Or, Learn Radio and TV Repair In Your Home.

The RCA Institutes was founded in 1909 by Guglielmo Marconi as the Marconi Institute (later renamed the “RCA Institutes”) and was a private post-secondary correspondence school based in Washington, D.C. David Sarnoff was an early graduate of the Marconi Institute, and was one of the founders of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Sarnoff acquired The Marconi Institute in 1919 and changed the name to RCA Institutes.

After the divisions of RCA Corporation were sold in the 1980s, RCA Institutes was separated from the company and setup as an independent educational institution that eventually changed its name to Technical Career Institutes, or TCI, currently located in mid-town Manhattan, New York. (from a TCI Alumni Newsletter, Spring 2008 ).

All documents open in a new window. Many thanks to ARF (AntiqueRadios.com Forum) member ‘reeves03’ for the original PDFs, and ‘google books’ for the swell ‘RCA Institutes Ad’ from Popular Science Magazine, October 1958.

This site serves as a mirror of the original posting.

• Study Group 1
  • Study Group 1, How To Study – Effectively
  • Study Group 1, Service Practices 1: How To Identify Receiver Parts
  • Study Group 1, Service Practices 2: How To Use Tools
  • Study Group 1, Theory Lesson 1: Wave Motion and Communication
  • Study Group 1, Experiment Lesson 1: How To Solder
  • Study Group 1, Theory Lesson 2: Schematic Symbols and How to Use Them
  • Study Group 1, Experiment Lesson 2: How to Do Advanced Soldering
• Study Group 2
  • Study Group 2, Service Practices 3
  • Study Group 2, Service Practices 4
  • Study Group 2, Theory Lesson 3
  • Study Group 2, Experiment Lesson 3
  • Study Group 2, Theory Lesson 4
  • Study Group 2, Experiment Lesson 4
• Study Group 3
  • Service Practices 5, How to Erect Antennas
  • Service Practices 6, How to Repair and Polish Cabinets
  • Theory Lesson 5, Ohm’s Law and Primary Cells
  • Experiment Lesson 5, Continuing the Multimeter Assembly
  • Theory Lesson 6, Secondary Cells
  • Experiment Lesson 6, Experiments with Cells
• Study Group 4
  • Service Practices 7, How to Read Meters
  • Service Practices 8, How to Understand Meter Readings
  • Theory Lesson 7, Resistance
  • Experiment Lesson 7, Meter Assembly and Measurement of DC
  • Theory Lesson 8, DC Circuits
  • Experiment Lesson 8, Resistance Measurements
• Study Group 5
  • Service Practices 9, How to Remove Chassis And Locate Simple Defects
  • Service Practices 10, How to Test Tubes
  • Theory Lesson 9, Power and Voltage Division
  • Experiment Lesson 9, Power Measurement
  • Theory Lesson 10, Magnetism and Electromagnetism
  • Experiment Lesson 10, Magnetic Experiments
• Study Group 6
  • Service Practices 11, Dial Cords and Tuning Systems
  • Service Practices 12, Battery and Three-Way Portable Receivers
  • Theory Lesson 11, D-C Meter Theory
  • Experiment Lesson 11, Calculation of Meter Multipliers and Shunts
  • Theory Lesson 12, D-C and A-C Generators
  • Experiment Lesson 12, Meter Assembly and A-C Measurements
• Study Group 7
  • Service Practices 13, How To Test Resistors
  • Service Practices 14, How To Test Inductors
  • Theory Lesson 13, Alternating Current
  • Experiment Lesson 13, Generator and Transformer Experiments
  • Theory Lesson 14, Inductance
  • Experiment Lesson 14, Inductance Experiments
• Study Group 8
  • Service Practices 15, How To Test Capacitors
  • Service Practices 16, How To Use Catalogs and Service Data
  • Theory Lesson 15, Capacitance
  • Experiment Lesson 15, Capacitance Experiments
  • Theory Lesson 16, AC Circuits
  • Experiment Lesson 16, Resonance Experiments
• Study Group 9
  • Service Practices 17, Servicing When Receiver Is Not At Fault
  • Service Practices 18, Circuit Tracing
  • Theory Lesson 17, Rectification
  • Experiment Lesson 17, Rectification Experiments
  • Theory Lesson 18, Basic Filters and Time Constants
  • Experiment Lesson 18, Filter Experiments
• Study Group 10
  • Service Practices 19, How To Troubleshoot A Radio Receiver
  • Service Practices 20, Special Tools
  • Theory Lesson 19, Triodes, Multigrids, and Multipurpose Tubes
  • Experiment Lesson 19, Triode Experiments
  • Theory Lesson 20, Power Supplies I
  • Experiment Lesson 20, Signal Generator Assembly I
• Study Group 11
  • Service Practices 21, Checking And Servicing Switches
  • Service Practices 22, Phono And Recorder Motors
  • Theory Lesson 21, Power Supplies II
  • Experiment Lesson 21, Signal Generator Assembly II
  • Theory Lesson 22, Electron Tube Constants
  • Experiment Lesson 22, Electron Tube Experiments
• Study Group 12
  • Service Practices 23, Tape Recorders
  • Service Practices 24, Phono Players And Pickups
  • Theory Lesson 23, Voltage Amplifiers
  • Experiment Lesson 23, Voltage-Amplifier Experiments
  • Theory Lesson 24, Audio-Power Amplification
  • Experiment Lesson 24, Power-Amplifier Experiments
• Study Group 13
  • Service Practices 25, Vacuum-Tube Voltmeter
  • Service Practices 26, Microphones And Loudspeakers
  • Theory Lesson 25, Bias Methods and Basic Audio-Amplifier Design
  • Experiment Lesson 25, Bias Experiments
  • Theory Lesson 26, Decibels, Microphones, and Loudspeakers
  • Experiment Lesson 26, Impedance-Matching Experiments
• Study Group 14
  • Service Practices 27, Public Address Systems I
  • Service Practices 28, Public Address Systems II
  • Theory Lesson 27, Detector Circuits
  • Experiment Lesson 27, Detector Experiments
  • Theory Lesson 28, TRF Receivers
  • Experiment Lesson 28, Radio-Frequency Experiments
• Study Group 15
  • Service Practices 29, Transistor Fundamentals
  • Service Practices 30, Transistor Applications
  • Theory Lesson 29, Principles of Superheterodyne Receivers
  • Experiment Lesson 29, I-F Amplifier Experiments
  • Theory Lesson 30, Oscillators
  • Experiment Lesson 30, Oscillator Experiments
• Study Group 16
  • Service Practices 31, AM And FM Signal Generators
  • Service Practices 32, Cathode Ray Oscilloscope I
  • Theory Lesson 31, Frequency Conversion
  • Experiment Lesson 31, Frequency-Conversion Experiments
  • Theory Lesson 32, Wave Propagation and Antennas
  • Experiment Lesson 32, R-F Stage, Antenna and Shielding Experiments
• Study Group 17
  • Service Practices 33, Cathode Ray Oscilloscope II
  • Service Practices 34, High-Fidelity
  • Theory Lesson 33, Multiband and Commercial Receivers
  • Experiment Lesson 33, Alignment of Superheterodyne Receivers
  • Theory Lesson 34, Volume and Tone Control Circuits
  • Experiment Lesson 34, Decibel Measurement Experiments
• Study Group 18
  • Service Practices 35, How to Check for Hum
  • Service Practices 36, Using The Signal Generator and Signal Tracer To Troubleshoot
  • Theory Lesson 35, Special Circuits
  • Experiment Lesson 35, Volume and Tone Control Experiments
  • Theory Lesson 36, Principles of Frequency Modulation
  • Experiment Lesson 36, Bandwidth Experiments
• Study Group 19
  • Service Practices 37, Installing And Servicing Auto Radios
  • Service Practices 38, FM Receivers
  • Theory Lesson 37, FM Detectors
  • Experiment Lesson 37, Troubleshooting Experiments I
  • Theory Lesson 38, Introduction to Television
  • Experiment Lesson 38, Troubleshooting Experiments II
• Study Group 20
  • Service Practices 39, Printed Circuits
  • Service Practices 40, Practical Television Antennas and Transmission Lines
  • Theory Lesson 39, Principles of Television Receivers
  • Experiment Lesson 39, Troubleshooting Experiments III
  • Theory Lesson 40, Principles of Color Television
  • Experiment Lesson 40, Troubleshooting Experiments IV
• Index

Scanning is complete, as of 12/30/2012. This is all I have in original materials. Of course, any test materials were completed by the original owner of this set and we don’t have those. Nor do we have the grade reports. I’ve include graphs, including blank graph paper (or graph paper that was filled in by the student at that time) if it was in the booklet.

Many thanks to Alan, VE3IVO, for the two missing Service Practices 35 and 36, and the Index!

Colophon

The First 6 Study Groups arrived originally scanned at a higher resolution. Now that all scanning is complete, I can go back and tweak some of these to reduce their size.

Scanning and Preparation Tools are:
A PC running Ubuntu 12.04 on a dual-core, AMD-64 motherboard, using Simple Scan, PDF Mod, and Scan2PDF for document assembly into PDF. GIMP Image Editor 2.6.11 was used for occasional touch-up or image scaling.