Tim Halse Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 (edited) Love this thing. Mono 1/4 inch track, all valve Aussie goodness. Still runs beautifully after all these years. See and hear it in action here: Edited March 29, 2020 by Tim Halse pic added 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fafner Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Those machines can be pretty long lived. Don't know if you noticed, but the designer of these machines started a thread on them a few posts down this page. I used to come across them in my work as a Telstra Technical Officer working in Broadcasting. Going back into ancient history Telecom not only maintained the ABC's transmitter sites but also supplied technical staff at the ABC Radio studios. I have a service manual for these recorders and noticed the circuit schematic is dated 1962. Like a lot of Australian made equipment from this era these have Ducon brand oil filled capacitors. While they are very reliable the oil contains PCB's (Polychlorinated Biphenyls). These are hazardous compounds that do not degrade in the environment so you need to avoid coming in contact with them such as could occur if the capacitors are leaking. At work we had a repository for PCB's where they were stored for eventual high temperature incineration. I believe this has been replaced by a process where the PCB's are exposed to an atmosphere of boiling nitric acid resulting in a harmless compound being produced. Any Ducon oil filled cap with N or S in the part number contains PCB's. We used to put a sticky label with a skull and crossbones on PCB containing equipment! Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Halse Posted April 11, 2020 Author Share Posted April 11, 2020 Very interesting Keith. The caps certainly have been reliable. The machine has been sitting dormant for a long time, but worked perfectly when I used it prior to this post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiofeline Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Australia designed and produced some outstanding audio equipment in those days. It's tragic that few people know about them and that so much of our early audio history has been lost. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Halse Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 Yes Audiofeline. Seems to me that Aussies are waking up very slowly to the superb quality of the gear we made a few decades ago. I'll confess I don't mind them being oblivious to our homegrown gems. I'll gladly pick up what they leave behind. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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