My sister just called. She is buying some furniture from a lady in a nearby town that is cleaning out an old home. My sis was looking around at things and noticed a large cabinet behind the couch that she had just bought. She looked closer, and saw that it was an RCA color set. The seller asked her if she was interested, and my sister said, not for her, but her brother, me, might be. Lady is giving the set to me.

My sister had all the information when she called. It comes with a Photofact, and is a CTC-7. I didnt gripe about not getting the letter after the 7.

I didnt ask anything, but just said YES, we'll take it. The seller is glad I'm taking it.

Now, to make room for it. Might have to wrap it up on the front porch for a time, like I did my Maggie 23" B/W entertainment center!!

Pictures will follow as soon as I can get them!!!

Well, uhh, Bruce, I gots PLENTY o' room just over The Big Hill from ya...(grin)

Sandy, I destroyed a 24" Maggie B&W entertainment center for room for the CTC-7.

I will re-use the amplifier out of it, the turntable, and parts from the TV chassis to help my 23" B&W entertainment center that I've been monkeying with for the last year and a half, so it didnt die for no reason.

The CRT was already necked by something that smacked the back of the set while it was on the truck. Sad, as it gave a decent picture when I got it!!

You need a roundie, Sandy!!

I got one, I just need to get off my Bohunkus & get it down to Terry's some day...It's a '65 Zenith that was in my grandad's office for years.

Congratulations! I had a CTC7AH in a metal cabinet W/UHF once.

Good to hear that these unexpected treasures come to some of us.

I am very close to posting a "Wanted Poster" showing a CTC7

Congratulations on a great find! Don't you just love it when they come to you??



I am very close to posting a "Wanted Poster" showing a CTC7

LOL! Me too! A 7 is on the "must have" list. I also would love to find a 7,9,10 or 11 with remote:drool:

Congratulations on a great find! Don't you just love it when they come to you...

I had no idea that my sister was so well-trained! She knew exactly what to look for. She saw the side controls first, and then, the round screen.

I'm sitting here lamenting the death of the Magnavox. Having those 'what if...' moments, but also happy that I've found new woofers for a 1959 twin cabinet stereo console that resides in my storage shed!

OK. Just arrived home with the RCA CTC-7. Wood cabinet on legs. The front is in good shape, and says Deluxe on it. All of the knobs are present. It's laying in the truck on its side... knobs up. The set back is in good shape. The chassis is securely bolted down... I checked.

I couldn't take pictures when I loaded it because it was pouring rain. It's now here at my house on the truck. It's still pouring rain, so it will be a little while before it gets unloaded.

I also aquired a Sharp 36" "portable" It's not nearly as heavy as every Sony I have ever owned.

While in town, we hit both of the thrift stores, and neither of them wanted the Sharp set because it doesent have a remote with it. Picky!!:nono:

Pictures yet to come!!:thmbsp:

You lucky Dawg ! Ahh HATE you !! (grin)-Yosemite Sam, Esq.

First pictures. Not very good. It's a CTC-7D with the UHF tuner!

The focus pin on the 21CYP22 is tarnished along with the connector in the socket. Any good ideas on cleaning and tightening this socket? Loss of focus could be what killed this set! Just looking it over for now. Not ready to test... It's TOO HOT!! :gigglemad:

Looks so far to have all the original tubes. They are orange label RCA's with a white label RCA 6AQ5 audio output. Even the damper and Hz output are originals.

I like the twin 5U4GB's. I've never had a TV with rectifiers in the transformer!!!

The 2nd picture shows some repair on the horizontal oscillator board. So far, thats what I see of previous work.

This set looks alot like my CTC-10C. I wonder if the ground stakes are mucked up on this chassis?

There is evidence of mouse droppings, but there is no smell.

I can see daylight through the large speaker. That can't be good!

Here you go.

Happy to see another CTC-7 saved!! I hope to start on my blond Anderson CTC-7B after I do the CTC-5 blond Whitby, and the DeLuxe B/W RCA in the works now. I wish you only the best with your CTC-7!! :yes:

Happy to see another CTC-7 saved!! I hope to start on my blond Anderson CTC-7B after I do the CTC-5 blond Whitby, and the DeLuxe B/W RCA in the works now. I wish you only the best with your CTC-7!! :yes:

Thanks.

The sun is starting to sink belows the mountains to the west. When it gets dark, I'll get out there with the variac, meter, and the LED light!

That metal back is in good condition.

I think this is the OEM CRT too. Maybe it wasn't played very hard.

The top of the set will need some attention. That comes later.

First, THE VACUUMING!!

That's a very attractive cabinet. Looks a little like the Anderson, only yours has real wood veneer instead of that yucky peeling photo finish. Pretty early model with those dual 5U4's. The latter versions had solid state diodes.
Nice score. :thmbsp:

The Wentworth, with UHF.


http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/Gallery/images/CTC7/Wentworth300.gif

The Wentworth, eh? Nice.

It got dark fast. I cleaned up some of the tubes, and cleaned the HV cage and tubes. Several shields are missing.

Found a replaced tube: A 6AQ5 vertical output... 70's RCA replacement.

The HV tubes are all original.

Pulled the horizontal output tube.
Brought it up on the variac over an hour. Nothing bad happened. Inserted the horizontal output, and it red plated as soon as it started to conduct.

Looked some more, and found the horizontal oscillator was not running. 6CG7. Pulled it, cleaned it up, and its socket, and now we have raster, sound and some deflection. Turn up the color intensity and we have major red smearyness.

I've checked all the sweep tubes, and all test good. Move the tuner, and get some noise. Tomorrow night, I'll run some cable out from the DVD player.

See the picture.

I'll have to wait to get the schematic from my sister to even begin with it.

I know it needs capacitors. The paper caps are gooey with wax.

Great first SIGNS!!!

Should be a really nice set when it is all done!

Looking forward to seeing the progress!

Encouraging signs. I would be very cautious about powering it up any more until the electrolytic capacitors have been replaced (or at least checked).

This article has some CTC-7 restoration notes and the RCA service manual:

http://antiqueradio.org/RCACTC-7ColorTelevision.htm

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Encouraging signs. I would be very cautious about powering it up any more until the electrolytic capacitors have been replaced (or at least checked).

This article has some CTC-7 restoration notes and the RCA service manual:

http://antiqueradio.org/RCACTC-7ColorTelevision.htm

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

THANK YOU, PHIL! This is better than the photofact!!

During the time that the set was running, none of the can electrolytics got warm in any way. I have no intentions of running this set very much. The whole time it was on, I had it running thru a 1.5 amp fuse and the variac, and ammeter.

From what I got from the previous owner, it belonged to her father, a TV repairman, and was running about 2 years ago, until it suddenly went black while they were watching it. A few weeks after this, the father had a stroke, and they moved this set into a storage building. Now, it's mine.

I'll look closely at the Hz Osc. board and the tube socket. Sure dont want to kill a 6DQ5! I'll be real careful around the flyback, too, as there is old wax leakage in the cage.

I checked the HV: 19KV. The HV regulator looks to be working properly.

Red screen is due to the red drive control being turned all the way up.

Tonight, I think I will go ahead and pull the chassis and bring it inside and work on it instead of running it anymore.

My chassis was full of old wax caps, and so is yours. Make sure you remember to pull that metal plate covering the color circuits under the chassis, there's a slew of them under there as well. Once you do the wax and lytic caps, it'll play like a million bucks.

Yes, RCA and Philco factory manuals are excellent. I wish it were easier to find them.

Your flyback may be OK despite some dripped wax. I have seen a few old ones that looked ugly but still worked fine. Check the cathode current on the horizontal output tube, of course, but I get the idea you already know about that.

Have fun!

Phil Nelson

Congrats on the great find! I wouldn't worry too much about the fly. Mine had also dripped lots of wax but it seems to be just fine. Here's the thread about mine. It's the later chassis without the 5U4s.
http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=252097
I've replaced just about all the "maroon drops" as well as all the electrolytics and few few resistors and it's playing very nicely.

Miniman said: "Make sure you remember to pull that metal plate covering the color circuits under the chassis, there's a slew of them under there as well."
Mine was missing this. Is it possible it was omitted in later versions?

Good luck and enjoy!

-Clark

Yours is the same early chassis as mine, it should be on there. Lemme see if I can find a shot of the chassis with that panel...

Only shot I still have online, but the panel in question is removed. You can see where it's supposed to go though, center right below the delay line. 5 screws hold it in, the 4 you can see and a fifth that's on the panel towards the bottom right.

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=168252&d=1285543215

Thanks, Nick. It looks like it would easy to fabricate one. I'll put it on my list of things I still need to do with this set. I'm curious to know if the shield is in place on holmesuser01's set.

-Clark

With all the rain and hot conditions around here, I havent remove the chassis from the cabinet yet.

When I do, I need to lube up the tuner gears, etc. I'll check for the cover, too.

I cant remember if my CTC-10 has a cover over this area or not. It's been over 25 years since I've been into that one. It runs decently.

Today, Sunday morning, I went through and tested all of the tubes that have not been already checked. All are good with these exceptions:

12BY7 video output. less than 10% emissions, and very leaky. Found a NOS RCA in my stash. Now, I can see things on the CRT face when I move the tuner!

2-6BZ6's 1st and 2nd IF Both check very good, but are very leaky. I have lots of these from pulls.

6BC8 On the tuner. RF amp. I will probably have to buy this one (!) It's not on any of my lists. Like the others, it tests 96% with leakage.

Ran the chassis for about 5 minutes with the little fuse in the circuit. Running at almost 2 amps at 110v. Started the list of capacitors from my Photofact. Will check against what is actually IN the set, and in the service manual before I order.

So happy NOT to find any 6GH8's in this set. I like the 6U8's.

It's missing the 3 clips that hold the back in place, and several tube shields. Time to hunt thru boxes of pulled tubes, now.

It's also missing 2 of the bolts that hold the chassis to the cabinet. This is a pet peeve of mine. I've always replaced all of the bolts when reassembling things.

I'm finding that some lazy shop worked on this at some point. Several screws missing here and there. The single wood screw through the wire grommet is gone, causing the convergence wires to lay down on the 5U4GB and cook.

I'll be working on pulling the chassis, at least enough to get a look at the shield mentioned above.

It's noon, now, and too hot out there to work, even with a fan blowing air across where I'm working. At least, the fan kept the mosquitos at bay for a time...

PROGRESS!!!

Bruce

Doncha jes LOVE Summertime in the Mountains ?!? Hot, sticky, steamy weather, Skeeters the size of 737s, ALWAYS a Wasp or Hornet Nest somewhere around to deal with, Rattle-Headed Copper Moccasins, "No-See-Ums" that make big itchy welts on yr legs, & of course, MY favorite, Mr Tick...(grin)

Doncha jes LOVE Summertime in the Mountains ?!? Hot, sticky, steamy weather, Skeeters the size of 737s, ALWAYS a Wasp or Hornet Nest somewhere around to deal with, Rattle-Headed Copper Moccasins, "No-See-Ums" that make big itchy welts on yr legs, & of course, MY favorite, Mr Tick...(grin)

You Tennessee guys got nuttin' on us... We got skeeters that have fuzzy bodies that make you itch like they's no tomorrow. Thems the ones that are a-chewin' on me right now.

I have checked allover my property for places that skeeters can live, and checked the gutter systems. No watery places. I think they come up from the creek about 150 yards down the hill from me.

Yes, RCA and Philco factory manuals are excellent. I wish it were easier to find them.

Well, for the seven, they are not hard to find, as the ETF has one on-line.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/tv_schematic_diagrams.html



Looks so far to have all the original tubes. They are orange label RCA's with a white label RCA 6AQ5 audio output. Even the damper and Hz output are originals.


You gotta remember back when this set was new, most TV was still in B&W, and everyone that I knew back then, who was rich enough to have a color set, only used it when they wanted to watch a color show. Most kept their old B&W TVs to watch B&W programs on since it was brighter and just looked better, and hey, the B&W set was cheaper to fix!

James

funny, I do that as well, only use color tv for color shows, BW tvs for BW programing. There is a LOT of good BW no matter how good my sets are setup, BW looks better on BW sets due to convergence.

My kids really don't like BW, they pretty much refuse to watch it. Maybe its a generational thing. I grew up with it so its normal to me, but they say its hard to recognize faces and keep the characters straight. Its like the color info is needed to process the image.

I'm at the stopping point now. I won't run it anymore until work is done.

Discovered the horizontal oscillator board chassis ground connections are broken. I'll do all of them while I'm in there.

My nephew likes B/W. He's 12, and has seen B/W cartoons, etc, courtesy of me all his life.

I hear whining of employees at work about B/W shows all the time. They are just spoiled with color!

More news: Got the chassis out. It has the shield over the color circuitry, but all but 2 of the screws holding it are gone. The 3.58 crystal has a 1-68 date on it. (My CTC-10 has its original glass enclosed crystal.)

Grounds have been touched before, as shown by the melted wires around some of them. I've temporarily fixed the broken grounds on the hz osc board. One wire that runs by a ground point at the video board was actually making contact on the ground stake. I got continuity from the ground to the place where the wire connects in the chroma. Cleaned it up and dressed it away from the stake, and now it's reading almost infinity. I have a feeling that this could make a change in what I see on the screen.

Would you guys suggest that I turn the chassis tubes down and then re-solder ALL of the grounds? Some look perfect, but I do know that they had issues with intermittent connections on these. I'm applying pressure to the PC board while the solder cools. I've seen cases of these sets where a repair involved running new ground wires from the grommets to an actual chassis ground point. I thought this looked really crappy.

I've lubed the UHF tuner gears, and am warming everything up with a small heat lamp to help flow the lube. I'll let it sit for a few hours cooking.

Also evidence of long-dead roaches. I'll get it back outside and blow it out.

There's been work done on this... the video board, and the hz osc board have had parts tacked to the old part wires coming thru the PCB. I dont like this, but for now, I'll leave it alone.

Put it back in the cabinet to have a look again.

Fired it up and have chroma, but no raster. Before, there was no chroma. Now has sound. Full good width, and vertical issues. I know the vertical problems are those nasty wax capacitors. The video... well, the OEM 12BY7 was toasted. The replacement NOS is in it. I can see something when the contrast is moved, and brightness changes.

I've made a list of what capacitors are in the set to compare with the RCA manual and Sams.

It ran for about an hour total. I never left it. Both can filters are cool, and the flyback got warm, but not terribly warm. High voltage is holding steady now at 22kv.

The B+ voltages are dead on from the power supply. The 145v supply from the audio output is 140v.

Not going to run it much until I check the cathode current, and get some capacitors.

those ground stakes look nice and shiny, if it was me I would leave it be until there is some proof that you have an issue. That entire chassis looks very clean, I suspect it was in an air conditioned enviroment.

Thanks. Those ground stakes have been re-soldered in the pictures. 2 on the horizontal oscillator board were broken. Not beautiful, but it's working.

Also re-did all of them on the video module. Thats where I found the wire that was making a connection at the ground between the video and the chroma. I got chroma after that.

Speaking of clean enviroment, I can smell perfume when it's on after 15-20 minutes. We think it might have been in a bedroom for alot of years.

Thanks, Dave, for your comments.

Bruce

Looks like it has vertical issues, time for a recap if you haven't already.

Looks like it has vertical issues, time for a recap if you haven't already.

It will happen soon.

I was impressed at how good the reds look on this CRT.

I can see daylight through the large speaker. That can't be good!If it's just a tear or a hole poked through the speaker cone, those can be patched with tea bag paper and service cement (or fabric glue).

Phil Nelson

If it's just a tear or a hole poked through the speaker cone, those can be patched with tea bag paper and service cement (or fabric glue).

Phil Nelson

I'll let it be for now. I'll take out the speaker when I get some of the capacitors ordered.

Also be sure to check the high value resistors. I had vertical issues with my 7, and a couple of the resistors were way out of spec. :yes:

I placed an order for capacitors today. Several I couldn't find, but will worry about that later.

Also bought enough electrolytics to do this set, PLUS several audio amplifiers that I've been procrastinating with for years.

I've never seen a 6BK4 that looks like this one!

You mean not burnt to a crisp? Most are very dark brown with a lot of use. More than likely replaced.

Where is the getter in that 6bk4?
The glass darkens from the x rays. I have some that are black almost

Where is the getter in that 6bk4?
The glass darkens from the x rays. I have some that are black almost

Me too but they still work great.

Its fun to sniff around that area with a giger counter. Reducing the line voltage really lowers the xrays.
The HV system is designed with enough output to operate a fresh crt and full brightness. Well how may of these old sets have that...?
So all that extra headroom ends up as heat and x rays dumped off by the shunt tube.
Dropping the line voltage by 10 volts usually drops the shunt tube temp about 150 degrees F

Don't look like a replacement, look at the base, 43rd week of 1957. I say it's a low hour set. CTC17, I've seen several with the getter very small and kinda hidden in the base, this looks like one of 'em.

My eyes are getting old. LOL cant see the small print very well.

funny, I do that as well, only use color tv for color shows, BW tvs for BW programing. There is a LOT of good BW no matter how good my sets are setup, BW looks better on BW sets due to convergence.

My kids really don't like BW, they pretty much refuse to watch it. Maybe its a generational thing. I grew up with it so its normal to me, but they say its hard to recognize faces and keep the characters straight. Its like the color info is needed to process the image.

There was a good deal of monochrome programing in Chicago in the 90's when I was growing up and it always seemed normal to me....All it meant was that the program was an old show that was good enough to retain a following. I don't watch much old stuff anymore as I'm into Anime now, and usually too busy to watch anything else that I'd want to watch if I had the time.

I agree that this is a low-hours set.

I wanted you guys to see that 6BK4, as I'd never in my life seen one made that way. I pulled the HV cover so you could see it and the flyback.

I've got 6BK4's, too, that are almost black that work as designed.

The one in this set is doing as it should. That cage full of holes allows me to see whats going on inside the cage fairly easily... The later versions had a solid metal cage... my CTC-10 included.

Where is the getter in that 6bk4?
The glass darkens from the x rays. I have some that are black almost

I believe the getter is down low near the base of this tube. Thats where they are on the later ones.

The CTC9 had a solid cage too, I like the ones with holes. I run my 9 and 11 with the door open so they can breathe, they run much cooler that way.

That 6BK4 in your picture is an earlier version, a 'fat base' tube same as the one in my CT-100 and 21-CT-55. I had no idea they were made that long, I always assumed tubes with big bases were an early thing. The Sylvania Saratoga I picked up has a Rauland brand damper tube with a fat base, and it's an early one. Never seen one from '57.

that is reason they nickname it the "the cat-killer"because your puty tat
winds dead from all of the x-rays it admits.from sleeping under it!:yes::yes:

that is reason they nickname it the "the cat-killer"because your puty tat
winds dead from all of the x-rays it admits.from sleeping under it!:yes::yes:

I'll wait and see if my cats glow. They do like the warmth of a tube set.

MY CAPACITOR ORDER CAME YESTERDAY!! Got shorted a few, but they are now on their way!!

I am resurrecting this old thread. I am FINALLY able to continue with this set, and will be working on it during the winter this year.

I had to let the set sit all wrapped up on a covered porch until this week. I just pulled the chassis again to help make the set a bit easier to move.

I didn't do anything to this set this summer because of all the rain, and the numbers of monster mosquitos that we had this year.

Glad to see you're continuing w/the RCA CTC-7 thread. To compliment Nick's posting of the "Wentworth" catalog page, I'm attaching a photo from another RCA Victor catalog.

Have fun w/your winter project,
-Steve D.

It's in the house, and the chassis is sitting in the cabinet.

I've got a large bag full of most of the capacitors that this set uses ready to install.

the "the cat-killer"because your puty tat
winds dead from all of the x-rays it admits.from sleeping under it!

I remember something about this, instead of cats it was young kids watching cartoons while they slide their legs under the set, and sit up close to the TV CRT screen. Putting their future family life at risk...

I once measured my CTC-4 at .4 millirems/hour with the Geiger tube right up to the safety glass, and with a white raster. :D

Me, I'd replace the 6BK4 with a 6BK4C. Much more reliable, and secondly, less X-radiation. Reliability is the big thing. Too much current through the 6BK4 heats up the fly quite quick. Also, I'd change the AGC coupling cap off the flyback - those were known to short and eat flybacks. I've not seen a CTC-7 flyback offered anywhere for years, so protect it in any way you can!

Cheers,

Me, I'd replace the 6BK4 with a 6BK4C. Much more reliable, and secondly, less X-radiation. Reliability is the big thing. Too much current through the 6BK4 heats up the fly quite quick. Also, I'd change the AGC coupling cap off the flyback - those were known to short and eat flybacks. I've not seen a CTC-7 flyback offered anywhere for years, so protect it in any way you can!

Cheers,

Thanks for the hint. I've got plenty of 6BK4C's here.

Ordered the capacitors a few months back before I got the set into the house. I'm fairly sure the AGC coupling cap was in the list. There were only a couple of capacitors that I couldn't find. We'll see how it goes.

some motivation for you, my CTC-7

Caps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d05VbgDtI_c

Convergence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wYn3xLrZj0

Done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJUeUH8bTW4

Have fun with it, I really like my CTC-7