One mans trash is sometimes trash

Does anyone have a 74'or5 (?) RCA console?

I remember it had a toggle switch on the top for on/off and you swung out a bottom door for the picture adjustments. My grandparents had a console with dual speakers. I wound up inheriting it and had it installed in my bedroom so I could play my Atari games on it. It was a fine TV with a good picture until something electronic went out and they scrapped it.

ON the good side, it ran until about 1988 when it died and I got a 20" RCA square picture TV which had an EXCELLENT pic. Probably the best pic I've seen yet on a regular CRT television.

[captainmoody]

If you could get me some pics of what you are looking for (cabinet style) I am sure that I can locate one for you for free.

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by rca2000
What is it with these sets having no yokes? Does someone actually think that the small amount of copper in them is worth destroying a nice tube yoke for?

I don't know. There's no accounting for what some people will do with a TV set (or anything else) they find in a trash pile. I mentioned in another thread a few days ago how kids often destroy CRTs in discarded sets by throwing rocks at the screen or knocking the neck off, even though the tube itself might have been perfectly good. The same sort of thing could be happening with these TVs that are missing the yokes. Someone, as you just mentioned, may have figured they could get something for the wire in the windings although, as you also said, it wouldn't be much. I once found a 23" Zenith console in a neighbor's trash in my hometown that was missing all its tubes, except the CRT and HV rectifier. I've wondered since then whether the original owner kept the tubes for another set or a junk box, etc. or if some electronics bug in the neighborhood took the tubes for use in another application.

BTW, jasonlava mentioned in another post having had a 20" RCA square-corner TV in the late '80s that produced an excellent picture, "better than any other CRT television" he had seen to date. That was characteristic of all RCAs before Thomson took over the company in the early '90s. However, I have a 1999 RCA CTC185A7 with a dark-tint tube that makes a very good picture on cable, much better than many of the earlier sets I've seen with delta-gun tubes, shadow masks, and gray or green faceplates.

Someone mentioned in a thread here some time ago that the quality of RCA color CRTs actually improved when Thomson bought out RCA; if so, I believe it. My set was purchased new over four years ago and still has the original CRT, no problems with it (the CRT) whatsoever (shorts, etc.) in all that time. In fact, someone else said in a post to another thread awhile ago that the failure mode of most RCA CRTs is shorts; if the tube goes for several years without shorting, it will last quite a while. If that doesn't speak volumes for how RCA's CRTs have improved since the late 1980s, I don't know what does. Now, if they would only resolve those pesky on-board tuner issues . . .

[Chad Hauris]

Yes, I have one of those type RCA consoles but it is at my parents' house. There is a large flip-up and down switch for power at the top and the control panel is fairly narrow, consisting of all the controls in a row when you pull it out. I think it is a ctc-48. CRT is weak, the instant-on feature on the CRT probably did not help it.

Originally posted by Chad Hauris
Yes, I have one of those type RCA consoles but it is at my parents' house. There is a large flip-up and down switch for power at the top and the control panel is fairly narrow, consisting of all the controls in a row when you pull it out. I think it is a ctc-48. CRT is weak, the instant-on feature on the CRT probably did not help it.

Well for the CRT. Mine had a nice bright clear pic, but I guess it would have to go sooner or later. But I would like to find another one with a good crt and run some 70s cartoons on it . boy would that bring back memories of Saturday mornings in the 70s.

Of course, now my favorite is the Toshiba flat-tube TVs. Those have an excellent pic.

[andy]

Thomson did finally fix the onboard tuner problems by reverting to using a regular seperate tuner. All the most recent Thomson made sets I've seen have had a seperate tuner. It only took them about 6 years to figure it out.

[peverett]

I am northwest of Buda, Texas. This town is just south of Austin. If any one would like to come by to look at the TVs I have, the weekend of the 24th is clear. Others can be arranged also. Just send me a private email.

Captinmoody, I notice that you are quite a ways off. Do you recommend a way that I can get the TV to you, these are quite heavy.

Andy, I sent you a private email on another matter per recommedation of Polaraman. Did you see it?

[captainmoody]

I can make a custom foam lined shipping container that fits the RCA exactly and is shippable through fedex/ups.
Am doing so for Doug this weekend.

[drh4683]

Ward,

That box that captianmoody is making is specially designed to fit that style of rca tv. I was talking to him earlier about it. Basically what is going to happen is that captian is going to send the box down to prevrett and when captain gets the box back he will send it to you, the you can box it up and send it along to me. Like i said, Ive got lots of parts for those and will make that set look and work like new!
Thanks-Doug

[Wardsweb]

Excellent ! I take it the pictures told you what you wanted to know. I will keep it in the garage until it's time to ship it. FYI. as operations manager for my company, all shipping and receiving fall under my command. I have access to pretty much anything you would like. So from FedEx and UPS to truck freight and Forward Air I can ship most any way you would prefer.

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by CELT
Ew! Watch out for rats!

I've never seen rats in old TVs, but I have heard of roaches getting into sets and literally destroying the IF transformers in sets of '50s and '60s vintage. The problem occurs when the roaches find their way into the cans, literally filling them, which then leads to intermittent arcing across the windings. Never saw any sets in this condition, though--I read about the problem in a 1960s TV service book.

It could well be possible for rats and other vermin to get into TVs that sit out in the open (in a trash pile or landfill, for example) for long periods of time; this is probably what you're referring to. I have read posts to this forum from AK members who have literally found piles of dead insects, etc. in old sets left in dumpsters, trash piles, etc. I even read one post some months ago from an AKer in Texas, IIRC, who was stung by bees hiding in an old set he was hauling home in the back of a truck. He was extremely fortunate, as an unexpected sting like that could lead to an accident.

I was browsing the sci.electronics.repair newsgroup on Google some time ago, and nearly laughed out loud when I read a post from someone who said he'd been working on a TV that was made in Mexico. He said he found that out when he discovered a burrito, of all things, inside the CRT! I'm still trying to figure out how it got in there.

Growing up in NYC with the outrageous roach problem I used to hear about TVs blowing up due to them---eiher walking across a circuit board or their chewing up components. It's fairly common to at least find the dusty remains of roaches inside sets working or not.

Then there was a friend's bird that chewed thru the cable TV coax and screamed from the shock! Go figger.

Anthony
P.S. The burrito inside the set sounds perfectly plausible, I've found all sorts of wacky stuff inside car doors (I was the first one to look inside since the car left the factory) and some really funny things crammed inside dashboards.....notes saying things like "Help! I'm a prisoner in the factory!" or "I love you" but I think my favorite was "What are you doing reading this? Get back to work!!"

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by Chad Hauris
Yes, I have one of those type RCA consoles but it is at my parents' house. There is a large flip-up and down switch for power at the top and the control panel is fairly narrow, consisting of all the controls in a row when you pull it out. I think it is a ctc-48. CRT is weak, the instant-on feature on the CRT probably did not help it.

How about those RCAs with the picture controls on a tilt-out panel, something like Admiral's high-end non-remote console sets of mid-'60s vintage? The difference, however, is that Admiral's tilt-out panel had not only the picture controls but the VHF/UHF tuners as well; when the panel was retracted into the front of the set, all that was visible were the illuminated channel windows. Made the set look a heck of a lot nicer, IMO, in the living or family room.

I never saw an RCA set, however, with the picture controls in a row, behind a panel door. Zenith had an arrangement very close to that which is found in many of their '60s-vintage roundie table models and consoles (the controls are behind a panel door to the lower right of the CRT). The arrangement like yours, with the controls arranged in a neat row, was used in many of Zenith's older rectangular black-and-white and color sets; I once had a 1963 23" Zenith with the controls behind a long black flip-down door below the CRT. The only controls visible on the front panel were the volume control with push-pull on-off switch and the channel selector.

This was easily one of the best-looking console TVs I have seen. It looks like the manufacturers are coming back to this design as most TVs today, except those cheap 5" b&w portables with radios, have no front-panel knobs whatsoever, only a row of pushbuttons below the CRT. The picture, etc. controls are in on-screen menus and are invoked and adjusted by either the front-panel buttons or by similar buttons on the remote (the TV's front control panel is essentially duplicated on the remote, with the addition in many if not most cases of a random-access keypad for channel selection). I have an RCA in a dark gray cabinet; in dim light or in the dark the buttons below the CRT are practically invisible--all you see is the picture. Perfect for installation in an entertainment center or to set on a wood stand matching your living/family room furniture. I've done the latter with mine, and couldn't be more happy with the results.

This kind of installation (using a small wood stand to put the TV on) is just perfect for small spaces. Just be sure any stand you use is sturdy enough to support the TV. Mine is good enough for a 19" set, but if I were to get a larger set some time later on I'd have to find something stronger. The weight of most modern CRT-based televisions is largely the tube itself; the larger the screen, the bigger (and heavier) the tube will be. I've seen 25- and 27-inch CRT-based sets weighing upwards of 150 pounds, and these are modern ones.

The new flat-screen plasma and LCD sets are thinner and lighter, of course, and are a lot less trouble to move if necessary. In fact, these sets can be hung on a wall like a framed photograph or work of art. Remember when the electronics magazines, not to mention science publications like Popular Science, used to have articles back in the late '60s and '70s about TV 30 years in the future? These showed picture-on-the-wall TV screens, but the sets were simply prototypes of designs which had yet to make it to the consumer market. Pop Science had an article in one of its 1970 issues detailing a prototype of a futuristic-looking RCA TV with no fewer than five screens. The set was called the Showcase 70; the claim was that the viewer could watch up to four different channels, being able to switch the picture from any of the small screens to a larger screen in the same cabinet. The set had digital channel indicators (Nixies, IIRC) for VHF and UHF. However, it never got on the market. Today's sets with picture-in-picture operate on the same principle, and work much better than that Showcase 70 probably ever did (remember, the Showcase 70 was simply a prototype, not meant for production).

Chad, you are probably right about the instant-on feature of your set (and all tube-powered TVs of early-to-mid-'70s vintage) taking hours off the life of the CRT. Having grown up in the '70s I remember instant-on, and never liked it for just that reason. The filaments of every tube in the set, not just the CRT, were constantly on regardless of whether the switch was on or off, which meant the TV set was never completely off unless one pulled the AC plug from the wall socket. This could have caused a fire hazard if anything were to go wrong in the filament circuit or anywhere else in the power supply. Another drawback of the instant-on system was that lightning strikes near the set often shorted the instant-on diode, which was wired directly across the power switch; the shorted diode in effect bypassed the switch, rendering it effectively locked on. Some people just left their sets alone when the diode shorted as long as the TV itself still worked, turning the TV on and off by using a wall switch or by simply unplugging the cord from the wall socket. Some DIY TV repair books of the period mentioned this problem and a way to restore the set's on/off switch, at the expense of the intant-on feature; the method was simply to cut the shorted diode out of the circuit. The TV set worked every bit as well without the diode as with it; many people, concerned with energy conservation (this was during the energy crisis of the early to mid 70s), didn't even mind being without instant-on. Needless to say, the sets lasted longer with the circuit disabled as the main power switch now turned the set completely off, filaments and all.

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by Chad Hauris
Yes, I have one of those type RCA consoles but it is at my parents' house. There is a large flip-up and down switch for power at the top and the control panel is fairly narrow, consisting of all the controls in a row when you pull it out. I think it is a ctc-48. CRT is weak, the instant-on feature on the CRT probably did not help it.

How about those RCAs with the picture controls on a tilt-out panel, something like Admiral's high-end non-remote console sets of mid-'60s vintage? The difference, however, is that Admiral's tilt-out panel had not only the picture controls but the VHF/UHF tuners as well; when the panel was retracted into the front of the set, all that was visible were the illuminated channel windows. Made the set look a heck of a lot nicer, IMO, in the living or family room.

I never saw an RCA set, however, with the picture controls in a row, behind a panel door. Zenith had an arrangement very close to that which is found in many of their '60s-vintage roundie table models and consoles (the controls are behind a panel door to the lower right of the CRT). The arrangement like yours, with the controls arranged in a neat row, was used in many of Zenith's older rectangular black-and-white and color sets; I once had a 1963 23" Zenith with the controls behind a long black flip-down door below the CRT. The only controls visible on the front panel were the volume control with push-pull on-off switch and the channel selector.

This was easily one of the best-looking console TVs I have seen. It looks like the manufacturers are coming back to this design as most TVs today, except those cheap 5" b&w portables with radios, have no front-panel knobs whatsoever, only a row of pushbuttons below the CRT. The picture, etc. controls are in on-screen menus and are invoked and adjusted by either the front-panel buttons or by similar buttons on the remote (the TV's front control panel is essentially duplicated on the remote, with the addition in many if not most cases of a random-access keypad for channel selection). I have an RCA in a dark gray cabinet; in dim light or in the dark the buttons below the CRT are practically invisible--all you see is the picture. Perfect for installation in an entertainment center or to set on a wood stand matching your living/family room furniture. I've done the latter with mine, and couldn't be more happy with the results.

This kind of installation (using a small wood stand to put the TV on) is just perfect for small spaces. Just be sure any stand you use is sturdy enough to support the TV. Mine is good enough for a 19" set, but if I were to get a larger set some time later on I'd have to find something stronger. The weight of most modern CRT-based televisions is largely the tube itself; the larger the screen, the bigger (and heavier) the tube will be. I've seen 25- and 27-inch CRT-based sets weighing upwards of 150 pounds, and these are modern ones.

The new flat-screen plasma and LCD sets are thinner and lighter, of course, and are a lot less trouble to move if necessary. In fact, these sets can be hung on a wall like a framed photograph or work of art. Remember when the electronics magazines, not to mention science publications like Popular Science, used to have articles back in the late '60s and '70s about TV 30 years in the future? These showed picture-on-the-wall TV screens, but the sets were simply prototypes of designs which had yet to make it to the consumer market. Pop Science had an article in one of its 1970 issues detailing a prototype of a futuristic-looking RCA TV with no fewer than five screens. The set was called the Showcase 70; the claim was that the viewer could watch up to four different channels, being able to switch the picture from any of the small screens to a larger screen in the same cabinet. The set had digital channel indicators (Nixies, IIRC) for VHF and UHF. However, it never got on the market. Today's sets with picture-in-picture operate on the same principle, and work much better than that Showcase 70 probably ever did (remember, the Showcase 70 was simply a prototype, not meant for production).

Chad, you are probably right about the instant-on feature of your set (and all tube-powered TVs of early-to-mid-'70s vintage) taking hours off the life of the CRT. Having grown up in the '70s I remember instant-on, and never liked it for just that reason. The filaments of every tube in the set, not just the CRT, were constantly on regardless of whether the switch was on or off, which meant the TV set was never completely off unless one pulled the AC plug from the wall socket. This could have caused a fire hazard if anything were to go wrong in the filament circuit or anywhere else in the power supply. Another drawback of the instant-on system was that lightning strikes near the set often shorted the instant-on diode, which was wired directly across the power switch; the shorted diode in effect bypassed the switch, rendering it effectively locked on. Some people just left their sets alone when the diode shorted as long as the TV itself still worked, turning the TV on and off by using a wall switch or by simply unplugging the cord from the wall socket. Some DIY TV repair books of the period mentioned this problem and a way to restore the set's on/off switch, at the expense of the intant-on feature; the method was simply to cut the shorted diode out of the circuit. The TV set worked every bit as well without the diode as with it; many people, concerned with energy conservation (this was during the energy crisis of the early to mid 70s), didn't even mind being without instant-on. Needless to say, the sets lasted longer with the circuit disabled as the main power switch now turned the set completely off, filaments and all.

[Chad Hauris]

The cheaper series string sets used the diode method, and I have found the diode and removed it in the sets that use this instant on method.

On the RCA XL-100, there is a 4 volt (appx) filament transformer that is constantly powered for the CRT filaments. On the main power transformer there is a 2 volt (appx) winding that adds the additional voltage when the switch is on to give the full crt filament voltage. I have re-wired the circuit so the standby filament transformer is only powered along with the main transformer to defeat the instant-on feature.