Linear Ban Gets CB Industry Support
The Citizens Radio Section of the Electronic Industries Association recently filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission endorsing a proposed ban on the manufacture and marketing of "linear amplifiers." These add-on devices, which can increase the power of a CB transmitter from the legal 4 watts to 200 or more, are generally considered to be responsible for a large part of the CB-caused interference in home television receivers and audio equipment. In filing its remarks the EIA group noted that sales of such amplifiers to legitimate radio amateurs ("hams") are minimal and incidental. (Hams, with their higher allowable radiating power, can buy bigger basic transmitters and hence don't need the add-on power.) We congratulate the Citizens Radio Section on its en lightened stand and number ourselves among those favoring the proposed rule. Cutting off these pestiferous devices at the source is indeed a welcome prospect provided that an illicit market is not permitted to develop.
We note with some satisfaction that the first prosecution for making and selling linear amplifiers took place in Los Angeles earlier this year and resulted in a conviction. But it is not enough.
From where we sit, it looks like time for the FCC to show that it intends to enforce its rules and for Congress to give it the tools to do so effectively. Local law-enforcement agencies could help too-perhaps by observing vehicles and reporting any extra beefy antenna, cables, or other evidence suggesting that an illegal transmitter is aboard to the FCC. While we are on the subject of antennas and the FCC, why can't the commission demand a power-handling limit (or even an integral, non-replaceable fuse) for these components to thwart over-muscular transmissions? It seems a truism that the direst penalty is no deterrent when the likelihood of apprehension appears remote. The commission has increased enforcement levels, but the effort still has the air of tokenism. Let's stop kidding around.
If peaceful phonographs and untrammeled television for the great majority means the big stick for the outlaw, loud mouth linear operators, then so be it.
Stanton Magnetics' Left-Handed Stylus
No, it doesn’t require a tone arm suspended from a skyhook, and it doesn’t connect to the preamp via six feet of shore line. It does, however, need a turntable that runs counterclockwise (the opposite of the usual rotation) if the music is to sound normal--and it has a serious purpose. Designed to work with a 681 Calibration series cartridge, the new 681-BPS styli are meant for direct playback of metal matrices and scampers, both of which are "negatives" of the final disc. (That is, they have ridges instead of grooves.) The new stylus design makes it possible to check a matrix before the metal mother has been made from it and, similarly, a stamper without a test pressing. Thus time can be saved in record manufacture and quality improved in the final product.
Model BPSR, which takes a tracking force of 3 to 7 grams, can be used to polish away small flaws that result from imperfect plating. For minimal wear to the matrix or stamper, the BPSM tracks at 1 to 1.5 grams. We suspect that the BPS styli (unlike other Stanton professional products that have achieved status in the home high fidelity market) will have virtually all of its application in the record industry.
For Collectors Only
It's astonishing what gets printed these days. Even ten years ago there was only a handful of dedicated souls publishing esoterica for the specific benefit of record collectors, but the numbers have grown many fold and the variety and reliability of the available materials increased enormously in the interim. Partly, this is symptomatic of what has been happening in publishing in general; partly, it is an index of the degree to which the collecting of antique and arcane recordings has gelled into a recognized and relatively widespread pursuit-not just something occupying a few "nuts." These thoughts are occasioned by our perusal of the 1977 Kastlemusick Directory for Collectors of Recordings.
It costs $12.50 for the forty-odd-page directory plus a supplement. This may seem a bit steep, but considering the limited market and the work involved in preparing the con tents-plus the difficulty of obtaining its information else where-it is not at all unreasonable. It identifies listees as private collectors, stores, mail-order houses, and so on, and gives a brief resume of the special interests of each (such as out-of-print operatic recordings, Edison cylinders and discs, old radio material, new-release LPs of Moravian music). An index covers the more "special" of special interests. There also are listings of publications and associations.
It's easy to pick holes in such a project, and we have found some. But for a first edition (which it seems to be we trust there will be more) it strikes us as an eminently competent job. The wonder is that it ever got published at all, and we're glad it did. (If you're interested, Kastle musick is located at 170 Broadway, Suite 201, New York, N.Y. 10038.)
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Experience the greatness of Mozart as your introduction to the Great Men of Music series
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(High Fidelity, Oct. 1977)
Also see:
Bach on the Piano? Why Not? After All, He Was a Piano Salesman