Seeing the photo of the five working 15" color RCA's got me to wondering... how often do you guys fire them up?

Is it only for special events, or just when you get an itch to do so?

How long do you usually run them at a time?

What's the longest you've ran yours at one time?

Do you find yourself tweaking them each time you turn them on?

Turn them on momentarily for guests when they see them?

Do you ever connect various meters before applying the mains so that you can monitor voltages and currents while they're operating?

Have you ever had a bad scare while it was on? e.i... lost HV, something smells like smoke, picture goes away, etc.

Hi Charlie:

My CT-100 is in Wisconsin and I live in California so it gets turned on only about three times a year. I usually only run about an hour or so at a time. The longest that I play it is during the Rose Parade on New Years day.

Everytime I turn it on it requires some fiddling with the controls but I guess all CT-100 are that way. When I turned it on last week the hue didn't look right so I will have to pull the back off and check a few tubes.

I had a few scares with mine. Once I smelled smoke but it was just a resistor. The worst scare was when I looked closely at the phospher place behind the front glass and thought it was cracked. After checking with several other CT-100 owners I found that they all just look that way on the edges.

Steve

I break my answers into those two periods I was fortunate enough to have an operational CT-100. Period ‘A’ extends from 1963 to 1966 while period ‘B’ is happening now.


Seeing the photo of the five working 15" color RCA's got me to wondering... how often do you guys fire them up?

‘A’ CT-100 B8000173 served two locations. In an aunt’s home in suburban Philadelphia where I had a basement bedroom, it served as my daily watcher for color programming only; I used a ’47 Farnsworth for B&W. Also, in the family’s ‘shore’ home where I lived mostly year-round, my first CT-100 was built into a wall in my bedroom where it again was used for color programming only.
‘B’ It's on most days, so I'm worried that I’m using CT-100 B8000194 too much. It serves as my analog daily watcher in my living room. The first RCA (Thomson) hi-def widescreen is my HD living room watcher.

Is it only for special events, or just when you get an itch to do so?
'A,B' Yes and Yes.

How long do you usually run them at a time?
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173 for example was used for ‘David Brinkley’s Journal’ for the 30-minutes the program ran. Back then, color was still rare enough that you knew where and when to go for it. If it wasn’t in color, I would use a B&W set.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194: 2 – 3 hours at a time.

What's the longest you've ran yours at one time?
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173: it’s too long ago to recall exactly of course, but probably two 1-hour shows back-to-back.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194 ran about five-hours in one session and then another three-hours, all in the same day.

Do you find yourself tweaking them each time you turn them on?
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173: all the time.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194: often only fine tuning, which isn’t necessarily much different from a ’54 B&W set. What really surprised me with this set is the lack of Hue adjustment required. My initial thought was the improved broadcast industry hardware. Maybe so. When I mentioned it to historian Ed Reitan, he suggested the ‘A’ tweaking was more my youthful enthusiasm than any great shift in hardware stability. Can’t say he’s wrong.

Turn them on momentarily for guests when they see them?
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173: Back then, the CTC10 was the show-off set.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194: Doesn’t matter if they want to or not. They see it either way.

Do you ever connect various meters before applying the mains so that you can monitor voltages and currents while they're operating?
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173: Back then, never made such measurements, perhaps because by virtue of its relative newness, it was relatively stable and you could buy a NIB 15GP22 at any electronics distributor.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194: I always monitor line voltage with this set. There’s a lot to investigate; it looks for example as though convergence may be quite dependent upon line voltage.

Have you ever had a bad scare while it was on? i.e. lost HV, something smells like smoke, picture goes away, etc.
‘A’ CT-100 B8000173: the worst kind: a spray of sparking color inside the neck of its 15GP22.
‘B’ CT-100 B8000194: This 15GP22 has very low hours. About four weeks ago, pulses a couple-hundred volts high randomly appear on the green and sometimes blue G1 lines and sometimes on both lines. Naturally, the screen goes bright blue or green, or sometimes both blue and green, accordingly. Settles down after about twenty minutes and doesn’t recur for the rest of the ‘on’ time. Best guesstimate is the CRT itself; John Folsom concurs. Fortunately, it has not occurred for three weeks now and the video presentation is superb.

Hey Charlie,

Good questions. I guess I run my CT-100 every couple of months for 30-40 min. or so. Like my friend Steve K. I last ran it for the Rose Parade. As to fiddling with the controls, you bet. I usually let the beast warm up for 15 min or so. Then set brightness, contrast with the color control turned off. Then increase color and adjust hue for best flesh tones. Occasionally, after sitting for a while, dust settles in the chassis and upon powering up, a loud electric "snap" sound will come from some place inside the cabinet. This always makes me jump. The best part of owning this set is turning it on for visitors who marvel at the small screen color picture housed in the huge cabinet. And, that people actually purchased these things at all. Off screen images are posted on my web site.

-Steve D.

Thanks for your answers, guys. I think my favorite comment was Pete's talking about guest being over and turning on the set for them... Doesn’t matter if they want to or not. They see it either way.
Something else Pete talks about... using the CT100 only for color programs and using a B&W for others... there's something I never considered. i suppose if you were able to afford a color set in '54, you could also afford to also have a B&W set with a larger screen. Would make perfect sense to have the B&W... non-color shows could be viewed on a 21" or larger screen instead of the 15" screen. Probably helped keeping repair cost down on the color set.

I wonder if this might have been a common practice among early color owners? :scratch2: