Sir Chip. . . .

AaaaaaaaaH Haaaaa . . . . . more forthcoming info.

No more "consumptions" now required . . . . . .BUT with more questions, yet to be answered.

First is, HAS that unit been used for the last 50 years, as it was designed for, and that is for an old first generation TV of the 54-60's and their power consumptions of up in 350-450 watts of power ?

And mainly, the unit being tied into a poorly regulated AC power line source . . .e.g. . . .like an REA stations line with long power line runs, that could fluctuate wildly with different line loading conditions.

Or is it a non working / or failed new toy for you, to be used for . . .I don't know what ?

If the LATTER situation and you know nothing about it, let me clue you in just minimally, initially.

That unit can take in a low AC line voltage . .say 'bout 90VAC and feed into its internal Sola voltage regulating /resonant saturable reactor transformers primary and automatically will regulate it into the 118-120VAC level.

If your incoming AC line voltage just happens to be in the order of that 118 VAC initially, the transformer core will be going into its saturated threshold a bit and the top and bottom nodes of the AC will be compressed a bit as shown on my illustration.

As you up the primary AC input voltage even further towards the transformers upper spec of ~135VAC, those peak nodes will compress down even more and have the once sine wave, compressing on down into a quasi squashed square wave. And then, since the core is so saturated, no stronger magnetic fied will be created to be able to induce a greater magnetic field into the secondary and raise the secondary voltage output.

Thereby, by different progressive degrees of going into saturation of the core of the transformer, within the 95-135VAC input range, results in a quite stable output AC voltage.

If being used above the nominal 118VAC input the secondary puts out a nastier waveform, the Sola transformer is inherently a bit noisy . . . .HUMMMMMM . . . and it WARMS up a bit and PULLS AC line current even WITHOUTa plugged in load. (Thats due to its transformer needing to be into a subsaturated threshold.)

Sooooooo with the latter aspects of the heating up of the unit and its quiescent current consumption, even with no TV load on the unit, we get to the aspect of why there is a relay being associated with the unit.

Thats not a good situation to have a " bun warmer " unit setting there plugged in, and pulling 40-60-80 watts continually for 24-7 even if the Color TV is not turned on and THEN pulling its additional slightly less than half a kilowatt.

Soooooothat was your relays function.

Notice the units AC power cord line that goes over to the AC wall receptacle and additionally, there is the female AC receptacle on the unit that is marked for the load /TV set to be plugged into.

The end result, is that the AC into the unit is being disconnected by the relay, until the TV is turned on and that resistance presence has then been detected and initiates the RCA 10-T-200 to then supply regulated AC power to the TV set.

When the TV is turned off at the set, all reverts and goes Stone Cold Steve Austin again with the RCA 10-T-200 unit.

Soooooo . . . . . If your relay is bad, and you now tell us that it is configured with 3 terminals versus the socket and pins.

Lift free, 2 of its 3 terminals external wiring and ohm out between them to ascertain 10's on up to a 100 or so of ohmmage of either a coil winding or thermal heater, in case it's a bimetallic time delay relay. If that test confirms resistance present, then the fault probably will be due to pitted /blackened open relay contacts, from long time switching of a 500 watt load..

Thats the point where I would be disassembling the relays cover to see precisely whats inside, to know what corrective action is needed to repair the relay.

Yet 2 more workarounds . . .on not using the relay and its load presence capability:

Since you are probably NOT using an old classic color TV with it daily, so I would then visually examine, within the relay, to see what 2 of the 3 connections are made between, when the relay activates, and then shunt them with an external wire across those relay terms.

Then when you want to use the unit, plug it into the AC wall receptacle or a switched power strip or install a rocker switch inside the RCA 10-T-200 units case in series with the incoming AC line.

Finally let us know if the planned use is for a different purpose, other than which the unit was designed for.

73's de Edd

Some ecological circumstantial evidence is very strong, such as when you find a trout in the milk.