RCA Test Equipment Advertisement
November 1963 Popular Electronics

November 1963 Popular Electronics Table of Contents Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Popular Electronics, published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

I have to admit to not remembering (or ever knowing) that Radio Corporation of America (RCA) manufactured electrical test equipment, so seeing this full-page advertisement in a 1963 edition of Popular Electronics magazine was a surprise. RCA made a few types of analog multimeter kits, some project and experimenter kits, and even an oscilloscope kit. A little more thumbing through other Popular Electronics magazine editions revealed the RCA Institutes, which was a mail order electronics training program similar to the ITT Institute and National Radio Institute (NRI, from whom I took a course many moons ago). Knowing that if you wait long enough, just about everything shows up on eBay, I did a quick check and found a few vintage RCA Institutes items, including an RCA Institutes Ham Radio Signal Generator Kit.

On a whim, I looked on eBay for the 10 MHz oscilloscope kit that came with my NRI course, and there was one, but it had already been built (on left). I remember that the time base was calibrated by clipping a ceramic capacitor to the probe and sticking it in the wall receptacle and adjusting for 16.67 ms. Amplitude calibration was done by measuring a battery voltage with a voltmeter and adjusting accordingly. Close was good enough at the time. Here is the NRI Model 2500 oscilloscope User Manual.

RCA Test Equipment

Top Performance at Rock-Bottom Cost
With money-saving RCA Electronic Instrument Kits

 RCA WV-76A (K)

High Sensitivity VTVM

Measures AC Voltages .0002-Volt to 500 Volts

Doubles as a Preamplifier

An exceptional two-way kit value! As a high sensitivity AC VTVM the new RCA WV-76A measures AC voltages from 10 mv to 100 v full-scale in nine overlapping rages; special "low-cap" switch on probe extends upper range dial to 500 v. As a flat-response preamplifier, it provides a 38 db maximum gain on the 10 mv range.

• Flat frequency response ±1 db from 10 cps to 11.5 Mc with probe on "direct"; and from 10 cps to 500 kc with probe switched to "low-cap."
• High input impedance for accurate measurements in circuits sensitive to loading.
• Easy-to-use, direct-reading decibel scales.
• Pre-assembled shielded probe and cable, all-metal case eliminate stray pickup.
• Large power-supply filter minimizes hum.
• Compact, lightweight, portable.

Kit price: only $57.95 Factory-wired and calibrated: $79.95

See them all at your Authorized RCA Electronic Instrument Distributor

For specifications and technical data on individual kits, write Commercial Engineering, Section K-133-W. RCA Electronic Components and Devices, Harrison, N.J.

Posted  October 21, 2022
(updated from original post on 1/6/2013)