RCA CTC4 Seville Restoration

[Electronic M]

Ahh, so you are piping the blonder tongue RF directly into the tuner through coax and a balun....That would cause overload.

I prefer to use my Blonder Tongue modulators as transmitters. With a dipole tuned to the mid band of the channel the 40dBmV ones are capable of ~200' range on most vacant channels, and the 60dBmV ones can do a block radius.

As a fellow CTC-4 Seville owner I'd like to ask you for detailed measurements of the stand/legs portion of your set's cabinet....Mine is missing the stand/legs.

BTW/FYI: dB is a measure of relative signal strength, and without the reference point is meaningless to anything but gain/attenuation. DBmV is a unit of power and is not relative.

[Hagstar]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

BTW/FYI: dB is a measure of relative signal strength, and without the reference point is meaningless to anything but gain/attenuation. DBmV is a unit of power and is not relative.

Yes I am aware of this. In saying 45 db I was referring to the specs and model number of my modulator only, not an accurate power level. I merely intended to give some rough perspective on level.

John H.

[Phil Nelson]

Well, it sounds like your tuner benefitted from cleaning. I love simple solutions.

If you are getting a strong clear picture with good colors, you may be near the declare-victory point. Some bits in old color roundies are better left alone unless you have a very specific reason.

I was one of those folks using rec.antiques.radio+phono 20 years ago, as well. Learned many things from that group, although I drifted away after web-based forums became more active.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[Hagstar]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

If you are getting a strong clear picture with good colors, you may be near the declare-victory point. Some bits in old color roundies are better left alone unless you have a very specific reason.

"First, do no harm." Yes, although I'd love to learn how to use my Triplet sweep generator better I fear the irreplaceable nature of many of these parts, like I have to tell you Phil . Now with a CTC9 I'll be more game. I will likely however align the tuner to 2016 standards- to work best on Channel 3 At night I wrestle with questions like- if one aligns the tuning for stations which will never exist is it actually aligned? In fact did the alignment even occur?

John H.

[old_coot88]

Need to be more specific on the word "alignment". Sweep alignment of the IF strip is the very last thing to consider. Alignment of the tuner generally amounts to nothing more than setting the local oscillator so the fine tuning control covers the correct range on each channel.

But since the digital-changeover debacle, all the channels are moot except for the one(s) you want to use.