I captured a Setchell Carlson color set - Videokarma.org TV - Video

TUD1 · #1 05-13-2021, 12:23 AM

I got this from a local collector I'm friends with today. I never expected to be able to own one of these, but I'm now very excited that I do. The modular tube-chassis is certainly very interesting indeed, and I imagine that these sets would last a very long time and be very easy to service. It still needs set up, but I think it will make a very good picture. It's been almost 100% recapped with very high quality capacitors by my friend, so I think it will make a very good daily watcher for me. My regular daily watcher, an RCA CTC-25, blew its vertical output transformer yesterday, but luckily I had a spare and swapping them was no big deal.

Electronic M · #2 05-13-2021, 01:15 AM

Those are really good sets. I have both a console and an industrial monitor based on that chassis.
The IF module outputs line level video so adding a composite video input is very easy.
The set will work as a monochrome set with the color module removed if you ever need to service just the color module.

old_tv_nut · #3 05-13-2021, 11:02 AM

I'd have trouble using this as a daily watcher, as I would always want to see that pretty rear view. Very nice!

YamahaFreak · #4 05-18-2021, 11:28 PM

Absolutely gorgeous set, inside and out! Congrats. I've never heard of the brand until now. Looks like they made good stuff.

Telecolor 3007 · #5 05-19-2021, 01:33 AM

Blew me, but that's a very inteligent made set.
How old it is?

dishdude · #6 05-19-2021, 01:35 AM

I didn't know they made any rectangular color sets. Very nice.

AlanInSitges · #7 05-20-2021, 07:39 AM

Holy crap that is a nice set! Congrats! Now post lots and lots of pictures please.

Jeffhs · #8 05-20-2021, 11:47 AM

Until I saw this TV, I didn't know Setchell-Carlson made sets for home use. I was on the AV crew in high school, and our closed-circuit TV system had an SC TV set up as a control room video monitor (it also was used as an output monitor for one of our four CCTV channels). As has been mentioned, those were very good TVs; we never had five minutes' worth of trouble with ours.

Electronic M · #9 05-20-2021, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dishdude

I didn't know they made any rectangular color sets. Very nice.

They're still in business IIRC under the Audiotronics name. 3M bought them in the late 60s when they were making rectangular sets like that, and integrated them with their wollensak brand then spun the whole shebang off some years later.

They made quite a lot of CRT monitors for upright videogame arcade cabinets back in the day.

I'd love to find a SC roundy someday... The rectangular color sets are a lot more common (though still rare themselves).

dieseljeep · #10 05-21-2021, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TUD1

I got this from a local collector I'm friends with today. I never expected to be able to own one of these, but I'm now very excited that I do. The modular tube-chassis is certainly very interesting indeed, and I imagine that these sets would last a very long time and be very easy to service. It still needs set up, but I think it will make a very good picture. It's been almost 100% recapped with very high quality capacitors by my friend, so I think it will make a very good daily watcher for me. My regular daily watcher, an RCA CTC-25, blew its vertical output transformer yesterday, but luckily I had a spare and swapping them was no big deal.

The only one I worked on, needed a CRT. It had an RCA 25XP22, around the time they weren't even lasting in their own sets. That run of CRT's made RCA extend the warrantee to 2yrs.

jeffs01879 · #11 05-27-2021, 04:43 PM

I had a Setchell Carlson like that in the 70s. Someone had put it out for the trash on large item pickup day. I brought it home, of course not expecting much, and found that the picture tube was very weak, but otherwise it seemed to work well. On the next large item pickup day, about six months later, I found another tv with the same picture tube. The tube in that set was good, but the set had other issues. So I swapped the picture tube into the Setchell Carlson and had a nice set for several years. Fortunately the set worked pretty well without much tweaking of the adjustments, because I had neither the knowledge or the equipment to make any adjustments. I don't recall what happened to that set, I wish I still had it.

At the time we were pretty broke, so it was nice to get a color tv for free.

Jeff

vortalexfan · #12 06-08-2021, 10:20 PM

I have a friend who was also one of my neighbors who had a Setchel-Carlson AM/FM Stereo, Record Changer, and TV Combo Unit in his home and I had the honor to work on the record player on the unit, the TV worked great, and it was his primary TV to use for watching old TV shows and movies on. I believe it had a 21AXP4 Picture Tube in it (yes it was a B&W TV) and it was a modular unit, and the Modular design was also used in the radio/record player portion of the combo unit.

Its a very ingenious design, and I can't figure out why more companies didn't adopt this design in their TVs.

old_tv_nut · #13 06-08-2021, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

...
Its a very ingenious design, and I can't figure out why more companies didn't adopt this design in their TVs.

Expensive, possibly subject to connection problems, may require extra design elements at the interfaces to keep from picking up stray signals from other parts of the circuit (the latter more likely in tube circuits than in transistor circuits, which generally are lower impedance and lower voltage). Motorola later encountered these issues in their transistor "Works In a Drawer" modular sets.

Aside: the electronics undergrad lab at I(llinois)I(nstitute)(of)T(echnology) in the early 60s consisted of a series of tube-based modules that, when completed with correctly chosen and aligned component values, could be connected together to create an AM radio. You passed the lab by demonstrating reception of a specified station.

vortalexfan · #14 06-08-2021, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Expensive, possibly subject to connection problems, may require extra design elements at the interfaces to keep from picking up stray signals from other parts of the circuit (the latter more likely in tube circuits than in transistor circuits, which generally are lower impedance and lower voltage). Motorola later encountered these issues in their transistor "Works In a Drawer" modular sets.

Aside: the electronics undergrad lab at I(llinois)I(nstitute)(of)T(echnology) in the early 60s consisted of a series of tube-based modules that, when completed with correctly chosen and aligned component values, could be connected together to create an AM radio. You passed the lab by demonstrating reception of a specified station.

Interesting, although I was thinking more along the lines of the serviceability aspect of the modular circuit design.

John Adams · #15 06-13-2021, 10:31 PM

Check out. https://worldradiohistory.com/Archiv...an-1969-06.pdf , page 35 for info on S.C.. A later model with 10 plug in printed circuit boards, a lot like what Zenith used. First I have read about this chassis. Never saw one, but did see one like the modular one you have. Note the specialized IF and AGC comment allowing this set to be used in certain video recording applications.