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Old 06-09-2022, 11:18 PM
Jeffhs's Avatar
Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
<----Zenith C845
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fairport Harbor, Ohio (near Lake Erie)
Posts: 4,035
I would be extremely careful about playing stereo records on an old (1950s or older) changer or single-play phonograph as found in old record players. The reason is simply that the stylus tracking force of these old players is far too high for today's microgroove stereo records. It is far too easy to damage the grooves of a stereo record forever and for good if such a record is played on a phonograph not designed for such recordings.

BTW, I once owned a tube-type Zenith stereo phonograph in the early 1980s, a trash find in my former neighborhood (my home town). It worked as soon as I got it home, didn't need a new stylus, new tubes or anything else; it just worked. Unfortunately, I got rid of it when I moved in 1999, as the apartment I moved to (and live in today) is much too small for a large antique radio collection, although I do have several solid-state radios (and two tube-type Zenith AM-FM radios) from the 1960s. An unmistakable tipoff that one of these radios was made in the early 1960s is the presence of Civil Defense markings on the AM radio dial, in the form of a stylized "cd" at 640 and 1240 KHz; the other Zenith radio, made around 1965 or so, not to mention my Zenith AM/FM transistor portable from much later, does not have the CD markings on the dial, since Civil Defense, aka Conelrad, was abandoned some time in '65.

I hated to give up that Zenith stereo phono because it worked so well, but I had no choice at the time. I never had any problems with it picking up strong AM radio stations, but then again the nearest AM station to where I lived at the time (1980s-1999) was a 500-watt daytime-only broadcaster some three miles away from my home. Where I live now, the closest AM station is about five miles from my apartment, and does not give me any trouble whatsoever as far as intermodulation or anything else is concerned. If I lived any closer to that particular AM station, which runs 1kw days and 500 watts nights, however, I just might have problems with intermod or other things caused by very strong AM radio signals. When I lived in a Cleveland suburb in the early 1970s, however, I did have a heck of a problem with a local FM station which came on on almost everything you can imagine--between local stations on all my radios and even on channel 6 on a color TV I had at the time, to name but two devices the station's 27.5-kW ERP signal was getting into. The reason the station was coming in so strongly was its transmitter was located less than a mile from where I was living at the time (I could see the station's transmitter tower from my third-floor bedroom window, and could also see the tower lights after dark).

That nonsense, thank goodness, ended for good when I moved back to my home town in 1975, and again when I moved to my present residence in 1999 (I am a lot further away from all the Cleveland radio and TV stations now, something like 45 miles, since the transmitters are located in a southwestern Cleveland suburb, and I live east of Cleveland by some thirty miles.) However, I will never forget the problems that station (then known as WLYT-FM, 92.3 MHz) caused me in the city in which I was living in the 1970s. I was never so glad to leave that city when I did (there were other reasons I left town as well), as my home town is about 35 miles from the local radio and TV stations serving Cleveland. Where I live now is a very small town 30 miles from Cleveland and 45 miles from any of Cleveland's radio or TV stations. However, as I said, I will never forget the problems that local FM station I lived so close to in suburban Cleveland was causing me. Thank goodness that station has since, as in a few years ago, moved its transmitter from Cleveland Heights to another Cleveland suburb, maybe 20 miles from its former location. Not that it bothers me in the least, as I no longer live in Cleveland Heights and never cared for the local FM station anyway, but I am sure when the station left Cleveland Hieights and moved to its present location, a lot of people breathed very pronounced sighs of relief.
__________________
Jeff, WB8NHV

Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002

Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.

Last edited by Jeffhs; 09-06-2022 at 12:04 AM.
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