TRK-12 RCA Invoice "AS IS"

[dtvmcdonald]

Originally Posted by decojoe67

Very cool! From what I read it seems television basically bombed in the pre-wars days, so that might explain the drop in prices at that time. It took WWII, unfortunately, to give it the major boost it needed in both improved technology, and the desire for the very optimistic post-war American to get the latest gadgets.

I own two prewar sets, a TT5 and a TRK12, and early postwar sets.

There really are only two technology differences.
First the IF frequency is higher,
using stagger-tuned single tuned circuits or overcoupled transformers rather than the prewar 8-12 MHz bandpass filters.
Second is the user of flyback generated HV for the CRT rather than
AC line 60 HZ power and a very expensive HV transformer.

Other than that, and a certain great additional complexity due to color,
the 1954 CT-100 looks awfully similar.

Now the prewar British sets did have a extremely different look, both circuit-wise (thyratrons as sweep oscillators!) and construction-wise (very military looking tag boards). The early US sets did have some military-ish features, not much.

Then ... well post-war, the word Muntz and all it implies appeared.