[Charlie]

This is a set that I brought home a couple of years ago from the old TV shop. The chassis is a mix between a CTC15 and 16. I believe this set is from 1968. IMS, the Sams is dated 12/68.

The CRT is a Sylvania rebuild dated 1978. It tested weak, but cranking the heaters up a little brings the meter into the green. I can then put it back to 6.3 volts and the meter will stay in the green, but it does fall and nearly goes back to the red. It might work well as is... and if not, I can always put a brightener on it. The set has "Instant On" and I'm thinking this might have worn the CRT out prematurely.

I just now decided to see what this set was going to need. Trying to bring it up slowly on the Variac failed. When I'd get the dial up to 20 volts, it would pop the circuit breaker on the chassis. Wow... those reset buttons actually work! Anyway, seems there was a dead short somewhere. I was thinking a rectifier diode, but those checked out okay.

After poking around in there, I found the power transformer has a short between the 315 volt secondary and one of the filament secondaries (which has one side tied to ground). I started cutting the wires to isolate the transformer to make sure, and it seems the problem is indeed in the transformer.

The ratings of this transformer are nearly the same as a CTC16 transformer... only off by 5 volts... and I think I have a parts 16 chassis that I can swap the transfomers with. I'll get my hands on the 16 chassis this weekend... it's up at my cabin in the woods.

Earlier in life, it seems this set had a little work done on it. Other than a CRT replacement, someone installed a 100mfd lytic under the chassis... and it doesn't appear to be very old. The flyback has also been replaced... using one of the bullet-proof FLY-277's. I'm betting this set was used way up into the 80's (especially considering the date code of the CRT was 1978).