CTC models

[ceebee23]

What was the last true RCA color set? CTCxxx?

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by ceebee23

What was the last true RCA color set? CTCxxx?

The highest CTC numbered chassis I've seen is the CTC203, then Thomson went off with the ATCXXX and M134C, the ITCXXX sets and so on.

Now as to "true" RCA-engineered/RCA produced, I dunno. The service seminar folks never explained what was RCA/GE vs Thomson vs Taiwan/China (TCL) produced. With their flat screen stuff, anybody's guess.

Any RCA Indianapolis folks here?
Cheers,

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Findm-Keepm

The highest CTC numbered chassis I've seen is the CTC203, then Thomson went off with the ATCXXX and M134C, the ITCXXX sets and so on.

Now as to "true" RCA-engineered/RCA produced, I dunno. The service seminar folks never explained what was RCA/GE vs Thomson vs Taiwan/China (TCL) produced. With their flat screen stuff, anybody's guess.

Cheers,

My RCA CTC185, built in 1999, has a label on the back that states "Thomson Consumer Electronics, 10330 Meridian Street, Indianapolis, IN." I don't know if that address is or was just a business office; I seriously doubt that the company had a manufacturing plant there or anywhere else that late in the game. My best guess is that the building now having the Indianapolis address, whatever it was being used for by the late 1990s into the 21st century (business offices, administration, etc.), was eventually shut down when Thomson took over operations. The building may have been demolished and the land on which it once stood may now be little more than a parking lot, or it may be a retail store or an office building -- who knows?
.

The newest and best feature, IMO, of the CTC203 chassis was probably the remotely mounted tuners. By this time RCA had finally gotten the message as to how much trouble the onboard tuner design had been -- thank goodness. My own CTC185 had this tuner design; I had two repairs done on it: both on the RF antenna/cable port which had snapped off the tuner PC board. The first repair lasted a year and cost $120 (not covered by the warranty); the second, something on the order of $68, again out of my own pocket since the warranty didn't cover that one either. However, the technician who did the second repair (in my home) also took the time to resolder the troublesome grounds around the tuner, which explains in large part why the set still works well for me today, 11 years later. Most other sets with OB tuners developed problems when the tuner ground points broke loose, allowing noise to enter the large "jungle" IC. The chip, which among other things contained the tuner programming, lost all the information programmed into it and had to be replaced -- at greast expense to any set owner whose set was now out of warranty. In fact, the tech weho repaired the antenna port on my set the first time told me that one section of the jungle IC was defective, although I never noticed any problems with the picture or sound, likely because I have never used this set on an antenna -- it has always been on cable, as the OTA TV reception in my area was awful in those days (late '90s) and would likely be 10 times worse today.

[JBL_1]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

My RCA CTC185, built in 1999, has a label on the back that states "Thomson Consumer Electronics, 10330 Meridian Street, Indianapolis, IN." I don't know if that address is or was just a business office; I seriously doubt that the company had a manufacturing plant there or anywhere else that late in the game. My best guess is that the building now having the Indianapolis address, whatever it was being used for by the late 1990s into the 21st century (business offices, administration, etc.), was eventually shut down when Thomson took over operations. The building may have been demolished and the land on which it once stood may now be little more than a parking lot, or it may be a retail store or an office building -- who knows?

I started working for RCA back in 1983 down on Sherman Dr on the East side of Indianapolis. We moved to the 10330 N Meridian address in 1994. It was a brand new complex with two buildings. By 2007 the TV business was on the way out. I left on a severance package in Feb 2007. It was clear it was going down the tubes with Chinese ownership. The last of the TTE offices were closed in Indianapolis just over a year ago. The 10330 address still has some satellite receiver design. Thomson bought Technicolor and then changed the name of the Indianapolis operation to Technicolor.

Way back in 1984 I found some of the rarest of televisions going to the dumpster. I held many of them for years thinking I'd never sell them. But one by one other things came along. Designing color televisions was a life long dream and it was good while it lasted.. Things change and life goes on..
One time we has 1300 in sales/marketing/engineering. We had a wood model shop, metal model shop, PCB manufacturing and assembly. Two buildings, a total of seven floors. Oh well.. Got a great set of Voice of the Victor's from an old executive that retired to Florida... Enough rambling.... BTW there was a CTC-211 but it didn't make it that far..

[Dennman6]

[QUOTE=JBL_1;3007072]I started working for RCA back in 1983 down on Sherman Dr on the East side of Indianapolis. We moved to the 10330 N Meridian address in 1994. It was a brand new complex with two buildings. By 2007 the TV business was on the way out. I left on a severance package in Feb 2007. It was clear it was going down the tubes with Chinese ownership. The last of the TTE offices were closed in Indianapolis just over a year ago. The 10330 address still has some satellite receiver design. Thomson bought Technicolor and then changed the name of the Indianapolis operation to Technicolor.

The building now has the St. Vincent's logo on it, so it's now part of that large hospital network here in Indianapolis. A friend's wife was in the IU(formerly Clarion North) hospital further north up on Meridian & on the way up one can see the former Thomson building on the left side of the road. Also the old 600 N. Sherman drive building looks like it's a sort of "mini industrial park" now, with several businesses now occupying that building. Sad to see what became of RCA Victor, a once great electronics giant-though its longtime chairman "General" David Sarnoff was one of the most ruthless, "go for the throat" old-school businessmen that ever walked this planet.