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[Airflyte]

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[Windsong]

I like the subject content!

[Airflyte]

It was interesting to watch. The narration might be AI that I find exhausting.

I have been playing my LP's as of late. An entirely different experience than streaming music from an iPad.

[LarryS]

Streaming is not good for musicians, it steals their revenue. I use CDs mostly and recently we got a cheap record player because we acquired a lot of vintage vinyls following a house clearance.

[ghostler]

The comment that this video was produced by A.I. is probably not too far from the truth.

Nothing is new under the sun. CD's are digitized media, not analogue. So, the video comment about dusting off old CD's has no merit. If it mentioned an old 1/4 inch wide reel to reel, 8 track or cassette would be closer to the truth.

Back in the 1960's and 1970's, I listened on inexpensive 6 to 8 transistor AM and later AM-FM battery operated radios. Their monoraul sound was tinny on those 2 to 3 inch diameter speakers, plus considerable white noise hiss by the transistor electronics. Even then they "companded" the sound (automatic gain control on radios and stereo equipment, even radio stations), so nothing is new.

File sharing in high school meant borrowing a friend's 45 RPM record stack and me loaning him/her my 45 RPM record stack.

I bought on clearance around 1971 a quality Radio Shack monoraul 4-inch reel to reel battery/AC true capstan recorder on sale from their store in Honolulu. 4-inch reels were an odd size, 5-inch? were next size up, so I bought the most common, I think they were 3.25 or 3.5 inch reels.

I found by wiring a special adapter cable from the speaker outputs of our monoraul tube record player to the recorder inputs (mike or aux. input) with a potentiometer to limit input gain from the record player to not overdrive the recorder's pre-amp, could make decent tape copies.

The size of modern undercounter radio was my high school "mp3 player". It used 6 D batteries, so was portable.

If the digitization is high resolution enough, reproduction IMO will be of good quality and indestiguishable from analogue.

60 years ago, accoustic suspension speakers had not yet been developed, hence why larger paper speakers were used to produce the same volume. The old stereo systems then still produced decent audio output with a certain warmth to the sound, deep booming bass was pleasant to listen to.

The old adage is, "You get what you pay for." Good equipment with good speakers even new today sounds good. Nothing is new under the sun.

[Windsong]

I can see you really know what you are talking about.  My father was big into radios and had been part of the Signal Corps in the Army.  He always had a hi-fi system with a reel-to-reel, and myriad radios (tube AM, AM/FM/SW, hybrids, transistors, etc.). 

He wasn't especially handy, mechanically, but he could solder, and trace faults, and he taught me the basics.  Most of his knowledge was wasted on me at the time when I might have paid better attention, but I have recently gotten onto researching and timidly collecting tabletop tube radios.  As long as one can still get tubes, and knows the basics, these old things will literally run forever.  Now, if I can just figure out a good modern replacement for these 1920s 4.5 volt Ever-Ready batteries.

[mechanic]

I can see you really know what you are talking about.  My father was big into radios and had been part of the Signal Corps in the Army.  He always had a hi-fi system with a reel-to-reel, and myriad radios (tube AM, AM/FM/SW, hybrids, transistors, etc.). 

He wasn't especially handy, mechanically, but he could solder, and trace faults, and he taught me the basics.  Most of his knowledge was wasted on me at the time when I might have paid better attention, but I have recently gotten onto researching and timidly collecting tabletop tube radios.  As long as one can still get tubes, and knows the basics, these old things will literally run forever.  Now, if I can just figure out a good modern replacement for these 1920s 4.5 volt Ever-Ready batteries.

3 standard batteries, AA, AAA, C, D wired in series will give you 4.5 volts.  Which would work depends on the size of the space you have to fill.

[Windsong]

I was thinking that, and I suspect it would not be too difficult to dismantle a triple stack from an abandoned electronic device.  The old cabinets (even the small ones) are quite spacious internally.

This also seems like a potentially viable option:

[ghostler]

My father was big into radios and had been part of the Signal Corps in the Army.  He always had a hi-fi system with a reel-to-reel, and myriad radios (tube AM, AM/FM/SW, hybrids, transistors, etc.). He wasn't especially handy, mechanically, but he could solder, and trace faults, and he taught me the basics.

Windsong, your father sounds like an amazing person.

I got my electrical background from my father, who was the electric shop teacher for 4 years before changing to social studies. When in junior high, got to take home the experimenter's kits where one could easily snap wire crystal, one tube and two tube radios. Got to use all the school's test and soldering equipment.

Some kids broke into the school's auditorium and vandelized the school's new theatrical light control system unit by snipping in half about 18 wires in its back with wire cutters. It was sitting in the electric shop back room. My father let me pitch in and helped. I think I was a 9th grader then.

Learned to trace circuits from the schematic with the cabinet, reconnected snipped wires with butt splice connectors and a crimper tool. Success, school's light control unit was fully functional again for stage use.

As long as one can still get tubes, and knows the basics, these old things will literally run forever.  Now, if I can just figure out a good modern replacement for these 1920s 4.5 volt Ever-Ready batteries.

Might you mean 45 volt batteries? About as tall as the 6V lantern battery before LED flashlights and about half the thickness? They were still available in the early 1970's.

Two 45V batteries would be your 90V B+ supply - plate current for your tubes. Someone gave me a portable 4 or 5 tube AM radio from the 1940's while a senior in high school. Used 2 - 45V batteries and I think D cells for the tube filaments, amazing for those who could afford one had a portable radio for the beach or park.

It had like a 4 or 5 inch speaker. Never got it working. Used I think 1.5V filament special tubes. Joined the Army after graduating and a lot of that stuff disappeared while I was gone.

Mid to late 1960's I had a portable bulb flash unit that used those blue AG1 or brighter M5 bulbs. It had a fan out reflector bowl and used a 22.5V flash battery, which looked like a standard 9V transistor battery even wih the same type connectors but was a 1/4 inch longer.

My parents gave me the family's 120 roll film twin lens reflex (TLR) camera in junior high, mid 1960's. I used it exclusively until I got an Instamatic 110 camera. The all metal TLR had a fixed focus lens and only one shutter speed, and connector for a flash unit.

Back in the early 1970's these batteries 22.5V flash batteries were still available in drugstores.

Anyway, 4.5V batteries don't ring a bell but doesn't mean they didn't exist. I've thought about buying and restoring a 5 tube AM radio of the 1950's - 1960's, but decided to just stick with musical instruments.

[ghostler]

This was my "mp3 player" in 1971, a 4-inch reel-to-reel Radio Shack Realistic monoraul true capstan tape recorder. It was dual power, 6 D-batteries or A/C. This is in the kitchen of my parent's house.

The baby chick on the recorder was a gift from my employer. I worked then part-time after school hours and weekends as a farm hand on a poultry farm in the small village, Maile on the west coast of Oahu, roughly 40 miles from Honolulu.

Edit: I wanted to add, the cigarette butts in the ashtray are my parent's, not mine. 😆

[Windsong]

Interesting that you mention cameras;  I sold most of my very large, multi-generational collection of them right before getting back into clarinets.
I was passionate about the mechanics of photo taking and the art of composition, but pragmatically, that is all long dead.


You had a good teacher in your father.  Being given an opportunity to prove your skill at that age must have felt like an honor. It sounds like your father understood, appreciated and was proud of your worth.

As for the 4.5 volt battery, that is right.  They do make some high voltage batteries for old radios, as well, but the ones I keep running into are old flat dry cells, so 1.5v AAs are the true ticket.

[ghostler]

As did I to some degree, starting with the Timex Sinclair in the late 70s. [...]

I had one of those in 1981. I modified it by purchasing aftermarket TS1000 key top labels, modified a new parts keyboard, did the cut-outs and installed it in a slant aluminum keyboard case topped off with the new key labels. Removed the motherboard from the TS-1000 case, with stand-offs mounted it inside the new. Had the optional 16kb memory module. Experimented with Z80 machine code poked into a BASIC REM statement.

Helped me better understand computer hardware. I was doing scientific test software for Douglas Aircraft's Structural Test Laboratory. This was systems software on mini-computers. Used FORTRAN-77 for most then jumped to IBM-360J assembler for the high speed stuff. I was a real "Dilbert", LOL, I guess we both have "The Knack". 😁

Have collected enough project woodwinds to keep me busy for a while, 9 clarinets and 3 saxes.

That does not sound like a problem yet, but it's sneaky...

Yes, sneaky. I miscounted - 12 clarinets. 🤣

[Windsong]

Aah, yes.  I did much of that, too.  They were interesting.

I almost majored in computer science.

[ghostler]

Aah, yes.  I did much of that, too.  They were interesting. I almost majored in computer science.

I left aerospace on its downturn and returned to government, finished 28 years now pensioned. Never bought a new desktop PC, they were all clones from parts. Kept behind the curve rather than forward of it, which allowed me to buy motherboards and processors that were good but not on the bleeding edge.

In a way I am glad I never majored in computer science, because I got into technology that was beyond the average IT guy. In facilities management I got into building automation systems that monitor and control environmental systems for buildings, direct digital control (DDC for short).

Plus I learned something. If you want something sell it to your boss first.

When CD-ROM burners dropped in price from over $1,000 to half that in the early 1990's, I mentioned a source to my boss. He was interested, told me to order one for him and the deputy, and while you are at it, get one for yourself.

Because our facility management department was funded differently than the other offices in our US Public Service (USPHS) area office on the Navajo Reservation (we were the HMO - Health Maintenance Organization, 6,000 employees for 180,000 Native Americans, 8 hospital service units with outlying clinics), the Information Technology (IT) Department would not order our PC's.

I was tasked with that responsibility. This is why we had the faster and better computers, printers, scanners, etc. than all the others had, yet competitively purchased. Our morale was high. We were understaffed but got a lot of things done without all the red tape that the Defense Department had. Then the USPHS was perhaps the best kept secret.

When privatization hit in 2000 under Public Law 93-638 Indian Self-Determination, where the tribe being served can prove to Congress that they have the management in place, after a 2 year transitional period the federal employees are laid off and given the option to work for the tribe. The tribe receives a block grant from the government to run that program. Our facilities management department was the first to be privatized.

I wanted to keep my federal retirement, so I left and returned to and finished out with the Defense Department.

[Windsong]

That is quite the run you have had, indeed.

In the days well before the internet or digital photography, I promptly changed my major after one of my Computer Science professors (with clearly limited vision) asked us all to raise our hands if we were seriously considering a career in computer science.  As one of about half the class who had his hand raised, he urged the other students who had not raised their hands to look at all the idiologues in their midst, congratulating them for having better sense.  He summarily laid out a diatribe as to why there was no future in computers.  To my youthful, enterprising mind, it seemed to make sense.

I never went back, in fact.