Another ct100 has been un-earthed

[ohohyodafarted]

I was just at Pete D's site and he says the 116th ct100 has been discovered after 40 years in an attic.

He states the set may come up for sale on e-bay in the near future.

http://home.att.net/~pldexnis/input/news.html

[Eric H]

What I want to know is how do you get a beast like a CT-100 into an attic?

[Pete Deksnis]

I'm still in the middle of evaluating this set. It is not pristine by any means, and it does show the stress of four decades in an uncontrolled environment. I can guarantee all the white peaking coils are shot and the 15GP22 is almost certainly full of air, although this is not yet confirmed. The fine tuning knob and channel indicator are missing, but that seems to be all. During the active part of its life, this set spent time as the daily watcher. All in all, it's a set that can be restored, and its next caretaker probably won't be disappointed. There is not yet an eBay-it-or-not decision.

[Eric H]

Pete, any chance of a photo shoot on this set?
Be cool to see where and how it was found.

[nasadowsk]

You know, it's interesting, though. This set was always reported as a poor seller, yet here we are - 116 of them known. That's a good % of the production run!

They don't seem remarkably robust (the 15GP22 had problems), they were eclipsed by 21 inch sets almost instantly. You'd think most would have been tossed years ago. Didn't RCA offer a cheapie upgrade to 21 inch sets when they came out, too?

Maybe CT-100 owners tended to be the type that held onto things forever?

Did RCA have any hard numbers on how many were made and sold? There's quite a few of these sets known - it seems more than the 4's, even though RCA made a lot more of those.

Oh well, it's interesting anyway, especially given how few RX90s or Westinghouse sets are out there.

[Don Lindsly]

The CT-100 might have been a poor seller, however in 1954-55, many were given away by distributors as a tie-in sale with receiving tubes. Buy 500 tubes and get a CT-100. That was right before the 21CT660 (CTC-4) was launched.

There was no reason to give a cheap upgrade since the 660 was selling quite well and few consumers paid full price for the CT-100. Many ended up in dealers and servicemen's homes. By the mid 50s, 21" and 24" B&W TVs were standard so consumers were reluctant to drop back to 15" for color, particularly a 15" that looks more like a 12". Everyone was waiting for 21 inch "RCA Big Color TV". Shortly after, NBC went all color. The campaign worked.

The CT-100 also served to initiate the service technician to color. After one got proficient on the CT-100, the 660 was a piece of cake.

The actual numbers should be available in the Sarnoff Library if someone wants to take the time to research it.

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by Don Lindsly

The actual numbers should be available in the Sarnoff Library if someone wants to take the time to research it.

Some years ago the Sarnoff Library indicated that the probable number of CT-100's made as approximately 4600, which compares favorably with the traditional number of 5000. As Don indicated, they were not all sold to consumers, and probably not by a long shot. In its early days, for example, my first CT-100 was originally owned by a broadcast exec.

I am still exchanging email with the owner and so do not have final information as to its disposition, but I did recently receive a series of photos, two of which are attached.

The first shows a close up of the magnetics. Notice the distorted and whitish crusted rear yoke cover. They are strong indicators of years in storage where large seasonal temperature variations occur. That supposition is based on experience rather than science. Notice that this set has had a fuse holder added to the rectifier cage. It strongly suggests extensive use when it was new.

The second photo shows a lot of wear to the finish around the channel selector. We are spoiled in these days of PLL tuning and tend to forget how much fine tuning we did, especially with color.

If you check the names of the photos, you will see the the serial number of this set. It doesn't begin with B800, but it is one of the very few with a serial number that begins with B111. In that sense, it is at the very least an unusual set. Thus far, I have not been able to explain the difference.

I have not yet made arrangements to see the set, which is in my general driving range, but if I do I will try to categorize this set with others based upon production changes such as those for vertical centering and boost B+.

[Steve D.]

Just to add to Pete and Don's comments.... RCA was pressured into a CT-100 buy back program for those who had purchased the 15" sets. This after the 21" (21-CT-55) color set was introduced. The recalled CT-100's were donated to colleges and tech schools or re-sold at a HEAVY discount to RCA employees. I also have a late 1954 ad from a New York city appliance dealer offering CT-100s for $495, half the previous retail. The ad states "only 32 left in stock". Tough to unload almost 5000 sets that no one wanted. THEN!

-Steve D.

[Pete Deksnis]

In 1957, this Merrill was sold by one member of the CBS technical staff in Manhattan to another, its current caretaker, who used it for a few years in his Staten Island home before it was relegated -- in working condition -- to storage in his attic, where it remains to this day. The set was unearthed because the caretaker is selling his house. The plan is for me to inspect the set sometime next week. One must wonder with this new information whether the 'B111' designation on this set, and a few others, could denote a special order; in this case, perhaps CBS...?

[Steve D.]

Pete,

The first two CT-100's listed on your site's known CT-100 list are 'B111' numbered sets. One in Conn. and one in N.Y. These could have been owned by CBS because of their proximity to CBS, New York. There is also the well documented 1955 era picture of a CT-100 located at the CBS transmitter at the Empire State Bldg. Makes sense, CBS may have used readily available CT-100's early on, as studio monitors and in engineer's and executive's homes to evaluate CBS color broadcasts in 1954-55 Perhaps these 'B111' sets, as you suggest, were a special order batch wth minor modifications for CBS. Are there other 'B111' sets known to you and not listed?

Pete's CT-100 Known Serial Number List:
http://home.att.net/~pldexnis/input/..._pub_list.html

-Steve D.

[Sandy G]

Wouldn't it be somethin' thru some quirk of fate, the CRT is still good ?

[rca2000]

Has ANYONE recently tried to acquire that CT-100 that is somewhere in Dayton, supposedly from the WPAFB , used for showing some of their early testing of UAV's?

Pat Smith used to know of it's whereabouts. If no one has inquired about it in awhile, it might be a good idea to do so--before something happens, like someone dying who owns it, some young punk taking control of their estate , and the set ending up in the hopper of a garbage compactor truck!! (this HAS happened WAY too many times, to soooo many valuable electronic items!!!)

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by Steve D.

Are there other 'B111' sets known to you and not listed?

IIRC there is/was one more in Kentucky somewhere, but it was in a group of entries lost when a hard drive crashed in 2003 . (I now keep the latest list on two computers and my MP3 player.)

As for the two listed as B111, the one in CT is now operational.

Arrangements are in place for me to inspect this latest 'B111' CT-100 this Friday.

[Steve McVoy]

The set that was at Wright Patterson was donated to our museum a couple of years ago. The CRT was smashed, and the cabinet is in bad shape, but otherwise it is complete.

The gentleman who donated it told me how it was used, but I can't recall the story now.

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by Pete Deksnis

I'm still in the middle of evaluating this set. It is not pristine by any means, and it does show the stress of four decades in an uncontrolled environment. I can guarantee all the white peaking coils are shot and the 15GP22 is almost certainly full of air, although this is not yet confirmed. The fine tuning knob and channel indicator are missing, but that seems to be all. During the active part of its life, this set spent time as the daily watcher. All in all, it's a set that can be restored....

Am quoting my post last month to point out what I got wrong: this set was not a daily watcher. It was used occasionally by the young children of the caretaker between 1957 and about 1966 when it was placed where you see it in this photo taken earlier today with me in its Staten Island attic home.

As for the 'B111' serial number conundrum, at first inspection, this set exhibits the same production characteristics as any other set whose last four digits lie close to those of this set, which is B1111542. The mystery remains unanswered as to why less than three percent of known CT-100 serial numbers begin with B111 rather than B800.

Dusty and in need of the usual scrub-down for a fifty-year-old plus chassis, this set has otherwise survived its decades in the semiravages of dry, no-rodent-damage storage rather well.

The caretaker, Mike, believes he has his home sold and so the CT-100 must be out of there in the next two months.