RCA Combo Roundie on E-bay

[HowardBanjo]

I think it's a CTC-20.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RCA-Console-TV-w...QQcmdZViewItem

[zenithfan1]

Ahh sh*t. Ebay is blocked at my work. Could you steal a pic from the auction and post it here please? I wanna take a look at 'er. But I'm sure it's too far away....blah blah blah...

[David Roper]

If you like it I'm guessing the path is pretty clear.

[zenithfan1]

Ooooooh. dats purdy! where is it located? Thanks for the pic!

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by zenithfan1

Ooooooh. dats purdy! where is it located? Thanks for the pic!

I would guess not too terribly far from you. Peoria Heights, Illinois.

[zenithfan1]

208 miles. Too far for my truck right now. It is however, by my Mom's house. I don't think she would go get it though.

[RCAkid]

That is a pretty gal indeed! And just 10 hours from me too. Might have to look at the possibilities.....

I just might get killed for bringing another tv in the house though. A risk worth taking. The bad news is it will be about a month or so before I could get it. I know if Zenithfan1 ends up with it, it will be loved.

[zenithfan1]

Yes it would!

[drh4683]

Thats way down state from me, 150 miles one way. That set looks like a CTC-16. I always thought combos should automatically come with a remote control. It just doesn't seem right to spend all the money and cheap out on the remote option.

[RCAkid]

drh4683 said: Thats way down state from me, 150 miles one way. That set looks like a CTC-16. I always thought combos should automatically come with a remote control. It just doesn't seem right to spend all the money and cheap out on the remote option.

I second that it looks like a CTC-16. I may be all wet on this and I am sure I will be corrected, but didn't the roundie RCA's end at the CTC-16. For some reason I remember that the CTC-17 ushered in the rectangular crt's. I could be wrong and welcome the correction.

The seller says the tv comes on...scary that it was tried but at least it didn't get fried as far as we know anyway.

Roy

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by RCAkid

I second that it looks like a CTC-16. I may be all wet on this and I am sure I will be corrected, but didn't the roundie RCA's end at the CTC-16. For some reason I remember that the CTC-17 ushered in the rectangular crt's. I could be wrong and welcome the correction.

The seller says the tv comes on...scary that it was tried but at least it didn't get fried as far as we know anyway.

Roy

I thought the 16 was the last also. I would like to know for sure though.

[sampson159]

i have contacted the seller of this item.he said the set comes on and he has watched some programs.i like this myself.however.it is too far away from me.interesting to see if it has been restored in any way.nice cabinet though!

[Jeffhs]

There is an error in the item description. The seller states that this console is "believed to be" from the 1950s. This is very unlikely, as this particular control-cluster layout is straight out of the mid-1960s (when I was in grade school, and even junior high, we had RCA table-model b&w sets on carts with the same type of control panel). Also, the TV being discussed here has UHF, which was not widely available as a stock feature on most televisions in the '50s; most TVs of that era were VHF only and required an external converter to receive UHF stations, the only exceptions being sets sold in markets such as Fort Wayne, Indiana, Youngstown, Ohio, Fresno, California, et al. that had only UHF stations. Most areas did not get UHF until at least the mid-sixties, so there would be little use for a UHF tuner in an all-channel TV sold, for example, in Cleveland before 1965; the city's first UHF station, NET (now PBS) affiliate WVIZ, channel 25, went on the air that year.

Some markets did not get UHF until as late as the '70s, so again, if one lived in such a market and had an all-channel TV, the extra channel coverage would be wasted, until or unless one or more UHF station(s) was/were put on the air or the set owner decided to erect a huge UHF antenna and tried to receive stations from nearby (or not so nearby) markets. Most people did not go to the trouble of putting up such monster UHF arrays. If their area didn't have UHF at the time they bought the TV, they just waited until the first UHF station arrived, meanwhile leaving the TV's UHF tuner set exactly where it was when the set was delivered.


The cabinet style of the console we are discussing is wrong for the '50s as well. Most 1950s-era TVs had much more ornate cabinets; for example, my aunt once had a Garod-Majestic round-tube 16" b&w set, early-1950s vintage, that was in a dark wood cabinet with doors over the CRT. On those doors were no fewer than three cast-iron door pulls each. This type of ornate cabinet detailing quickly went out of style; by the seventies, TV manufacturers such as Zenith, et al. were using plastic accent pieces on their sets' cabinets. The cabinets themselves were, again by the 1970s, being made of particle board with wood veneers or, worse, photo-finish (the latter actually being photographs of real wood on heavy paper, which were pasted on to cheap wood cabinets). The RCA TV in the eBay listing referenced here looks to me to have a genuine wood cabinet; however, the fact that the TV has a UHF tuner and the very design of the control cluster all but shouts mid-to-late 1960s.

[bgadow]

The CTC-17 was the first rectangular from RCA, but then they had one more roundie chassis they came out with, the CTC-20. Remember that most companies sold rectangular and round alongside each other for awhile as the newer sets were more expensive to make.

[sampson159]

seller sent pics of this set.it has a green raster.radio and phono is non operational.has fungus growing on some parts of this unit.it looks to have been in a damp basement for quite a while.crt looks bright though.this may be a problem riddled set.i like the cabinet,but it is much too long a drive to get this one.good luck to anyone who gets this one.