I did the color oscillator alignment on this set, as it was taking several minutes for the picture to come up in color (like my Philco was last year). It improved it, but I didn't really fix the problem until I swapped out the 6GH8 (which tested good - It seems that the 6GH8 in this particular circuit sometimes won't work right even if it's good, I've even had tubes work in one set, but not another). I also did the adjustment that centered the tint control - it had to be all the way to one side to get green. And so far I've repaired one of the speakers. Still haven't gotten a battery for the remote. I also need to adjust the vert linearity a bit, and touch up the convergence, which is actually pretty good except for the very left and right edges.

Beautiful color! And, happy new year!

Looks like a textbook result - congratulations, and Happy New Year!

wonderful deep color!

Something you just don't find nowadays.

Thanks. Now the color comes up as soon as the set comes on, but sometimes (not always) the picture will be very dim for as much as a minute or so when I first turn it on, and at this time the brightness control is completely ineffective. I've found that at this time those 2 neon lamps don't light, then after they come on the picture reaches it's full brightness. If the 2 lamps light right away, the picture comes up at full brightness right away. Can I get replacements for these, I can't find any information about them in either the sams or the rca book I have.

I reinstalled the speaker I repaired, but was unable to repair the 2nd one. Also does anyone know where I can get a lamp holder for the light that sits in the front of the set, that tells you if the remote chassis is powered up, I don't have anything that fits, and have yet to find anything that will fit.

Maybe you can carefully cut a section of the cone open to get to the snapped wire then glue it back?

I have the RCA Field service guide for your set - I'll look at it tomorrow and see what I can find on the lampholder and the two lamps.

Cheers,

I have a junkbox full of lamp holders and hardware; if you can find a good photo I can try to match it. There are some generic ones in RadioDaze and AES.

I did the convergence tonight.

I did pull the cone back on that speaker to try to get in there and solder on a new wire, but there was only maybe a 1/16 in. of wire left to solder onto inside that speaker, and there was no way to solder a new wire to it without touching a paper portion of the speaker with the iron. I did fix it at first, but I didn't solder it well enough for the wires to stay attached, when I tried a second time I burned part of the speaker, no way to repair it now, I'm going to have to look out for another one.

Here's a pic of where the lamp holder goes under the cabinet, I don't have the original holder. The reason why nothing will fit is that there needs to be only 1" space between where the front tip of the bulb would be inside the hole and where the bracket would come off the holder to attach to the cabinet (see the small screw hole just to the right). But I'm sure I can eventually adapt something, if nothing will fit as is.

If i remember right, the bracket and the lamp holder were two separate pieces. The L-bracket fastened to the cabinet and the lamp holder then slid onto the bracket by a clip that was attached to the holder. It should be the same style that you would find on RCA Victor console radio/record players from the late 40's to the early 50's.
-Tony

Well, no joy on the Field Service guide - I have a gap from 1958-1962 it seems. What I do have is a variety of lampholders - pix attached. All accept a standard T1-3/4 bayonet bulb (44, 47, 51, etc.) and have two wires, as there are no chassis brackets anywhere in your photo. Let me know if any one (or two) might fit - they are yours for postage.

Cheers,

I checked the field service guide, and it gives no clue to the mechanical look of the master pilot holder. Also looked at CTC-11 and 12. The electrical schematic says it's a #47 bulb in series with a 7.5 ohm resistor, but no diagram of the mounting.

Found it! I have the RCA service manual for your set - "1960 T-5" for CTC10 Chassis series. The pilot lamp holder is called "Socket -Pilot lamp socket and lead for 211CDR835-6-7 & U, 211CDR886 & U, 211CDR896 & U", part number 107044.

The two neon lamps in your set (tied to the brighness and blanker circuits are NE-2 neons, tied off of a 470K resistor, R741.

Your 3.5" speaker is listed as Speaker, 3 1/2", Permanent Magnet, 9 ohms, part number 102119

The manual and supplement also have all of the alignment info for your remote setup. Lemme know what you may need.

Cheers,

Thanks for all the offers of lamp holders, but I hadn't thought of using one of those clip on units with an L bracket, I dug through a few boxes of junk, and came up with this which fits.

I hadn't realized NE2 was actually a designation of the neon lamps, and not just a part number. I checked resistors in the area, and tried swapping the video amp tubes, everything seemed ok, so I'm still thinking it's the lamps that aren't coming on right away causing the lack of brightness when I first turn the set on.

I fixed the light. And I finally got a battery for the remote, I combined one of those small 1.5v batteries on top of a longer 3v battery. The color, tint and volume work. The channel changer doesn't. Which is odd because the power tuning does work. With this remote it will turn on the motor instantaneously, but not long enough to change the channel. Also is there any kind of grease I should be putting on all the gears this uses? I have to say it is really cool to see the remote actually turn all of the controls as it does on this set, I don't know why they didn't put all the controls on the remote though, they did color, tint, and volume, but left out the brightness and fine tuning.

HI
Sooner or later the neon lights will fail. The book Color Servicing made easy by Lemons and Babcoke Pages 117 to 118 explain in details how to change the circuit. I did it to my and works perfect.

The R 741 is one the parts that needs to be replaced to1.2 mg
Use 220K 1 watt instead of neon lights. The 3.3 meg to band pass change to4.7 to5.6meg.
If you need copy of the pages let me know I will fax then to you .

Weak color is associated to the neon bulbs too.

Interesting, I'm out the 1.2meg resistor here otherwise I would try it now, I'll order some along with the new lamps, and try the resistors first, if it works, I'll leave them out.

I got the channel changer on the remote to work, but only after it warms up for a few minutes and in short range. The problem was one relay wasn't staying engaged. First of all the contacts on that relay were a bit dirty (must have been used more.) Secondly, all those 6EV7 tubes are weak (and I don't have any replacements here, so I'll have to order all 3). Thirdly, I did improve it a bit by trying to align the remote receiver. I was going to follow the procedure in the sams, but then my signal generator wasn't working (I have mostly all old partially, or not at all, working test equipment, one day I really should sit down and try to fix more of it). So what I did was to hook a vtvm directly up the grid of each of the 6EV7 tubes corresponding to the button on the remote I was pressing, and then adjusted the corresponding coil for maximum voltage on the meter while I was still holding the button on the remote down. It seemed to work. But I'm still hoping I can improve the range of the remote with new tubes. (it's only about 5 feet now and less than 2 to change the channel)
---

I just swapped the 6EV7s so the strongest one is connected to the channel changer relay, and the really weak section of that tube that was controlling the channel relay is now controlling the tint. For some reason I can still control the tint at a little over 5 feet away, but now I can also control the channel at that distance too.

I got my new 6EV7s, the range of the remote control is much improved.

I changed R741 to 1.2meg, the neon lights to a 220k 1W resistor, and R701 to 4.7meg. This did fix the problem with the color not coming up right away. But now the color control goes too high, too much color if it is set much over "2-3" even on a weak signal (Before I set the color nearly right in the middle between 4 and 5). And the brightness control goes higher too now, and at about 2/3 of the way up the picture starts shrinking horizontally on the left and otherwise blooming out, at 3/4 it just blooms, and disappears at higher brightness - Normal brightness is at about 1/4 - 1/3 of the way up. (Before it was at normal brightness at about 1/2 - 2/3 up, and began to shrink horizontally and then bloom at over 3/4 up, it never got so high it disappeared.)

---

I tried 5.6meg instead of 4.7 for R701, (I even tried 10meg), but it didn't really make a difference. Setting the color control low doesn't really bother me, but I'd like to do something about having the picture blooming so much it goes away entirely at top brightness. I suppose I should check the HV first, but I don't yet have an HV probe.

I'm going to be moving in about a month, so I have to quit working on my sets and start figuring out how to pack up all my stuff. (Which seems like a completely impossible task.) I might bolt the chassis back in and leave this set as is until I'm totally relocated.

I went and made replacements for the metal shield that went over the video IF board, and what I think was another one that went over the color circuits. I've never seen in another ctc-10 chassis, so I don't know how close my replacements are to the original units. But at least now I can watch dvds without seeing loads of interference from the dvd player itself. But, it still does receive some, and even after moving the dvd player several feet away from the set I still get what looks like clear vertical lines moving horizontally across the screen. But they're somewhat intermittent, and moving the wire around which connects the dvd player to the tv can increase or decrease the intensity of the lines, and at the least intensity they're hardly noticeable. I'm sure it's from the dvd player because I get no such interference if I'm just watching this set from the antenna, and the dvd player is off - but then if I watch the dvd player on other sets I don't get this problem, which is why I thought it had to do with that missing shield over the video IF board entirely. .. I was going to post a pic of the chassis, but I can't seem to get it to work. ... I posted it in the picture gallery here: http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/sh...&size=big&cat=

Nice set ad worth the effort :thmbsp:

Thanks. Anyone have any thoughts on how to repair the plastic holder for the remote that sits on the back of the set? It got broken in transport to MI. pic here: http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/sh...ze=big&cat=503

Adam,

If you still have all the pieces, try a super glue for plastic. After applying, fit the pieces, one at a time, securely together. Be aware, super type glue bonds almost instantly. Available at most home stores.

-Steve D.

I should have added that the areas that broke off broke into many small pieces (not just 2 or 3, more like 10-20), because it broke into so many pieces (and the unit itself got bent out of shape) I didn't think it was possible to glue back together. I didn't keep the pieces.

Adam,

Sounds like you're SOL with repairing that remote holder. To keep the set original, maybe there's an AK'er with one that was salvaged off a scrapped CTC-10. I think the RCA remote sets started with the CTC-7. Maybe the remote holder was included on these sets through the CTC-11 or later. That will increase your odds of finding a holder. I'll bet 99% of the folks that were fortunate enough to own a Remote CTC-10 never replaced the remote in that holder anyway. Just left it on top of the set or on the coffee table.

-Steve D.

I don't think I've seen an early one myself. Looks different from the later ones... I've seen plenty of the pockets for the CTC-16, etc. I had a CTC-9 remote set, and I don't remember a holder. Probably a weak spot.

BTW: When did you move to MI? Sorry to see a local collector leave, but anyone leaving SoCal is probably very wise!

Charles

I moved out here a few weeks ago. I took all my sets, but left my cars in CA. But I did take with me all the tools and furniture that I inherited from my grandfather, now that I'm in a large enough place to fit it all. Here's some pictures of my sets in my new living room: http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/sh...&size=big&cat= http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/sh...ze=big&cat=503
I figured there was no good way to repair that holder, but I thought I would ask, as I had seen posts on here where people were making knobs and working with plastic in ways I was not that familiar with, and I thought there might be some process I was unaware of which would repair this. But then, I never kept it in the holder either...

I like your 721TS!
John

Congratulations on a definite move up! I'm sorry to see a local Los Angeles collector gone, but I think you did well to get out, and not stay in SoCal with the way things are going here. Kay and I were at her house in Dallas for the past 10 days, and I was really sorry to leave and come back to LA. Once you spend any time away from the rude, crude, dirty SoCal hustle-'n-bustle, you really get a good view of what's up. I was born here in Los Angeles, so it's my home, but that and the weather are the only reasons I'm still here. And those may not keep me here much longer. Texas or bust:banana:!

Charles

I don't know if a C.T.C.-10, but still intresting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCYX2...eature=related :banana:

I fell asleep on the couch watching Rockford on the ctc10, and woke up in the middle of the night to the set making a horrible noise, with a very dim picture and no vert sync. :no: I'll post more later when I have a look at it.

Like that Westinghouse. All I have is the pencil holder :)

http://antiqueradio.org/art/WestinghouseTVPencilBox.jpg

Phil Nelson

Good luck with her, I hope it's not too bad. It always seems to happen when they're unattended for some reason.......

So the problem is the wire wrapped around the flyback to feed filament voltage to the HV rectifier is arcing to the chassis right where it wraps around the flyback. What kind of wire do I need to replace this?

Also I checked some tubes while I had it apart, and noticed the focus rectifier is weak, then I noticed that it's a 2AV2, and there's supposed to be a 1V2 in there. I don't know what affect this had, but the picture would shrink on the left side if I turned the brightness way up, I wonder if this was the cause. I figure I'll put a new 1V2 in there, and also check the cathode current in the HO tube and the HV (which I never did on this set) before I put it back together. And maybe also touch up the convergence.

I found where I had some of the 2nd anode crt HV leads saved from junk chassis. Some of them look long enough that I'm thinking they might work as a replacement for this.

Between this problem with the ctc-10 and the convergence gone all wonky on my Zenith, I don't have a working color set at all now.

I replaced that wire and it's working again. Exchanging the weak 2AV2 with a good 1V2 made no difference.

The HV was right at 24kv, but the HO tube cathode current was way up around 240ma, adjustment could only bring it down to about 215.

I redid the convergence, it turns out it had gone off mainly because the convergence yoke had somehow managed to turn off center.

I noticed I had my meter not set all the way to zero, when it was off. I hardly ever use this one, but with a 600ma scale it is better than all my others for this which only have 100, or 1000ma scales. Cathode current is actually at about 200ma, so I'm just going to put this set all back together now.

Now I can watch Rockford in color again. :banana: