My New CTC11A
 

Just got back from a round trip to Phoenix to pick up my CTC11A set that I bought on the bay. It's a two piece set, with a black metal cabinet and a black painted wood stand. It looks all original, right down to the vintage spider webs inside the cabinet. It has what looks like the original 21FBP22A picture tube. All three guns have good emissions and good life test. It also has the original instruction booklet. The inside of the set is a bit dusty, but otherwise looks excellent and undisturbed. Should be a nice player.

man i like that set , like said before its amazing that tv's are still showing up for sale you never know whats in people's basement's.

That is a great chassis, maybe one of their best. I bet it doesnt need much of anything to work, make sure someone didnt bypass the surge thermistor. Its a high failure rate part.
The only negative I can think of is no automatic degausing.

That's a beautiful set! It's one of my favorite cabinet configurations, black metal with stand. I had a Zenith like that once, I still regret trading it off. It was for a Sylvania Saratoga set but I don't have that anymore either. I too think the 11 is one of the best chassis that RCA made. The picture is outstanding on the 11 I have that was mint until the landlord "helped" me move it. I look forward to seeing a picture on this one!

Congrats!! very nice set!

I'm partial to the CTC-9 being the best chassis, because it was my first one. Though if you ask me, Folsom was right when he stated that it was RCA's first truly practical chassis. All prior chassis each had their peculiarities, they finally 'got it right' starting with the 9.

Nice set! And extra bonus... you got the owner's manual! I have a black metal 11 as well, but has gold painted legs instead of the stand. Mine is the older version with the flat safety glass. Those black sets look really nice because they put just the right amount of gold trim on them.

sounds cool looking can you post any picture's ,like see one with gold trim and legs.

Me Likey !!

Pretty sharp looking set. You sure can tell the difference between AZ dust and WI dust. :) Some of those little dings on the stand should be pretty easy to hide with a black paint marker.

Dust.
 

Yup. If it were Wisconsin dust you wouldn't find the tubes. LOL

Very neat!

Got a chance to try out the set today. Brought it up slowly on a variac with the HOT removed and got a small amount of hum and static, indicating the audio section is at least in decent shape. Plugged the HOT back in and repeated the slow start. No red plate, so that was good. Got HV and partial raster, but it's obvious I'm going to need to go through and recap, with the audio hum and sorry state of the video.

Electrolytics for sure. Had the same issue with a 16. If you turn the contrast down, you may get a full but dull raster.

is it still like xmas morning at hi-volt house !

Very nice. I love that stand! I had a black metal CTC-11 that played nicely after restoration.

http://antiqueradio.org/RCACTC-11ATelevision.htm

I would plan to replace the electrolytics, bumblebees (if any) and also any "maroon drop" mylar caps. This is an easy set to recap. I would go ahead and do them now, rather than monkey around with onesies and twosies and and wonder why your TV doesn't work right.

Enjoy!

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Such a sharp looking set for the early 60s!!!:yes: Tis a great privilege to work on an 11.

Good advice Phil. I need to do the same. Are the orange drops as bad as maroon?

My "low mileage" CTC11 last worked in 2008 (for Debates and the PBS election year documentaries) with no intervention other than a tube or two. But it started doing the wave so I "red-tagged" it. Flyback ran pretty cool with that big HV box

Depends on when they were made. New orange drops are great -- I use them in restoration all the time. Dipped mylar caps from the 1950s and 1960s are starting to show their age, though. If you look at my CTC-7 article, you'll see photos of it coming to life as more and more of them were replaced.

In addition to maroon, I have seen old mylars in blue and green.

Phil Nelson

Phil, Recalling that CTC7 article was what sparked my question so to speak. I am planning a total recap on my CTC11 Wakely based on your results. No telling how good it could be!

30 yrs ago, I was desoldering orange and maroon caps from all the junked CTC24s, 31s, 38s chassis that I had in my "garden". I transplanted them into many a 50s-era RCA or Philco with great results.

Despite initial quality, I guess age gets everything in the end.

Including us!