[Chad Hauris]

Yes, I think that's right on the consoles...CTC-38/39 does have some transistors in the IF stages but is otherwise an old fashioned tube type design. CTC-39 probably was just resting on its laurels so to speak with all its R&D costs paid for as a cheaper alternative to the XL-100's until 1974 believe, using a 25V" rectangular tube in the last models made. The CTC-38/39 run was from 1968 to 1974, a very long run for that basic design. I have read that the CTC-38/39 were the biggest sellers among color sets of that time period.

What's kind of unusual is that I have only found one example of a 38 or 39 at a garage/estate sale and that was about 12 years ago. I do have some 38's/39's but they had been stored in an old TV shop for many years. Have come across a lot of Zenith tube sets and RCA XL-100's in the second hand market though...maybe all of those 38's/39's bit the dust on flyback failure.

Seems like the replacement for the CTC-39 as far as the basic console or the metal table model large screen color set was the CTC-68.