[Pete Deksnis]

I break my answers into those two periods I was fortunate enough to have an operational CT-100. Period ‘A’ extends from 1963 to 1966 while period ‘B’ is happening now.


Seeing the photo of the five working 15" color RCA's got me to wondering... how often do you guys fire them up?

‘A’ CT-100 B8000173 served two locations. In an aunt’s home in suburban Philadelphia where I had a basement bedroom, it served as my daily watcher for color programming only; I used a ’47 Farnsworth for B&W. Also, in the family’s ‘shore’ home where I lived mostly year-round, my first CT-100 was built into a wall in my bedroom where it again was used for color programming only.
‘B’ It's on most days, so I'm worried that I’m using CT-100 B8000194 too much. It serves as my analog daily watcher in my living room. The first RCA (Thomson) hi-def widescreen is my HD living room watcher.

Is it only for special events, or just when you get an itch to do so?
'A,B' Yes and Yes.

How long do you usually run them at a time?
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173 for example was used for ‘David Brinkley’s Journal’ for the 30-minutes the program ran. Back then, color was still rare enough that you knew where and when to go for it. If it wasn’t in color, I would use a B&W set.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194: 2 – 3 hours at a time.

What's the longest you've ran yours at one time?
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173: it’s too long ago to recall exactly of course, but probably two 1-hour shows back-to-back.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194 ran about five-hours in one session and then another three-hours, all in the same day.

Do you find yourself tweaking them each time you turn them on?
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173: all the time.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194: often only fine tuning, which isn’t necessarily much different from a ’54 B&W set. What really surprised me with this set is the lack of Hue adjustment required. My initial thought was the improved broadcast industry hardware. Maybe so. When I mentioned it to historian Ed Reitan, he suggested the ‘A’ tweaking was more my youthful enthusiasm than any great shift in hardware stability. Can’t say he’s wrong.

Turn them on momentarily for guests when they see them?
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173: Back then, the CTC10 was the show-off set.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194: Doesn’t matter if they want to or not. They see it either way.

Do you ever connect various meters before applying the mains so that you can monitor voltages and currents while they're operating?
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173: Back then, never made such measurements, perhaps because by virtue of its relative newness, it was relatively stable and you could buy a NIB 15GP22 at any electronics distributor.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194: I always monitor line voltage with this set. There’s a lot to investigate; it looks for example as though convergence may be quite dependent upon line voltage.

Have you ever had a bad scare while it was on? i.e. lost HV, something smells like smoke, picture goes away, etc.
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173: the worst kind: a spray of sparking color inside the neck of its 15GP22.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194: This 15GP22 has very low hours. About four weeks ago, pulses a couple-hundred volts high randomly appear on the green and sometimes blue G1 lines and sometimes on both lines. Naturally, the screen goes bright blue or green, or sometimes both blue and green, accordingly. Settles down after about twenty minutes and doesn’t recur for the rest of the ‘on’ time. Best guesstimate is the CRT itself; John Folsom concurs. Fortunately, it has not occurred for three weeks now and the video presentation is superb.