Color TV brand popularity - 1960's - Part 2

[paulg]

Agree with Norgeway

Totally agree with Norgeway. And RCA sets, particularly in the late 60s did seem to dry out.
And I also agree that the RCA sets in the 1960s looked better than the Zeniths. Everyone has their opinion though...
I remember helping a friend out years ago. He had relatives in a two-flat. One family lived upstairs, one downstairs. Both needed help with their TVs.
Both had the same model RCA tube color sets circa about 1968 or so.
One family cancelled their RCA contract early on. The other family kept their contract for a very long time.
OMG, the two sets were so different. The one set had a bad fly and dried up chassis. I gave it the last rites.
The other set was a knockout. With just a few repairs, the picture was stunning. Honestly, I didn't think it had a new CRT in it but it must have at some point.
The picture was memorable. It truly was the best picture I'd ever seen out of a 23" rectangular, non-matrix, delta gun, bonded glass tube to date.

 

[rickr]

Interesting thread! Most of the old tv's had nice cabinets, but they had to be serviced often. Has anyone ever done a conversion on a vintage tv to update the electronics?
I did a conversion to update my 1965 Magnavox console back in 1988, and just had the first repair done to the set this week. The tv repairman said that the best solid state sets were made in the 1980's.

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harryposter.com

 

[whirlcool]

There is a guy who restored a 1955 RCA CT-100 chassis color TV. He wrote a blog about it and it's loaded with photographs as well as the story of what he encountered along the way. This blog is definitely for TV tech types. But it is so interesting. If you click on the small photos they turn into nice large photos.
If anyone wants to know what very early color TV looked like, here's your chance.

After reading it I felt, I definitely would not have the patience!

[this post was last edited: 11/17/2011-12:43]

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antiqueradio.org

 

[iheartmaytag]

We got our first color TV in the late 60's.  I remember the first colored TV show we watched was Star Trek (in it's original run).  The TV was an ADMIRAL and my parents rented it to see if they would really like Color that much.  It was a great TV with lifelike color.  After about a year they decided to "invest" in a set of our own, it was a Zenith--what a lemon.  We had nothing but trouble with it the entire time we had it before it finally hit the scrap pile and we got a GE in 1974.  The GE (American Made)  lasted 20 years and we would probably still have it, if my Mom didn't want to downsize the house and do away with the console. 

 

[paulg]

Whirlcool Thanks for the link.

I too own a CT100. It does work however the cabinet is in deplorable shape. The picture is great.
I suppose it is time to get it refinished. I don't have forever to get the thing done. I cannot do woodwork so I must have it done professionally. I've gotten estimates. Yikes.
The link you sent is one I have not seen. Love it.
Actually it wasn't too hard to get it running. I bought it from an electronics instructor in Barrington who couldn't get it to run. I got it to work. Took a few months. The biggest problem was finding all of the open coils in the color demodulators and video. Thank God J.W. Miller can still provide the coils.
When the color pix showed up I nearly soiled myself. I didn't expect the CRT to work, but it did.

 

[whirlcool]

That's a pretty rare set, only about 4,000 of them were made.
Have you replaced all the coils and can you get a decent convergence on it?

My next project is to recap a Saba German table radio I've had for about 5 years.
It works without any hum, but it's just filled with paper and wax capacitors. I wouldn't want to see that transformer overloaded by a failed cap.

But I don't think I have enough experience to work on a television yet.

BTW, for any of you out there who may have a radio that needs recapping, the guy who wrote the blog on the RCA CT-100 wrote an article on recapping a radio, he makes it seem pretty simple.

Replacing Capacitors in Old Radios and TVs

 

[paulg]

Worked good.

Actually I believe only about 500 of the CT100 were made if I remember correctly.
I didn't replace all the coils, Just the ones that were open and those of similar type.
Fixing the sweep and HV was easy, but the colors were way off. I found a bunch of "peaking" type coils that were tan and cement-epoxy covered. Everytime I got into a circuit that held such coils, at least one was open.
Instead of running through and replacing them all, I first replaced only those that were faulty and restored operation. Afterward, I replaced any similar style coils on a case-by-case basis.
My style of restoration on anything is to trace through each faulty part individually, replace it and continue moving forward until I find another faulty part - or the set is working. After operation is restored I'll replace extra parts as need be.
For critical devices like a TV, I generally don't "recap" anything en-masse. I think it can induce troubles. By replacing parts one-by-one with a carefully selected replacements, and then ensuring its placement on the chassis is correct - I can be sure that induced troubles are minimized.
One exception is 5-tube AM radios. If the caps are bad, or are wax - out they all go. One-by-one parts replacement, though tedious - doesn't make sense here.
On the CT100, my convergence was good and the picture completely watchable. I'm still surprised how well those old sets perform - sometimes better than sets 10 years newer! Early CRT phosphors (perhaps sulfide in this case) make the bloodiest reds which is great for flesh tones.

 

[whirlaway]

CTC-5 1956

I have a 1956 ctc5 lowboy,it has the panaramic sound,knobs on the side.I got it in 1972 from an engineer at NASA.He bought a new set and gave me that one.I used it as a primary set till about 7 or so years ago.Very dependable,but the vertical caps are going bad and the horiz syn when its been on about an hour.Its time to replace them.They were replaced not long before I got it.in 1956 thru 58 RCA had a terrible time with caps going bad.Cheap and leaked,my circuit boards look like someone melted a candle all over them.This set has always had good ventilation,I keep it in a corner with the back removed always have.But like the previous post said this has a metal 21axp22a pic tube has always had good reds and good sharp color.Its the original tube its dated Aug 13th 1956.A vcr never has worked well with this set,picture bends.A dvd works great though.I have to find someone to recap it though I dont see that well for fine work and the boards are so brittle.RCA even had cap troubles with radios and phonos during those years,as soon as I get one I do recap those. Thanks Bobby

 

[paulg]

Horiz time constant

VCRs don't work reliably with tube sets due to some incompatibility with the horiz time constants. It is odd that DVD players work better - but it is a good thing.
It's a crap shoot. Some of my TVs work ok with a VCR and some don't. Have to play with capacitor values in the horiz sync. Generally speaking I don't go that far.
Sounds like you have a great TV with the 21AXP22A. I've wanted a set with that CRT and passed some by over the years and could kick myself. Someday..
And yes, I do find that RCA capacitors are rather crappy and the wiring insulation gets brittle. I had an RCA radio that I disassembled before testing. Thank goodness I did! Much of the wiring insulation underneath was gone!

 

[whirlcool]

In radios doesn't the alignment drift a little when you replace the caps? On that German radio I have I'm just going to replace the paper and wax caps and just test the can caps and mica caps.
I have a Normende, a Saba, and a Telefunken. I ran a SW antenna wire in my attic and can easily pick up european stations.

 

[tolivac]

If there are electrolytic caps in the radio-large aluminum cans that sit upright on the chassis or under it with axial leads and the caps is marked with polarity-with upright cans-the can is negative and the terminals underneath are positive-the cans are several caps in one many times.And the cans can have a paper or plastic cover on themIf you see a can type electrolytic in your radio with an insulated mounting plate on the chasssis-be sure you do not remove the cardboard or plastic can cover---that cap has a "hot" can-you can get shocked from ones like that.those caps were used in coupler circuits or voltage douibler power supplies.The electrolytic caps should be replaced-especially if the radio hasn't been played for a long time.those caps will dry out--and if you try to run the device-the caps can short and blow the fuse if the set has one-if not you may see a sparking rectifier tube and or a smoking power transfomer.The transformer can be expensive and harder to replace-you may not find a replacement.Grundig radios generally had selenium rectifiers in them.These will generate a toxic stinky selenium gas if thy are blowing out from a bad cap.

 

[whirlcool]

Since this is a radio type question I responded in the new radio thread.