Rca 9-t-79

[MadMan]

I'm guessing that's the model number. Going off of this post. The chassis is still in my trunk. (Get to that in a bit.)

I went to the estate sale expecting the tv to either be sold or be too expensive, hoping they'd have some other old goodies. Well they really had nothing else of interest... besides a small handheld vacuum cleaner and a pair of pinking shears that I've been wanting for the odd time that I'm sewing something.

The tv was priced at $80. The conversation went thusly:
Me: "So it's half off tomorrow?"
"Yes, what are you interested in?"
"TV"
"It's $80, I'll take $70."
"Meh."
"How about $50?"
"Ok~"

It's complete, minus one or two tubes. It was filthy inside, nasty black sooty electronics dust. The crt plug cap thing is broken badly, but it was still plugged in. I called a friend to help move it, while I waited, I dismantled the set right in the middle of the estate sale. I figured having it in bits would be much safer, and easier - to move only an empty cabinet. Plus my friend is a klutz.

Dismantling was easy. I used the toolkit I keep in my trunk. Chassis was missing two bolts, other two were loose. It just got me covered in filth. Good thing I was in my work clothes.

The crt tests zero. 19AP4. Filament lights and getter flashes look fine. I'm going to say it's asleep and leave it the hell alone. I learnt my lesson already. I did clean it though. Mostly for practical reasons of not having a large filth-encrusted item in the middle of my clean bedroom.

The cabinet is in amazing shape, except the feet which look like they may have been wet once upon a time. They had it up on bricks in the basement. Not really that bad, I can probably cover up the damage. The top has clearly been re-coated. There's still scratches and handwriting under the clearcoat. Doesn't look bad though.

Speaker is there. Cone looks fine. Grille cloth is fine, too.

This will be a project for later. I have too many things cooking already. Incidentally, I already have a very similar set, with a rectangle tube. That cabinet had been cut in half. Presumably the chassis will be very similar... if I need some parts.

---

Also, I promptly repaid the favor for my friend helping me to move this thing. He called me later in the day asking advice for a microwave he was repairing (appliance repairman). So I went over and helped figure that out. That was hard. But once I wrapped my head around the operation of the machine, it was very simple.

[kvflyer]

That thing was the "Bee's Knees" back in the day. Nice that you have saved it.

[Kevin Kuehn]

It's from that period that RCA was using their air core flyback. I've tried to locate some insider engineering document explaining why they had gone to that system, but so far no luck. I have a fascination with any set that used that system, especially one with a 19" CRT. It'll be fun to see that one fired up.

[Electronic M]

Not much RCA engineering info survived the GE buyout IIRC.

Is the cabinet really that heavy that 1 person can't move it with the chassis and CRT pulled out?...A console usually has to be a LOT bigger than that for me not to be able to move the empty cabinet solo.

[MadMan]

Originally Posted by Kevin Kuehn

It's from that period that RCA was using their air core flyback. I've tried to locate some insider engineering document explaining why they had gone to that system, but so far no luck. I have a fascination with any set that used that system, especially one with a 19" CRT. It'll be fun to see that one fired up.

Oh that's interesting. What's that all about, then? Anything to do with the metal CRT? Because it needs to have a HV capacitor - since the jug isn't its own capacitor like a glass tube.

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Is the cabinet really that heavy that 1 person can't move it with the chassis and CRT pulled out?...A console usually has to be a LOT bigger than that for me not to be able to move the empty cabinet solo.

It is pretty heavy. Imagine a real hardwood dresser without the drawers in it. I could certainly *move* it by myself, but carrying it up stairs and out to a truck is a two man job. I could've maybe tackled it by myself if I had a dolly, AND some pieces of 2x4 to fill the void in the bottom so the dolly could grab it. Or load it upside down if I wanted to screw up the wood. But why should I make my life any more difficult than it is already?

[Kevin Kuehn]

Originally Posted by MadMan

Oh that's interesting. What's that all about, then? Anything to do with the metal CRT? Because it needs to have a HV capacitor - since the jug isn't its own capacitor like a glass tube.

No I don't think it had anything to do with CRT type. They made several models, I believe all in 1950 (including some with all glass CRT's), that all shared that same flyback type. And apparently licensed it to other manufactures, for instance I have a 1951 Emerson with the same circuit.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by MadMan

It is pretty heavy. Imagine a real hardwood dresser without the drawers in it. I could certainly *move* it by myself, but carrying it up stairs and out to a truck is a two man job. I could've maybe tackled it by myself if I had a dolly, AND some pieces of 2x4 to fill the void in the bottom so the dolly could grab it. Or load it upside down if I wanted to screw up the wood. But why should I make my life any more difficult than it is already?

I have a pretty good idea of what it weighs. I had a similar-sized RCA before...Empty cabinets usually ain't too bad even in midsized drawerless dresser weight...
About a week ago I carried the cabinet of this beast out of the basement and to the garage in one go without assistance and without damaging it or the house.

[Kevin Kuehn]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I have a pretty good idea of what it weighs. I had a similar-sized RCA before...Empty cabinets usually ain't too bad even in midsized drawerless dresser weight...
About a week ago I carried the cabinet of this beast out of the basement and to the garage in one go without assistance and without damaging it or the house.

Some day your back could remind you. Now may be good time to find some young gal to help you lug those sets around.

[vortalexfan]

OK, now that you guys are mentioning this "air-core" flyback transformer from RCA and that it was liscensed to other companies, did my Meck TV I am currently working on use that "air-core" flyback system by any chance?

I'm curious because some of the symptoms you guys have described that system having when it starts failing is the same exact symptoms my Meck TV is having in regards to the flaky high voltage and not very bright picture and what not...

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Kevin Kuehn

Some day your back could remind you. Now may be good time to find some young gal to help you lug those sets around.

That is on the to do list just past get my own house. When I have a girlfriend I want to make sure I keep the TV moving burden off of her as much as possible.... growing up my dad never did any of the handyman stuff willingly and often botched it if left alone... that stuff primarily fell to ma (who has health problems partially because of that) and me as I got older...As far as I'm concerned a man shouldn't off load all man's work to wife and kid.
Although I suppose on the bright side there are few home improvement tasks I'm not experienced doing or atleast generally informed about...
Last time the family moved we didn't hire movers...I was sore for a month but built like a brick wall for a good year after that.

[MadMan]

So I just finished testing the tubes. The ones in it, anyway, it's missing about 4 little ones. About half of them tested bad or right in the questionable zone. Do tubes go to 'sleep' like CRT's do? I tested known-good tubes to check the tester, and they all tested good.

Or are all the bad tubes the 'fallout' from the set being run with bad/shorted capacitors, etc?

[Electronic M]

1920s tubes are more prone to sleeping. When newer tubes are weak they usually are just bad.

Some tubes in a set can be cap casualties...though it isn't always recent. Some sets when the owner decided it was no longer worth repair would run their sets till they literally dropped dead and sometimes would even periodically beat the dead horse to see it it'd go a bit further after collapsing...

Some sets were also less picky about tube quality than others...some of my daily driver sets that get hours per day to hours per week after a few years of that on a service I'd sometimes find many tubes VERY weak despite the stages they drove still working decently (changing those would wake up performance often).

[Kevin Kuehn]

This is the style of flyback I was referring to this TV having. Kind of amazing they were able to light up a 19AP4 CRT with it. It'll be fun to get that set operational.

[Tom9589]

I once had a Capehart-Farnsworth that had a flyback like the one in the picture.

[dtryon]

I think the reason for the early air core H.O.T.'s is that the insulating materials were not developed enough to use iron core H.O.T.'s. The static sets and early lower high voltage CRT's were able to use iron cores simply because the HV was lower and they could insulate them from arching. When they went to larger CRT's requiring higher high voltage the iron core transformers would arch to the core. Even though using air core transformers made it more difficult to create the required HV it also made arching less likely. That's just my guess, may be completely wrong. Thanks guys!

Dennis