View Full Version : Groovy CTC-15


Charlie
01-18-2005, 08:01 PM
Here's a cool CTC15 I brought home today from the old TV shop. Model 14G896MV. Has some really groovy looking wood over the speakers.

I found this set in the warehouse he has across the street. I looked thru there once before, but, it's even darker than the attic where I usually dig thru. This morning, I bought one of those flourescent lanterns so I could go looking. I'm going thru this place pretty good this week because he is selling the property and I will be helping him take stuff out for the trash man. Looks like it will take us at least a few days to clean it out. There are a few more roundies... but not sure of their condition yet. Some of the sets in here are stacked 3 high! I did, however, notice that one of the roundies had an RCA Colorama CRT in it, so, I bettin it had been replaced and it's probably good. Seems I saw it's date code of 1971. There's a Truetone roundie that looks like it has potential (RCA clone). I'll know more as the week continues on those sets.

Okay... back to this one. The cabinet of this set was in far better condition than most of the sets I've brought home from this place. It had other consoles on top and on all four sides, so, it seems that it kept most of the dirt off of it. It's a little dirty, but overall, the cabinet is in pretty good shape and should clean up nicely. There are a few scratchs and nicks that can be touched up... but nothing too serious.

Other that dirt, the chassis looks pretty good. No rust and it should clean up nicely. The 21FJP is a GE dated 1966, so, it's been replaced. Checked it on the tester and shows good on all three guns! The glue under the safety glass has turned to Jello, so, it will pop right off. I'll get that cleaned up and re-installed.

Seems that 95% of the RCA sets I find here have drippy flybacks (like my last ctc15), and this one is no exception. Got some burn marks on it, so, looks like that's what retired this one. I'll call Moyer's tomorrow and order another. I was really pleased with the flyback they sent me last time.

Because of the fancy looking tuner, I thought this set might have remote or power tuning. Nope... just a plain old tuner. No UHF, either.

Looks like I found my next project! (as if i didn't already have enough before bringing this one home)

Charlie
01-18-2005, 08:04 PM
It's missing the door that goes over the color picture controls. Anyone got one of those to donate?

Charlie
01-18-2005, 08:05 PM
Close up of the speaker covers...

Charlie
01-18-2005, 08:07 PM
The inside... a little dirty... but will look better later

Charlie
01-18-2005, 08:10 PM
Oh yeah... and I found another 21FJP in a trashed looking CTC15... tested great, so, grabbed it too. Seems I noticed that most of the color sets there are either 15's or 16's.

reeferman
01-18-2005, 10:12 PM
RCA aftermarket had 2 versions of replacement CRT's. The "Colorama" was a rebuilt. The "Hi-Lite" was new, "The glass, the gun, the works!" as advertised by RCA. Cut my teeth on 15's & 16's. I can just smell the dust. Looking at the convergence board makes me want to see if I can find my diddle sticks. Best of luck.

Eric H
01-18-2005, 11:00 PM
Man Charlie you are just haulin home some treasure! Congrats, that's a nice looking set :thmbsp:

jackson
01-19-2005, 04:24 AM
I like that toob as well, Usually I don't like the horizontal consoles as much. I like the compact models and uprights, but that one has good style and I dig the speaker grills.

mbates14
01-19-2005, 08:46 AM
Yea, thats a nice looking set! looks to me, there is a dosen more to go through!

My grandmas 50th anniversary color from RCA looks similar to that, but its a rectangle tube, with folding wood doors. still plays perfect today, tube has been replaced. looks very similar.

mbates14
01-19-2005, 08:49 AM
id like to have that B&W roundie I see over to the extream right. That would be nice to have.

Charlie
01-19-2005, 11:23 AM
Last night, I jerked the HV tubes and brought it up on the variac. I never made it past 85 volts because i could feel, hear, and smell one of the lytic cans getting hot. I was still able to tune in audio pretty good, so, looks like this cool-cat will be coming back to life! :beatnik:

Just got off the phone with Moyer's... ordered a new flyback. I was in luck... got the last Thoradson they had on the shelf for this model. :thmbsp:

I had examined the old flyback a little closer last night. It looks like it had some serious issues. Melted wax, burn marks, corroded wire going to the 3A3. :yikes:

Did a quick clean-up job of the cabinet. It's looking much better. I will go over it again later paying more attention to detail. :yes:

Charlie
01-19-2005, 12:53 PM
Does anyone happen to know the name of this model? Model number listed on the back is 14G896MV.

Charlie
01-26-2005, 02:40 AM
Tonight I decided to pull the chassis from this RCA. The flyback was toast, so I swapped it out with a good one I pulled from another chassis. Underneath, I found a terminal strip that nearly fell apart. Looked like it got baked from a nearby 10 watt resistor. Had to replaced all the wires that became brittle, replaced the terminal strip, and repositioned the resistor to the side of the strip instead of directly underneath it. Changed most of the lytics... still got one can left to go.

Was quite late, so, I decided to go ahead and plug it all in to see how things were. Got high voltage and a picture on the screen, but the raster only fills about half of it. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a full raster because I did change the 50@150 on the verticle board. In the past, I've always found most verticle height problems are corrected when changing this particular lytic. Oh well... I at least have something so far. The horizontal doesn't lock... it seems to be off just a tad.

As far as color... not doing good there yet. Two of the tubes on the color board wont light up... a demodulator and the osc. Tried changing them, but still wont light. Maybe the sockets just need some spray in them. I'll dig around for that later.

Although I haven't hooked up the meters to check it, it seems the flyback is running nice and cool. At least that much is good.

At least I've got it running and nothing's smokin yet. Still got plenty of work to do on it... not to mention need to take off the safety glass so I can clean out all of the old crap that held it in place at one time.

Stay tuned.

Chad Hauris
01-26-2005, 06:24 AM
By name do you mean like the "Grenoble" or the "Harlequin", etc...I'll look in my RCA field service guide and see if I can find it.

kc8adu
01-26-2005, 07:22 AM
dont pitch the old flybacks.
i have had good luck fixing them.
and the tubes not lit are likely the ground points to the chassis.
common problem
i resolder all of them to be sure.

bgadow
01-26-2005, 10:13 AM
My -15 had the short vertical problem which took some looking but finally I found an open resistor, it was right off of either the height or vert lin. control, I can't remember which, but worth checking.

andy
01-26-2005, 11:16 AM
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Charlie
01-28-2005, 11:11 AM
My -15 had the short vertical problem which took some looking but finally I found an open resistor, it was right off of either the height or vert lin. control, I can't remember which, but worth checking.

That's exactly what was wrong with this one. R105 150k ohm connected between the height and vert centering controls was open. Changed it and the raster opened up nicely! One problem solved... several to go! :yes:

I got the rest of the lytics changed last night. Almost a pain trying to figure out where to put them all. Those 80/450 caps take up some space!

Those two tubes that wouldn't light turned out to be a wire on top of the board that had corroded and broke. New piece of wire fixed that.

Today I am going to removed the crt so I can get all the crap cleaned out from behind the safety glass. It should fall right off.

Three other problems I've noticed so far. It seems that I have very little control on the brightness. It's displaying the picture at a "normal" brightness level it seems, but, I can't make it much brighter or darker. It will change some, but not like it should. Checked the control with my meter... it checks good. Any suggestions on that?

The picture will lock on the horizontal when i first turn on the set (with the control turned all the way to one side). Touching anything... whether it be changing the channel, adjusting the controls, or simply breaking wind will cause it to get out of whack. The only way I can get it to come back is to turn it off and then back on. Tried two different horz osc tubes and no luck so far.

The service switch fails to function conrrectly. I don't get anything on the screen when in the service position. I had to remove the verticle output tube for setting the screen controls.

Can't say much for the color right now. I think I saw it get color a couple of times, but, I'm not going to concern myself with it till I get all the other bugs out.

It's getting better... slowly but surely.

drh4683
01-29-2005, 03:56 PM
Charlie,

Very nice set! Its called the "VISLANDA" (CTC-15AA). Sounds like you have low boosted B+ and I think that can be caused by a leaking cap (.01 @1KV or so) or a leaky diode. B+Boost should be 1100 volts. B+Boost feeds the CRT screen controls and if low in voltage, you cannot produce horizontal line in the service position, even with the controls all the way advanced (depending on how the voltage is).

Charlie
02-01-2005, 11:43 PM
Was really rainy,cold, and nasty here today, so I spent the whole day in the garage trying to make heads or tails of the problems I've got on this set.

After an entire day, and damn-near rebuilding the deflection board, I finally got the horizontal to lock... and it seems it had nothing to do with all the caps and resistors I changed. In fact, I felt like a dumbass once I figured it out. No, it wasn't a tube... I wouldn't even admit to that. The only reason I'm gonna mention this is because it just goes to show how simple a problem can be... especially when we beat ourselves over the head trying to figure it out.

Changing the caps and resistors never made any changes on the screen. It acted the same way with the new parts as it did with the old parts. Finally, I gave the horz osc / waveform coil a half turn to the left, and everything locked perfectly! Damn! That's all it needed! I had never even considered that coil because I would have suspected that coil would never get touched by anyone. Well, guess i was wrong. So, now it locks perfectly.

Still has the brightness problem... kinda on the dim side and changes only slightly while turning the brightness knob. I changed the caps and resistors Doug mentioned, but no change. I then changed many resistors and caps near the 12BY7 tube. That seems to have made a little difference Now i get a very faint red line when I move the service switch to the left... before i got nothing. In fact, the faint red line doesn't quite make it all acorss the screen... only part of it. Oh well... it's a start in the right direction. Also noticed the plate voltage on pin 7 is low. Supposed to be 310 volts and I get about 240 volts.

Before I finally quit for the night, I noticed the burst amp 6EW6 shows voltages way out of whack. The worst pins were 5 and 6. Pin five should have 50 volts on it... instead it reads about 395 volts. Pin 6 is supposed to have 265 volts, but reads 400 volts. Damn... that's way off!

Well, I'll be back on the bench tomorrow with it. Supposed to be rainy again.

Charlie
04-17-2006, 04:53 PM
It's been over a year since I last played with this set. My new-year resolution was to FINISH sets I've already started on... instead of starting on new ones. So, last night I decided to put this one back on the bench.

Last time I ran it, I was having a video problem. I had changed several resistors that were off spec with no luck and also tried 3 different 12BY7's. Well, it seems those 3 tubes really bit me in the ass! Come to find out, none of the three tubes were any good! I took one from a working set, and the video came back!

After I got the video last night, I started making adjustments here and there. I broke one of the convergence pots... great! Had to change the 6GH8 to get color to come in and it played "okay". The color level control seems to have some dead spots in it, so it will need changing. However, when it's turned up, the colors are quite rich. Then I went to bed.

Today, I turn it on and now have an odd problem. The picture is rolling... horizontally! I don't think I've seen that before in a set. Tried changing the sync and horz tubes (with tubes from another set) and it doesn't help it any.

Any thoughts on a picture rolling sideways???

UPDATE: Picture rolling sideways was due to a bad solder connection at the sync tube socket.

I'll still be needing to make various adjustments, clean some controls, replace the broken convergence pot. I'll get a picture posted of what I have so far later this evening.

Charlie
04-17-2006, 08:39 PM
Here's the photos I have so far.

Although I have video back now, the brightness still lacks a little. I have to turn the control nearly all the way up to get a comfortable degree of brightness... and also must have the CRT bias switch in the bottom position for a weak CRT... but yet the CRT tests just fine. All voltages at the CRT socket are pretty close to where they should be.

The focus isn't very sharp. However, the focus voltage is right on the money. High voltage is good as well.

I'm noticing that the AGC control is working more like a contrast control. Of course, it's kinda supposed to be a course contrast control, but the signal does not fade out all the way when turned to the left, and it does not overload to the point of pulling the picture if I turn it to the right. It simply gives more or less contrast.

One of the initial problems I noticed last year was the service switch will not produce a horizontal line... and this year is no different. If i put it in the service position, it simply cuts off the picture. No line.

I'm a little dissappointed that it's not playing better than it is. I've changed a lot of resistors that were way way out of spec. All the lytics have been changed as well. Nearly all of the caps on the boards are orange drops. I left those in. There was a small handfull of cheesy caps, and I've replaced them.

I guess it's likely many of these issues are related. If anyone has suggestions, please speak up.

RVonse
04-26-2006, 01:41 AM
Here are some of my thoughts. I would continue checking voltages around the 12BY7 against the values on the schematic. And I presume you have already changed out the capacitor supporting contrast control which hooks up to the 12BY7 cathode?

On the focus, I would first verify the small rectifier tube but it seems a little suspicious that you have changed out a flyback and are experiencing focus, possible boosted B+ problems, plus a brightness control issue. They could all be related to not having correct boosted B+ which originally comes from your new flyback. If I recall the the crt screen grids are ultimately sourced from this same voltage. You did say the screen grids were showing the correct voltages? I agree with the prvious poster to check boosted B+ with a fine tooth comb.

Your picture tube looks really nice and you have done a lot of good work so far.

blue_lateral
04-26-2006, 11:41 PM
Charlie-

Regarding your earlier post (way earlier) about horizontal lock, my 15 had a problem that required twisting that coil to warp things back to the correct frequency.

The symptom was this: To set things up you are supposed to short the sync test point (to kill the sync) and short out the sinewave winding of the horizontal oscillator coil. You then adjust the horizontal hold to make the picture stand straight up.

This is the part mine wouldnt do. "Straight up" was off one end of the control.

When you have that, you remove the jumper from the sinewave coil, and adjust the sinewave coil until the picture stands straight up. Then remove the jumper on the sync point. Picture should lock.

It about drove me nuts. I thought that some component in the oscillator had to be at fault. Not so. It was the .0015µF mylar drop that couples the oscillator to the horizontal output. It had gone way up (!) in value. I have an old book around here somewhere that says a common failure was for this cap to go down in value, and the symptom was burned up horizontal outputs or flybacks, due to reduced horizontal drive. If you havent replaced this cap already, maybe take a closer look at it.

Regarding the "too dark" symptom. Have the video tubes been checked for gas? These sets have partial DC coupling all the way from the video detector to the CRT. A little grid current can screw the brightness all up.

All the best,

John

Charlie
04-28-2006, 12:06 AM
Vislanda is a town in Sweden. Here's part of an ad for a RCA Vislanda.

bgadow
04-28-2006, 03:16 PM
I had some color-sync problems with my -15 as well. I could get it to lock with the jumper but not without. For awhile it would lock after running for about 5 minutes. Then, somehow, it stopped acting up and now it always stays locked.

kx250rider
04-29-2006, 01:43 AM
(color sync problem) ... Shield cans on 3.58 osc & burst amp. I had this loss of color sync lock several times on CTC-15 & 16's where a troubleshoot did not reveal any problems, and was usually able to resolve it by moving the shield cans around on those tubes, or replacing them with another style. It's DEFINITELY not a technical repair, but it worked for me :)

Charles

Charlie
05-06-2006, 12:27 PM
I've been spending lots of time with this set lately... and seems I'm not gettin very far with it. I've changed many resistors around the 12BY7... actually all of them. The 22K 2-watt resistor was reading 38K. Changing it helped a little, but not enough to bring the brightness up to normal. It's still dark. Also changed some capacitors.

I swapped the 12BY7 with the one in my Curtis Mathes... made no difference.

As far as voltages go, everything is pretty close to where they should be. The voltages on my CRT are right on the money. SCreen voltages are healthy... cruising about 820 with plently left to spare if I crank them up all the way. So it's apparent that the boosted B+ is good.

High voltage is good and the hz output is cruising at 202ma.

Still cannot produce a horz line with the service switch (no matter which position the CRT bias switch is in). I checked and changed some resistors near the switch... no change.

The only way I can get good brightness is by placing the CRT bias switch in the bottom position, but I shouldn't have to do that since my CRT test excellent. Picture quality is pretty good while in that position.

I have a B&K Analyst 1077B that i'll probably dig out and try. I've used it twice before on blk & wht sets, and both times it helped me pin-point video problems really fast. Hopefully it will be able to help with this set.

Charlie
05-06-2006, 04:10 PM
Oh... something else to mention... When I turn the set OFF, the brightness comes back for an instant as the set powers down.

If I'm not mistaken, Southernguy has a roundie that's doing the same exact thing.

Charlie
05-06-2006, 06:48 PM
...which is more than I've made in a couple of nights!

I found a 68k resistor on the rear of the bias switch... reading 276k. With such an increase in value, I had hoped changing this puppy was the ticket... but it wasn't. It did give me more brightness, but I still cannot produce a line on the screen. Damn!

The brightness came up enough that I can put the bias switch in the middle position and almost get a nice picture... however it still requires cranking the brightness up all the way.

At least I got that! I feel a little better now! :yes:

frenchy
05-06-2006, 08:52 PM
Maybe I missed it but I haven't seen any mention of what you are doing with the guns' screen or drive controls? What are they set at now? Are you having to crank those all the way up to get a horiz. line to show up too or (?)
Frenchy

blue_lateral
05-06-2006, 09:41 PM
There is a 6.8k resistor (big, 2w or 3w I think) connected from a four lead video peaking coil to one end of the drive controls. There is a 39k 4w resistor connected from the same end of the drive controls to ground. According to an old book I have, etther one of these can cause no line with the switch in the service position.

John

Charlie
05-06-2006, 10:04 PM
Maybe I missed it but I haven't seen any mention of what you are doing with the guns' screen or drive controls? What are they set at now? Are you having to crank those all the way up to get a horiz. line to show up too or (?)
Frenchy

Frenchy, I have been setting the crt screen controls using a volt meter. The controls are turned up about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way to give me the 800+ volts at the CRT cap. However, it won't produce a horz line at all.

John, you are correct... there are a few resistors there at the service switch. I've checked those... but with them still wired in... and they gave perfect readings. I'm probably going to cut one end of each and check again... just in case those readings weren't a result of the circuit looping around thru another resistor close by.

I also checked the coil you mentioned. One side is supposed to read 7 ohms and the other 12 ohms... both sides checked good.

I've been going back and re-checking readings hoping that maybe I missed something the first time around.

Charlie
05-09-2006, 12:39 AM
Yesterday, I changed a lot of resistors on the color and deflection boards of this set. When taking ohm readings at the tube sockets, the path taken is from the tube socket to ground or to B+. Easy way to find resistors off spec. However, there are many in there that won't be in the path between the points mentioned above. After checking several, I found quite a few that were more than 20% off from the marked value. I found several that had doubled or trippled in value. Many of them looked toasted, and i'm sure many of those probably drift in value as the set warms up. Altogether, I changed out about 40 resistors. I felt pretty good thinking that things would work well once finished.

Not so.

I powered the set up and waited to see how much smoke would pour out. No smoke... sound came in and then screen lit up. Looking good so far. Naturally, after changing that many resistors, I figured I'd have to make adjustments. The picture was terribly out of sync. I couldn't get a lock on the vert or horz. Tried putting in another sync tube... still no good.

I powered it down and did a quick check of resistance reading at the sync socket. The readings were WAY OFF. One of the pins should read 4 meg to going to ground... I got a reading of 30K. The other pin readings weren't much better. Well crap... I instantly figured I put resistors in the wrong places.

Back to the bench.

First, I looked at each resistor and compared to Sams. Then I went back and checked again. Then I checked under the PCB to make sure I didn't short any of the printed lines together with solder. Everything looked fine. I then traced each printed circuit from the tube socket to see if I could find a place in which I wired something wrong. Everything still looked good. Then I unsoldered resistors and caps surrounding the sync tube socket and checked them individually. They all checked fine. Hmmm... I'm running out of things to check.

Lastly, I decided to check the tube socket itself. Come to find out, something was wrong here. I was getting resistance readings in places I should get no reading. I took a piece of wire and worked it under the socket... thinking I'd find something wedged between the socket and PCB... perhaps shorting socket pins togther. Nothing turned up.

Finally, I unsoldered the socket the removed it completely. It looked fine. Took readings across the pins... nothing. Okay, so this means the socket is fine.

Hell... there's nothing left to check! Or is there?

I'm sitting there staring at the PCB. Keep in mind that the caps and resistors surrounding the area where the socket goes have been removed. For the hell of it, I placed my probes between a couple of the connections... one of which only has a few solder connection points... a couple of resistors and a pin to connect a wire. I looked at the meter and found a reading of 200K ohms. Okay... that's not possible... this meter must be malfunctioning. Got another meter. Same reading. What the hell??? How is the PCB conducting through the board? I checked from that same point on the board to chassis ground... got 500K! This would explain my sync circuit not working right... but why?

I got some alcohol and a q-tip to make sure there wasn't any dirt... even though it looked clean. Hell, it should be clean... I sprayed that socket a couple of days ago. Wait a minute... I sprayed that socket! There was oil in that spray! So, I cleaned the board with the alcohol and noticed my resistance readings changed. Now they're reading about 1 meg. I can't get it any better than that as of yet.

Sooo... I'm guessing that the oil in the spray has soaked into the PCB where the socket goes... probably thru fine hairline cracks. That's the only thing I can think of that would allow conductance thru the board.

And all this time I was expecting to find I wired a resistor in the wrong spot!

So, when you guys spray tube sockets, make sure you're using an electrical spray that DOES NOT have oil in it. It could really screw up your PCB.

blue_lateral
05-09-2006, 01:23 AM
GAH! :yikes: Oil shouldn't be conductive! What kind of spray was that?

For what it's worth, there was a real problem in some older sets with carbonized (burned) circuit boards. I think it was the early rectangular Magnavoxes, you know the chassis that looks like RCA at first glance, yet is pretty different when you start looking close at the boards? Well anyway it happens. As I recall it is the grid pins that really matter. A little leakage will grossly mis-bias the tube.

If you look at the IF board in the CTC-15, the board is milled out at the grid pins, and there are flying leads to the tube socket. I have often wondered if this was to reduce capacitance, or if it was deliberately done to prevent bias problems from carbonized boards.

Does your board look carbonized? Do I understand you correctly that all connections are removed from that trace and you still have a meg to ground? How far is the trace physically from ground? :scratch2:

John

Charlie
05-09-2006, 02:25 AM
The cleaner was MG Chemicals Super Contact Cleaner. At first, I couldn't imagine this stuff being conductive... but so far, this was the only theory I could come up with. That sync socket was the only one I sprayed... and it was the only one I had screwy readings at. Also, it did look like an oily residue was there around the socket area... which made me think this spray was the culprit. I couldn't come up with any other ideas of why I was getting conductance thru two points that shouldn't have any... although I'll be glad to entertain ideas or theories if anyone has any!

Yes, all connections were removed from the trace. If I remember right, the trace I was using was at pin 3... and there were only 3 connections... so it was pretty small. When I would check readings from that point to other places... including chassis ground... I was getting readings. This particular trace wasn't too far from a ground... perhaps a half inch or a little more... and the ground trace nearly goes around the entire board.

I've been using this same brand for a couple of years... never had a problem before. For applications such as this, I think I'll start using spray that does not have oil in it. I usually keep both types on hand, but havent been down to the parts house in a while. I'll make sure to go this week and get some.

No, didn't look like any carbon residue on the board there in the sync area.... although some other areas on another board look like they've been cooked thru the years.

Since that post, I've been applying alcohol to the area with a q-tip and letting it dry.... then go back and do it again. Now, a couple of hours later, I'm not getting any resistance readings like before... now I'm getting readings around 20 megs where I was earlier getting 200k. I'm gonna keep applying the alcohol since it seems to be helping.

Charlie
05-11-2006, 12:13 PM
After my experience with conductivity between isolated PCB traces, I went to the parts house to get some new cleaner spray and discuss my issue with the guy that runs the place.

I described in detail what happened and the man was very surprised of the results I ended up with. The man pointed out that the spray can be used on IC's. Like myself, he figured if it can be used on IC's, it can be used on tube sockets.

I picked out a can of MG Chemicals Electrosolve Contact Cleaner- Zero Residue, Non-Conductive. This stuff says it cleans and degreases all the normal stuff... including micro-processors, tuners, and printed circuits.

Now, things seem to be getting better. A couple of days ago, I would turn on the set, and it would take about 5 or 6 minutes for the picture to straighten out. Everytime I've turned it on since then, it takes a little less time for it to make a good picture. This morning, I turned it on and it straightened out after only a minute.

The set is producing a pretty good picture, however there are a few flaws. Sometimes when I turn it on, the screen is black with no raster (but has HV) and I've found that changing the channel makes the picture come on. At first, I thought it was something loose, but if I tried hitting the set or tapping various locations, that doesn't help. Only changing the channel helps. I've also noted that when the raster is missing, the 3rd IF tube is glowing twice as bright as it should. As soon as I change the channel and the raster comes on, the IF tube glow goes back to normal. I'll try changing that tube and see if it helps.

I'm having difficulty getting the verticle height and linearity set correctly. The top of the picture is a little stretched out and makes a circle look like an egg.

In a black and white thread, I mentioned having a light verticle line in the left side of the screen on my b&w sets... and that I hadn't seen it on a color set. Seems I shouldn't have made that comment, because now I have the same line in this color set. My horz drive is set correctly. Last night, I read in a book that changing the damper tube will sometimes correct this, so I'll try that and see what I get.

I'm noticing that the bottom part of the picture does not focus as well as the top. Focus voltage is correct.

I'm thinking it's possible that the focus, light verticle line, and vert height/linearity problems are all related... and possibly the culprit could be the flyback. The flyback is running cool... no hot spots. I had changed this flyback in the beginning, however, it was pulled from another chassis. It's a replacement part... not an original RCA flyback.

On the positive side, the color and contrast is really good.

It appears that this set was REALLY worn out when I got it!

andy
05-11-2006, 12:53 PM
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