View Full Version : Happy Birthday USA! (on CTC-5)


old_tv_nut
07-02-2026, 09:55 PM
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55340048758_353a36ced5_c.jpg

matt.caputo
07-03-2026, 07:05 AM
Awesome display! Great to see America 250 on an American made television.

etype2
07-03-2026, 10:10 AM
Very nice! Happy 4th.

timmy
07-03-2026, 10:43 AM
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55340048758_353a36ced5_c.jpg

Nothing like the true beautiful color from those round tubes.

SpaceAge
07-04-2026, 09:00 AM
Spectacular! Happy 4th!

old_coot88
07-04-2026, 03:00 PM
Just a warm, mellow "authenticness" to the pic vs. the glary harshness of the digital stuff.

user181
07-05-2026, 08:30 PM
Looks great! I always enjoy your holiday displays & decorations.

old_tv_nut
07-05-2026, 09:34 PM
Thanks!

kf4rca
07-17-2026, 11:37 AM
A test signal for you.

old_tv_nut
07-17-2026, 12:23 PM
Resolved the colors in the text better than I thought it would.

EDIT: a close look reveals the phone camera is adding phony lines between the bars and around the logo to "sharpen" the picture.
Also, the fine tuning was a bit off.

See a much better picture posted on July 18 in the second message below.


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55400415275_283ff30f82_z.jpg

kf4rca
07-18-2026, 10:41 AM
Thanks. Looks good! Is that the original CRT or a replacement?

old_tv_nut
07-18-2026, 02:56 PM
That's a GE-branded rebuild. The saga of this set and its original CRT are here on VK: https://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=124126&highlight=blessed

To summarize:
The original tube had gone to air.
Scotty rebuilt it and sealed all the usual suspect glass metal joins, but it went back to air quickly after it was done.
I donated it for testing the helium leak detector at ETF, which required necking it again. The leak was found to be a tiny ding in the metal/metal weld between the faceplate assembly and the bell.
When last seen, it was in storage at ETF, marked "Wayne's tube," in hopes that we will have a rebuilding facility some day.

I replaced it with an all glass rebuilt tube bought from Scotty just before he closed down, until this 21AXP22A came along years later.

---
I should take another picture, as the fine tuning was a bit off, causing the off-color edges on the bars. I didn't notice it that much but the phone camera really emphasized it.

old_tv_nut
07-18-2026, 04:01 PM
I took a closer look at the phone photo and realized it tried to add edge lines separating the color bars and the 250 logo from the background.

Here's a pic with the fine tuning readjusted, using a real camera that doesn't try to make the picture "better."

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55402814449_c996962a7f_z.jpg

etype2
07-26-2026, 07:45 PM
What is the “real camera”?

old_tv_nut
07-26-2026, 08:11 PM
What is the “real camera”?

Canon 5D Mk IV

kf4rca
07-27-2026, 11:24 AM
It looks good. I thought it might be a Hi-Lite tube. That graphic was made thru the facilities of Pixelixe.Com. You can take a logo or graphic and super-impose it over a jpeg. The logo needs to be a transparent png graphic. But I have found other formats work as well.