Just got a 1984 RCA VJM2023S (CTC-121) chassis

[radiotvnut]

I think the CTC130 came out around late '85 or '86. And, yes, it did give more problems than the older RCA's. It was still a decent chassis; but, not quite as good as some of the older ones. The power supply did give trouble and I've seen some with shorted HOT's due to loose connections in the MTT tuner module. I've seen the 130 in higher end 20" sets as well as 25"/26" console and table models. The 130 was still in production when Thomson took over. To be fair, I've seen more 130's than 121's. The 121's that I saw usually needed simple repairs like connections in the tuner resoldered or shorted diodes in the power supply (probably due to lightning). There was also a CTC120 chassis that was used in lower end sets that was around at the same time as the CTC121. The only thing I've seen bad on a 120 was the main B+ filter cap, shorted HOT's, and a shorted cap going from the HOT collector to ground. Of course, there were always loose tuner connections on the models with electronic tuning. There was the CTC136 that was used in lower end 19" sets from about '87 to around '91. Really, all RCA chassis were decent until around '92 when Thomson introduced the CTC175/76/77 series with the tuner made onto the main chassis. Every one of these developed loose ground connections around the tuner shield. They were pretty good sets after the ground connections were repaired. It's only been in the past few years that RCA TV's really went downhill.

[radiotvnut]

Someone mentioned that they thought the 130 chassis was the first with MTS stereo. I think that's probably right. I've not seen an older chassis with a built in MTS stereo decoder. However, I have seen plenty of RCA's with the CTC120 chassis (and some 130's) that had a seperate coax connector on the back that was designed to connect to a seperate stereo decoder. In fact, we had a 25" ColorTrak once that had the stereo adapter jack on the rear.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I think the CTC130 came out around late '85 or '86. And, yes, it did give more problems than the older RCA's. It was still a decent chassis; but, not quite as good as some of the older ones. The power supply did give trouble and I've seen some with shorted HOT's due to loose connections in the MTT tuner module. I've seen the 130 in higher end 20" sets as well as 25"/26" console and table models. The 130 was still in production when Thomson took over. To be fair, I've seen more 130's than 121's. The 121's that I saw usually needed simple repairs like connections in the tuner resoldered or shorted diodes in the power supply (probably due to lightning).

Thank you so much for this information. Any clue what was the previous chassis of the CTC-121? I guess it's made in 1979-1982. Is it any better?

[radiotvnut]

I think there was a CTC101 that appeared around '80. I believe this chassis, along with the lower end CTC107,108,110 experienced early flyback failures due to a defect in the original flyback design. They were decent once the improved flyback was installed. I think there was also a CTC99 that came out around '79; but, I don't think I've ever seen one. There was the CTC97 that was around between about '78 and '80. This was a mostly single board chassis used in 19" sets. I have a CTC97 XL100 in the living room. For a 28 year old TV, it has a great picture.

[rcaman]

Originally Posted by waltchan

Thank you so much for this information. Any clue what was the previous chassis of the CTC-121? I guess it's made in 1979-1982. Is it any better?

i believe that would be a ctc111 i have one in a 19 inch set with the 110 degree crt. razor sharp picture. steve

[radiotvnut]

There's another chassis you may be interested in: the CTC140. It was used in RCA's high end models from around '87 through around '91. This was a single board chassis with on screen display and user menus similar to current sets. I've seen that chassis used in sets from 26" on up to 36" screen sizes.

Then, the CTC169 came along to replace the 140 chassis in around '91 and was used up until the late '90's in some sets. This chassis was used in 26" to 36" direct view sets and in projection TV's. The projection TV version was known as the PTK169. The 169 was probably the best RCA chassis of the '90's.

Of course, everyone knows about the CTC175/76/77/85/87 chassis with the on board tuner trouble. I think '92 was the first year for these and they were around until the late '90's.

The CTC197 came along in the very late '90's and was used until the early 2000's in higher end large screen sets. These chassis, along with the newer chassis, tend to have flyback failures. The 197 also had the on board tuner.

The CTC203 came along around '99 and was used up until a few years ago. The early ones had the on board tuner. Then, RCA finally got a clue and used a seperate tuner soldered to the chassis.

Oh, and there was the CTC179 from the mid '90's that was used in 32" and 36" CRT sets. The PTK179 was the big screen version. I've only seen two CRT sets with this chassis and both had arcing flybacks.

[Blast]

I've got a little EJR295S 9" AC/DC set. I can't remember which chassis it is but I'm thinking CTC115. Built in '84 a customer refused an estimate in 1990, I put a new flyback in and have been using it ever since. It's even used plugged into the cigarette lighter on trips. It most likely has the same good quality picture it had when it was new.

[Blast]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

There's another chassis you may be interested in: the CTC140. It was used in RCA's high end models from around '87 through around '91. This was a single board chassis with on screen display and user menus similar to current sets. I've seen that chassis used in sets from 26" on up to 36" screen sizes.

Then, the CTC169 came along to replace the 140 chassis in around '91 and was used up until the late '90's in some sets. This chassis was used in 26" to 36" direct view sets and in projection TV's. The projection TV version was known as the PTK169. The 169 was probably the best RCA chassis of the '90's.

Of course, everyone knows about the CTC175/76/77/85/87 chassis with the on board tuner trouble. I think '92 was the first year for these and they were around until the late '90's.

The CTC197 came along in the very late '90's and was used until the early 2000's in higher end large screen sets. These chassis, along with the newer chassis, tend to have flyback failures. The 197 also had the on board tuner.

The CTC203 came along around '99 and was used up until a few years ago. The early ones had the on board tuner. Then, RCA finally got a clue and used a seperate tuner soldered to the chassis.

Oh, and there was the CTC179 from the mid '90's that was used in 32" and 36" CRT sets. The PTK179 was the big screen version. I've only seen two CRT sets with this chassis and both had arcing flybacks.

The 140 and 169 WERE good chassis'!

I was the VCR tech in our shop but I can't tell you how many solder jobs and eeprom replacement/alignments I wound up doing on those 175/76/77/85/87 chassis'. They must have had 100% failure on that dog. Shortly after the 203 came out I got out of the repair biz. I couldn't BELIEVE they were still using on-board tuners into the 203 series. Must have been the same engineers that decided to put 4 EL84's with no cooling fan and minimal ventilation UNDER a circuit board in Marshall's JCM2000 DSL201 & 401 combo guitar amp series. Brilliant designs!

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by Blast

I've got a little EJR295S 9" AC/DC set. I can't remember which chassis it is but I'm thinking CTC115. Built in '84 a customer refused an estimate in 1990, I put a new flyback in and have been using it ever since. It's even used plugged into the cigarette lighter on trips. It most likely has the same good quality picture it had when it was new.

I had a little 9" RCA AC/DC color TV once but I don't remember the chassis. It used a "search tune" system and there was a green (red for UHF) vertical line that would scan across the screen until a channel was found. I had to repair the 12V inverter circuit on mine. My Mother used it for a long time in the kitchen until I found her a cable ready set. To my knowledge, the person I let have the RCA is still using it.

[Blast]

Sounds like it's newer than mine. Mine is the variactor type with a "thumbscrew" for each channel preset. Did it have a remote?

[andy]

...

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by Blast

Sounds like it's newer than mine. Mine is the variactor type with a "thumbscrew" for each channel preset. Did it have a remote?

No, it had a regular on/off/volume knob. The case was red.

[wa2ise]

Duplicate post, I'd delete this one if I could figure out how...

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I think there was a CTC101 that appeared around '80. I believe this chassis, along with the lower end CTC107,108,110 experienced early flyback failures due to a defect in the original flyback design. They were decent once the improved flyback was installed.

I had a CTC101 (with a replaced flyback) I bought in 1982.
I used to work at the RCA Smirnoff Labs in princeton NJ back then, and the CTC101 flyback problem was due to them trying to skimp on the number of HV diodes in the flyback. The very high voltage secondary was split into 6 segments and diodes were to be placed between sections, and a final diode that would feed the fat red wire to the CRT. Ground-w1-d1-w2-d2...d5-w6-d6-fat red wire. But they tried to cost reduce this scheme, by skipping some of the diodes. Which made for twice the AC voltage per diode, and twice the AC voltage on some of the terminals inside the big epoxy lump on the side of the transformer. This became a warrenty nightmare for RCA... All the new replacements had 6 diodes. Which helped a lot, though I had a CTC101 and the replaced flyback did die around 1990. It was a great set before that happened. Had the comb filter for better chroma luma separation.

It had a partially hot chassis, the horizontal part of the yoke was "hot", but the vertical part was "cold", along with the tuner, IF strip, audio output and CRT video amp driver circuits. The "cold" supply was derrived from separate secondaries on the flyback.

[MRX37]

Originally Posted by Blast

This looks just like the CTC 121 I have!