French Provincial CTC12

[Charlie]

Got home from the ship last week... and now I'm at my brother's house in Dallas... come to pick up this set he got for me. Got some good news and some bad.

The good news is the set is extremely clean... so clean that it's like brand-spanking new! Not a scratch on it. Even the rear cover is like new. This must be the cleanest set I've ever come across.

Now for the bad... although it's not too bad... just quite yet. I brought my CRT tester and variac with me thinking I'd get a chance to check it out a bit. When I removed the rear cover, I found the CRT plug laying on the chassis. The pin cap on the crt is busted... broken in about 5 pieces. So, it looks like I will have to desolder all those pins and install another cap. I don't remember if I have a spare... I'll have to dig around once I get home and see.

I did, however, try to plug the tester in. I got nowhere with it. It was all to flimsy to work with. Decided to quit because I didn't want to chance stressing the leads and then one break off at the glass. I almost brought my "traveling kit" with me... which would have included many alligator clip leads... but decided to leave it at home. Now I wish I would have brought it. I could have used the leads to connect to the tester. Oh well... I will be home Saturday and will look into testing the CRT at that time.

As I suspected, the CRT had been replaced. It had a RCA Hi-light with a date cold of 7135. That's cool... but I still have concerns. Since the CRT was unplugged, it leads me to think that someone had tested it, and likely found it to be weak or dead and that's the reason it wasn't plugged back in. Perhaps I am wrong, but it does seem logical. I also wonder how the cap got busted up so bad... but I guess that's the least of my worries for now.

I peaked in the HV cage. There were some wax drippings... but then many of the flybacks dripped wax even if fly was good.

The rest of the chassis looks good... just some dust... and should clean up nicely.

Over all, the set looks really good... like new. I just hope my suspicions about why the CRT was left unplugged (other than a broken cap) are wrong.

I'll get some close-up shots taken when I return home.