estate sale sunday was a total sucess! I was fortunate enough to come across a "SANFORD" model 21-DC-8775 rca CTC-7! It was priced at $20. The set was still in the living room in the original Downers Grove home! This set is in great shape yet, still has all of its original knobs and name plates! I quickly wanted to see the back for a model number but the back was gone. I was so po'd, my excitement level dropped as part of the TV was gone. I looked all over the house thinking the back had to be someplace. After about 10 min. of searching, I found it behind the workbench in the basement, still intact!!!!!!!!! I couldnt believe it, that was more luck than finding the tv itself!
As I brought the back upstairs to fit it on the set, I checked out to see some date codes and if most original tubes were in there. Looked pretty nice in there, most original tubes, but many were missing (about 7) so I figured this set has some issues and will probably take alot of effort to bring it back to life. Other than missing tubes, it looked like nobody tinkered with it, all original hardware still holding the chassis in place etc. The home was completely run down and very cluttered, so I know this tv was basically "hidden" in the living room for many years with its back off. Still has its original CRT dated 58-04. Most date codes are 58-04.
The only reason I think this set survived is because the man was single. Most bachelor estate sales have all old stuff, even tvs and the home is always run down and abused over grown bushes covering half the house etc. He was a ham operator and a koren war vet. Tons of radio and tube equipment scattered all over the place.

picture shot!

YES, all I did was replace the missing tubes and powered it up with the variac, and this is what I got! Im still shocked I get a color picture! I didnt touch a single control! CRT tested weak, so I will need to zap it.
the one filter lytic got burning hot, so the tv got shut down quick! I will recap the entire set to make it a reliable peice!

(what you see is a vhs recording of 9-11 news)

chassis view of ctc7

That is a beautiful set . the tubes for that set should not be hard to find.
what is the picture tube #. 21cyp22?

Doug!! VERY cool! I have yet to find a really OLD color set at estate sales around here.

OMIGAWD !!!<Whimper, whimper, whimper...>-Sandy G. At least one of US found it & it didn't get to go to Der Landfill...<Grin>

pulled the chassis on it. A total of 56 capacitors, and a total of 56 that need to be replaced! Once the caps are replaced, this should be as reliable as any other tv. Wax caps are all over this set, and they made a mess!
Yes, 21CYP22 crt.

Here is the back of the set

Wow, what a find! :thmbsp:
You might try cooking the CRT at 8 volts for awhile to see if it will recover.

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Doug,

Kewl find! I think this might be the first time I've seen this model (other than RCA advertisments). Seems a trend is starting for finding rare sets that actually play when they get home!

Doug, that crt looks good, I would not mess with it. Looks like red, green, and blue are there...you could touch up the screen controls to check balance. I only do the boosted heater voltage trick on the crt when it's really bad visually, because I do think it shortens overall CRT life.

Can you get CYP22s rebuilt? IIRC, they're basically the same as later tubes...

IMS, Video Display Corp in Dallas will do a 21CYP. He will also do the 19" roundie being that the guns are all basically the same. The only round color tubes he wont touch are the metal/glass jugs.

I agree with Chad. Don't mess with the CRT as it is still looks very healthy. Personally, I wouldn't raise the heater voltage. Just let the heaters do what they were made for at the designed voltage. I would try for 2 weeks straight. Don't try to shock it with anything and it will be just fine. Attaboy!

Doug,

I would definitely replace that electrolytic cap which was "burning hot" in your RCA color set (and every one of the other 55 caps in the chassis, especially in a set this old--RCA sets with single-digit CTC numbers are generally from the '50s), but not before finding out what was overloading it so badly. Any component in a TV or radio that gets so hot it will burn your fingers (or smokes) has been severely overloaded by something, usually a short in the power supply. I'd check to see if the rectifier tube(s), if used, are shorted, for starters (in a set of '50s vintage, you will probably find at least one and likely two 5U4s or 5Y3s in there; I'd test them just as a matter of routine--one or both might be weak). However, if the set basically works (as your pics of the screen are showing--that screen shot from CNN looks great), I would just test the tubes for cathode emission, and even if they test good, I'd replace them on general principles. Even if they work halfway decently now, you can be almost certain that tubes five decades or more old are on their last legs (this long a life span for a single set of vacuum tubes in a television set is darned nearly incredible, unless the rectifiers have been replaced at least once since the set was new), and probably will fail before too much time goes by.

If you're planning to restore this set, it would be a good idea to replace the rectifiers anyway, along with any other tubes you find in doubtful condition. I would replace them all if you are looking to restore this TV to its orginal condition (or close to it).

Whatever you do, don't run that chassis any length of time if you have a problem such as a red (white?)-hot electrolytic, as it could damage the power transformer if the supply is not fused.

I agree as well that you should not fiddle with the CRT if it still makes a good, bright picture. Using a brightener on a good tube can and often does shorten the life of the CRT, by virtue of running the heaters at voltages higher than that for which they were designed. Brighteners are OK for use with weak CRTs, but I wouldn't use one on a good tube. I read somewhere, however, that if you raise the voltage on a weak CRT and the filaments do burn out, they were probably, even likely so weak they would have opened soon anyway, even at normal voltage. The heaters in good CRTs are designed to handle voltages a certain percentage over their usual ratings (I don't recall the exact number offhand), but I wouldn't trust an older tube with filament voltage that much above normal.

I'd say use a brightener if you must, but if the tube works well without it, don't. 21CYP22s or other roundie color CRTs are probably difficult to find these days (almost impossible to find in NIB condition, though you might be able to lay hands on a NOS tube for a reasonable price, or find a good tube in a junked set), so I would say try to get as much life out of the original in your set as you possibly can.

Good luck. Glad to see a set that old making such a good picture after all these years. :thmbsp: New "RCA" branded sets made by Thomson won't come close to lasting that long, even though the company has (supposedly) licked the onboard tuner problems they were having with sets of 1990s vintage.

The CRTs in these new sets are getting better as far as quality goes as well, as the picture quality and reliability of these tubes seems to be better (much better) than it used to be. I have an RCA CTC185 (19-inch XL100) in my apartment; I purchased the set new when I moved here five years ago and haven't had five minutes' worth of trouble with it, except for one small problem with the RF port on the tuner PCB snapping off a few months after I bought the set. The tech who repaired the problem also resoldered all the ground points around the onboard tuner. Must have done a good job, as the set has been working extremely well, good picture on cable and all, and no other chassis problems whatsoever, since the repair was made almost three (or maybe four) years ago. (I also have a nearly-10-year-old 19" Zenith Sentry 2 in my bedroom that has never been serviced and still works almost as well as when it was new, but that's another story, one I'm sure I've told in another thread some months ago.)

I don't expect my RCA set (or my Sentry 2) to last anywhere near 50 years, but at this point I am hoping both sets give me good service for some years to come (even when TV goes all-digital in 2006, I hope to be using the RCA set on cable with a converter, with the Zenith in standby service). As well as both sets are working now, another few trouble-free years wouldn't surprise me; someone here said that, even though some early Thomson CRTs are bad news, if you get a good one (as I obviously must have in my RCA set and also the Zenith), it will last for years.

Kind regards,