RCA 9TC240 Alignment...The start of my education (I hope!)

[Penthode]

Originally Posted by Chris K

I want to find the optimal method and equipment to do alignments on TVs from this era. I'm a bit tired of purchasing vintage equipment in an effort to do this. It seems to always be compromised by inaccuracy and reliability issues.

I think the best approach is a secondhand HP Network analyser. I see a bunch on ebay from modest priced to the astronomical. The HP test equipment in its day was top notch. My HP8600a/HP8601a is essentially a network analyser requiring a separate oscilloscope. It is good for frquencies from 100kHz to 108MHz and use it to sweep align radio and TV sets. I last used it to aligh an RCA CT100 color set and and RCA AR88D Communications Receiver.

The HP8601a Sweeper Generator seems still easy to come by and remains fairly cheap. Mine which I bought on eBay for $40 had a power supply fault which was easily fixed when I received the unit. It however need the HP8600a to provide the true network analysis function as the two devices work in conjenction with each other.

The markr function in the HP8600a/8601a combo works by halting the sweep momentarily to create a blip marking the frequency. There are five independently adjustable marker blips which makes it ideal to simultaneously mark the three traps plus a coulpe to define the passband. Selecting a specific marker makesit brighter on the sweep display and you have a vernier adjustment with accurate digital readout so that the marker is precise to within a few Hertz at 21.25MHz.

New this eqipment in the 1970's was about $8,000 for the pair and I bought them at the time about twenty years ago for about $80 because they provided the best and cheapest solution for my vintage radio TV needs. I higly recommend them for this sort5 of work.

https://xdevs.com/doc/HP_Agilent_Key...0Operating.pdf

https://xdevs.com/doc/HP_Agilent_Keysight/HP8601A.pdf

Here are the HP8600a and HP8601a on ebay. The HP8600a is an earlier version with nixie tubes but otherwise the same. Mine is a bit later using an LED display

https://www.ebay.com/itm/35583162966...Bk9SR9C2oPCoZA

https://www.ebay.com/itm/22625900266...Bk9SR66FvPCoZA