Most basic equipment

John T

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My Satellite Setup
60cm dish, dual LNB, Topfield TF5010PVR
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North Staffordshire England
Thought I would post the most basic/simplistic bit of gear I worked on.
It was a Film Recorder that I serviced until I left the RAF in 1967. From the title sounds complex, but no.
A single valve (sorry if you don't know what a valve is you don't belong here.O-Ha) audio amplifier, the oputput fed to a old style GPO earphone, consisting of an electromagnet and a metal diaphram. Brazed into the centre of the diaphram was a gramaphone needle. Fixed to the earphone was a nut. The nut was mounted on a threaded bolt. About a 3 foot loop of 30mm film was tensioned arround a pulley system. The gramaphone needle was started on the outer edge of the film, a motor then drove the the film and bolt, the needle thus scribed a very long path round and across the film. Any sound was transferred to the film via the gramaphone needle as a scratch of varying depth. As you may imagine one very low quality playback was your lot.
This was used to record radio conversations between Air Traffic Control and aircraft, the idea being if there was an accident there was a record to refer to.
Playback was a case of simply switching the input of the audio amplifier to the earphone and a pair of headphones to the output. So simple, but in those days the way of getting a very long recording. If you hear no more from me you may assume that I am incarcerated for breech of the official secrets act. ({})
 
J

Jeff_19341

Guest
Ah, the good old days of "bottles" (valves to the uninitiatedO-Ha ). Great days, when repairs were made, nowadays throw away and put in a new unit:-doh! .
How is the Nilesat reception, did you manage to tweak your dish over the summer?
Cheers.
PS. You have been reported to the MOD:-jest
JMC
 

John T

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
90
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
87
My Satellite Setup
60cm dish, dual LNB, Topfield TF5010PVR
My Location
North Staffordshire England
JuMbuCk said:
How is the Nilesat reception, did you manage to tweak your dish over the summer?

JMC

Methinks JuMbuCk thou art confusing me with 2 other people! ;)
 
J

Jeff_19341

Guest
Sorry, you are right, another John who was in the services also. Just remembered he is located not quite as far north as you.
Cheers.
 
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