1974 RCA CTC-51K (ES334W) Color Portable

[AUdubon5425]

Here's some pics of the 14" RCA color portable from 1974, a CTC-51 set. I spent about an hour with a vacuum and a paintbrush dusting the chassis - there was a quarter inch of dust covering everything, but it doesn't seem to be a smoker's set.

It comes on without HV and I hear a sparking somewhere back there. I tried swapping in a new HOT tube to no avail. I think this one is gonna go in the shed while I get some other sets out of the way.

[ctc17]

That thing is sweat. I would recommend checking the crt before you put it in storage. Seems everything that was in that room has totally dead crts.

[radiotvnut]

I'll see if I have a Sams for that set. If I have one, I'll send it to you.

I see that it uses a 6GH8 for a H. osc. Since it's a 6GH8, it could very well be bad. There's a lot of things that can kill the HV in these sets.

[1993ctc175]

Yes, I used to have an RCA CTC 63 Color chassis. A CTC 63 looks just like the CTC 51 EXTACTLY THE SAME SETS OF TUBES!! But the CRT , HV rectifier and the flyback are different from the CTC 63. The CTC 51 is a smaller set though.

I have serviced the CTC51 and CTC63. I have also serviced the CTC53 too.

[Electronic M]

That is a VERY cool set!

[zenith2134]

I just saw in the other thread how some of these sets didn't have a degausser included. IMO, that's plain inexcusable for any color set. Sooner or later it's going to get magnetised, especially if it's a portable.

hell, my '66 portacolor even has manual degauss....

[DavGoodlin]

Nice set! Like many before-back to the CTC16, it has the upside-down 3A3 HV rectifier, so make sure the tube cap actually seats into the flyback. Beware, some replacement tubes were shorter and left enough gap to cause arcing and fly destruction.