Well - (shrug) I guess that topic was a flash-in-the-pan without accomplishing anything having to do with the acquisition and/or restoration of Talking Books. Guess I'll have to switch gears and go over to the Schaub-Lorenz Music Center site (5001 or 5005 that had 126 45-minute mono tracks on - carrying over 45 hours of music - or the stereo 6000 model that had 81 22-minute stereo programs - and team up with them.

The last one I restored for a customer - I put the 45 hours of program material it carried - onto ONE HD MiniDisc.

I'll still get PM's from this site if anybody wants help with machine or media transfer and restoration - or if anybody has leads into the various Multi-State Center administrations where we can liberate their libraries instead of having them all go to be recycled - which after all was the original intent.

Oh well. We tried.

I love this topic. I have learned so much about the talking book service I never knew before.

Rdit to ask something.

Since these and all the different machines used for the books were not a pulbic type thing. Are there any sams or info of the machines and how they work. I would love to see inside shots of the units such as motors amps and such.

In a word, NO.
Bill Cahill

AFAIK, there were no Sam's published on these machines. I'm sure there was some "in house" service information; but, you're lucky if there's a schematic of the amp posted to the inside bottom of the case.

Some day, I'll post pictures of the inside of some of these machines. The amp is really not much different than one used in a consumer record player.

Concerning repair, the LOC really frowns on anyone but their repair stations performing service on their machines. I have an "introduction to talking books" record from '62 and they say it is OK to have the machine repaired, at the readers expense, by a local radio/TV repairman. Otherwise, return the machine to the library for free service.

When I started using the service in around 2000, they made it very clear that their machines were not to be serviced by anyone but them. They probably had problems with patrons/repairmen who did not know what they were doing and making the problem worse.

I just accuired an AE 4 Reproducer, 3 speeds with 2 tubes. I will check it out soon and might sell it as I do not have any of the recordings.

It is not in bad shape for its age.

See above under ``Copyright Infringement'' at the beginning of this thread or at the end of the parent thread which spawned it.

To dispose of the player and/or recordings - most guys in these types of electronics forums find an eligible guy for the TB service - who also has one of a piece of gear they are looking for - and then trade off no cash involved.

Even tho the NLS mostly leaves guys like us alone i.e. TB subscribers - the general public will get reported left and right for having these machines - or their recordings for that matter. Same goes for the background-music discs or tapes that the malls use - most of which are in either a similar or exact-same format.

The best thing to do with this is stuff is give it to someone who needs it. After all, that was it's original purpose. Several years ago, I stumbled upon an online publication for the blind. I can't remember the name of it; but, it had a classified section and someone wanted one of these record players. Despite the ad being ages old, I contacted the poster and it turned out to be an older man who had been a user of the talking book program for decades and he used to have one of the old tube type grey machines, back in the day. He said that someone stole it and the library replaced it with one of the newer plastic junkers. He added that he'd been looking for one of the old tube machines ever since and the only replies he got to his ad were people wanting to sell him one for hundreds of dollars. Personally, I couldn't do something like that and be able to sleep at night. At the time, I had a spare one on hand, got his address, boxed it up, wrote "free matter for the blind" on the box, and dropped it off at the PO. Like I said before, I don't mind paying a reasonable price for something for my collection. However, I'm not paying a fortune for something just because someone is greedy. Personally, I'm in this for the love of the hobby, not to get rich. The library equipment/books that I find will either be returned or donated to someone who can use it. Other stuff will be sold for a fair price. Heck, I've often times sold stuff for less than what I had in it.

Preach it brother! I still say if more guys were of a non-commercial mind the world would run a lot smoother.

To that end - as I hope all of you do - I report these to their carriage-contract associations (eBay, Pennysaver, etc etc etc) whenever I find `em - and in the case of offline forums - (e.g. the electronics swapmeets held in the parking lots at the junior colleges and hosted by all these elderly men and their ham-radio and whatever outfits) I just calmly explain the situation to either the sellers themselves if they're old enough - or else I just tell the hosts - who then translate for their sellers to avoid all the ruffled feathers from a guy like me ``coming in and reading out of their book what belongs and what don't''. (LOL)

They all still get traded back and forth just as often as before to be sure - just no money changes hands anymore.

SOOOO.

Back to the ORIGINAL purpose of this thread.

Does
Anybody
Have
Any
Connections
to
The
Vintage
NLS
Multi-State Center
Administrations
So
That
We
Can
Liberate
All the
RD's and TB's
into One Library
and Transfer Them to Digital?

@ Bill Cahill

Hi Bill,

This AE 4 was given to me yesterday by a friend who was given the machine a week or so ago and he said that it made a racket when they turned it on.

After checking it out I found an extra, did not even fit the machine, wheel under the turntable. I removed the extra wheel and the turntable works as it should. I cannot check it out to see if it plays up to speed or not as I do not have any records to use, however the audio tubes work and there is no hum in the audio.

If you want this AE 4 let send me an email and I will ship it to you if you pay the shipping.

The only problems that I can see are:

1) the foam in the center of the turntable has deterated and is no longet there for practicle purposes.

2) the plastic turntable cover is lifting away from the metal part in some areas and rubs slightly on the speed selector knob but not enough to bother the speed or even make much sound.

Let me know as I really have no use for the machine.

Gary

You may wish to send Bill a PM, just in case he doesn't see this. As far as shipping, you can write "Free Matter for the Blind" in the upper right hand corner of the box. It might also be a good idea to write "talking book playback equipment" on the box.

I'd like to thank you for offering this to Bill. I know he's been wanting one of these for some time and will enjoy having it.

PM of acceptance sent. Many thanks.
Bill Cahill
Now, can anybody find me some talking books??

PM's down. What did post office say?
Bill Cahill

Bill

I forgot that today is presidents day, so the post office is closed. I tried to call just to make sure and there was no answer at a couple of local offices. i will try again tomorrow.

Gary

Here is a link to the post office and what it says may be mailed free.

http://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immc2_027.htm

I am not sure about a talking book machine, but will call them tomorrow.

Gary

All you do is box it up in a sufficient-size container to allow for a couple inches of styrofoam peanuts around all six edges - fill the box up with `em full enough to make a solid square and then print out on the COMPUTER the following:

FREE MATTER FOR THE BLIND AND/OR DISABLED
POSTAGE EXEMPT CONTENTS: TALKING BOOK
PLAYER WITH ACCESSORIES/PERIPHERALS

Drop off in the parcel bin of any post office or give to your mailman and be done with it.

The same as for eBay packages and/or other electronic shipments which are handled and billed automatically:

Do NOT go inside to the counter-staff as most of them will be clueless about your exemption and will spend hours and hours and hours trying to sell you postage, refer you to Customer Service or tell you to contact their management at another location for assistance all of which will just repeat their ``pre-recorded messages'' referring you to everybody else.

Everytime I have gone to the counter staff of a post office with a parcel, I've gotten an argument of one capacity or the other. Therefore, if it fits in the parcel bin in the lobby, I merely dump it in there and raise the lid, dumping it into the back where nobody reads English and wouldn't care about an individual package if they did.

If it's too big for the bin, then I either ring the side door so a worker can open it up and I can place the item on the floor for the grunts to deal with, I drop it off in back on their loading dock into an empty bin or else I drop it off at a third-party service provider such as a Mail N More or a Send N Save type of place.

I've never had any problems.

And, tie the tonearm to it's rest so it can't bounce around. I say this because I've gotten many record players where the sender failed to do this, resulting in damage to the needle, cartridge, and/or tonearm.

I have one that I tried putting on eBay years ago,nobody bought it,and I have thought about tossing it a number of times.I think it's a model from the 1960s.It may be an Arvin.It works but it may need a needle.If $75 is too high,how much should they go for?

If you want it,send me a PM.

@ Bill Cahill

I called the post office today and it's true. I can mail you the talking book machine for free.

I will box it up today and get it to the post office tomorrow.

Gary

@ radiotvnut

The machine I have is an AE 4 and it has to be the last in the tube series. It has 3 tubes in it, however I did not remove the machine from the case so I do not know what tubes it uses other than the 6x4 rectifier that I can read from the hole in the bottom. If you like I can open it up to check before I send it to Bill.

Gary