How about the CTC 48?

[captainmoody]

Found this RCA in the trash last night and thought I would rescue it. This set is as clean as new and looks as if the back had never been removed! (note the plastic remnants from the manual packet at top right) All it took was a new tripler and a tuner clean to get it up and running.
As far as I am concerned this is when RCA was at the peak as far as reliability and picture quality. The 48 was a good chassis design and worked well with few repairs.

[captainmoody]

Here is a washed out screen shot, The crt is original to the set with a mid 1972 date code and it still reads 9+ on my tester.

You found my grandparents' TV set.

Boy did I watch alot of cartoons on that one.

Thanks for the memories!

Originally posted by captainmoody
Here is a washed out screen shot, The crt is original to the set with a mid 1972 date code and it still reads 9+ on my tester.

1972 eh? I guess it was that long ago.

The pic of the one we had was phenominal. Can you take a screenshot without the flash?

[drh4683]

Thats a sharp looking set. Looks very "60s" with the danish mod. cabinet. Glad to hear you got it going!

[glen65]

We had one of them, only a year newer.
Id say that was the best solid state chassis
that RCA ever made. I also ran into a similar
type of chassis that was being used as a monitor
in a late 70s arcade game.

[captainmoody]

Here's a better screen shot for you Jason.

[kc8adu]

i still have regular customers from when i was a teen that still have these sets.
most have needed simple stuff like solder joints and a few bad lytics and trilplers.
the few i have changed crt's in had evidence of heavy usage.
every few years they have me clean the tuner and make adjustments.

[jstout66]

great set Dwight!!!! I loved those styles of RCA's. Did you have a tripler laying around or did you have to order one?

[Carmine]

wow Dwight, that was a good find!! What neighborhood had that one? If nobody wants it, I might have a good home for it.

[Carmine]

Just realized... I thought that was spiderman in the first screen-shot.

Guess it was the Olympics???

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by Carmine
Just realized... I thought that was spiderman in the first screen-shot.

Guess it was the Olympics???

You're right, Carmine--the second screen shot is the Olympics in the background. Brokaw is anchoring Nightly News from Athens during the Games. You are correct as to the first washed-out shot as well--that one is in fact Spider-Man. Captainmoody can attest to that.

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by captainmoody
Found this RCA in the trash last night and thought I would rescue it. This set is as clean as new and looks as if the back had never been removed! (note the plastic remnants from the manual packet at top right) All it took was a new tripler and a tuner clean to get it up and running.
As far as I am concerned this is when RCA was at the peak as far as reliability and picture quality. The 48 was a good chassis design and worked well with few repairs.

Good looking set. I just saw the pics of the cabinet and the picture this set produces--it's great for a set with a 32-year-old CRT. As I've said before in this forum, it's great when these old sets can be brought back to life by simply replacing a tube or a component and giving the tuner (and all pots and switches, of course) a good going over with tuner cleaner. Back in the '70s when I collected them (and lived in a house with a large basement), I restored many an old TV to at least a semblance of its former self simply by doing just that (cleaning the tuner and controls/switches). It's amazing what a simple cleaning can do to improve performance of a television set, or anything electronic with pots or switches.

BTW: I think RCA (Thomson these days) finally got the bugs out of their current-production sets, to the point where this brand could well be on the way to becoming reliable again--if it isn't there already. The key was when they started mounting the RF tuner separately from the main PC board. The onboard tuners in earlier sets, including my nearly five-year-old CTC185A7, were trouble from the start, although mine still works well almost three years after I had the tuner repaired and the ground points resoldered.

[captainmoody]

I have a pretty good stock of triplers for RCA and Zenith James, They're left over from when I had my shop. The one that this set uses is the ECG 500A. All I have left of that type are a few ERS 500A's (cheapies but work!) that I purchased in 1987.
Don't think I have changed a tripler since the mid 90's until now!

My grandparents had this set until about 1979. It broke and I remember it got sent off for repair. My parents bought a 1980 RCA with digital tuning. Horrible picture. My parents to the CTC48 and I got their 76 RCA console which sucked compared to the ctc48. In 1987, the ctc48 went kaput (probably was something simple). So it got moved to the back porch until we finally junqued it. I begged my parents to keep it because I was going to electronics school next year and I'll fix it myself. No luck. It went bye bye.

Then unfortunately they bought a 27" Sanyo. The age of the Japanese box had come to our house. It was a nice TV, and it's still playing in my dad's bedroom but it just wasn't the same.