Vintage McCurdy broadcast desk

Looking for Radio equipment? Got stuff for sale or trade maybe even giveaway .. . Need help with a project??

Re: Vintage McCurdy broadcast desk

Postby GordoGibbo » Thu May 02, 2013 12:55 pm

This is why I love this list. Folks appear out of nowhere with manna from heaven...
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Re: Vintage McCurdy broadcast desk

Postby Mike Cleaver » Thu May 02, 2013 1:26 pm

Just talked with my brother Chris who also is a radio and TV engineer and he says the missing little transformer at T11 should be a 600/600 ohm Hammond. (600 ohm primary/600 ohm secondary isolation transformer)
Still easy to obtain if you can't find the original.
He's younger than me and has a better memory for these things!
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Re: Vintage McCurdy broadcast desk

Postby GordoGibbo » Thu May 02, 2013 1:50 pm

Cool. Thanks, Mike. I'll look into the Hammond. And 78rpm, let me know what year and model your McCurdy board is and whether or not you might be interested in vending some of the parts separately. The problem with purchasing the entire board is you're in BC by the sounds of it, and I'm in Ontario. Shipping costs would be outrageous, and I won't have the opportunity to make a drive to BC....email me at gordonrgibb@cogeco.ca. I tried your Yahoo address but it's not going through, for some reason....
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Re: Vintage McCurdy broadcast desk

Postby GordoGibbo » Wed Jun 05, 2013 3:26 am

Hey Scott, have you made any progress with your McCurdy SS4370? I'm still collecting various opinions on mine. Moving forward, slowly. Had lunch with a former engineering colleague who know the boards well. He was musing that those big, bad modules are, today, reduced to chips. Amazing how technology has changed....
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Re: Vintage McCurdy broadcast desk

Postby GordoGibbo » Tue Jul 09, 2013 5:27 am

Greetings, RadioWesters....

So the latest news in my quest to restore my McCurdy SS4370 eight-channel, is that a well-known and respected engineer based in Toronto had "all the parts...in fact, an entire board" up until about a year ago, but did a housecleaning. Sigh.....my timing is, again, impeccable. He does have a few switches and things in his possession that he is graciously sending my way. But as far as a full restoration, that may have to rattle around in the bucket of my bucket list for awhile. I've been toying, however, with the thought of running my audio through another mixer but somehow connecting the mixer to the McCurdy VU meters and lighting them up, making it appear, at least, that it's alive. I won't get the sweet sound, though, that would come with all those nice transformers and new caps. But lacking the know-how, I may have to shelve a full restore for awhile. It's not like I can work away at recapping the thing myself. I'll screw it up. Someday, one day, someone will come along with a soldering gun and some time on his hands, a willing and knowledgiable associate, but so far I have yet to find anyone who thinks it's worth the effort and expense. I gather buying caps, and especially good ones,
is insanely expensive. One thing I could do, I suppose, it identify only those channels I would be using and recap just those modules, and everything in the signal path for those. And of course, the power supplies....if, and when I find them. So far, no luck.

I'll keep looking....

Gord
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Re: Vintage McCurdy broadcast desk

Postby Mike Cleaver » Tue Jul 09, 2013 2:38 pm

You don't need expensive caps.
Just get ones that will fit in the space on the board, usually axials back then and the same or a higher power rating but the same or slightly higher capacitance, whatever is available.
It's not that hard to swap them out, just make certain with the electrolytics that you observe the polarity.
Mouser or Digikey are great for finding what you need and both have excellent service.
Find a few old pieces of gear and practice soldering and de-soldering components.
An old trick for a quick fix for a failed axial capacitor (wire at each end) is to clip the wire as close to the old capacitor as you can and simply twist the old wire and the new capacitor wire together and then just touch it with solder and the iron.
That's how we used to do it when you had to get the board up and running ASAP.
Same thing works with burned resistors.
Crush the old one with needle nose pliers and use the leads to attach the new one.
Not as neat looking as removing the old ones from the board but it gets you running again in quick time.
Too bad we're not in the same city.
I've done a lot of this work in my time and still build and repair old broadcast gear.
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Re: Vintage McCurdy broadcast desk

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Tue Jul 09, 2013 10:38 pm

Greetings,
Thanks for posting info. about your McCurdy board restoration project Gord. Really enjoyed reading about it. Best of luck with it. I have been extremely busy here since May and still not back out west yet because of it. Came down with bad spring allergies in May for over 2 weeks here too, almost completely lost my voice with them. So that delayed me a bit too with paperwork and other things I have been doing here. Still enjoy listening to KRUZ FM whenever I get a chance to tune in. Like your selection of oldies quite a lot and the local info. on KRUZ, keep up the good broadcasting there in Peterborough!

Just read Mike's posting about the McCurdy as well. Yes that is true about the caps., you do not need real expensive ones. Mouser and Digi-Key in the States are good sources, I have their catalogs! However I was wondering did you get a chance to check out any of the Toronto radio and electronic stores I mentioned to you Gord? Electro-Sonic in North Toronto off Victoria Park has a huge selection of caps etc. new and if I did not mention them before you might want to check them also. They used to have a huge catalog of their parts, great selection for new radio and electronic parts. I have not gotten the printed catalog for a few years now so I am not sure if they still print it. However Gord you might want to give them a call. Yes restoring some great equipment like the McCurdy can be time consuming and I certainly understand how you are somewhat cautious about getting it done correctly. All the best to you with it.

Its a great project. Certainly well worth the effort!

Take care, all the best in broadcasting to you!!!

73s, Eldon
Bye . . Mr. CFAY "Frequently On The Frequency"
The CFAY Website: http://cfayradio.wordpress.com
CFAY Radio: http://tinyurl.com/l9qqmh
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Re: Vintage McCurdy broadcast desk

Postby GordoGibbo » Wed Jul 10, 2013 5:18 pm

Eldon, in answer to your question I have not yet made it down to Toronto to check out your suggestion for caps, but hope to at some point this summer. Hope your allergies are not getting the better of you. And Mike, thanks for the suggestions. Probably a good winter time project, provided I collect the necessary caps, then do some practicing in my down time. As for location, boy we are at different ends of the country, aren't we? Oh well. If you ever find yourself in Ontario, be sure to let me know. Not so much for help with the board, but it would be a pleasure to meet you...

Gord
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