[Opcom]

Recall working on Zenith System III and that it was well designed and advanced. Some repair shops made a lot of money by repairing the modules, rather than just replacing them. Also recall RCA at the time of transition from GE ownership to Thomson. Huge change in design.

CRTs for the last of the large RCA TV sets were made by Hitachi in those days, IIRC around the early to mid 1980s. There was an issue with how the new CRTs where run in the sets in the quest for more brightness - the high brightness areas would bloom and look 'ugly' for lack of better explanation. I worked for an RCA distributor at the time and was asked to look into it because sets were coming back. I found that the problem happened during high peak beam currents. The factory enginers said that the high currents were heating the shadow mask causing deformation. It was hushed up for the most part and some changes made. The CRTs were recalled and internal changes made for the new replacements by Hitachi, and none should be out there but If one happens to have one of the sets with the troublesome CRT just lower the peak beam current.

I'd rather have the last of the US-made RCA sets than any other. They were assembled in the states with the Hitachi CRTs and other parts manufactured in Mexico, USA, and Canada.