I'm finally getting around to posting about the '70 RCA CTC38 20" console that I brought back from SC. This set does power up with HV and a picture; but, it is very out of focus and it has vertical issues. Also, the yoke housing has come loose from the CRT. In these sets, the only thing holding the yoke housing to the CRT is some adhesive blocks and those have come loose with age. What would be a good thing, in today's world, to use to secure the yoke housing to the CRT? Looking at the chassis, I can see that it has been used and some tubes have been replaced; but, it's not near as dirty as most other RCA's that I've seen from this era. Looking inside the HV cage, it appears that the flyback was replaced, as the transformer and it's wiring is much cleaner than the rest of the set. This one should be an easy restoration once I get started on it. Since this set has a hang tag with a price still attached to the knobs; I figure that this set was either a demo model that was turned on during store hours or it was a used set that they were trying to sell.

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I feel like such a dummy! Someone on ARF pointed out that the rubber pieces are just for cushioning the yoke housing to the CRT and that there is a clamp holding the yoke housing to the CRT neck. I knew that other sets were done like this and I don't know why I thought this RCA to be different. Anyway, the clamp is actually broken. It's broken right past where the clampscrew is and it broke in the middle when I was removing the clamp. The only reason I can come up for this is because the rubber around the clamp reacted with the metal of the clamp and ate it away.

I wonder what the 4 and 8 pricing is about. All the price tags I have are the same.
First thing I would check on this one is the cathode current and adjust the efficiency coil to minimize it.

Should be fairly easy to come up with some sort of clamp. The focus should be an easy fix. Maybe that focus rectifier is bad.

Is that a factory crt or replacement?

I can remember using a hose clamp of the appropriate size on a CTC-31 yoke.

I found a clamp and secured the yoke and the TV has fairly decent color; but, it wins no awards in the sharpness department. I think I've heard others say that the CTC38 was not one of RCA's better efforts and the pictures on them were not very sharp. I did play with the focus control and I still need to adjust the purity/convergence as well as clean the tuner. The CRT appears to be original. I will check the HOT cathode current. The last thing I want to do is fry a flyback that is getting very hard to find.

The last thing I want to do is fry a flyback that is getting very hard to find.

I have one in the garage, want it? :D

that set had a no frills chassis and a less than stellar crt.still though,it will produce a fairly pleasing picture.the 25 inch version was a real dud.maybe a candidate for the worst picture?oh,sorry,that award goes to the early quasar works in drawer.we will give the rca "dishonorable mention"

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thats good!the sets we saw here in columbus ohio were real dogs.the crt s had a thick safety glass that was opaqued?very blurry and although bright,it always looked out of focus.we swaped crts and they were ok looking sets.the litlle 21v/22 inch sets always seemed to have nice pictures.

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Look at that! It's got a ground lead that you can disconnect for measuing HOT current..handy.

Yeah, that's one thing they did to make it easy on the serviceman.

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$488.88? Wow, back around 1970, I was in Catholic high school, and they charged my parents $400 a year tuition.

On that '78 Sylvania B&W console that Ryan brought back, the price tag was $399.95. It really blows me away when I see what ordinary 19", 21" and 25" TV's cost back then when just a few months ago, wal-mart had a 27" Sansui CRT set for $179. Of course, we all know that those $400+ TV's of the '60's and '70's were built better and were usually of better quality than the current under $200 Chinese made crap.

The last thing I want to do is fry a flyback that is getting very hard to find.

Do like I did - set up a "saved search" on fleabay for the Flyback - I got my spare for my GF621W CTC-16 set that way. Sole bidder, and 4.99 got the flyback with free shipping. I have similar saved searches out for all of the RCA, Thordarson and Triad replacements for my CTC-38 (bum CRT, missing tubes) and my CTC-39X (crappy cabinet, missing legs) sets that I can't get to right now. Based on the number of hits for other early RCA flybacks, I guess there are still a number of them out there to be had. Moyers even got into the mix a month or so ago and offered some odd flybacks up for bid MESCOSUN is their fleabay nym.

Cheers,