Rca trk9

[s-petersen]

Hi,
I'm not regular on this site, but a fixture on Audiokarma.
A friend of mine had his TRK9 restored , restuffed caps and all.
The problem is that he brought it home and it is not working, the screen would not light at first, but that seemed to resolve itself.The TV sound is low with a predominant hum, the picture is diagonal lines, I am going to see if I can help him tomorrow, I am aware that the picture sounds like vertical hold.
I regularly work on tube audio, I'm just trying to help my friend.
The person who rebuilt it is trying to guide him, but my friend is is not a tech person. The rebuilder lives several hours away , so if I can't figure it out, it'll be a long drive to return it.
The chassis was brought in person to to rebuilder, and picked up as well, so no shipping disasters.
Are there any newbie mistakes in the setup of the chassis being installed in the cabinet? I am just looking for the simplest mistakes before I try to sort it out.
Any tips are greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Scott

[Electronic M]

What is the signal source? There is no over the air analog broadcast TV anymore (stopped in ~2009-2012). If you don't have a DTV/cable/satellite box, DVD player, VCR etc connected to the set, then you will not receive anything.

That is a pre-WWII TV they are scarcer than hen's teeth, and worth more than BOTH my cars combined...Treat it carefully. Also, that set predates the 1941 NTSC standard, IIRC channel numbers don't jibe with all other sets made between July 1941 and 2009. Sound was AM on these sets, but FM in NTSC....There were/are ways around these issues that hopefully the restorer properly applied.

I wish I could be more specific but like most TV collectors I've never worked on anything prewar.

These sets are sort of like Stanley Steam Cars: If you don't know how to fix it/operate it, and can't pay someone who knows how to help, then you're better off selling it, or not using it.

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

What is the signal source? There is no over the air analog broadcast TV anymore (stopped in ~2009-2012). If you don't have a DTV/cable/satellite box, DVD player, VCR etc connected to the set, then you will not receive anything.

That is a pre-WWII TV they are scarcer than hen's teeth, and worth more than BOTH my cars combined...Treat it carefully. Also, that set predates the 1941 NTSC standard, IIRC channel numbers don't jibe with all other sets made between July 1941 and 2009. Sound was AM on these sets, but FM in NTSC....There were/are ways around these issues that hopefully the restorer properly applied.

I wish I could be more specific but like most TV collectors I've never worked on anything prewar.

These sets are sort of like Stanley Steam Cars: If you don't know how to fix it/operate it, and can't pay someone who knows how to help, then you're better off selling it, or not using it.

I so agree what you said. You're dealing with a true museum piece there and not something to tinker with. I would have a pro look at it. For a piece of television history worth in the 12K-15K area (that's modest), it's sure worth a long drive to have it attended to properly! I would not have expectation to be using that very rare set regularly as the 9" CRT is by no means common and they develop ion burns at the center. I would recommend the owner to get a 630TS or 621TS if he wants a nice early RCA TV to use and enjoy.

[benman94]

Vertical sweep rate is the same as NTSC: 60 cycles.

The horizontal sweep frequency is a bit lower, but you can feed a prewar RCA set standard NTSC; just adjust the horizontal hol control. There's more than enough range on the control to get sync at 15,734 cycles.

Sound isn't a problem, slope detection of the FM carrier works pretty well. The sound is a but distorted, but it's alright.

IIRC, channel 3 on the modern band plan directly correlates with one of the prewar channels, but I'd have to look it up.

[benman94]

Check that the 6J5 oscillator in the tuner is properly seated, they have a tendency to work loose in shipping according to some collectors with more pre-war experience than I have.

[benman94]

Channels 2 and 3 on the TRK-9/90 correspond to channels 3 and 4 respectively on the post-1945 band plan. I'd use a modulator on channel 3 and tune the set to channel 2.

[s-petersen]

I went over there , and looked at it, The set was just out of adjustment on vertical,horizontal width, centering height, and the tube was also not centered on the platform behind the mask.
The sound problem was the channel selector, it seem like it was just "dirty", after switching channels about 10 times the sound was working much better.
We watched Charlies Angels from a DVD player for an hour.
The set is slightly unstable to power line fluctuations, and the contrast and brightness also affect the vertical and horizontal hold somewhat.
All in all it works pretty well.
A video of the cabinet restoration, the owner said this is his actual unit being restored.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9pjd3EQz2Y

[Kevin Kuehn]

Quite the save on that cabinet. Would love to hear some background on where/how that set was found, and any history about.

[s-petersen]

The TV was on someones enclosed porch, it was used as a shelf for flower pots.
I am not sure how he found it. The chassis are not rusted, and everything looks like a 20 year old TV as far as oxidation is concerned, nothing really bad.
The chassis restorer restuffed all of the caps topside and replaced the cloth wiring with cloth covered wire also. I have not seen under the chassis.
The original radio escutcheon was destroyed by exposure, but a model of floor radio used the same part, protected behind cabinet doors,which was purchased for replacement.
The motor controlled tuning was pretty interesting to see on the radio.
My Stromberg-Carlson has a motor controlled band switch, but it is 8? years later

[EdKozk2]

Great cabinet restoration work.

[bgadow]

Thanks for sharing! That's been my dream TV since first seeing a photo of one as a young teen. The power tuning appears to be the same setup used on the 811K radio (and probably others). I have one (they're fairly common) & it's a great gimmick.

[decojoe67]

Thanks for the vids! So great to see it working. I would've loved to have seen a shot of the entire set with the screen on. Such an impressive machine to watch TV on! I see it has the ion burn, but it's not bad at all. The early post-war Dumont sets have this often too.
I wasn't aware that these had motorized tuning, but I did hear RCA put one of their best radios in these sets to further entice buyers. Likely the radios were on a lot more than the TV screens!
I have a 811K too bgadow. It's a very common console, but so underrated. It's a very nice Vassos design and about as good a player as you'll find in a '30's radio. By the way, I too was blown away at the first sight of the TRK-9 as a teen in a book about early television. It was number one on my list until I started to realize just how rare it is.
Again, thank you for the vids.

[s-petersen]

I'm glad the video came out ok, The sound was working better 2 weeks ago,
There are still some dirty contacts that need to be used to clean them up a little.

[s-petersen]

My friend is selling the TRK, is it ok to post the auction details?

[bandersen]

Yes, please do. I don't think it violates any forum rules and these rarely come up for sale.