CTC-12 IF alignment

[DaveWM]

did a video of my 1st try at alignment. I don't think I did much damage, but I can see how this takes practice to get good at it (and faster, took HOURS).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro8-BpSnnIg

[sampson159]

alignment looks great.crt a little on the gassy side but still makes a good picture.these videos are interesting and very informative to watch.

[DaveWM]

I plan to go back and try a few more things to see if I can get the AGC voltage down with a normal level signal. This set is really just my learning set so I don't mind if I mess it up a little while learning.

[wiseguy]

interesting, do these sets really drift that far off? I know the coil forms can Change shape and create havoc.
I know the color sets are really tough to align.
all the broadcast Equipment I have worked on there has never been a problem
with encoder's, or monitor de-mod, till I started this 21CT55 project.
good luck!! the i.f peaking is what I am mostly interested in..

[DaveWM]

I think they can drift, how much not sure, but I do know that they have often been thru many techs or tech wannabes, so there is always the possibility of diddle stick drift which is my main concern. The BK 415 makes it pretty easy with all the bias supplies and many markers. With practice I am guessing doing a quick touch up will become easy. Of course you have to have a good enough CRT to produce a very sharp pic for it to matter.

[sampson159]

they can drift but usually not too far off.had to align several color sets.most times its just a slight turn to lock in the color or remove a slight ghost around the images.rarely is one thatfar out.of course there is my ctc15-all the slugs were gone.that was a nightmare!

[DaveWM]

Gone? wow wonder what the story behind that was?

[andy]

...

[DaveWM]

good point about not being satisfied, I have dorked with it several times, it kinda reminds me of convergence, at some point you need to just say good enough.

Also agree with the MPX, separation is rarely as good as it should be, and a minor tweek can make a HUGE difference. I used a stereo broad cast modulator from rat shack, and would put a 400hrz tone in to one channel at a time, with a dual scope traces on L and R from the receiver. This made it easy to touch up the MPX for max separation, just adj until one trace was max and the other min.

it was crude but effective.

[sampson159]

bought a ctc 15 about 40 miles from home.son was a tinkerer and tried to fix the slight vertical problem.he twisted and turned every coil in the set.got frustrated and removed all the slugs.set worked with a white screen,no sound and a vertical problem.he also decided to remove the remote mechanism from the set too.i got it back together but it took many hours to get it acceptable.