Rescued a CTC-68! - Videokarma.org TV - Video

***Kamakiri*** · #1 06-16-2006, 09:24 PM

I was in a pretty desperate need for a color set in the basement and no spare cash to buy one, so I decided to head out on garbage night, and I ended up picking up a pair of XL-100s.

The one worked, but the controls were so gummed up that I couldn't budge the volume or brightness pots, the tuner was just as stiff, and the other had some HV issue.

So, came home from work today, grabbed some tools, contact cleaner, and a soldering iron, and in half an hour, I had a great working color set! This has a CTC-68 chassis, and dates from 1975. Been running it for 3 hours, and has a great picture

***Kamakiri*** · #2 06-16-2006, 09:25 PM

Oh, any advice for getting the stupid volume knob to stay on without supergluing the damn thing?

Since it's a push-pull on/off, it's got to have a good grip.

Sandy G · #3 06-16-2006, 09:50 PM

Kam- Can you take a small piece of Beer Can metal, carefully bend it into a small leaf spring shape, would that have enuff suds to stay in there ? Or, maybe, howzabout a couple-3 matchsticks crammed in there to fit snug...

***Eric H*** · #4 06-16-2006, 11:12 PM

Tim, whats the problem with the knob, is the shaft worn out or the knob?
If you need a knob I may have one, can you do a close up pic so I can see it?

***Kamakiri*** · #5 06-17-2006, 08:38 PM

It's not worn out, it just tends to slip off the shaft when I pull it on. I had to change from a metal shaft to a plastic shaft control.

superdeez · #6 06-22-2006, 03:40 PM

When I was in 4th grade, we had a TV like that on a cart at my elementary school. The rest were all (in 1993) modern Zenith sets. I remember being really envious of the set.

Now...I am really envious all over again! lol

***Kamakiri*** · #7 06-23-2006, 06:34 AM

At least you had color sets. We had a bunch of those big Zenith black and white metal boxes on our rolling carts

Wonder what the kids have now?

dtuomi · #8 06-23-2006, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

At least you had color sets. We had a bunch of those big Zenith black and white metal boxes on our rolling carts

Wonder what the kids have now?

Newer TV's, same rolling carts.

superdeez · #9 07-15-2006, 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

Wonder what the kids have now?

Chineese TVs with Thompson tubes on 50% steel 50% newspaper rolling carts.

I went to a small private high school and their TVs were pretty bad. All donations, virtually all had something wrong. The best was the set with an open heater connection on the green gun (an assumption on my part). I remember one day watching 4 videos in a row...three on the "magenta machine" as I dubbed it.

OvenMaster · #10 07-16-2006, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

At least you had color sets. We had a bunch of those big Zenith black and white metal boxes on our rolling carts

Wonder what the kids have now?

Heh. When I was in grade school (1965-1973) when we wanted to watch TV for something important, like an Apollo launch, someone had to bring a portable in from home!
Maybe the knob sleeve is split, Kam. Look up close under a bright light for a fracture. If it is, even gluing it won't really help; it'll just split again. Speaking from experience here on that.
Tom

superdeez · #11 07-16-2006, 01:09 AM

When the on-vol pot broke on my black&white I made a workaround by wiring in an old toggle switch to turn the set on and off and for the volume used a slider-bar control from my old hi-fi!

tgunner · #12 07-16-2006, 01:19 PM

My High School has ceiling mounted LCD projectors in every room. They shine onto a special screen called a Smart Board, which is connected to the media center computer; with the Smart Board software, that plain looking screen becomes a touch panel! These Smart Boards are between the dry erase boards in the front of the classrooms.

maxm · #13 07-16-2006, 01:46 PM

I remember in 7th grade we had one of those sets from the 80s with electronic tuning that had about 15 preset stations. It was always on channel three for the VCR to watch vidoes for French class. Most of the time, the only way to get a picture was for the teacher to stand next to the TV and hold down the channel three button. I guess we could have reprogrammed another button for 3, but who would have known how to do that...
My high school got the smart idea that they should buy one of those sets with the built-in DVD and VHS players, it saved a lot of time setting things up and trying to find the right cords, since we didn't even have those rolling carts, we just put the set on a desk, at least until the TV, DVD, or VHS breaks.

superdeez · #14 07-16-2006, 05:52 PM

Hah! When I was in 7th grade we had one of those push-button sets. It was from the later days of the push-button tuner when it had VHF channels and a couple programmable buttons for UHF. This TV belonged to the teahcer though because my jr. high was far too small to have enough money for TVs or computers of its own.

I remember fiddling with the set a few times when no one was in the room. Near the back there was a board inside the set with thumbwheels and little radio-dial style tuning indicators indicating where you were tuning the UHF button between 14 and 83.

I kinda wonder how, with the "equal access" rule for UHF in 75 how all those digital tuners were sold without any capability for UHF.

Chad Hauris · #15 07-16-2006, 06:51 PM

All of the push button tuners I have seen allow any button to be set to any UHF or VHF channel. The single knob type electronic tuners usually have 6 presets for UHF. These are not digital tuners but varactor tuners.
All digital frequency synthesized tuners should be able to get all UHF channels.
(later ones only going up to ch. 69).