RCA CTC51 14" color TV
 

Recently, Audubon5425 gave me a circa '73-'74 14" RCA color portable, using the hybrid CTC51 chassis. It originally had no HV; but, the problem turned out to be dirty contacts on the HOT cathode fuse holder. The HV is back; but, there are several other problems to deal with. There are vertical height and linearity issues; which, are probably caused by bad caps. The sync is very touchy, the pots need cleaning, the focus is soft, the convergence is off, and there is a problem with the tint. When viewing a ballgame, I can get decent fleshtones; but, the grass on the field looks brownish. This set uses a low focus voltage CRT; and, I don't think these were too sharp to begin with and they tended to get worse with age. The camera battery is dead at the moment; but, I'll try to get a picture of the set up tomorrow.

Cool. Another old veteran saved. I'll be watching this thread with great interest; never had a hybrid RCA.

That had a real weak crt if I remember right. And lots of rust. Its impressive you get anything. I have several sets with that brown lawn issue. Portacolors are real good at that. I also have a Zenith 25cc50 with that issue and I proved it wasn't the crt with a chassis swap. That's one issue I haven't figured out yet. I read a service bulletin that a bad flyback can cause it in zenith sets.

I tested the CRT a couple of years ago and want to say it tested good.

This one isn't the rusty one. This one has seen some use; but, no water damage. The rusty one is a CTC22 from around '69 and is dead as a doornail.

I picked up a low hours CTC51K, a few years back. The vertical hold barely locked at the end of the control range. Also there was a size or linearity problem. I found a resistor that changed value on the vertical board to be the problem. I never saw one of those sets that had a really great picture.

I have one, maybe two, from that family of sets, tucked away in the deep recesses of my attic. (but not so deep that, if one of you fellas showed up at my house, I couldn't dig it out and give it to you!) I seem to recall they at least halfway worked, but nothing to get excited about. Mine were pretty rusty, too.

UM yes, I have seen just only one RCA CTC 51 14" color tv and I have a service manual for it. It is a smaller, soup-down version of CTC 63 with a powerful 19VCTP22 CRT.

I have that manual in my collection!!

RCA Rocks!!!

Mine is such a cheezy model, it doesn't even have a de-gausser.

We had one of those when I was growing up...model EQ327W, 1972 model year. Our first color TV! It had an OK picture, better than a Portacolor but not the equal of a Sony Trinitron. I recall that ours had some geometric distortion...a bit of partly-corrected pincushioning at the top and bottom. Despite all the tubes, it was reasonably reliable and my parents had it until the late 80's.

Doug E.

Here's an old thread about this set with some pictures:

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=247624