I restored this nice console made in 1947 back in 1993, the cartridge was rebuilt at that time, crystal again, and is now bad. The guy that did it is no longer around,any suggestions on where a ceramic replacement would be available? Thanks.

:I restored this nice console made in 1947 back in 1993, the cartridge was rebuilt at that time, crystal again, and is now bad. The guy that did it is no longer around,any suggestions on where a ceramic replacement would be available? Thanks.

Try www.oldradioz.com for a proper cartridge restoration. Many factors will influence the choice of a modern replacement cartridge. Output voltage (modern _ceramic_ cartridges only offer about 0.5 to 0.7V compared to 2-3V for a crystal cartridge) is one important specification. Tracking weight (6g compared to 15-30g for older tonearms) etc.

On oldradioz Z-Forum, there is a thread about building a simple one transistor pre-amp to allow the use of modern low voltage cartridges in lieu of high output obsolete ones. Of course, make sure other variables are within specs.

Z-

www.west-techservices.com rebuilds cartridges. I'm all about old and original, but when it comes to playing my beautiful records, I hate to see them chewed up. Sometimes it is wiser to replace the cartridge with a modern one. Shure makes a stereo crystal cartridge that won't go bad like an old salt crystal one (incidently, if someone rebuilds your salt crystal one with a new salt crystal, it should be sealed with varnish, or else it will go bad in a hurry). When the two channels of the Shure cartridge are wired in parallel, they tend to cancel out vertical modulation all together. I can't remember the number on this cartridge. It took one of those flip needles. I had better results with it than I do with my Zenith Cobra. Tracking pressure was extremely light, and fidelity was more than I could have ever asked for. It was just an incredible experience. Of course I used a 3 mil diamond tip. The flip needle didn't come with one of these. Instead it came with a typical late model stereo/mono tip (one is slightly bigger than the other for older LPs). I removed one of the jewels and inserted my 3 mil jewel from another needle. You could clip off the flipping lever, which would make the cartridge less conspicuous.

Thomas

:www.west-techservices.com rebuilds cartridges. I'm all about old and original, but when it comes to playing my beautiful records, I hate to see them chewed up. Sometimes it is wiser to replace the cartridge with a modern one. Shure makes a stereo crystal cartridge that won't go bad like an old salt crystal one (incidently, if someone rebuilds your salt crystal one with a new salt crystal, it should be sealed with varnish, or else it will go bad in a hurry). When the two channels of the Shure cartridge are wired in parallel, they tend to cancel out vertical modulation all together. I can't remember the number on this cartridge. It took one of those flip needles. I had better results with it than I do with my Zenith Cobra. Tracking pressure was extremely light, and fidelity was more than I could have ever asked for. It was just an incredible experience. Of course I used a 3 mil diamond tip. The flip needle didn't come with one of these. Instead it came with a typical late model stereo/mono tip (one is slightly bigger than the other for older LPs). I removed one of the jewels and inserted my 3 mil jewel from another needle. You could clip off the flipping lever, which would make the cartridge less conspicuous.
:
:Thomas
Tom, Thanks for the info, do you know why the short-wave band on this radio is a shortened band? It is not as long as the bands on my earler Zenith radios?

Well, the technical explanation is that the series and parallel capacitance in your set do not allow the coil and tuning condenser to tune over as wide a band (less of series and more of parallel, capacitance wise, broadens the tuning, and narrows down how many stations you can cover). As far as why they did it, I don't know. It annoys me whenever there is a section of SW missing on any of my radios, and plenty have this problem. The manufacturer just selects random segments (not necessarily a band width), and puts them on the radio. The only radio I own that tunes over a continual SW spectrum up to 22 MC is my Crosley 1117 (and my Seacrain radio that goes from 100 KC to about 30 MC). Of course there is some coverage missing above 22 MC, but at least everything is complete up to 22 on my Crosley. Both of my Airline radios have rather random coverage. The older one is the one I use, since the newer one needs restoration, and from what I recall, the dial goes to 1700, and then the SW band starts at about 2.5 and goes to 7. Why? Don't know. An RCA I own has a really strange chunk. It goes from 9 to 12 MC. A really awesome Northern Electric that a friend of mine gave me has the bands separated out--49, 31, 25, and 19 meter bands. Also, unlike a typical U.S. short wave radio, the bands are spread out across the dial (stations aren't all jammed together in a tiny little spot). However, huge sections of the SW spectrum are missing in between the bands.

Thomas