An RCA Victor TRK-12 found it's way to Pittsburgh this week. After much heavy lifting and effort it is in its new home in my basement. I can't believe how heavy these suckers are! This particular TRK-12 sat, bolted to the original shipping crate bottom, unsold in a closed department store for over 70 years. At some point the store had RCA perform the postwar tuner upgrade to adjust the channels from 1-5 to 2-6. When the store closed I suppose they decided it was too heavy and worthless to do anything with. I guess you could say I'm the "original owner" of this set :banana:.

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w438/vts1134/CA8A84CB-912F-4DD9-B234-3CADEE72DA39_zpsoxjy7sgt.jpg

I'm so used to seeing vintage sets with moisture damage to the bottoms that I found myself laughing when I saw the bottom of this set.

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w438/vts1134/9D9EE59B-7B31-40BF-A30F-3DA5B76EF296_zpsukb09m1j.jpg

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w438/vts1134/DC806D1C-7F35-485B-AF13-ED3F22119912_zpsbrpx02vc.jpg

I couldn't resist powering the amplifier up with a fused variac, slowly raising the voltage over a couple of hours. The original electrolytics barely gave an audible hum over the next hour or so as I rubbed a coat of wax into the finish and listened to big band favorites through its original 75 year old components. Quite a treat!

Once in a lifetime (if very lucky) find!

Congratulations.

.

Congratulations John! Truly the "FIND OF THE CENTURY"

Please make additions to this thread as you make additional discoveries.

Incredible! What a fitting "first use" with the big band music.

Be sure and remember to fill out and mail in the warranty card in the next three months. :D

Holy cow! That set is in unbelievable condition. :jawdrop:

[edit] Does anyone know how long the department store kept that set on the display floor, before they tucked it aside? It's hard to imagine how it stayed so nice being in an abandoned building so many years.

...
Be sure and remember to fill out and mail in the warranty card in the next three months. :D

You know that kept going through my head last night! I was hoping to to find an original warranty card and manual hiding inside it somewhere to display with the set.

Zounds!! Is there such a category as "better than museum quality?"

There may never again be such a pristine example of this set. I'm often the first to start replacing components to make a set work as new, but in this case I might be tempted to leave everything untouched. It can only be original once, as the saying goes.

Do you mind sharing how you found this set?

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

How did the store manage to stay empty yet undistrubed for 70 years? That's incredible, look forward to seeing more of it !

My word! a truly jaw dropping find! It is amazing that it could have been sitting undiscovered and undamaged for so long. Congratulations!

jr

Spectacular find! This has to be one of the best, if not the best example in existence!

Do you know if the CRT is still good? Don't see why it wouldn't be.

Hands down, that's the best original example of this classic and historic TV in existence. It was quite a treat just to see the photos! You're quite privileged to be the caretaker of it. Enjoy!

Very rare, beautiful work of wooden art, totally original, and NEW. Absolutely amazing!

Dave

Yah, that's pretty cool..... I think I would not touch anything inside....
If the sound part works, I bet the picture part does too....
Crank that sucker up !

.

What a beautiful work of art!

Outstanding! How were you alerted to the set?

Yah, that's pretty cool..... I think I would not touch anything inside....
If the sound part works, I bet the picture part does too....
Crank that sucker up !

.

Sadly no. There are quite a few more components between antenna in and the kinescope than there is between phono in and the speaker. The kinescope's filament does light but a lack of raster suggests no high voltage. I didn't wait around at full voltage for more than a minute to troubleshoot, I didn't want to press my luck. I figured if it wanted to work it would have done so. It's seen enough excitement for a while. I think I'll allow it to retire again for a short time, this time in loving appreciative hands.

Wow! Talk about showroom clean! Incredible find. :drool::drool:

WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!!:thmbsp:

Great find. All the good sets are back east.

Simply amazing. I would love to hear the story about how it survived all those years in an abandoned department store!

Fantastic! Did you end up making the drive?

Wow, Wow,Wow to infinity-lol!

Wow.... You are TRULY "A LUCKY Dawg..." (grin)

Great find. All the good sets are back east.

The Chicago area ALSO seems to hold a lot of good stuff...too !!

WOW!

It would be very cool to get this set running with minimal component changes.

One thing you could try on the electrolytics is a reforming technique that has been circulating the vintage guitar amp and audio world for several years now. This link describes the technique, but the jist of it is you add a 2 watt 100k resistor right before the power supply caps (basically in series with the B+) and then measure the voltage drop across this resistor. Some caps may only take a half hour to reform, some may take a day, and some may simply not be savable. That said, this should also be also be used along with a variac for safety, but with the inline resistor trick your caps (if savable) can be reformed in a self regulating manor. In this case you would remove all the tubes (I'd suggest a plug in solid state tube rectifier replacement for the power up) and keep the main AC down a bit with the variac since the power supply may go a bit higher than normal without the tubes in the circuit. You don't want to exceed the voltage rating of the caps! Anyway it's a cool trick and as I mentioned self regulating, as opposed to slowly working up a variac over time which is still a guessing game.

http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8396

That's a neat idea for equipment in which there's no ohmic load on the B+ supply with all the tubes removed.
But in TVs of this vintage, there's often bleeder/divider resistors of less than 20K across the B+.
With the forming voltage supplied through a 100K resistor, the caps would never see but a fraction of their rated voltage.

I figured that would be the case. Still, you could isolate each cap to reform. That said, perhaps this is a TRK-12... perhaps THE TRK-12 that needs to simply be preserved in "as found" condition. I couldn't leave it alone though, I'd want to see it "alive"!

I figured that would be the case. Still, you could isolate each cap to reform. That said, perhaps this is a TRK-12... perhaps THE TRK-12 that needs to simply be preserved in "as found" condition. I couldn't leave it alone though, I'd want to see it "alive"!
I'd have it on my repairman's bench the next day. No way I could leave any of these classic sets as static displays. It was designed to televise and still should be doing so.

This score is about as good as finding a Guttenberg bible in an old trunk in yr Mamaw's house.. Or stumbling over a "Patent Motorenwagen" in the barn. Wonder how many lines per the CRT its set up for ? 441?

Congratulations on your fantastic find.

-Steve D.

I wouldn't try to reform the caps, I'd replace them, maybe restuff them. If you can see the heater in the CRT light up, it likely still has vacuum. Still need to find out if the flyback, yolk, and other unobtanium items are all good. Probably a ton of wax caps to replace...


I don't suppose the warranty is any good, even if you are the original owner and you just bought it from the store... :D

My TRK12's electrolytic caps were bad, very very bad.

THAT has got to be one of the top-tier finds EVER!

You didn't ask, but here's my 2-cents: a totally original set is one of the few examples of the type of mass-produced artifacts we collect that deserves to stay totally original. Please consider leaving it 100% factory stock original, even if that means it will never work. Lots of other sets work. Stratospherically few are 100% original.

-- Dave Sica

This score is about as good as finding a Guttenberg bible in an old trunk in yr Mamaw's house.. Or stumbling over a "Patent Motorenwagen" in the barn. Wonder how many lines per the CRT its set up for ? 441?
Many years ago I remember going to the estate sale of a book collector who's family had a find like the former...I don't remember if the book was a bible or what, but it apparently was a very old book put out by the church, and the church had put a scrap of Mary's clothing in the book...

From what I understand for most pre-war sets the scan rate conversion was as simple as turning the horizontal hold control till the sync locked. IIRC the OP said the tuner had been converted to a postwar type so it was probably last used with late 40's-50's NTSC. The sound conversion might be interesting...Pre-war sets were AM sound modern sets are FM sound. IIRC some prewar sets could be adjusted to work with no circuit changes. If the AM IF has the right bandwidth you can tune it so that the frequency of one audio peak is at the peak of the IF response curve, and the frequency of the audio valley is outside of or on the lower ragged edge of the IF response curve....This makes the IF response curve convert a varying frequency to a varying amplitude that an AM detector circuit can make into sound.

I guess you have to debate the tuner conversion history to decide if it is factory original as converted or later in the home and not factory. In the factory...leave it as is? In the home...corrections have been made and more conversions do not change history? This set was never in a home. Did it arrive at the store already converted?

I do not know when RCA did the conversions on either the 12 or the 120. My 120 has the conversion. Just asking.

The tuner conversion consisted of realigning the coils and putting new decals on, if I remember correctly.

You sure you want to keep that in your basement? In that condition, I'd move it into the living room.

I've been in his basement. It's like a first class museum :)

Sorry for not replying in a while. I don't mean to abandon the thread. My son Enzo was born on Saturday and I've been busy and very sleep deprived since then. I am in contact with the original store owner's grandson and will be getting as much history as possible soon, I just have to sleep for more than 90 minutes at a time first.

Congratulations on the birth of your son!!

The tuner conversion consisted of realigning the coils and putting new decals on, if I remember correctly.

If my set is a correct example, which it may not be as it was shipped around to various RCA places as a test bed ....

It most certainly was NOT "realigning" the coils! The alignment range on my oscillator coils if FAR too small. In fact, except for (current) channels 3 and 4 its insufficient to get the sound carrier to tune properly into range of the fine tuning, which even on 3 and 4 barely has enough range.

The coils were actually rewound. This is obvious looking at them.

The tuner design is very, very bad indeed. The main problem is that the tuning wafers on the switch are too large in diameter, meaning that wires are too long. The coils are too big. Some are not even coils ... they are straps that are very low inductance. In fact I had to augment the width of one
by soldering on a strip of copper sheet about 3/16 x 3/4 inches to get
one coil to tune correctly (to the "intermediate" channel set to which my set is tuned.). I do note that I have tried heterodyning
"cable series" channels down into range of channels 1, 2, and 5 (oscillator frequency under the incoming frequency) and they
work fine by fine tuning the frequency synthesizer.

Also the 6J5 was likely the best tube to use, in its time, but still, the distance from the socket tabs to the tube elements is rather too long.

Sorry for not replying in a while. I don't mean to abandon the thread. My son Enzo was born on Saturday and I've been busy and very sleep deprived since then. I am in contact with the original store owner's grandson and will be getting as much history as possible soon, I just have to sleep for more than 90 minutes at a time first.

Congratulations ! ~ Yah - the tv can wait........

.

Simply flabbergasted. Amazing.

Best to leave that one totally alone.:smoke:

I spoke again briefly with the original store owner's grandson and he has promised a full write up of the history of his grandfather, the shop, and the television as well as he can remember/dig up. He thought he might also be able to provide photographs of his grandfather (Clayton Amerman) and of the shop where the television sat for its life. I will of course share anything I receive about the set here.

As for the set itself, I would hesitate to call it completely original and new. I put new in quotes because it was "new" to me, and "new" to any home besides the store from which it came. The finish is in very good condition, but not perfect. There are some spots on the finish that are a little dry. Adding a coat of wax helped tremendously, and I suspect if the set had been treated with some wax every few years it would have looked like it rolled off the assembly line yesterday. Also keep in mind the chassis has been worked on after leaving the factory because the postwar tuner upgrade has been performed. I was able to slide my phone behind the television chassis and I also see a few replacement capacitors. I don't know if these were done at the time of the tuner upgrade or not. All in all the set is incredible, but as with every other 76 year old television, it's not perfect.

I would very much like to find an original owner's manual for the set some day. Does any one out there have an original they would be willing to part with? I know the manual is a rare find, but if you have one I'd sure love to hear from you.

THAT has got to be one of the top-tier finds EVER!

You didn't ask, but here's my 2-cents: a totally original set is one of the few examples of the type of mass-produced artifacts we collect that deserves to stay totally original. Please consider leaving it 100% factory stock original, even if that means it will never work. Lots of other sets work. Stratospherically few are 100% original.

-- Dave Sica

Rest assured this will stay in its original state minus a bit of clean up here and there. There are plenty of other sets to mess around with...

Here are some interesting photos I've taken.

Under television chassis, I spot 10 postwar replacement capacitors, how many can you spot?:

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w438/vts1134/RCA%20TRK-12/08C9CD6F-0BBF-43AF-AAF4-788B29F7F4F2_zpsum6doe1o.jpg

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w438/vts1134/RCA%20TRK-12/E39A30CB-C06C-4841-9B3A-20DDF541B503_zpsllkyy70q.jpg

Original channel frequency ranges scribbled out when they did the postwar tuner upgrade:

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w438/vts1134/RCA%20TRK-12/3E963219-8B27-4484-B713-CF1D5C28130B_zpsqx4fllhe.jpg

The shop owner and location stamped on the television chassis, Clayton Amerman Peapack NJ.

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w438/vts1134/RCA%20TRK-12/B4258610-BAEB-402E-A3F7-A8886059417D_zps1875ktgm.jpg

Interesting about the replacement capacitors. Now I wonder if the set got regular use in the store during the first few years of it's life.

I spot at most 3 caps that look different from the ones in my TRK12. My set
had a couple of red ones.

That is the nicest tv I ever saw! I agree, hook it up to a variac, switch to tv and see what happens...
I know I would!

That is the nicest tv I ever saw! I agree, hook it up to a variac, switch to tv and see what happens...
I know I would!

I tried that very thing when I got the set....I also couldn't resist! Sadly no raster and I didn't leave full voltage applied for long enough to troubleshoot.

So...what's the verdict? Are we going to restuff the caps and return them to their age-old positions? Get it working?:smoke:

Here's another vote for gettin' it to work. There are quite a few folks who claim there were NO TVs B4 the War...I ran into a self-styled "Expert" who KNEW my Porthole was prewar..

Being prewar, it probably only saw a little use prior to the suspension of broadcasting "for the duration". May possibly have been used for in-store demos after the war? Fabulous find any way you look at it!!!

Being prewar, it probably only saw a little use prior to the suspension of broadcasting "for the duration". May possibly have been used for in-store demos after the war? Fabulous find any way you look at it!!!

TV broadcasting never totally ceased during WW2. Here's an interesting read as posted on the ETF site: http://www.earlytelevision.org/ww2_history.html.

-Steve D.

Absolutely amazing. You are very very lucky. I wish you all the luck in the world with the set.

You have a "NOS" complete TV! (you lucky #$%) My vote is to get it going but re stuff all the caps to keep it authentic. A set so original and perfect is a once in a lifetime thing. It would be a shame to not see it working as nicely as it looks. In Aus we simply can't get anything like that. Jealous? Absolutely!!

You have a "NOS" complete TV! (you lucky #$%) My vote is to get it going but re stuff all the caps to keep it authentic. A set so original and perfect is a once in a lifetime thing. It would be a shame to not see it working as nicely as it looks. In Aus we simply can't get anything like that. Jealous? Absolutely!!

I don't know if I would call it NOS. The set was never sold, but the owner used it for demonstration at his shop. I'm still trying to get the original owner's grandson to write up a history of his grandfather and his shop. Maybe I'll bug him again.

So...what's the verdict? Are we going to restuff the caps and return them to their age-old positions? Get it working?:smoke:

Definitely :thmbsp:

Your TRK-12 deserves what can be done with a radio:

http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=269062

If your set would be NOS I'd leave it in it's original condition too. In your case you have the great opportunity to bring a really great and unique device back to live :yes:

vts1134, I haven't visited here in a while but while searching to get into a different discussion I just happened to come across your post which was a great "find" in itself. Just want to add my congrats on a once-in-a-lifetime acquisition! :thmbsp::thmbsp:

Just go one cap at a time. Restuff and fill/dip in amber wax, and return them exactly as found. Take a gazillion pics of all circuits. Slow and sure.

You are one lucky dog,you!! That set is just beautiful, and I'd bet any amount the TV section will come to life! Take care of that piece of television history!!

You are one lucky dog,you!! That set is just beautiful, and I'd bet any amount the TV section will come to life! Take care of that piece of television history!!

oldtvnut, are you receiving the messages I keep sending you....?

I would at least replace the filter capacitors in the high voltage section; it probably wouldn't take much of an overload to fry the unobtainium high voltage transformer. What an outstanding find!

John, are you a PARS member? If not, we would love to have you aboard.

Either you replace all the paper and electrolytic caps and get the set working, or you leave it as it is. There isn't any middle ground. Caps that old will be bad, and there are other irreplaceable parts, such as the horizontal and vertical output transformers, that could be destroyed by powering up the set without recapping.

It's getting dressed up for Christmas....

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4813/46045938972_15b8a90903_c.jpg[/url]

John,
I know you haven't been able to get the store owners grandson to give you a written history yet, but could you give us a "Mini Series" history? Like perhaps an " as you know" history? Things like what kind of department store did it come from and how long had they been closed and perhaps the size of the town it was located in. Also, things like how you heard of it and how you acquired it and perhaps some tidbits exchanged at the time when you picked it up, etc., etc. Congratulations on finding this set, Wow so amazing !
Thanks John, it would be appreciated. My curiosity is killing me ! ! ! Hehehehehe.

Thanks again,
Dennis

It deserves to live again! It's screaming to play, I can here it! LOL

Here's a 7 minute ad for one or one that looks similar.

https://archive.org/details/Magicint1955

Click "Show All" to download...

I have earlier advocated caution when digging in to restore equipment. I have been at it 50 years and my adage is if it ain't broke don't fix it.

I have left resistors which have drifted so long as they do not affect performance. Even then, I replace only with period components. I go to the trouble of restuffing capacitors but I will leave leaky paper capacitors if the parallel bridged resistance is less than on tenth the leak. In any case it should not affect performance and keeping it maintains originality.

I observe the same philosophy with electrolytic capacitors. I would have first tested and reformed the electrolytics in the TK12 before applying power. I would reject an electrolytic if it shows more than 1ma at full rated voltage. If the capacitor fails, I carefully cut open the can and insert new capacitors and refit such that the repair is almost impossible to see.

As Phil said, the equipment is only original once. I would refrain from using it unless it has had a thorough vetting. I feel the leaky paper capacitors are the biggest threat followed by the electrolytics. Please take time and be patient when tackling this machine.

Congratulations. I'm sure this kind of thing doesn't happen that often anymore. Kind of like those barn find muscle cars.