Saw a CT-100 for the first time

[Charlie]

The ship I am working on makes regular stops in Pugent Sound, WA. A few days ago, while docked in Ferndale, WA, I got a opportunity to go to Bellingham and visit the Spark Museum on Bay Street where they have a working CT-100... along with a nice handful of other TV's. They've got all kinds of early electronics out the wazoo! EVen got to see some early shipboard radio gear... that was wild!

Anyway, my reason for going was to see a CT100. At first, the guy wasn't sure if it was working... mentioned a HV problem but thought it may have been fixed. Well, it was fixed. After he got it on, there was Porky Pig on a Looney Tunes short. It was pretty cool looking, and certainly worth going there for.

We always see these sets on the internet... whether still photos or video posted to You Tube. But seeing one in person... that was really neat! Makes me want one even more.... Dammit!

Also, just a few doors down from the museum was a place to get Cajun food. Hmmm... Cajun food in Washington?? Well, make no mistake about it... they knew what they were doing there in Bellingham! The jambalaya they served was awesome. My nose started running and my head started sweating after the 3rd bight!

So, if you're ever in Bellingham, WA, you can go downtown on Bay Street and see a nice CT100 and get some good Coon-Ass food as well!

http://www.sparkmuseum.org/

http://www.bayouonbay.com/

[Pete Deksnis]

Had the pleasure/honor of helping get that CT-100 operational a few years ago. Glad to hear it's still wowing visitors. :-)

Pete

[Sandy G]

You are a LUCKY MAN, indeed..

[David Roper]

CT-100 is the kind of thing that you mark milestones around:

1979--first saw a picture of one.

1991--first saw one in the flesh

2002--first watched a working set

2010--bought one

more to come . . . ?

[Sandy G]

Were CT-100s ALWAYS valuable ?!? I mean, were they widely known to have been "The First" & therefore, worth hanging on to ?

[David Roper]

As much as the 630 is considered the Model T of postwar TVs, the CT-100 is relatively famous as the first color TV. Only twenty years ago the going rate for a clean one was pegged at $500 in a well-known book's first printing, while the Westinghouse and CBS sets were said to be worth over twice that, probably based on rarity.

[Sandy G]

...I preach the gospel of Old TVs anywhere/everywhere I have a chance. My wife has a pic of my Zenith Porthole on her cellphone, it NEVER fails to "Oooh, & Ahh" people...Then I tell 'em what a WORKING CT-100 could fetch, they pay attention...Even a pristine non-working example is worth keeping an eye out for...Most "Civilians" don't realise they even HAD TV back that long ago as my Porthole, & having COLOR in '54 ? That was only a few years after the LAST Dinosaurs shuffled off this Mortal Coil, right ?!?

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Were CT-100s ALWAYS valuable ?!? I mean, were they widely known to have been "The First" & therefore, worth hanging on to ?

No. At one time they were just considered to be an old small-screen, big-box color TV that didn't work very well and had a doubtful supply of replacement CRTs available. Got mine for $35 in the early 70s, from a tuner rebuilder shop.

jr

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Charlie

Also, just a few doors down from the museum was a place to get Cajun food. Hmmm... Cajun food in Washington??

Though I'm no judge of southern food (I'm from New Jersey), there's this funky place in Bellevue WA, on Northup next to I405 that looks like an auto body shop. Dixie BBQ



Not sure I'd be up to the care and feeding that a CT100 would need.

[Tom S]

Hell I still want to see one play. I've seen one in Minniapolis at a Radio Museum but it's not in working state yet.

[Bill R]

I turned one down in Memphis for $75. It was mid 70's, and I was selling used sets. I didn't think I would ever be able to sell a console with such a small picture. This set had chroma, but no video. The CRT looked good though. Sure wish I had bought it. I would still have it. Kicking myself.

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by Tom S

I've seen one in Minniapolis at a Radio Museum but it's not in working state yet.

Is that the Pavek museum? I may be out that way some time this spring.

Phil Nelson

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Got mine for $35 in the early 70s,

Ye bested me jr. My first CT-100 cost $45 in the early 60s.

Pete

[jr_tech]

Well, he *wanted* $50, but my boss haggled him down. He had rebuilt a number of tuners for us "poor starving young engineers" that were keeping old tired CTC-4s & 5s going for cheap color viewing, so I guess he felt sorry for us.

jr

[Sandy G]

Just theu the Missionary Ridge Tunnels on US 11-64 in Chattanooga, there was a semi-funky area of town called "Brainerd". When I was there as a student at McCallie School, there was a used TV/radio sales/repair shop there, & in 1974/75 when I was a senior there, the guy had a PRISTINE looking funky old TV in the window, "!957 CT-100 Color, $200". From what I remember it looking like, it COULD have been a CT-100, & he was just off on his date. But $200 was a king's ransom for a broke boarding-school student in '75, much less where would I have PUT it, & how could I have GOTTEN it anywhere... I didn't make it back to Chattanooga after I graduated in May '75 for something like 3 years, & by then, the TV shop was long gone. Sigh...