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Author Topic: Califone and those BSR Record Players seem to still have interest for archiving.  (Read 254 times)

Offline ThaDood

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https://archive.org/details/califone-1130-k-schematic-library-commercial-record-player   
Some time ago, JG Tiger acquired a Califone 1130K commercial record player. My guess was in a trade. Anyway, I immediately knew what is was, since I've seen, and used, such a player in school, or the library, back in the 70's and early 80's. After that, cassettes pretty much took over. So, I benched-it to clean up 40-some years of grime and use. The unit still plays great, and sound pretty decent as well. Even plays stereo records, and has a hi-fi amp to do so. However, the big reason to have this was for 78RPM archiving, which it does very nicely. This unit has four speed, 78, 45, 33 1/2, and even 16, RPM. (Remember those? I know that there was a rarer speed of 8 RPM, meant only for long play voice dictation.) 16 RPM was used for narration of books and long slide shows. This unit has an internal schematic, so I've posted that on the preceding Archive .ORG link. Not the lowest noise and the best in fidelity, but it's not bad. Recording can be tapped from the headphones jack. (I would not recommend from the 5W speaker jacks, unless you build resistive attenuaters.) The Bass & Treble work well as a 1/2-ass EQ, so you may have to experiment for settings of choice here. The drive is via an AC induction motor, using wheels and a multi-cut diameter shaft, as a speed transmission. (Very much like the BSR units, but a bit more heavy-duty here.) So, if you see one of these units, not totally trashed, and the price is right, I would not pass it up. Oh BTW, not a bad thing to have for radio 78 RPM airing. That PAUSE is very CUE friendly and quick, if your station is doing Vinylthon.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2025, 1725 UTC by ThaDood »
“I am often asked how radio works. Well, you see, wire telegraphy
is like a very long cat. You yank his tail in New York and he
meows in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? Now, radio is
exactly the same, except that there is no cat.”
-Attributed to Albert Einstein, but I ripped it from the latest Splatter .PDF March 2025 issue.

Offline TRI International

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We had a couple of these back in the 70's in our family cable radio station, they were very solid and heavy lol.
We need another card to shut out the draught HW ABT URS?
Use Shazam app. to ID songs, listening direct Airspray RTL SDR , Ham It UP Plus connected to 2 V shape long wires  40ft. high with a MFJ 941C Antenna tuner
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Offline europirate

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Now BSR, that's a name from the past!

My mother used to work at the BSR (Birmingham Sound Reproducers) factory in Stourbridge, West Midlands UK in the 1980's, IIRC right up until they stopped producing turntables.
JRC NRD-515 & NRD-545
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Shazam is the DXer's friend!

 

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