RCA COMBO find
 

Just found this great RCA combo today at a thrift store, the found out that it was already on here as an Ebay auction...lucky find I guess. Seems to be a really early solid state set. Everything on this set works, picture is acceptable although I think it could use a good tune up as convergence seems a little off and some having some contrast/brightness woes. But powered it up and everything worked including the turntable so I was quite pleased and I only gave 25 bucks for it. If anyone can give me some idea of the vintage of this set and/or the model number that would be even better as the tags on the back of it are gone. Also missing is the cover for the rear of the tube (just the plastic piece) so if anyone has an extra laying around I'd be interested in it. Love to find some spare parts for the turntable as well.

I'm not so sure the TV chassis is solid state since the power consumption is 360 watts. Pull the back off and look for a CTC-something stanped on the chassis. The tube chassis of that period were the CTC38 and CTC39 series. The solid state chassis were the CTC40, CTC44, and CTC46. The 38 chassis was around from '68 until about '70. The '39 was around from around '70 until '74. The solid state 40 would be between '68 and '70. The 44 would be around '70 or '71. The modular 46 chassis would be around '72 or '73. Starting in '69, RCA sets had the RCA block logo plastered on them. Prior to '69, they had "RCA Victor" on them. I have a late "RCA Victor" with a CTC38 chassis with date codes from early '69.

i remember that set. kent ohio?great find. like oldtvguy says,its a ctc 38-39. it is on the chassis written with red dye stamp. if crt is soft,i little juice will bring it right back to life. those rca rectangluars were good and heavy and can take a jolt or two. post pictures in operation.

I have one almost like that with a slightly different cabinet style. The tv part is tube and the stereo is solid state Mine was a trash find a couple of years ago. I plan to work on it this spring. Someone robbed the 6x9 speakers out of it. Would anyone have a couple they would sell?
John

Looked inside the cabinet and the chassis is a CTC40. Is there anyone in the akron/cleveland area that is good at setting up old tv's or working on them. Have some minor color issues, crt seems strong but everything is kinda washed out.

There's a few members out in the OH area that might help you out. Dunno if they are color guys though.

does this crt have a safety glass? if so,those sets never really looked good. always slightly out of focus.cranking up the sharpness or peak picture only made it worse .could be rca s low budget set. set up is very easy to do. make sure purity is good and check for focus range. good luck on this great find!!

i have my mom,s console stereo from about 71,72 it has the same turntable and radio as yours the sound is great on it. does the fm work properly on yours mine has one side that has static on it. steve

Everything on this set works great except the turntable doesn't function the way it should.....could use a new cartridge as well so if anyone has a turntable sitting around for this one I'd be interested in it. Sound quality is quite good. Even when watching tv the sound is full and very BIG. I'd like to make this my daily watcher but I'll have to have someone go thru it and set it up properly, white balance is off and if you crank up the brightness or contrast too much the whites bleed quite badly and I lose alot of color. Reds seem to be hot as well while other colors are slightly washed.

sounds like a soft crt."fires up"!color bleeds over the image itself. you can turn burn down the drives and adjust screens to try and compensate. picture won t be as bright with the reduced contrast,but could be very good to watch. rca made a good crt, except the low budget one. i ve had new tubes that fired up. pics in operation?

Is there anyway a "soft" crt can be rejuvenated? I'll take pics soon as I get my digital camera up and runnin. How hard is it to adjust the covergence and the pincushin on these?

convergence and pinamp are very easy on these sets. as for crt,you will need a picture tube tester. we all have had luck with increasing heater voltage to 8 volts and letting it cook for awhile.if you have to hit it ,do it gently! i have seen many tubes ruined by too much. i ve done it myself.

The only CTC-40 I've have produced a good picture. Keep in mind that this set won't be as bright as a modern set. Most modern TVs have the contrast set to maximum by default. If you try to make it produce a picture this bright it will show problems.

I've rejuvenated these old tubes with good results; but, not with an old style tester. Any B&K model 467 or newer will be suitable. The older testers (like the B&K 465) have a very crude rejuvenate function and will probably do more harm than good. My first crt tester was a 465 and I ruined more color tubes that I helped. I have a B&K 480 from the '90's and it's much better.

Another bad thing with a CTC40 is that they have instant on and thats probably why your crt may be tired. The instant on feature keeps the filiments lit even when the tv is turned off. This was done so the picture would come on quicker when powered on. theres no switch to turn that function off as on other sets but someone here might be able to tell you how to disable this feature. You might luck out and the crt may have been replaced sometime in yours but if it is original and put through heavy use the crt may be shot. The best results i've gotten with reactivation of crt's was with a beltron tester/cleaner/reactivator. Easy on the tube and longer lasting results. The positive side to this is that there are suitable replacements available and reasonable. I got a NOS crt for mine on an auction site for $85 with shipping included. There might be a member here that can help you out also. I have the same model but in a french provincial cabinet. Mine worked well for awhile until something went wrong in the deguassing circuit and took out the b+ boost circuit with it. A fellow member offered me another tv chassis for mine but never came through so i'll probably parts mine out now as i persued that avenue for over a year. I have a good changer in mine. Actually the whole stereo portion works well and only needs the controls cleaned. Mine has the deluxe version of the stereo unit and turntable in it. It has those oddball giant oval woofers in it also. Need parts?
Good Luck,
Tony