RCA Portable Master Monitor
 

I received this from a friend a few days ago and have not been able to find out much about it so far.

I do have the covers for it.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3811/8...20aef64b_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8408/8...25b74ae2_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3775/8...dedb978e_c.jpg

The ETF has one that looks identical (scroll down)

There's also one on eBay that displays the RCA logo on the front.

There's no front logo on mine and there was a sticker over it on the back which I've removed. Odd

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7424/8...44c51acf_c.jpg

Can anyone shed some more light on this device ? I'm curious what he scope is supposed to show and some service info would be fantastic.
I wonder if I could connect it to my Sony AVC-3210 camera :scratch2:

Nice! The scope is a waveform monitor and will show you the video signal so that you can adjust for peak level, pedestal, etc. Sure, you could use it with any composite video input. And I see it has a loop-through with video out so you could insert it in line in a video chain. Would be great to see this one going again!

Gilbert

Since yours has no front RCA meatball and the one in back covered, it may have been for use at a rival network to NBC where they hated to have "RCA" staring at them.

I'd love to get it running again, but haven't found any service info yet. It does look to be all original inside though so maybe I can just go by the marked component values.

That would be awesome to get it going again...

As mentioned, the waveform display is basically a specialized oscilloscope that shows the actual video waveform so parameters can be adjusted to specification using the calibrated graticule. This would typically be used to monitor and enable proper adjustment of a broadcast camera.

The photo I have attached shows the display of both even and odd color bars at the line rate, or two scan lines of full field bars. It begins with the negative sync pulse on the left then color burst and then 100% peak white followed by the color bars: yellow, cyan, green, magenta, red, blue and black. The Bars also incrementally decrease in luminance level from 100% white to black at 7.5. Black at this level is also known as pedestal or set-up. Next is the negative horizontal sync pulse and it starts over on the next scan line.

More detailed info is here on the Tektronix site:
http://www1.tek.com/Measurement/App_...fmmonitor.html

I think I have a couple extra UHF connector to BNC adapters for the video connectors on the back. Let me know if you want them and I'll put them in the mail. I can also send a 75 ohm terminator if you need it as that is a loop through connector and will need to be terminated to show proper levels.

Thanks for the info and offer Tim. I'll check out the critical parts like the power transformer and get back to you.

Is it a round or rectangular vid CRT?

It has a rectangular 8HP4 in it. I found a few date codes for early 1960 in it. I also found out it's a model TM-35 designed to be used with the RCA TK-60 camera.

The lower portion of the front panel and the removable panel on the back were used for the installation of optional camera controls or a 4-channel switcher intended for field applications. The MI- number on the back panel of these units will vary depending on configuration as shipped.

An article introducing this unit appeared on page 69 of the December 1959 issue of RCA "Broadcast News". Available here:

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...ws/RCA-106.pdf

Excellent, thanks for the link. I see it uses a 3WP1 CRT. That's great because I happen to have picked up a spare a few months ago.

I was thinking of earlier generation w/ round Vid Mon but similar WFM

bandersen-
It's an RCA TM-35, packaged for OB use, but there was also one in the vintage RCA TR-11 2" VTR.

Regards,
JB

I bought one of those a few years ago and find it handy for demonstration purposes away from our facility. The one I've got was originally set up for use with a TK-60 4 1/2 inch image orthicon camera. I did completely recap it when I got it and it puts out an excellent picture and waveform trace as expected. I did not have a schematic, but doing the work is pretty straight forward. Have fun!

Really nice monitors. Would love to find one. I persue ebay all the time looking for antique 'pro' video gear like this.