Someone gave me this RCA colortrak console TV. It was made in June 1984, and according to the schematic diagram, it's either a CTC 117, 118, or 120.

The TV powers up fine. The picture looks fine, except that it's in black and white. Not a single OTA channel comes in in color.

Since the TV has a composite video input, I wanted to hook up a composite video source to see if the black and white picture was tuner related. However, I can't figure out how to switch the damn thing over to video mode! The #9 button is also labeled as "AUX", but I can find no combination to switch it over to video mode. Pressing "9" by itself displays an 'A" on the screen, which goes away. Pressing "09" takes me to channel 9, and pressing "99" takes me to channel 99.

Look around the chroma/luma IC and the 3.58 colorburst crystal. You should see a stand up variable trimmer cap with a small flathead screwdriver adjustment. Tweak on this adjustment and I'll bet the color will pop in. Sometimes, I've had to replace this trimmer cap to get the color back.

On some of those older RCA's, channel 91 was the video input.

91, of course! Why didn't I think of that?! Especally since I grew up with a Colortrak that used channel 91 as the video input. I guess I figured it didn't apply to a TV from 1984. Anyway, the picture on composite is also black and white, so I guess it's that colorburst crystal.

Now, uh... What the hell does that crystal look like?

It's a silver oval shaped thing. The trimmer that you need to adjust should be close to that crystal.

Ditto on the adjustment lug (on ctc-117 it is L-201 or something)

It gets clogged with nicotine, dust and whatever else and turns the picture in monochrome. Nice sets though.

Okey dokey. I'll hunt for it when I get the time. When I fix it, I'll post some pics of it running.

console versions were ctc120 damn great sets the cap will fix the no color. steve

Picked up one something like that in the early 90s from a closing tv shop; I took it home and hooked it to the antenna-worked fantastic. Sold it to some friends. Worked so nice they decided to get cable. When the antenna/CATV switch was moved to CATV the onscreen display wouldn't go off. Later it lost color. I couldn't fix either problem and they chose to live with it. (I can never figure why folks won't spend a few bucks with a decent repair shop to have things fixed) Soon after they chunked it.