Panasonic CT-98D Hybrid Tube Color

[maxm]

This was a recent estate sale find. Looks to have been a higher end table model with a real wood veneer cabinet (the Japanese companies seemed to keep wood cabinets on their table televisions and radios longer than the US companies), lighted channel numbers, auto fine tuning.

I can't see evidence of service, but the back had been off in the past, as many of the screws are missing. All original tubes, one tested weak.

Instant on set, so CRT is a bit weak. Still makes a pretty good picture, but controls and tuner are very dirty and need to be cleaned to get stable color.

Chassis seems to have been built around the electrolytic cans. They are installed horizontally under the HV cage. They can't be accessed from underneath because of a metal shield on the bottom of the chassis. Their terminals are buried under a bundle of wires. One appears to be leaking, so it will be a big project replacing it. Chassis overall is somewhat messy, with multiple "air terminals" and wires all over the place.

Another interesting piece of electronics history. I would think the US companies were still selling most of the color sets at the time this set was made, though moving towards foreign components and assembly. This set appears to be 100% Japanese, it appers Matsushita made many of the parts themselves, most are marked with their logo.


-- Max