[BC] Turntable arms

[Rich Wood]

------ At 02:45 PM 7/18/2005, Jerry Mathis wrote: -------

>Ah, fond memories of my first radio Engineering job. I remember 
>those Gray tone arms. I hated them, too, because if you had a warped 
>record, they would bounce and skip all over the place. We had the 
>Shure M44-7 cartridges and needles, though. Being at the time of the 
>stripe that everything should be as originally designed, I found 
>some of the "viscus (sp?) damping fluid" and installed it in the 
>cup, and played with the adjustment.

God intended Gray tone arms to be installed on Gates 16" turntables 
with GE cartridges. I'm surprised a Shure M44-7 would survive 
installation in a Gray. The GE was built like a tank and would 
support the nickels and quarters we'd use for precise tracking. The 
Grays I worked with could withstand the vibration of two Maggies and 
the lock lever on the Spotmaster cart machine. It would only skip 
when the RCA 44-BX pulled the ceiling mount down (the ceiling came 
with it). The Altec 639Bs would cause a skip when the newsman tipped 
one over and broke his arm. I think the transmitter was microphonic 
enough to pick up his screams of pain.

The Western Electric 443A-1 1Kw transmitter could actually pass the 
rumble and bangs of this delicate equipment. It even survived a 
direct lightning strike at its base through a window. The UPI 
Teletype machine  paper caught fire right next to it. We were at 1570 
and would disappear down the street at sunset. They destroyed its 
charm when it was increased to 50Kw and moved to 640. WDEW, 
Westfield, MA. Slogan was W-Dew. It's now held captive by Clear 
Channel. It's the only 50K in Western MA.

Rich

Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-303-9084
FAX: 413-480-0010