Very rare RCA wide aspect CRT came home with me!

[kx250rider]

NOT that I wanted one, nor do I have space, but I couldn't pass this one up (photos forthcoming by daylight)..

This is an RCA CTC-173 with the digital line doubler, and the 34" 16:9 wide aspect ratio convex-face CRT. This is only the second one I've seen in person, but I think AKer Colortel has one. These were only sold in 1994, and didn't sell well. Weighs a ton! My Toyota 4x4 truck, which normally has the ride of a solid-tire golf cart on a bumpy path, majestically floated home with the soft ride of a '49 Buick after loading that behemoth RCA!

NO IDEA what I'm going to do with it, I guess for now, I'll stick it someplace at work. It can keep my 8-foot-long $1 Curtis-Mathes company. But sooner or later I'll get spoken to if I keep piling stuff out there. I already have 1/2 of a Toyota turbo-Diesel full-size sedan, which I had cut in half in Japan and shipped here, sitting there. Now a buildup of TVs.

Anyway, does anyone have any interesting facts on that werid tube? I know that the wide aspect ratio tube came back in Sony WEGA sets, and other flat tube sets, but as far as I know this RCA was the only convex face 16:9 ever made.

Charles