'50's 17" RCA B&W

[radiotvnut]

This looks to be a mid '50's 17" RCA B&W. I have not tested this set other than to check the CRT and it's still good. The tuner and controls are under a door on the top of the set. Anyone own or ever worked on one of these?

[Don Lindsly]

Decent set. I always thought they were "cute" because they are a shrunk version of a 21 inch TV that looks identical.

It is an entry level TV for '56. Could use a yoke cover if you can find one. Finding a high voltage cage top will be more difficult, but it will work OK without it. The horizontal hold control is the oscillator stabilizer so it can get way off frequency if it is out of adjustment. It has no stop like a control pot.

Has a good, stable picture when working. Make sure the solder board ground connections are solid. Heat the chassis lug to fix them. Avoid too much heat on the board.

[truetone36]

I have it's 21" big brother.

[peverett]

It looks like RCA used the horrible plastic on the yoke that falls apart over time. This seems to be common on RCA and Zenith sets of that time period.

[Tubejunke]

Originally Posted by peverett

It looks like RCA used the horrible plastic on the yoke that falls apart over time. This seems to be common on RCA and Zenith sets of that time period.

I have seen it on nearly every brand at one time or another; yet I have many NOS yokes that are just as old, but the plastic is like new. I figure that the constant heating and cooling process that the plastic is subject to might have something to do with it, because right now I STILL have the infamous 1959 Zenith Space Command (that I couldn't give away) set with low hours on it and the yoke is mint. I also have another set of similar vintage that is well used and the plastic is in shreds.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by peverett

It looks like RCA used the horrible plastic on the yoke that falls apart over time. This seems to be common on RCA and Zenith sets of that time period.

I don't think that is the orignal yoke. RCA yokes looked slightly different. Take the yoke cover and centering device from the Olympic that you acquired. That thing isn't worth spending time and money on. They were lousy sets and there's too many parts missing.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I don't think that is the orignal yoke. RCA yokes looked slightly different. Take the yoke cover and centering device from the Olympic that you acquired. That thing isn't worth spending time and money on. They were lousy sets and there's too many parts missing.

Actually, the one on the Olympic is starting to come apart and I don't think it would hold up to being disturbed. I'll either have to find a good yoke cover or make one.

I did begin the recap tonight and this set has been worked on several times. First off, one chassis mounting nut and a mounting screw are missing. Also, only one of the cabinet back mounting clips remains. Once I got the chassis out, I discovered where some resistors had been changed (one in the power supply and one in the horizontal output circuit). There were also some early orange drop caps that had obviously been replaced. This chassis uses a mix of point-to-point wiring and PC boards. Unfortunately, the PC boards are mounted in such a way that they have to be dismounted from the main chassis in order to "properly" replace components. Of course, one could do like the previouse technician did and cut off the old part from the top of the board, bend the leads into a "J" hook, mount the new part on the topside of the board, crimp the leads together, and solder. I'd like to replace the parts "correctly"; but, I'll just have to see how much trouble it is to remove the boards.

BTW, this will no longer be a fully American TV. For the exception of one 1600V Sprague/Vishay Orange Drop, the rest of the caps were made in either China, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, or Japan. At least they appear to be of good quality.

As far as the Olympic, I may play around with it; but, it won't be anything I invest a great deal of time or money into restoring. Especially since it's missing parts and has a weak CRT.

[Kiwick]

What's with that "golden throat" thing that RCA slapped on their 50s stuff?

i used to have a 50s RCA tube radio with this "golden throat" logo but neither the amp or the 4" speaker were anything special and its "acoustical balance" was just what you'd expect from any cheap AM radio

[Phil Nelson]

It's just marketing-speak, like "Sky Champion" or "Mighty Monarch of the Air."

In legal terms, this is called puffery. You can't sue a company for using such silly language, because nobody knows exactly what it means in the first place.

Phil Nelson

[GeorgeJetson]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

It's just marketing-speak, like "Sky Champion" or "Mighty Monarch of the Air."

In legal terms, this is called puffery. You can't sue a company for using such silly language, because nobody knows exactly what it means in the first place.

Phil Nelson

I have to admit I like the "puffery" companys of that era employed to sell their products,especially when they were implying the products came from the future,like "the sight and sound of tommorow" and the made up futuristic names like "Fiberjet" and "Predicta"

That Rca slogan reminds me of Motorola's "Golden voice"

[cbenham]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

It's just marketing-speak, like "Sky Champion" or "Mighty Monarch of the Air."

In legal terms, this is called puffery. You can't sue a company for using such silly language, because nobody knows exactly what it means in the first place.

Phil Nelson

But was there ever anyone at RCA Victor named D.D. Cole?
His name appears on the "Golden Throat" sticker.

[GeorgeJetson]

Originally Posted by cbenham

But was there ever anyone at RCA Victor named D.D. Cole?
His name appears on the "Golden Throat" sticker.

I've also seen his name on the "eye witness" sticker.

[radiotvnut]

Update on the RCA:

Today, I finally got brave and brought it up on the variac. To my delight, it came up with picture and audio. The three main problems are that the yoke housing has completely fallen apart to the point where the yoke won't stay secured to the CRT neck, horizontal sync is very unstable and jittery, and the picture is pulled in from the sides. I'm sure new caps and a good control and tuner cleaning will solve the last two problems. I don't know what I'm going to do about the yoke housing that's falling apart. I need to come up with something since most of the TV's of this age that I find suffer from this problem.

This TV is full of various types of wax coated and plastic cased paper caps that will need to be replaced and one of the electrolytic caps runs a little warm; so, those will be replaced, as well. The flyback runs cool and that's a good thing.

Since it has audio and video, that tells me that there's no major damage. Not bad for a TV that probably has not seen AC in 40-50 years.

[Eric H]

A guy over on A.R.F. built a yoke cover out of Wood! It looks and functions great.

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/...c.php?t=152637

[AUdubon5425]

ETF has the schematic uploaded to their site. RCA KCS94.