RCA Victor7T174K TV
 

This is my latest acquisition. It is in a limed oak finish. The lacquer is shot and I plan to strip the remaining lacquer off and recoat. The veneer is in good shape with the excepton of a small chip in the top. i can live with that. I like this set for its compactness and very profound early TV style. Is is complete with all the knobs, none of which are broken (unbelievable). I found out from some research that this model is called the Kendall. It has a 17 inch screen and features four IF stages. I bet it will be quite a performer.

The set had previously been working but now there was no picture. Upon removing the back I discovered a brightener hanging off the 17QP4 glass picture tube, never a good sign. I put my crt tester on it and it started out on the red but slowly came up to green. I ran it at 7 volts for a few minutes and it went well into the green area. It seems to be a good tube after a little wake up with no shorts or anything. I'm not sure what the brightener was doing on there to begin with. I found one electrolytic in the voltage doubler that was getting warm so I disconnected it and temporarily clipped in a new cap. This time I got white noise from the speaker and nothing else. The neon bulb tester told me the horizontal stages and flyback are working. The high voltage measures only 8KV when the Sams says it should be 13.2KV. I know the power supply will have to be rebuilt since the selenium rectifiers and electrolytic cans are original. I have not looked under the chassis yet. The set is reported to have been recapped. There is only a small pile of wax at the bottom of the high voltage cage. Overall the chassis looks to be in good shape. There is no sign of 1950s yoke cover disease. I did notice that in addition to having a lighted tuning dial that there is a pilot light mounted at the center bottom where the legs are. I assume this is so you can tell the set is on if the doors are closed, very interesting feature. My question is this. is there supposed to be some kind of lens in front of the cabinet pilot light? I just have a small hole visible from the front of the cabinet. it almost looks like there might have been nothing there, especially seeing the way the lamp fits into the hole from the back. I am really looking forward to restoring and using this set.

It does lack one feature that most of my sets also lack and that I need to install fairly quickly. It is the WAF or Wife Acceptance Factor. It rarely comes pre-installed on any vintage set. :D Here are some photos of the set as I received it.

I would think that cabinet (with doors closed) would have some measurable WAF. It is rather attractive. :-)

Oh, yeah, I think the WAF oughta be FINE once you get the cabinet spiffed up...That's a pretty set !

There was a push-in jewel that went on the front of the set for an indicator. I've seen them before, but dont have a clue as to where to get one today.

I thought there might have been something like that. I will find something to put in there. I don't expect it will be that difficult.

Right now I am testing some material to remove what is left of the existing varnish. I hope this is not going to be too troublesome. The only two sets I ever had refinished were done by professionals. i would like to try this one myself.

Great looking set! :yes: Good luck with the restoration.. Cheers

I think it should have a pretty high WAF considering it is a nice looking set.

Not only that, it features the KCS66 chassis which is a greater performer. Besides having a an excellent S/N cascode tuner and keyed AGC, it features a full 4MHz video bandwidth, has intercarrier sound and a DC coupled video amplifier. (Does this sound like RCA salestalk?)

RCA went to the DC coupled video amplifier I believe with the 8T241 KCS28 chassis. It dropped DC coupling with the KCS47 and went back to it with the KCS66. DC coupling generally means improved low frequency phase response which means the picture quality on this set should be excellent.

It is a great find!:banana:

Does this set really have full 4 MHz video? I thought only the 630 chassis had that. I too think this is a beautiful set. I find myself staring at it even though it does not yet work. It seems to be well built as well. The chassis is in good shape. I don't recall seeing any rust anywhere. I am going to take my time with this one and make sure it comes out right. I think I am going to love this set once I get it going. According to the Sams this set also has DC restoration.

Yes indeed, all of the RCAs apart from I believe the 621TS and 721TS had 4MHz video at least until until 1953.

Actually the set does not have DC Restoration. (DC restoration implies the DC component has been restored with a diode clamp). Your chassis is better: it instead has DC video amplifier coupling. This is better because capacitor coupling affects the high and low frequency and phase response. DC coupling eliminates the problem hence the video response will be better and no clamp is required.

This is a very well designed set.

Cheers Terry

I think I have the metal table model version of this set.

Tom C.

So, basically this set has "DC preservation" and doesn't need restoration because it never took away the DC component?

The metal table model is the one shown on the cover of the Sams. It is quite stylish too.

Factory Installed Video Input Jack
 

I was looking over the Sams for this set and discovered that it has a video jack connected directly to the cathode of the video output tube. I did notice on the back that there is an extra RCA jack on the chassis. It is not labeled unlike the one for the phonograph input. I just assumed it was a second audio input until I looked at the Sams. Was this for test or setup purposes? I don't imagine there was anything for the customer to connect to this in 1952. I will probably use this input to do the setup after I get the set going again.

You are right. This set does not have DC restoration. I was getting confused with another RCA schematic. The video detector diode is connected to the video output cathode through a coil and a resistor.