'50's 17" RCA B&W

[radiotvnut]

This looks to be a mid '50's 17" RCA B&W. I have not tested this set other than to check the CRT and it's still good. The tuner and controls are under a door on the top of the set. Anyone own or ever worked on one of these?

[Don Lindsly]

Decent set. I always thought they were "cute" because they are a shrunk version of a 21 inch TV that looks identical.

It is an entry level TV for '56. Could use a yoke cover if you can find one. Finding a high voltage cage top will be more difficult, but it will work OK without it. The horizontal hold control is the oscillator stabilizer so it can get way off frequency if it is out of adjustment. It has no stop like a control pot.

Has a good, stable picture when working. Make sure the solder board ground connections are solid. Heat the chassis lug to fix them. Avoid too much heat on the board.

[truetone36]

I have it's 21" big brother.

[peverett]

It looks like RCA used the horrible plastic on the yoke that falls apart over time. This seems to be common on RCA and Zenith sets of that time period.

[Kiwick]

What's with that "golden throat" thing that RCA slapped on their 50s stuff?

i used to have a 50s RCA tube radio with this "golden throat" logo but neither the amp or the 4" speaker were anything special and its "acoustical balance" was just what you'd expect from any cheap AM radio

[Phil Nelson]

It's just marketing-speak, like "Sky Champion" or "Mighty Monarch of the Air."

In legal terms, this is called puffery. You can't sue a company for using such silly language, because nobody knows exactly what it means in the first place.

Phil Nelson

[Tubejunke]

Originally Posted by peverett

It looks like RCA used the horrible plastic on the yoke that falls apart over time. This seems to be common on RCA and Zenith sets of that time period.

I have seen it on nearly every brand at one time or another; yet I have many NOS yokes that are just as old, but the plastic is like new. I figure that the constant heating and cooling process that the plastic is subject to might have something to do with it, because right now I STILL have the infamous 1959 Zenith Space Command (that I couldn't give away) set with low hours on it and the yoke is mint. I also have another set of similar vintage that is well used and the plastic is in shreds.

[radiotvnut]

Update on the RCA:

Today, I finally got brave and brought it up on the variac. To my delight, it came up with picture and audio. The three main problems are that the yoke housing has completely fallen apart to the point where the yoke won't stay secured to the CRT neck, horizontal sync is very unstable and jittery, and the picture is pulled in from the sides. I'm sure new caps and a good control and tuner cleaning will solve the last two problems. I don't know what I'm going to do about the yoke housing that's falling apart. I need to come up with something since most of the TV's of this age that I find suffer from this problem.

This TV is full of various types of wax coated and plastic cased paper caps that will need to be replaced and one of the electrolytic caps runs a little warm; so, those will be replaced, as well. The flyback runs cool and that's a good thing.

Since it has audio and video, that tells me that there's no major damage. Not bad for a TV that probably has not seen AC in 40-50 years.

[Eric H]

A guy over on A.R.F. built a yoke cover out of Wood! It looks and functions great.

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/...c.php?t=152637

[AUdubon5425]

ETF has the schematic uploaded to their site. RCA KCS94.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

ETF has the schematic uploaded to their site. RCA KCS94.

Thanks for finding that for me.

I just placed an order with Mouser for all the caps that I'll need. And, this set has a lot of caps in it!

[radiotvnut]

The caps arrived today. I ordered a mixture of Panasonic and Nichicon electrolytic caps and the other caps are a mix of Vishay, CDE, Nichicon, and Panasonic. After the recap, this set will likely be more reliable than it was 55 years ago.

[bandersen]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

The caps arrived today. I ordered a mixture of Panasonic and Nichicon electrolytic caps and the other caps are a mix of Vishay, CDE, Nichicon, and Panasonic. After the recap, this set will likely be more reliable than it was 55 years ago.

No doubt. Good luck!

[Sandy G]

We had this Bad Boi's printed woodgrain cabinet brother at our lake cabin years & years ago. Don't remember whatever happened to it, we sold that place in '71...As well as I remember, it was still goin' strong then...

[GeorgeJetson]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

It's just marketing-speak, like "Sky Champion" or "Mighty Monarch of the Air."

In legal terms, this is called puffery. You can't sue a company for using such silly language, because nobody knows exactly what it means in the first place.

Phil Nelson

I have to admit I like the "puffery" companys of that era employed to sell their products,especially when they were implying the products came from the future,like "the sight and sound of tommorow" and the made up futuristic names like "Fiberjet" and "Predicta"

That Rca slogan reminds me of Motorola's "Golden voice"