Early 70's RCA 19"

[Dave A]

This 19" RCA portable...right...was my dads set in the early 70's and he passed away 20 years ago. Model #/CTC # to be determined. I saw it at his house for years and his Super Bowl parties. Think Mad Men in the day. Martini's flowing.

I brought it to PA and it has been lounging on my porch for all this time under cover on a stand. It has been outside for 20 years in the heat and cold. I may have powered it up once 10 years ago. And today it surfaced and I just gave it 110v to see what happened.

It lit in full glorious snow. No signal nearby. Full sweep, sound, and what looks like chroma in the snow and fully tint adjustable. It does look a bit flat on contrast in the snow. Stay tuned. As they say...it just needs a tube. They may be right.

[tom franco]

Nice tv

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Dave A

This 19" RCA portable...right...was my dads set in the early 70's and he passed away 20 years ago. Model #/CTC # to be determined. I saw it at his house for years and his Super Bowl parties. Think Mad Men in the day. Martini's flowing.

I brought it to PA and it has been lounging on my porch for all this time under cover on a stand. It has been outside for 20 years in the heat and cold. I may have powered it up once 10 years ago. And today it surfaced and I just gave it 110v to see what happened.

It lit in full glorious snow. No signal nearby. Full sweep, sound, and what looks like chroma in the snow and fully tint adjustable. It does look a bit flat on contrast in the snow. Stay tuned. As they say...it just needs a tube. They may be right.

It looks like a CTC53, Hybrid set. Probably using the low focus CRT.

[DavGoodlin]

A similar TV seemed to be a favorite of motels, could that be a CTC36? That was only the third chassis for RCA's 19" models, knobs suggest 1968 or 9, after the logo change. The 4-point star knob and rocker power switch came later IIRC.

I still see the "color TV by RCA" signs, below the usual motel sign, once in a while. I serviced quite a few motel sets at the two RCA shops I worked, they always smelled smoky. I also recall the focus adjustments did not have much effect they were tough sets and mostly, I cleaned the tuners and made the usual adjustments.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

A similar TV seemed to be a favorite of motels, could that be a CTC36? That was only the third chassis for RCA's 19" models, knobs suggest 1968 or 9, after the logo change. The 4-point star knob and rocker power switch came later IIRC.

I still see the "color TV by RCA" signs, below the usual motel sign, once in a while. I serviced quite a few motel sets at the two RCA shops I worked, they always smelled smoky. I also recall the focus adjustments did not have much effect they were tough sets and mostly, I cleaned the tuners and made the usual adjustments.

They referred to the hotel sets as "Mural Tv's".
The CTC36 was similar to the CTC22, but used a Damper tube, where the later models used some SS circuitry.

[maxhifi]

Curious to see how this looks with a video signal!

[kf4rca]

I've got a Sylvania Mural TV which also has an FM tuner in it.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by kf4rca

I've got a Sylvania Mural TV which also has an FM tuner in it.

I think the only firm that called them "Mural TV" was RCA.
I have a GE and a Zenith hotel sets with radio tuners built in.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I think the only firm that called them "Mural TV" was RCA.

I thought RCA was the only one also. Google can't find any by Sylvania.

.

[Sandy G]

I always thought that "Mural TV" moniker was kinda silly & pretentious... But RCA musta made 3 gazillion of 'em... They were about standard equipment in every hotel & motel room in America back then.

[zeno]

Honeymoon hotel sets 1978, all 19" colors.

Williamstown Mass Zenith hybrid
Niagra Falls NY Zenith CC2
Montreal PQ Philco SS ( had to grey scale it !)
North Conway NH RCA dont remember chassis.

Philco hotel sets used a weird mini F connector !

73 Zeno
LFOD !

[kf4rca]

Sorry for the confusion, the Sylvania motel set was not called Mural. But the one I have is the only motel set I've ever seen by Sylvania.
Zenith called their later motel sets Concierge and they took a special remote to set them up.

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

I always thought that "Mural TV" moniker was kinda silly & pretentious... But RCA musta made 3 gazillion of 'em... They were about standard equipment in every hotel & motel room in America back then.

In the hospital late '74 for several days, it was a (then) 10 year old BW RCA 19" , labeled "mural tv", just four VHF channels via MATV from PHI, no UHF - #not a fun stay

TVs at school also were labeled the same, RCA 23" BW on carts, with a video input panel on the back. Also pre-1970 IIRC. Only the library had a XL100 color "Lyceum TV" (CTC68)

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by kf4rca

I've got a Sylvania Mural TV which also has an FM tuner in it.

Anything Sylvania made for a motel must be interesting. I recall a pre-matsushita Motorola/Quasar 19" hybrid in a Barre, N.H. motel.
Saw mostly GE Zenith and RCA and the occasional Philco "SS" motel 19 inchers mentioned here.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

Anything Sylvania made for a motel must be interesting. I recall a pre-matsushita Motorola/Quasar 19" hybrid in a Barre, N.H. motel.
Saw mostly GE Zenith and RCA and the occasional Philco "SS" motel 19 inchers mentioned here.

Holiday Inns had a large contract with Motorola in the early 70's. They had to be equipped with a UHF tuner, per the law but didn't come with UHF tuner knobs. The UHF tuner was fitted with a dummy knob with the HI logo on it.
You could use the dummy knob to tune the tuner, but the channel had to be guessed.