Just got a 1984 RCA VJM2023S (CTC-121) chassis
 

Got this pretty baby. Picture may not show well, but this TV is in almost brand-new condition and hard to believe is 24 years old. This is a CTC-121 chassis. Anybody out there want to comment on the CTC-121 chassis?

It also shows the RCA VKT650 Hi-Fi VCR on top, which is the matching VCR for the TV.

I had a 121J which was a good set but developed a red short in the crt. These are just about my favorite RCAs of the post-1970s ones. Does yours have the auto brightness with the photocell? I think all colortraks came equipped with the feature. So cool that you scored the matching VCR BTW! Nice setup, :thmbsp:

EDIT: If you have the original remote, thats just awesome... I'd love to see a picture.

Mines say 121E inside. Is there any difference between 121E and 121J? Yes, it has a photo cell that dim the brightness. I do have the remote, and it's similar to the Dimensia one where I can control which component.

Hey, fellow CTC121 owner! Mine is actually a JC Penney 685-2501J (which had a dark oak cabinet) which now resides in a medium oak RCA cabinet. If it didn't have a rear cover that says JCP it would pass for an RCA. It has the full A/V jack pack. I used to work on VCR/TV's in the '90's and got this for free in '91. It had 3 different problems, both audio and video, when I got it which kept me busy but that beautiful oak cabinet is what kept me pushing on. http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...JCTC121TV1.jpg
I have what I believe to be the RCA version of the original remote that I bought new in '91. I don't remember which 121 it is but if I remember right it has a letter suffix that was only used for JCP models. Sometimes there weren't a lot of differences between the letter suffixes and other times there were. When servicing you really need to know which model you're working on, otherwise there are 'surprises'. Like an IDIOT, lost the service data I had for it. I had it 'customized' for the version of the chassis it is and was all annotated with all the repairs I've made over the years. RATS! Anyway, after it's last repair about 5 years ago it keeps on chuggin and, I dare say, has the same gorgeous picture it probably had new in '84 (unlike other sets I've had that turned 'green')! Although the amp is stereo, the tuner is not so this is a good canidate for a convertor box- maybe I can get another 20 years out of her. Enjoy yours as I have with mine!
Brian

Nice picture. I think the only differences between the letter suffixes are the optional equipment the sets came with. Some had dual tweeters/woofers and stereo inputs, some had the bass and treble controls and I think they all had onscreen display. (With channels in the 90s being labelled -A1-, -A2- for AV input).

I believe the first RCA chassis with MTS stereo was the ctc130 but maybe these had it available too?

000

I've had 2 of these. I remember that I needed to tweak a coil in the IF to remove some sound carrier-color beat patterns. Otherwise they were great sets.

My display indicates 91, 92 for A/V inputs but I think you are correct on all issues. And mine does have those features you mentioned- just no MTS stereo. There is no CTC121 that I am aware of with an MTS stereo tuner.

Another little note about differences in versions- the RCA cabinet that I have this JCP chassis in doesn't have the capability of holding a pilot light, like the JCP cabinet did. So if you're on a video input and you shut the video source off, once the TV's on-screen display goes away you don't know the TV is still on. I think this RCA cabinet had a chassis without the deluxe jack pack (ie: a video input) before I "merged" the two.

waltchan has a VKT650 VCR which I have worked on more than just a few of in my days of being a VCR tech. Most of their problems were just idler/belt failure. Nice HI-FI unit! I think was the next-to-top-of-the-line. There was a VKT700 that year which was probably the top of the line (blackface Dimensia unit). Both models are very rare as they were VERY expensive when new.

RCA's 'K' line was '84 (the model year newer than his 'J' TV), 'L' was '85, 'M' was '86 which I BELIEVE was the first year VCR's had MTS stereo tuners. RCA skips 'O' and I think the P-line ('87) was the first year for S-Video in the upper end models.

When I went to school there was only ONE TV- for the whole school. They rolled it around on a big cart and we only got to watch the PBS station on it every once and awhile. My kid's schools have TV's (and VCR's) mounted to the wall in every classroom- how things have changed, huh?

I keep forgetting to take a photo of my remote for the TV. I'm too lazy to get up. :D

VKT700 adds 5-head Hi-Fi versus VKT650 with only 3-head hi-fi. VKT650 may not be the matching VCR for the TV because the manufactured date was October 1984. The TV was manufactured in January 1984. It may be RCA VJT700 4-head Dolby stereo as a matching VCR. Have you heard of this VCR model (VJT700)?

Although this DOES pertain to televisions as well, I am at the risk of hijacking the thread (even though it WAS yours, walt) so I'll make it brief. VJT series ('83) included 250, 275, 400, 500, 700. VKT ('84) models were 275, 300, 310, 325, 326, 385, 400, 425, 426, 500, 550, 650, 700, 800, 900. All Hitachi built. I believe '83 was the first year for RCA branded VCR's built by Hitachi as prior years were predominantly Panasonic built (if not all). I have seen most all the aforementioned J and K models in the shop except the 800 and 900 which probably had VERY limited production due to being TOTL models, IMO. Manufacturing date was often the year before sale date, as you may know. The first three digits of the serial number in these (and MANY RCA's) indicated date built. First digit is the LAST digit of the year and the second two digits the week built. That would probably apply to your TV, also. My JCP branded RCA TV's serial number starts 343 indicating manufacture date as the 43rd week of 1983, for example.

When did RCA and GE merge (one bought the other, I don't remember who bought who)? Was it in '87? After the '87 'P' line, and about the time RCA/GE was bought by Thomson (in '88?), VCR's went to the 'R' line (VR250, VR520, VR560, etc.)and stuck with 'R' until at least 2001 when I quit the biz. So the 'R' lines are difficult to tell when they were built based solely on their model numbers (you have to use the serial number). But, I digress... And I will return this topic to televisions before I get looked at funny (or booted off).
Brian

GE bought RCA then got rid of its own line and rebranded the RCA stuff as GE. I think your time frame is right for the changeover.

And wasn't '87 about the time that GE consumer electronics split from GE credit, and other divisions. Thomson only got GE consumer electronics, not white goods, or credit, etc. Going from memory only, here...

Actually, it was at 1986 when GE bought RCA, and then in 1987, GE sold RCA and GE consumer electronics to Thomson. And then in 1987.5, RCA VCRs were made by Samsung.

There was an '87 Samsung-built; the VPT200, other than that all RCA's VCRs were Hitachi built. The '88 model year had a couple of RCA-branded Samsungs (BOTL- VR250 and VR280) but Hitachi still made the predominant number of RCA branded models. For GE this year, Samsung and Panasonic were the makers.

The '89 model year brought Panasonic back to the fold for RCA branded units as they, Hitachi and Samsung has pretty similar number of models.

GE in '89, like '88 were still predominantly Panasonic with only a couple of Samsung models.

The Samsungs really started kicking in in 1990.

I speak only of VCR's and of number of models available, NOT sales volume by model. Some models very likely had higher sales volume than others (more than likely the low end models). I also speak of manufacture date as sale date would be 6-9 months later.

Anybody know what is the successor to the CTC-121 chassis? Is it the CTC-130? When was the CTC-130 first made? I did a lot of research between the two chassis, and it appears that CTC-130 has a lot more problems than the CTC-121, especially the power supply. It's easy to find sites showing a problem in the CTC-130, but it's very hard to find problems in the CTC-121. What's the difference between the two chassis in terms of design? Is there any other chassis more reliable than CTC-121? Or is CTC-121 the best chassis ever made by RCA.

I think the CTC130 came out around late '85 or '86. And, yes, it did give more problems than the older RCA's. It was still a decent chassis; but, not quite as good as some of the older ones. The power supply did give trouble and I've seen some with shorted HOT's due to loose connections in the MTT tuner module. I've seen the 130 in higher end 20" sets as well as 25"/26" console and table models. The 130 was still in production when Thomson took over. To be fair, I've seen more 130's than 121's. The 121's that I saw usually needed simple repairs like connections in the tuner resoldered or shorted diodes in the power supply (probably due to lightning). There was also a CTC120 chassis that was used in lower end sets that was around at the same time as the CTC121. The only thing I've seen bad on a 120 was the main B+ filter cap, shorted HOT's, and a shorted cap going from the HOT collector to ground. Of course, there were always loose tuner connections on the models with electronic tuning. There was the CTC136 that was used in lower end 19" sets from about '87 to around '91. Really, all RCA chassis were decent until around '92 when Thomson introduced the CTC175/76/77 series with the tuner made onto the main chassis. Every one of these developed loose ground connections around the tuner shield. They were pretty good sets after the ground connections were repaired. It's only been in the past few years that RCA TV's really went downhill.

Someone mentioned that they thought the 130 chassis was the first with MTS stereo. I think that's probably right. I've not seen an older chassis with a built in MTS stereo decoder. However, I have seen plenty of RCA's with the CTC120 chassis (and some 130's) that had a seperate coax connector on the back that was designed to connect to a seperate stereo decoder. In fact, we had a 25" ColorTrak once that had the stereo adapter jack on the rear.

Thank you so much for this information. Any clue what was the previous chassis of the CTC-121? I guess it's made in 1979-1982. Is it any better?

I think there was a CTC101 that appeared around '80. I believe this chassis, along with the lower end CTC107,108,110 experienced early flyback failures due to a defect in the original flyback design. They were decent once the improved flyback was installed. I think there was also a CTC99 that came out around '79; but, I don't think I've ever seen one. There was the CTC97 that was around between about '78 and '80. This was a mostly single board chassis used in 19" sets. I have a CTC97 XL100 in the living room. For a 28 year old TV, it has a great picture.

i believe that would be a ctc111 i have one in a 19 inch set with the 110 degree crt. razor sharp picture. steve

There's another chassis you may be interested in: the CTC140. It was used in RCA's high end models from around '87 through around '91. This was a single board chassis with on screen display and user menus similar to current sets. I've seen that chassis used in sets from 26" on up to 36" screen sizes.

Then, the CTC169 came along to replace the 140 chassis in around '91 and was used up until the late '90's in some sets. This chassis was used in 26" to 36" direct view sets and in projection TV's. The projection TV version was known as the PTK169. The 169 was probably the best RCA chassis of the '90's.

Of course, everyone knows about the CTC175/76/77/85/87 chassis with the on board tuner trouble. I think '92 was the first year for these and they were around until the late '90's.

The CTC197 came along in the very late '90's and was used until the early 2000's in higher end large screen sets. These chassis, along with the newer chassis, tend to have flyback failures. The 197 also had the on board tuner.

The CTC203 came along around '99 and was used up until a few years ago. The early ones had the on board tuner. Then, RCA finally got a clue and used a seperate tuner soldered to the chassis.

Oh, and there was the CTC179 from the mid '90's that was used in 32" and 36" CRT sets. The PTK179 was the big screen version. I've only seen two CRT sets with this chassis and both had arcing flybacks.

I've got a little EJR295S 9" AC/DC set. I can't remember which chassis it is but I'm thinking CTC115. Built in '84 a customer refused an estimate in 1990, I put a new flyback in and have been using it ever since. It's even used plugged into the cigarette lighter on trips. It most likely has the same good quality picture it had when it was new.

The 140 and 169 WERE good chassis'!

I was the VCR tech in our shop but I can't tell you how many solder jobs and eeprom replacement/alignments I wound up doing on those 175/76/77/85/87 chassis'. They must have had 100% failure on that dog. Shortly after the 203 came out I got out of the repair biz. I couldn't BELIEVE they were still using on-board tuners into the 203 series. Must have been the same engineers that decided to put 4 EL84's with no cooling fan and minimal ventilation UNDER a circuit board in Marshall's JCM2000 DSL201 & 401 combo guitar amp series. Brilliant designs! :no:

I had a little 9" RCA AC/DC color TV once but I don't remember the chassis. It used a "search tune" system and there was a green (red for UHF) vertical line that would scan across the screen until a channel was found. I had to repair the 12V inverter circuit on mine. My Mother used it for a long time in the kitchen until I found her a cable ready set. To my knowledge, the person I let have the RCA is still using it.

Sounds like it's newer than mine. Mine is the variactor type with a "thumbscrew" for each channel preset. Did it have a remote?

...

No, it had a regular on/off/volume knob. The case was red.

Duplicate post, I'd delete this one if I could figure out how...:scratch2:

I had a CTC101 (with a replaced flyback) I bought in 1982. http://www.geocities.com/wa2ise/radios/rcactc101.jpg
I used to work at the RCA Smirnoff Labs in princeton NJ back then, and the CTC101 flyback problem was due to them trying to skimp on the number of HV diodes in the flyback. The very high voltage secondary was split into 6 segments and diodes were to be placed between sections, and a final diode that would feed the fat red wire to the CRT. Ground-w1-d1-w2-d2...d5-w6-d6-fat red wire. But they tried to cost reduce this scheme, by skipping some of the diodes. Which made for twice the AC voltage per diode, and twice the AC voltage on some of the terminals inside the big epoxy lump on the side of the transformer. This became a warrenty nightmare for RCA... All the new replacements had 6 diodes. Which helped a lot, though I had a CTC101 and the replaced flyback did die around 1990. :sigh: It was a great set before that happened. Had the comb filter for better chroma luma separation.

It had a partially hot chassis, the horizontal part of the yoke was "hot", but the vertical part was "cold", along with the tuner, IF strip, audio output and CRT video amp driver circuits. The "cold" supply was derrived from separate secondaries on the flyback.

This looks just like the CTC 121 I have!

Interesting stuff on the 90s RCAs, but I don't really care. Anything made after 1990, as well as all other electronic makers besides RCA, is considered to be cheaply made, and most will not exceed 20 years. 1980s-made all the way. :D Looks like 1983-1984 might be the highest peak quality year for RCA. Now, my only trouble is, what VCR should I put for my CTC-121 TV? Should I put in a Panasonic-made 1982 top-loading RCA VGT650 4-head Dolby stereo or Hitachi-made 1983 RCA VJT700 4-head Dolby stereo? I am determining right now which of the two Japanese makers could make a VCR for me that can run for another 60 years from today (excluding belt changes) until I die. Hmm, Panasonic or Hitachi? Each has its own pros and cons. Would you go for Panasonic or Hitachi?

RCA VKT650 is a really bad VCR in terms of design, and it is definitely not worth repairing (IMO) when it first breaks. I collected more than 25 top-of-the-line vintage Hi-Fi VHS VCRs, and the RCA VKT650 is the most disappointing I have seen. It uses a lot of surface-mount capacitors on the video board, which is completely unacceptable to put on in 1984, but what's 10 times worse, the board was sealed with black covering hard glue all over around, and all technicians I spoke with will not service this board. They would need to order a new board. Oh wait, didn't they just tell me that the board is no longer available. This VCR is now toast, I have no more video, no more beloved tapes I can play, and it ends up being a boat anchor, thanks to Hitachi's stupidity. I forgot to mention this in my original post, but the VCR is not actually working. There are vertical invisible white bars and fuzzy marks all over on the screen (no, it is not the video head), and sometimes it is hard to see the text. I suspect the problem is at the video board. Does anyone know if the VJT700 used any surface-mount caps? I don't know about the VJT700, but I know for sure that VGT650 (Panasonic PV-1780 equivalent) does not use any surface-mount caps.

Please help me choose my VCR. I don't want to throw out my CTC-121 just because I can't find the proper, matching VCR for this TV. I was born in 1984, so the TV has to be made in 1984, and no other year can be considered. Originally, I wanted a Panasonic 27" stereo to match with my PV-1730 VCR, but the TV has pretty much been vanished in people's home today and is impossible to find one used. Next I considered was a Sharp 25" stereo Linytron to match with my VC-489U VCR, but it's like Panasonic similar and has already been vanished. Next I looked at Hitachi, but neither the TV nor VCR still exists in people's home today. VCR is VT-88A, and you don't know how many times I get the same e-mail from sellers, "Sorry, I threw it out a long time ago because it broke. I only have the remote and manual left." Then I looked at Mitsubishi, and I was able to find one, but I passed because I was told by Frank in Studio Sound electronics (diyvcrparts.com) that their 1984 VCRs were super bad and buggy. Then I looked at Zenith, but JVC didn't make a 4-head Hi-Fi VCR for Zenith, and one of the idler tires is no longer available, according to Frank. Finally, I ended up with this RCA TV and bought it home happily assuming that 1984 Hitachi VCRs were built like a tank and can run forever. Surprisingly, it does not apply to the VKT650. I didn't look at NEC, Sanyo, Sony, and Toshiba because they only made Beta VCRs.

I don't know if I'd lay any money on your 20 year statement, or not. Although 20 years is beyond the life expectancy of consumer electronics, many pieces continue to work past that time given proper care and service. Not to mention just plain ol' LUCK... Just remember- I was throwing out VCR's just barely out of warranty because an owner didn't want to pay the repair charges to have it fixed- BIG TIME FAILURES which occurred within a couple of years of manufacture! VCR's die everyday of the week...

In regards to your question about which VCR, you're not dealing with NEW ONES you can compare in a dealer's showroom anymore. Within your own criteria of '80's-built units you're dealing with what's available NOW that still works. I'd use the one that worked the best no matter WHO it was made by. Make sure it records tapes that can be played back on several other VCR's so that you know it's not recording "out of spec". In other words tapes made on one machine should play back on a handful of other machines with the tracking control set in about the mid position. Hitachi and Panasonic each had their own ideas about "standards". Walt- nothing "runs forever". If you are counting on this you will be sadly disappointed. I'd take what you get that's running right now, take care of it and be ready for disappointment at any time. You talk down about the '90's but keep in mind anything built in the '80's is just "cheaply made" relative to the SEVENTIES. "Cheaply made" and how well it lasts are two different things!

Why can you no longer playback tapes because one VCR no longer functions? Was the tape recorded so far out of spec that the out-of-spec machine is the only one that will play it properly? If so, an alignment is in order- don't record anymore "out of spec" tapes until it is repaired.

In regards to the lines in your playback picture there were a few models of VCR's made in that time frame that used head switching relays instead of the more RELIABLE IC (sorry- just had to poke you a little). I'm thinking relays were more common in the portables but the upper end table models utilized them, also. The contacts on the relay would get dirty and introduce snow/lines into the playback. I am going from memory and have only serviced a few machines with this problem- I longer have my annotated service data. Try tapping lightly on the relay (should be located close to the video heads and MAY have a clear plastic cover) and see if your lines come and go.

For American TV's and Japanese VCR's I don't if there are many models I would say "matched". All should be compatable with each other if they are aligned and functioning properly. Don't try to judge the quality of something based on the year it was made. If you're looking for "visually matching", well, call a decorator! :D Love your 121 and give that old lady the respect and care she deserves, my friend! Best,
Brian

Please pardon my post above, but I didn't mean to say I need a VCR that runs forever, and nothing runs forever. I am determinating the two brands, Panasonic or Hitachi, based on parts availability right now, internal design, video head durability, etc. Without surface-mount caps, I am better off. With surface-mount caps, I am worse off.

Don't know about parts, but back in their day I had a VFT456 "industrial grade" VCR. Had a 3 prong power cord, and silver instead of wood grain trim. Made a sharper image than the Hitachi's RCA re-labeled later on.

Hmmm, is that what they made over at that little, non descript lab on the south side of the tracks, back in the woods, a little north of there? :)

(Actually, that was a nuke reactor up there, Sarnoff Labs pops up in the NRC/EPA/DOE records because they were somehow involved with the effort, I think leasing lab space or such. I only know about this because I noticed the dead-ringer 'sphere next to a building and cooling towers' on the flight home from Puerto Rico, and looked it up.)

Hey since we're on the subject of CTC 121 TV's, my CTC 121 has a minor issue. Whenever there's audio, I see little vertical waves in the picture. Nothing else seems to be wrong with the TV. It sounds great and the picture looks good apart from those faint wavy lines.

That's the sound carrier beating with the chroma carrier. There's an adjustable coil in the IF strip, tweaking it should get rid of it.

And only the management there drank it... :D

Sorry I just found this thread. My dad bought a VKT650 back in '85. I have it now because of the fond memories with the first family VCR. I even bought the repair manual and a bunch of spare parts.

I have a beautiful sales brochure from back then for this VCR that also has other models in this series. It's about a dozen pages that are legal paper size. If anyone is interested I could probably be convinced to scan it. I prefer not to post the pics myself but could email to someone who will.

This is the EXACT one I have!:yes::D I love that thing!

:beerchug: To us, my friend. We are truly blessed.

:smoke: Others just WISH they could be like us!