Classic Hifi Care

I spent 60 years in broadcast engineering in AZ, enjoying retirement now.

Extra ham, have too many nice old radios, build most of my hi-fi and ham gear.

Love pre-war 78's. Finally happy with my turntable/arms/carts

Vintage Altec speakers rule here.

I'm really glad at my age I can still hear the high octave.

Welcome, Conelrad, I hope you enjoy our forum. Please stop by often and PLEASE share your toys with us. We love photos.

Bill

Hi! Hope you drop in from time to time. I'm old enough to remember tse Conelrad days! and we even have a bomb shelter in our basement! lol

I"m a big Altec fan too, past owner of a VOTT Valencia 846a pair (barely visible at L in my avatar --->). I loved 'em, they were great with lower power 6bq5 tube amps, but they're at their best being played really loud in a large room... not a concept favored by SWMBO... so now gone.

Welcome!... the more the merrier...

Welcome Mr. Control of Electromagnetic Radiation !

We'll stay tuned to 640 and 1240 KHz on our vintage radios
and consoles.

In case ya'll missed it :

http://www.conelrad.com/index.php

Welcome aboard! Jump right in and join the activities here on the forum. We are all friends here, so we hope you'll feel right at home. Are you still in AZ?

We'll all benefit from the insights and knowledge of a real engineer, and an active ham/hi-fi guy. Some of us here (I raise my hand) are self-trained in the electronics realm, if we use the term "trained" loosely. But we all have fun playing with the various toys we come across.

Maybe you could give us a brief tutorial in 78 reproduction--what equalization devices you use, choice of stylus, etc.

Chris Campbell

We are on 10ac, about 15mi SSW of Maricopa in Hidden Valley. Yep, in AZ.

For my 78's, a GE VRII with a 3mil stylus does the trick. Tracking at about 7gr.

And for the power gurus, we are served by a 277/480V 200A 3ph service on a residential meter. Occasionally I go thru a used broadcast broadcast transmitter and have to have the juice to test it.

Most of the time, it plays nicely with all the various motors like well pumps, HVAC, eTc.

We are happy you joined us. We are practically neighbors. I missed the car show in Casa Grande this year. There used to be a little restaurant in downtown Maricopa that the wife and I would frequent whenever we had the chance. That little restaurant is long gone. Welcome aboard!

That would be the Sunrise Cafe. Now that we have an I-Hop & Dennys, it was just too tough to keep going.

A good spot that has held on is the Roots Cafe, over by the Dominos Pizza joint.

What is really crazy is Maricopa has a bigger population than Casa Grande, but nowhere near the infrastructure yet.

Welcome! Make yourself at home.

I had forgotten the name. There was a bar on the corner where the NAPA is/was that had a dirt floor and a real swinging door. That was waaaay back, in the late 1970's. There was a pecan orchard on the south end of town.

Conelrad wrote: ↑Wed Feb 08, 2023 1:41 am We are on 10ac, about 15mi SSW of Maricopa in Hidden Valley. Yep, in AZ.

For my 78's, a GE VRII with a 3mil stylus does the trick. Tracking at about 7gr.

And for the power gurus, we are served by a 277/480V 200A 3ph service on a residential meter. Occasionally I go thru a used broadcast broadcast transmitter and have to have the juice to test it.

Most of the time, it plays nicely with all the various motors like well pumps, HVAC, eTc.

Welcome to the forum. As an EE-T I certainly can appreciate the electrical service!
My 60 amp (post WWII) service was made to last another dozen years before upgrading to 200 amps for central AC- LOL

Most of us have 200 amps and 240 single phase, our maximum load is 80% of that 200 amps or 38,400 watts.

You can literally test a 100 kW transmitter but the dummy load must be huge.

I'm very interested in how you have access to 480 volts, then you have a transformer for 240/120, or 208/120 if you're 3-phase. WoW

Our utility is Electrical District 3, in a rural area. When we bought the property, their infrastructure was leased to APS, and with the huge growth of the city ED3 went back into the retail biz.

At that time we had the usual 120/240 service, and I called ED3 and requested a service upgrade to what we have now. They easily complied, with a nominal fee that was surprisingly low.

Since it is a residence, the meter doesn't log demand surges, just kWh.

A 45kVA dry transformer supplies 120/208 wye for those uses.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome Conelrad

I am also an Extra class ham and a VE