Picked up the '64 RCA roundie combo
 

Picked up the combo yesterday afternoon. Was as simple fast drive. The guy I bought it from had it since 1984, it was his aunt+uncles set and he got it in 84 after his uncle died. its been sitting in the bedroom of his home since then. He's moving into a condo and is clearing out the large items in his home. His aunt and uncle must have been smokers, as it has the orange/red dust inside but its not to the point where it turned into a sticky tar throughout the set (luckily!). This set is a 1964 model, all tubes are dated 22 through 26th week of 1964. As jsstout said, its an early production CTC16 (CTC16AP). The late production CTC16X series was the 1965 models. The turn table was stamped "MAY 5, 1964" so its past the FCC mandate for UHF. When I got the to the guys house to pick it up, I noticed that the back of the CRT cap had a hole punched in it. You can tell this damage happened years ago as the breaks had dust in them, they were not clean new breaks. He just didnt mention it on the auction. I thought nothing of it as I have a replacement cap for an rca roundie from parts sets (theres a reason I kept those few caps all this time!) When I got home to look at what this set was all about, I noticed the CRT plug had been smashed in the same area as the hole in the cap. Something jammed through there at one time and made its way to the CRT. Amazingly, the CRT is just fine and didnt bend or distort any of the fine wire leads.
The set has a great bright picture from a cold start up, and the screen drives are not cranked all the way either. It definitly has some good hours of use on it, but the pc boards look good yet. Most of the orignal tubes have been changed out for the TV component. The color wouldnt sync in, due to a bad 6GH8. I had to change many tubes in the set, many tubes in the IF, AGC circuits had shorts, grid emission.
The radio works very well on FM and FM stereo. AM needs attention in the front end, as strong AM stations distort badly and overload. I noticed the 6BE6 AM converter had a short, which probably damaged a cap or resistor somewhere in its circuit. Phono works very well.

As of now, it needs a new crt plug. Does anyone have a dud CRT that I can buy for the plug, or buy the plug itself? Cateract repair is the next step. So far, without touching a thing like convergence etc. it displays a good sharp color picture.

Too cool! You pictures make the set look much better. It was a nice score!!!


polaraman

A good place to find a CRT base (and socket) is get a olor CRT britener.. cheap and easy to find on ebay and elsewhere.

Looks great Doug. Glad you saved it!

I can only imagine how good it'll look after you tweak it up to a fare-thee-well...

YES! I have a 21FBP22 that I am going to throw out. It's gone to air and is not rebuildable. I can probably twist the base off. You'll have to clean out the old wires, extend yours, and thread this socket on. If interested, it's free plus postage. eMail me at motocrossKXrider@yahoo.com for details... Don't paypal that address though; no account.

Charles

man Doug... NICE set! Can't believe that picture tube works that well with that cap! Again, beautiful set!

Doug,

Very nice combo. You really lucked out on that picture tube. How about you take a couple of wraps of electrical tape around the cap for now. Makes me nervous looking at it like that.

-Steve D.

I knew that with a little time in your hands that it would be up and playing well. I agree with polaraman that your pics make the set look better and cant wait to see the final ones.
-Tony

I did the cateract removal to the CRT yesterday evening. The job went great and am pleased with the results. To view all the photos of the cateracts job on this particular set, see jpdylons thread "requesting info on cateract removal"

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=85251

Doug, Thanks for taking the time to show detailed pictures of the process! I always just keep going when doing those and forget to document things.
It's funny, thinking back I used to toss roundie tubes like that, even though some had nearly 100% emission still! Then again, I could get a rebuilt Sylvania for 65-75 bucks back in the late 70's.
Even the way they are done now, I could never send a set back to the customer back then without the pva between the lens and crt, if anything happened and someone got hurt, I would have gotten sued for everything I owned!
It is a nice way to save these old soldiers for our collections and the future though.

Great score indeed.....and I see you are a master e-bayer.....FIVE SECONDS left on the auction and you nabbed it. That was one competitive auction, too. Worth every penny. Enjoy.

Congrats on a beautiful set!!
I have a favor to ask, I have a RCA radio/phono console
in the same style that uses the exact same tuner/preamp.
Someone before me had removed most of the tubes from the tuner and I was wondering if and when you get the time if you
could draw out what the tube types are and where they go.
Or if someone here has a schematic that would b most helpful.
I think the missing tubes may be 12AX7 and 12Au7 but I am not sure becasue the chassis boards are not marked.