Re: [IRCA] QSLs

["Craig Healy" <bubba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Thanks for the offer. I will have to dig them out first. hi. They do
> look like the regular 4 track carts (with out the wheel in the cart)
> that I used when I worked at KVAS in the 70s. I am sure that is what
> KSWB had. Aren't those considered 4 track.? The 8 track had the wheel in
> the cart.  KSWB no longer has them. The new owners have all new stuff.
> They only have harddrive & CD. I remember repairing a lot of carts in
> those days. Breaks in the tapes, etc.

They do look identical, but broadcast carts are a different format.  Two or
three tracks, and 7 1/2 inches per second speed.  4-tracks have two separate
stereo tracks that are selected by either moving the head up or down
slightly, or rarely by a true four track head.  A 4-track is a slower speed,
3 3/4 IPS as well.  There used to be a removable plug and pinch roller you
could put in a four track to play them on an 8-track player.

Cart machines in broadcast stations have mostly been replaced by
computer-based audio storage and playback systems like ENCO and AudioVault.
Automation is dead simple from the computer systems.  Not so easy from cart
and tape based equipment.  Reel to reel and carousel cart decks are a
mechanical PITA.  Heck, you can lose a finger in a carousel deck..

Then we can go back to the 1950's Gates machine that used a foot-wide belt
tape.  The cut was selected by moving the head assembly to a notched stop.
I had a client in the 1970's that had two of those.  One step up from the
16" transcription records, I suppose.

Craig Healy
Providence, RI

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