[drh4683]

Found a rather unusual set today. Something Ive never ran across. Its a 1977 RCA CTC-89 with remote control. It was found at a sale at 916 Lafayette Ave in Aurora.
I considered not going to this sale as it was in a bad section of Aurora. Aurora has a pretty bad reputation for crime. Like most of Chicago suburbs, they continue to decline and nothing is being done to save whats left of them. Makes one wonder what the future holds. Thats another story though that I could go on and on about.
Considering I just recently survived a CRT implosion, I figured my luck was still strong so I went ahead to the sale.
I found this set sitting in a bedroom without a bed, with its original RCA hi-cart. Ive seen many of these odd hicarts around, but never saw what kind of TV would have been on them. So today I got the best of both worlds, the TV, and finding out the kind of set that went with the commonly found empty cart.
I never had a set like this before, and never saw one before either. Seem like late 70's RCAs rarely show up, especially with remote. Its a typical primative remote as you can see. Its even an ultrasonic, which must be one of the very last from RCA. The set was made in September of '77. So it just turned 31. It doesnt seem like this set should be over 30 years old! When you first look at it, you'd think its from the early-mid 80's.
I noticed it was a Color Trac too. I kind of considered not taking the set at first. Then I decided to power it up and see what it was all about. The remote had good batteries in it yet. Plugged it in and it turned on. Pressed the channel changer button and the dial drum rotates! That sold me on it, motorized varactor tuning. You never see those! What also sold me is that it had the original cart and the set is in mint condition. The picture blew me away too. THe picture is as good if not better than a zenith chromacolor II. It has 8 preset UHF channels. Opened up the control door, which is designed to be completely removable. Also to note, the long vertical control door is actually pot metal! None of the presets were tuned, the indicator bars were all the way to the end like it would have been after leaving the factory. The channel windows on the dial drum all had letters A-H for UHF too. No channel digits were ever installed.
I didnt know what to expect as far as the chassis was concerned. I bought it for half off, which was only 5 bucks. My kind of deal.
When I got home, I pulled the back off to dedust it. I was expecting some "modern" looking chassis layout, like a mediocre sized circuit board and nothing else. Well, I was pleasantly surprized with what i saw. A nice big chassis, like an XL-100 which plug in modules, but the chassis was a horizontal layout. The power supply and HV sections were still point to point wired. Even has a seperate remote control chassis, similar to that used in the 60's sets. So its not a cheaply made set. It must be one of last "good" ones though. Good meaning, circuit boards/modules mounted on a steel framed chassis, and individual pots mounted to the rear of the chassis. I really like this one, and would make a great everyday TV.