Scored a CTC-86

[zenith2134]

Ah, woodgwain eh? Yep that is the common color around here for that set, too.

I haven't had the best of luck rejuvenating these 12ers.. Usually they would come up like new and fad quickly with normal use.. Have recently exhibited this in a '74 Panasonic(which instant-on likely killed) and many others over the years.
Folks around here used these little sets as kitchen TVs apparently right up into the DTV transition. They were wildly popular and often have dead crts. FWIW, I use B and K testers/restorers exclusively, with the 466 being my go-to for most monochrome sets.
Regarding 'wrapping' the filament-Since the majority of SS chassis use fly derived filament supply, if you carefully put a couple of turns of addt'l wire around the flyback core and connect in unison to the existing hookup, you theoretically increase the typical 6.3v value by a volt or two. It can certainly open the filament if you go too wild with it. I average 8.something volts to elicit a brighter raster without blowing the tube open. I would not recommend this on a valuable set but it is a fine trick for the run o the mill jap 12" b/w..

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by zenith2134

Regarding 'wrapping' the filament-Since the majority of SS chassis use fly derived filament supply, if you carefully put a couple of turns of addt'l wire around the flyback core and connect in unison to the existing hookup, you theoretically increase the typical 6.3v value by a volt or two. It can certainly open the filament if you go too wild with it. I average 8.something volts to elicit a brighter raster without blowing the tube open. I would not recommend this on a valuable set but it is a fine trick for the run o the mill jap 12" b/w..

Okay. It originally sounded like you wrapped a couple turns around the neck of the CRT. Couldn't make any sense of that.

.

[zenith2134]

Oops yeah I should have been more clear.
Back to the original post, What did the CTC-117 need? Only issues I've seen on that one were the metal filter can cap being marginal..that would cause a wavy pattern in the video. The crts that went into those early eighties color RCAs were pretty damn good in my opinion. My ctc-97 19" from '80 has many hours on it and looks fantastic still. someof the late seventies RCAs had really bad tubes however..had an old '77 CTC-89 with a stone cold dead blue gun and weak r and g as well. In fact, I am unsure when ColorTrak came out but the earliest ones all had guns with lost emissivity to the point where they couldn't be lined-up for proper monochrome pix. By the eighties (til say '85) I never saw substantial RCA weak tube syndrome