, Oostburg area of Wisconsin? :scratch2:

Yes, the listing is sill up.
https://sheboygan.craigslist.org/ele...296805790.html

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I'm acquainted with the seller!
I bought a few items from him.
There's an interesting story regarding the sale of those five sets!:thmbsp:

Thanks for calling and telling me the story Dave. RCA sure knew how to treat their more successful dealers back then.

Wow, nice find!

Well, that explains why *we* never heard of that model...

John

Most dealers never bothered to order a $2000 RCA 2000, many who did were lucky to sell one. The astounding fact that RCA dealer Lesch TV managed to sell 5 of these then new car level expensive TVs earned them a free tour of the RCA factory and wineing and dining on RCAs dime.

There are over 10 threads here on this model of RCA over the last 10 years (most of them are "look somebody somewhere is selling this" threads and most are over 5 years old)...If you haven't heard of it you read a lot less on this site than I do.

I've only been on this site about a year (really, after covid prompted me to restore a 51 Andrea).

We sold a handful of the Trans Vista chassis (which were expensive as well, maybe about a grand in 68-69), but not that specialty model. I still have some RCA documentation of the Trans Vistas.

I honestly doubt very few RCA dealers back then heard of it.

John

Thanks for posting this for the sheer awesomeness, but while RCA was swinging for the fences with those SS sets, few were sold and now we know why.

Maybe Magnavox had a similarly expensive all SS TV, they followed RCA in many ways then.

But while RCA offered the CTC38X, 39 and 39X as the affordable larger color sets 69-71, Zenith was doing some of their finest work as S.O.P during those years.

Quite true. If I was alive back then and given 2k to put television in my house I'd probably have bought multiple Zeniths instead of one RCA. It is darn cool to see what RCA could do when they pulled out all the stops at the dawn of the SS color console era.

I brought the little set up on a variac last night. It gave sound and raster at 63V and 20W. At full voltage hold is close to maxed and reception is a bit snowy (that may come down to where it is in the room relative to my transmitter).

I know of two sold new in Oak Ridge, TN. Repaired one of the two, took a lightning hit. It was 10 years old then. Took several diodes, transistors, and a few capacitors. CRT was still strong (not a high hours set at the time). Oak Ridge had the income level then, but also people who were less TV crazy per capita (especially our scientists, physicists, and fine arts minded people).