Working CT-100
 

This will be fun:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1954-RCA-CT-100-...QQcmdZViewItem

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Wonder what the final tally will be ?

$4500 with 6 days 12 hours to go!

WOW! It was at $1600 at 6:30 this morning.

A museum should get this TV.

From the description, you'd be hard-put to find a better example of that TV (if you could find one for sale at all!). While a resto job would be more "fun", I'd rather have one done by a genuine RCA guy like that. It will be interesting to see what it goes for.

He mentioned the serial numbers:

Hopefully the new owner can be listed in the CT100 database.

95.7% is stanki feedback, that's a fact.

For THAT kind of moolah, I think I'd insist on a personal demonstration..No disrespect to the seller, but what did Reagan always say, "Trust, but Verify" ?

I bet that set goes between $9,500 to $10,000

Hello all,

It is I who posts that set on E-Bay. I would be happy to demonstrate this set to anyone in our beloved circle of collectors, and devulge my credentials as well. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments!

Take care,
Kirk

Hi Kirk: I am relieved that #827 has been liberated from "you know where". I feared for its safety. Did you find the cheater cord that was hidden in the 1KW AM transmitter?
BTW, I bought a 19" jig and may ask for your help to make a 90 degree to 70 degree yoke adapter.
The 4 still looks very good, but does need a thorough chroma alignment.
Hope you summer is going great!
See you soon.
Kevin

This CT 100 sounds like it has a good story behind it, I'd like to hear it.

Yeah, this is going to be very interesting. What a set!!! Let's see, refinance house, sell a couple cars, cash in insurance policies, have the Mrs. get an evening job, then maybe I could afford it.
Dan

great set and the picture rules! recently a friend passed on and left his wife a nice collection of sets. she will be watching this ebay item!i got a ctc 9 that is in immaculate condition with a super good crt.convergance coils were broken and dave is rewinding them.looks to be a good one when finished.there may be another ctc 100 on ebay soon if this goes for a good price.

Why do we want these things ? A trouble-prone old TV w/a small screen that is soon gonna be obsolete... Yet I, and apparently a LOT of us, would about happily give up our eyeteeth for one...

Kirk,

Your usual high quality restoration. Some of the best convergence I've seen on a CT-100. Just a nit-pick, not the original grill cloth. Also, the paper? instruction insert on the inside of the pencil box cover is new to me. Was that a factory item on newly shipped CT-100's?

-Steve D.

Steve,

The insert is in fact a replica of one that was used on a display set. A high quality copy was given to me as a gift. I can see about obtaining another if you are interested. The grille cloth is from another 1954 RCA Set, but not a CT-100. I could not find one that was good enough. I have been following the 15G progress, looks like it is going to be plan B, a 21AX gun in a 15g glass envelope? Thanks for the kudo on the convergence.

Take care,
Kirk

Kevin,

Great to hear from you. I will pick up the cheater this weekend. Yes, 6 months up there was long enough. We can work on getting your test jig on line. THe CTC 4 is much easier to work on that way!

Take care and talk to you soon!

Kirk

Video replacement coils
 

Kirk.....According to your EBay description, this CT-100's electronic restoration was done to factory spec. I assume this applies to all video peaking coils and video filter coils. These coils are custom RCA items that were universal wound on phenolic forms with air cores and covered with a white plaster-like coating. RCA engineers must have considered these custom coils necessary in the video chains of the CTC2 chassis to achieve near perfect conformance to the original NTSC specification. Unfortunately these coils have a reputation of opening up due to internal corrosion on most CTC2 chassis.

How many of these coils were replaced during yours and previous restorations of this CT-100? Assuming some coils were replaced, what type of coils were used and where were they procured?...........Tom

Hi Tom,

At some point (I don't know when) If you ordered the RCA stock number for those white coils you would recieve the improved brown ones. I replaced all the ones that I could still get with NOS replacements from Moyer Electronics in 2003. The peaking coils are the brown replacements, but a few RF chokes I had to use a cross reference to locate the proper replacements. For example, RCA stock # 74214 (180uh) can be replaced with a Miller #6180 or a Merit TV-184. They work fine, I have substituted them in place of good coils and saw no difference in the response. It may be true that the engineers wanted those coils made that way, but RCA never felt it was important enough to continue to make them that way..but then again they took many of these sets back and destroyed them also..giving the customer a 21ct55 or a CTC4.

The IF and Bandpass transformers in this set are originals, except for the 3.58 tank that I replaced with an NOS RCA.

I have a complete list of the replacements and stock cross if you would like.

Take care,
Kirk

FYI: This set is 'in the system' and appears in the Living CT-100 list http://home.att.net/~pldexnis/input/...mbers_List.htm.

In that baseball game screen shot, Kirk nicely captured the 'look' of NTSC color on a 15GP22 driven by a properly calibrated CTC2 chassis. What you see doesn't duplicate the image on the 15GP22 of course, but the 'flavor' is there.

Using just the published set up procedure, it is possible to achieve virtually perfect vertical convergence on a CT-100 as the photos show, but apparently not too in the horizontal direction. Again, as the photos show. This follows statements in early RCA color TV literature that basically says to not expect perfect convergence, due probably to a design issue rather than simply a 1954 servicer's ability and inexperience.

I have seen this set in operation and the gray scale tracking is superb.

Pete

Kirk,
I would like to get a copy of your cross reference list for the coils. I think the ones likely most critical are the millihenry value coils in the I and Q low pass filters, where the self resonant frequency needs to be reasonably high for the inductors to perform the filter (and delay) functions.

Custom RCA Coils
 

Hi Kirk.........Thanks for your prompt reply regaurding the custom RCA peaking and chroma demod filter coils. I certainly welcome your offer to supply me a complete list of replacement cross refferences for these crutial RCA custom coils.

My experence with my 21CT55's CTC2B chassis proves to me that replacing the custom RCA high self resonance, universal wound air core, big coils with small generic, low self resonsnce, ferrite cored coils is totally unsatisfactory.

Incidently, my late SR# 21CT55 still used the original RCA white custom coils, The RCA engineers knew these were essential in achieving the ultimate performance of the CTC2/B chassis intended for use as control room monitors. They knew they had it right the first time. Thanks again......Tom

John and Tom,

That is some good info on these coils. I will be doing a 21ct55 next and will keep that in mind. This is the cross reference that RCA provided for SAMS in 1955. Again I was able to get most of these from Moyer, and they worked good in the CT-100. Hopefully they will be good in the 21ct55.

RCA#

Test
 

Hi Steve D,

The instruction insert in the pillbox is original issue RCA. One of Ingrid's two Merrills has one. This set works well, the other set has a CRT which went to air, alas. One of these sets was a control room set at WRCB-TV in Chattanooga, TN. Your page has been a superb resource, thanks! :tresbon:

Kirk,

Could you post a scan of the insert for us that have never seen it before and our sets are lacking this?

Dave A

Pencil Box Insert
 

Hi Dave,

Here it is.

Tom's 21CT55/Coil List
 

Hi Tom,

Your screen shots of the 21CT55 are stunning! I will be doing one of these this winter. I'm excited now after seeing yours. THe one I have has a very good kine, and RCA Colorama that was rebuilt at the factory.

The cross reference for these coils can be found in the Sams Photofact for the CTC-2, this info was given to them by RCA. I will post it here.

1. RCA # 74214 (180uh) = Merit TV-184 = Miller 6180
2. RCA 71526/98482 (250uh) = Merit TV-185 = Miller 6181
3. RCA# 71793 (36uh) = Merit TV-180 = Miller 6176
4. RCA# 72523 (120uh) = Miller 6153 (No Merit)
5. RCA# 79185 (1 mh) = Miller 4652 (No Merit)
6. RCA# 78902 (6.7mh) = Miller 4670 (no Merit)
7. RCA# 78903 (1.9mh) = Miller 4664 (no Merit)

Take care,
Kirk

I'll be ding-busted!!!! I've had & seen plenty of CT-100s, and never knew that card existed. But I have seen the one that goes over the TV controls on the TRK-12. Same idea.

Has anyone made repros on that (or on the '12)?

Charles

So where are steps 1 and 3?

veg

Hi Kirk:
I have the Sams of the 21CT55, but have been unable to locate any Miller 4000 or 6000 series coils anywhere. Following your suggestion, I have Moyer Electronics trying to locate any equilvilents of the RCA numbers in all their stores.

Glad to learn your winter project will be a 21CT55. Have you ever seen the picture quality of one of these properly setup and running DVD programs? IMHO only a full width 800-1000 pixel screen capture can convey on the AK Forum the true detail and color rendition these 21CT55s are capable of. How were you able to post the 900 X 600 pixel pencil box photo of your last AK reply? Did you link to your web site or URL from your photo posting service?

Thanks for your reply.............Tom

The buyer of this set got a great deal.

:banana:

Who won?:yes:

According to the bid list someone from Belgium. You'd never know that it spent 25+ years in my basement with a bad CRT.
Kevin

I missed the final bid price. The info was pulled by the time I checked.

-Steve D.

Hi Steve D. Final price on Kirk's CT100, 5,464.00.

That is odd. I just checked the link in the first post of this topic, and the price appears as I would always expect it to. I am not logged into Ebay, either.