- Macrs Depreciation For Television
- Television Macedonia
- Television Machine
- Television For Macular Degeneration
- Television For Macular Degeneration
- Television For Macbook Pro
September 1951 Radio & TV News |
[Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio & Television News, published 1919-1959. All copyrights hereby acknowledged. |
Mac's Radio Service Shop Episodes on RF Cafe. This series of instructive stories was the brainchild of none other than John T. Frye, creator of the Carl and Jerry series that ran in Popular Electronics for many years. Mac's Radio Service Shop began life in Radio & Television News magazine (which itself started as simply Radio News), and then changed its name to Mac's Service Shop after the. The power of Mac. Dedicated apps for music, TV, and podcasts. Smart new features like Sidecar, powerful technologies for developers, and your favorite iPad apps, now on Mac.
AT&T 'Reach out and touch someone' commercial, c1979
The Apple TV connects to your television via HDMI and uses AirPlay to connect to your Mac. You can stream content from your Apple laptop or desktop to the television, as well as using the Apple TV. Quarry is an American neo-noir crime drama television series based on the novels of Max Allan Collins.An eight-episode first season was ordered by Cinemax in February 2015. The series was created for television by Graham Gordy and Michael D. Fuller and was directed by Greg Yaitanes.While the series' main setting is Memphis, it was filmed in both Memphis and New Orleans.
Before there was the World Wide Web (aka the Internet) and unlimited cellphone calling plans, personal communications over any distance for most people was limited to local telephone calling areas. Long distance calling rates were high enough to prevent casual calling of family, friends, and businesses in the U.S. Overseas call rates were extremely prohibitive. The price to 'Reach out and touch someone' could set you back 10¢/minute or more. Even today, an old-fashioned landline plan from AT&T can cost you $3.50/minute to the UK, $4.50/minute to Japan, and $5.00/minute to China. Depending on where you lived, calling someone in the next neighborhood over could be a long distance call, while calling 50 miles in the other direction would be considered local. Toll-free '800' long distance numbers were implemented to encourage people to make contact with businesses without incurring additional charges. Late night TV shows were famous for using 800 numbers to
entice customers into buying Ronco gadgets and term life insurance policies. Radio was the primary medium for receiving communications from far away at no cost other than equipment procurement. CB radio enabled two-way communications up to fifty miles or so without the need for a special license, and of course a Ham licensee could span the globe. If you were satisfied with merely listening, shortwave radios facilitated the 'magic' of hearing broadcasts from around the world. Under favorable atmospheric conditions, particularly at night, even a cheap AM/FM radio could pick up stations half a continent away. What was considered annoying interference to most listeners was big game for 'DX' hunters. 'DX' is Ham shorthand for 'long distance.' This 1951 installment of 'Mac's Radio Shop' describes what became a real thrill for TV owners: TV DX. The most enthusiastic tuners-in went to extremes to pick up TX stations many states away, even if the picture and/or sound quality was barely perceivable.™
Mac's Radio Service Shop: Television DX
By John T. Frye
Suddenly Barney, the 'hired hand' of Mac's Radio Service Shop, slammed his solder gun down on the bench and demanded of his boss: 'Mac, what's so doggone funny? You've been grinning like a television toothpaste commercial ever since you came back from lunch.'
'Well,' Mac explained, 'by the time I got over to the Dutchman's this noon, all of the counter stools were taken, and I had to sit in a booth. While I was eating I couldn't help but overhear a hot antenna argument going on between a couple of rabid TV fans in the booth behind me. Each guy was whooping it up for his antenna system and using as evidence the distant television stations he pulled in during that 'opening' we had around last Decoration Day. Number One gave all the credit to his battery of Yagis, while Number Two was convinced that his collinear array was what enabled him to yank in the DX.'
Macrs Depreciation For Television
'And that's side-splittingly funny?' Barney questioned with arched eyebrows.
'In a way it is. I kept thinking how amusing it would be if I butted in and related my own experience during that period. You will remember that I had just received my new television chassis at the time and was waiting on a cabinet. However, I was so eager to try out the high-fidelity amplifier on a couple of speakers I had at home that I unpacked the chassis and set it on top of the shipping carton, cut a twin-lead folded dipole roughly for the FM band and tossed it on a desk beside the set, slid in a picture tube, and turned on the set.
'While I was adjusting the ion trap on the seventeen inch tube I was using, I began to notice pictures on the screen. In the next couple of days, using that very poor antenna, a yardstick for an antenna tower, without any booster of any sort, and at this Northern Indiana location seventy miles from the nearest TV transmitter, I logged Cuban stations on Channels 4 and 6; Miami and Jacksonville, Florida, stations on 4; Chicago stations on 4, 5, 7, and 9; San Antonio, Texas, on 4 and Houston on 2; Milwaukee on 3; Louisville, Kentucky, on 5; and Indianapolis on 6. While there was fading on some of the signals, both sound and picture were received in each case with sufficient clarity to make identification easy and positive. In many cases, the reception was perfect, without the slightest snow or noise.'
'You don't suppose you could have stumbled on some kind of a super antenna in that twin-lead job, do you?' Barney suggested hopefully.
'Not a chance,' Mac replied with a chuckle. 'Just to make sure, while Cuba was rolling in on Channel 4, I took off the antenna and touched one of the terminals with a screwdriver. 'Television Para Todo' came in almost as well as it had with the antenna.
'No,' he continued, 'the point of the whole thing is that the antenna efficiency seems to mean little during these periods of freak reception. In fact, a low antenna may actually do a better job of picking up DX at such a time than will an antenna mounted on top of a high tower. Either refraction or reflection causes the distant signals to come in at pretty steep angles. The fact I could pick them up down in the bottom of this river valley proves that. Signals from fairly close stations, on the other hand, are usually not subject to so much distortion and continue to be picked up better by more elevated antennas. As a result, an antenna that is really up in the air picks up enough signal from a nearby station to interfere seriously with a DX signal. A low antenna, on the other hand, gets the distant signal just as strongly and without the interference from the close station.'
'Then you think that when one of these freak DX periods start, the thing to do is to start looking for faraway stations with a tuning knob in one hand and a folded dipole in the other.'
'It's worth a try, anyway,' Mac said, smiling at the graphic picture Barney's words evoked. 'One thing in favor of such a system is that it allows you to switch the antenna around much quicker than can be done with a rotating motor, and that is a distinct advantage in this freak reception. The signals from Texas were received best with the ends of my folded dipole pointing southwest and northeast - exactly opposite to what a person would normally expect and indicating that the signal was arriving by way of a most devious route. Furthermore, I counted as many as five separate ghost images on the signal from Houston, some displaced from the main signal by as far as three inches on the sixteen-inch screen. These ghosts kept moving back and forth behind the main signal, and by turning the antenna, the chief signal and one of the ghosts could sometimes be made to exchange roles. Often the signal arrived in the form of closely-spaced waves of strength, and being able to whirl the antenna about quickly during the peak of the wave permitted the best position to be readily determined.
'Next time, though, I intend to use a special antenna I am making up just for freak DXing,' Mac continued. 'It consists of a folded dipole with end sections that telescope like the slide on a slide-trombone. A telescoping reflector is also used, and both units are mounted so that the space between them can be easily varied without up-setting their relative alignment. The element sections and the 'boom' are marked so that the array can be quickly set up for any channel.'
'Why go to all that trouble when you say the efficiency of the antenna is unimportant when the DX signals are really piling in?'
'I'm not trying to increase the efficiency of the antenna,' Mac explained. 'What I want is an antenna that is more one-directional to help in establishing more accurately from just which direction the signal arrives; furthermore, by being able to tilt the simple array, I hope to get a rough idea of the angles at which the signals come in. Still another hoped-for advantage lies in the possibility of doing a better job of separating several stations likely to be found occupying a single channel during one of these unusual periods. You should have heard five different stations battling it out on Channel 4 like cats fighting over a fishhead as I did last May 30th. That certainly makes you want something to help unscramble them.'
'What produces DX like that, anyway?' Barney asked.
'I don't know,' Mac readily admitted. 'As a ham, you are, of course, familiar with the theory that clouds of ionization frequently appear about fifty miles above the earth and reflect back to earth high frequency signals that ordinarily would never be returned. This 'Sporadic-E Ionization' as it is called may happen any time, but it occurs most frequently during May, June, and July. That could explain my experience except for one thing: that the signals from Texas seemed to be arriving from either the southeast or northwest-exactly opposed to the southwest direction in which Texas lies from here.
'Some of my friends,' he went on slowly, 'who know a lot more about such things than I do, tell me that there is a growing theory that under certain favorable circumstances a current of air under exactly the right conditions of moisture, barometric pressure, and temperature can actually act as a huge waveguide and 'pipe' a high frequency signal from one part of the earth to another. Maybe that is the answer. At least it would permit the signal path to have a bend in it, as that one from Houston seemed to have.
'At any rate,' he continued, 'I'm going to do all the 'observing' I can every time one of these openings occurs. Hams have been doing that for years, but their numbers are very small compared to the millions looking at TV screens every day. If only a small percentage of these TV fans become interested in noting some of the factors that affect abnormal DX signals, perhaps we can learn enough about them to enable us to control these conditions.'
'Could be,' Barney agreed with a shrug. 'Today's miracle is tomorrow's normal occurrence. I keep remembering that at one time they gave the whole spectrum above two hundred meters to the hams because they thought these frequencies would never be of any practical value - the Indian givers! Next time the TV channels get hot, just let Old Barney know, and he will be right in there waving a folded dipole alongside you!'
Mac's Radio Service Shop Episodes on RF Cafe
This series of instructive stories was the brainchild of none other than John T. Frye, creator of the Carl and Jerry series that ran in Popular Electronics for many years. Mac's Radio Service Shop began life in Radio & Television News magazine (which itself started as simply Radio News), and then changed its name to Mac's Service Shop after the magazine became Electronics World. 'Mac' is electronics repair shop owner Mac McGregor, and Barney is his eager, if not somewhat naive, technician assistant. 'Lessons' are taught in story format with dialogs between Mac and Barney.
- Mac's Service Shop: Not Always Right - March 1956 Radio & Television News
- Television DX - September 1951 Radio & Television News
- Magnetic Shielding - December 1955 Radio & Television News
- Tape Recorder Tips - July 1958 Radio & TV News
- A Typical Day in the Shop - July 1955 Radio & Television News
- Barney Turns Inventor - February 1950 Radio & Television News
- Thoughts on Test Equipment - July 1954 Radio & Television News
- Mac's Radio Service Shop: Portable Patter - April 1950 Radio & Television News
- Mac's Service Shop: Buying and Using a Pocket Calculator - May 1974 Popular Electronics
- Electrostatics at Work - February 1973 Popular Electronics
- Telephone Pickups and Other Subjects - April 1954 Radio & Television News
- Mac's Service Shop: Not Always Right - March 1956 Radio & TV News
- Barney's Dog Show - May 1954 Radio & TV News
- Zenith's 1973 Color Line - March 1973 Popular Electronics
- Always Something New - February 1958 Radio & TV News
- The Time Is Now - March 1958 Radio News Article
- Was Ist Los? - May 1958 Radio & TV News News
- A Little Dog and SSB Tuning - November 1958 Radio & TV News
- New Breed of Test Equipment - September 1972 Popular Electronics
- Barney is Promoted - May 1948 Radio News
- Motorola's 1974 Color TV Receivers - November 1973 Popular Electronics
- New Uses - June 1958 Radio & TV News
- Satisfied Customer Insurance - May 1952 Radio & Television News
- What's Right with the Service Business - May 1955 Radio & Television News
- Summer Seminar - June 1956 Radio & Television News
- Simple Things First - January 1960 Electronics World
- Pride and Prejudice - April 1955 Radio & Television News
- Unusual New Equipment - June 1955 Radio & TV News
- Insurance Jobs - May 1956 Radio & TV News
- Radio Interference - January 1972 Popular Electronics
- How Good Are We? - April 1960 Electronics World
- The Not-So-Simple Sets - October 1963 Electronics World
- Changer Chatter - May 1959 Electronics World
- Servicing Amateur Equipment - July 1959 Electronics World
- How It Started - February 1960 Electronics World
- Two for One - March 1960 Electronics World
- Grasshoppers & Compatibility - December 1959 Electronics World
- Safety in Medical Electronics - July 1969 Electronics World
- Getting the Most from Your Service Dollars - February 1972 Popular Electronics
- Electronics and Psychology - May 1969 Electronics World
- Biological Effects of Electrical Shock - May 1973 Popular Electronics
- Keeping Abreast of Your Field - April 1969 Electronics World
- Servicing Without Service Data - February 1974 Popular Electronics
- Modules and the Technician - January 1973 Popular Electronics
- Salvaging Dunked Radios - July 1972 Popular Electronics
- A Versatile Pocket Calculator - May 1972 Popular Electronics
- Cost of Color TV Service - February 1969 Electronics World
- Leakage Current Testing and Using Square Waves - April 1973 Popular Electronics
- Medical Electronics Servicing - October 1969 Electronics World
- Philosophy of a Kit Manufacturer - November 1972 Popular Electronics
- Fix It or Junk It? - September 1969 Electronics World
- Electronics in Automobiles - September 1973 Popular Electronics
- Being an Amateur Pays Off - August 1973 Popular Electronics
- Electric Shock - August 1969 Electronics World
- A New TV Antenna - December 1972 Popular Electronics
- Single Sideband for the CB'er - June 1970 Popular Electronics
- Meter Accuracy Specifications - April 1972 Popular Electronics
- How to Be a Good Customer - January 1969 Electronics World
- Shelf Life of Capacitors & Batteries - August 1972 Popular Electronics
- Skeeter G's and Test Patterns - June 1951 Radio & Television News
- Designing a Receiver for Cable TV - June 1969 Electronics World
- Electronics and the Energy Crisis - April 1974 Popular Electronics
- Bill Gets the Full Treatment - December 1949 Radio & Television News
- Looking Forward and Backward - March 1951 Radio & Television News
- Taming Transients - July 1963 Electronics World
- Case of the Bad Bypass - December 1963 Electronics World
- Advertising for Dessert - July 1949 Radio & Television News
- A.C.-D.C. Bread and Butter - October 1952 Radio & Television News
- Worth of His Hire - May 1961 Electronics World
- TV and the Little Guy - April 1951 Radio & Television News
- A Breathing Spell - February 1955 Radio & Television News
- Spring Fancies - April 1952 Radio & Television News
- Service Bench Chatter - October 1951 Radio & Television News
- Carbon-Tet Can Kill - February 1952 Radio & Television News
- Something Borrowed - January 1952 Radio & Television News
- Barney, Beauty, and BCI - October 1948 Radio & Television News
- Automation and the Technician - July 1961 Electronics World
- A Windy Subject - March 1953 Radio & Television News
- All Work and No Play - March 1952 Radio & Television News
- Barney, Beauty, and BCI - October 1948 Radio & Television News
- Safety in Servicing - January 1954 Radio & Television News
- Mac and Free Estimates - January 1950 Radio & Television News
- Intermittents Still Pursue - February 1949 Radio & Television News
- Barney Is a Big Boy Now - January 1949 Radio & Television News
- A Little Lightning - July 1948 Radio News
- Mac Quotes Benjamin Franklin - October 1949 Radio & Television News
- Barney Talks A.C.-D.C. - September 1949 Radio & Television News
- Barney Takes on Color - February 1955 Radio & Television News
- Something Borrowed - January 1952 Radio & Television News
- Barney Plays 'Twenty Questions' - November 1948 Radio & Television News
Posted October 2, 2020
March 1956 Radio & TV News |
[Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio & Television News, published 1919-1959. All copyrights hereby acknowledged. |
Unless you have a tape player that you want to modify for plugging in external speakers, the most interesting part of this 'Not Always Right' episode of Mac's Radio Service Shop will be how Mac handles a belligerent customer. As was the topic of many articles in the days when electronics repair shops could be found in every town, this joker accused Mac of liking to pad bills with time charged for using his expertise and expensive test equipment. He proved the old adage about the customer always being right usually did not apply to those who tried to tell the repairman how to do his job. Of course if the person could have done the repair himself, he probably would have. It reminds me of the signs that used to hang in auto repair shops that went something like this, 'Repair rates: $30 per hour, $40 per hour with you watching, or $50 per hour with you helping.'
Mac's Service Shop: Not Always Right
By John T. Frye
'That portable record-player looks pretty new to be in the shop for repair already,' Barney remarked as he watched Mac carefully place a blanket underneath the fine leather case of the instrument to prevent its being scratched by stray bits of solder on the service bench before he started removing the motorboard carrying the three-speed mechanism.
'It's a brand new birthday gift that's not even been presented yet,' Mac said.
'Just proves they don't build 'em like they used to, huh?'
'Not necessarily. Nothing's the matter with this player. I'm simply going to do a little conversion job on it to add to its usefulness.'
'What kind of a conversion job?' demanded Barney, who had all the curiosity of an old maid blue jay.
'I'm going to install a midget closed-type 2-circuit phono jack in a corner of this motorboard. The leads from the pickup go to this jack so that when the jack is empty they connect to the input of the player amplifier in the normal manner. However, when a phono plug is inserted into the jack, the 'hot' lead from the crystal cartridge is disconnected from the input of the amplifier and goes instead to the tip of the phono plug, and the 'ground' lead of the cartridge connects to the sleeve of that plug.'
'I don't get it.'
'It's quite simple. Next I make up a patch cord from about five feet of microphone cable with a phono plug on one end and a phono tip plug on the other. When the phono plug of this cord is inserted into the jack of the record player and the phono tip plug is inserted into the 'phone' jack of a radio or TV set, the portable player can be heard through the amplifier and speaker of the set. At the same time, the amplifier and speaker of the record player itself is silenced.'
'So what?'
'So advantage can be taken of the larger speaker and more powerful amplifier normally found in radios or TV sets in listening to records played on the portable record player. Many radios and TV sets are equipped with phono jacks, and the records sound far better when played through them. What's more, there are a lot of older radio-phonograph combinations sitting around practically unused because the TV set has usurped their place in the living room and their single-speed turntables will not play the popular 45 and 33 rpm records. Quite often, though, these sets have audio systems capable of quite good reproduction when a modern pickup is fed into them. With most of these combinations, you have only to pull out the plug on the end of the shielded lead corning from the 78 rpm turntable and insert the patch cord from the portable player. This gives these fine old sets an entirely new lease on life.
'At the same time, whenever you wish to use the player for purely personal listening wherein neither audio power nor high fidelity is essential, all you have to do is remove the patch cord and the player is ready to go. There are no awkward dangling cords, and nothing has been done to detract from the appearance of the record player. I've performed this operation on several portables lately, and the owners are very happy with the result. In fact, the owner of this player heard about the conversion from another customer and wanted it performed on this fine little phonograph before he presented it to his daughter.'
'Sounds like a real cool idea, man,' Barney approved. 'You can have your music for dancing through the rumpus room radio and still take it with you!'
'There's only one thing to watch. A few of the portable players may use a 'hot' chassis with one lead from the cartridge connected to it. In that case, the lead should be transferred from the chassis to the frame of the phono jack, and a 0.05 μfd., 600 volt capacitor should be connected between the jack frame and the chassis. This prevents danger of serious shock or of shorting out the line voltage when connecting the record player to a grounded radio chassis.'
'Oh, oh!' Barney exclaimed in a low voice. 'Don't look now, but here comes that old grouch, Elmer Hinkle. Let's take to the hills!'
Television Macedonia
Barney's attitude was not without reason. Elmer Hinkle was a typical grouch, tight as a roll of Scotch tape and suspicious of everyone. He marched straight on back to the service department, carrying a small radio in the crook of his skinny arm. On his face was an agonized distortion of normal features that he fondly believed was an ingratiating smile.
'Mac, my friend,' he began briskly, 'I had a little argument with some of the boys over at the garage, and I'd like to know if I was right.'
'What about, Elmer?' Mac asked warily.
'I was saying you told me very little of your charges was for what you actually did. You said the work involved was simply snipping wires and doing a little soldering. What you charged for was the use of your instruments, your experience, and your know-how in locating the trouble with a set. Was I right?'
Excel formulas in telugu pdf. 'Why yes, Elmer; I guess you were. I did say something like that.'
'What kind of a conversion job?' demanded Barney, who had all the curiosity of an old maid blue jay.
'I'm going to install a midget closed-type 2-circuit phono jack in a corner of this motorboard. The leads from the pickup go to this jack so that when the jack is empty they connect to the input of the player amplifier in the normal manner. However, when a phono plug is inserted into the jack, the 'hot' lead from the crystal cartridge is disconnected from the input of the amplifier and goes instead to the tip of the phono plug, and the 'ground' lead of the cartridge connects to the sleeve of that plug.'
'I don't get it.'
'It's quite simple. Next I make up a patch cord from about five feet of microphone cable with a phono plug on one end and a phono tip plug on the other. When the phono plug of this cord is inserted into the jack of the record player and the phono tip plug is inserted into the 'phone' jack of a radio or TV set, the portable player can be heard through the amplifier and speaker of the set. At the same time, the amplifier and speaker of the record player itself is silenced.'
'So what?'
'So advantage can be taken of the larger speaker and more powerful amplifier normally found in radios or TV sets in listening to records played on the portable record player. Many radios and TV sets are equipped with phono jacks, and the records sound far better when played through them. What's more, there are a lot of older radio-phonograph combinations sitting around practically unused because the TV set has usurped their place in the living room and their single-speed turntables will not play the popular 45 and 33 rpm records. Quite often, though, these sets have audio systems capable of quite good reproduction when a modern pickup is fed into them. With most of these combinations, you have only to pull out the plug on the end of the shielded lead corning from the 78 rpm turntable and insert the patch cord from the portable player. This gives these fine old sets an entirely new lease on life.
'At the same time, whenever you wish to use the player for purely personal listening wherein neither audio power nor high fidelity is essential, all you have to do is remove the patch cord and the player is ready to go. There are no awkward dangling cords, and nothing has been done to detract from the appearance of the record player. I've performed this operation on several portables lately, and the owners are very happy with the result. In fact, the owner of this player heard about the conversion from another customer and wanted it performed on this fine little phonograph before he presented it to his daughter.'
'Sounds like a real cool idea, man,' Barney approved. 'You can have your music for dancing through the rumpus room radio and still take it with you!'
'There's only one thing to watch. A few of the portable players may use a 'hot' chassis with one lead from the cartridge connected to it. In that case, the lead should be transferred from the chassis to the frame of the phono jack, and a 0.05 μfd., 600 volt capacitor should be connected between the jack frame and the chassis. This prevents danger of serious shock or of shorting out the line voltage when connecting the record player to a grounded radio chassis.'
'Oh, oh!' Barney exclaimed in a low voice. 'Don't look now, but here comes that old grouch, Elmer Hinkle. Let's take to the hills!'
Television Macedonia
Barney's attitude was not without reason. Elmer Hinkle was a typical grouch, tight as a roll of Scotch tape and suspicious of everyone. He marched straight on back to the service department, carrying a small radio in the crook of his skinny arm. On his face was an agonized distortion of normal features that he fondly believed was an ingratiating smile.
'Mac, my friend,' he began briskly, 'I had a little argument with some of the boys over at the garage, and I'd like to know if I was right.'
'What about, Elmer?' Mac asked warily.
'I was saying you told me very little of your charges was for what you actually did. You said the work involved was simply snipping wires and doing a little soldering. What you charged for was the use of your instruments, your experience, and your know-how in locating the trouble with a set. Was I right?'
Excel formulas in telugu pdf. 'Why yes, Elmer; I guess you were. I did say something like that.'
'Good!' Elmer exclaimed as he permitted his facial muscles to relax into their normal sour expression. 'That's what I wanted to hear, and you're not going to wiggle out of it. You there, boy; you're a witness.'
'Witness to what?' Barney demanded belligerently.
'Witness to the fact he can't charge me more than fifty cents for fixing this radio,' Elmer said triumphantly. 'He don't need to use his instruments or his experience or his boasted knowhow because I've already found out what is wrong with my set. All I want him to do is solder in this new distributor that my nephew got for me,' he said as he pulled a cartridge-type filter capacitor from his coat pocket and brandished it under Mac's nose.
'How do you know it needs a new 'distributor,' as you call it?' Mac asked as he placed the little receiver on the service bench and plugged it in.
'My nephew, who learned all about radio in the Navy, told me it did,' Elmer boasted; 'and he's forgot more about radio than you'll ever know.'
'I hear nothing wrong with it,' Mac said, trying hard to keep his temper, although Barney could see that the back of his neck was turning red.
'Wait a few minutes and you'll hear it hum like a bumblebee,' Elmer said; 'but I'm warning you I'm not going to pay for any of your phony diagnosing. I already know what's wrong. Just go ahead and do like I told you.'
Sure enough, as the set continued to operate a noticeable hum appeared and quickly grew worse.
'I don't think -' Mac began.
'You're darned tootin you don't!' Elmer interrupted. 'That's what you want to charge me for. Quit stalling put in that new distributor.'
Mac's lips drew into a thin line, and quickly removed the set from its cabinet. In a couple of minutes he snipped off the leads of the old capacitor and had soldered the new one in place. He slid the set back into its cabinet and turned it on. In a few minutes it was humming just as loudly as before.
'You tricked me! You put that thing in wrong on purpose!' Elmer shrieked.
Television Machine
'Now, Elmer, stop that screeching and listen to me,' Mac said sternly. 'I never cheated a customer in my life, and I'm not starting with you, although you surely have got it coming. I tried to tell you I didn't think the original capacitor was bad, but you wouldn't listen. Now you stand there without opening your yap while I find out what is wrong with this set. So help me, if I hear another word out of you, I'll double your bill.'
Under this dire threat, Elmer kept silent; but it was only by means of a very visible effort. Mac slid the chassis out of the cabinet again and used the rubber tube puller to remove the hot 50C5 tube. From the tube stock a new tube was obtained and placed in the socket. The set was turned on and once more slid into the cabinet so that the baffle would accentuate any low-frequency hum that might be present. After several minutes, it remained hum-free, even when Elmer placed a suspicious ear right against the speaker opening.
'You satisfied that's the trouble?' Mac demanded of Elmer, who still was keeping his lips tightly sealed.
Television For Macular Degeneration
'I reckon I am,' Elmer said grudgingly; 'but just wait 'til I get hold of that know-it-all nephew of mine. He charged me a whole two dollars for that distributor I didn't need. A fine radio man he is!'
'Don't be too hard on him,' Mac said. 'He's probably plenty smart about radio equipment used in the Navy. I know the training those boys get is first class. This case, though, could trip up almost anyone not experienced in radio receiver servicing. The clue was the fact the hum was not there at first but came on fairly gradually. Open filter capacitors seldom act like that. This case was caused by a cathode-to-heater leakage that increased as the output tube warmed up. Only experience, of which you think so little, let me suspect this.'
'Well,' Elmer snarled, 'what do I owe you?'
Mac thought a little and then said, 'Elmer, I'm just going to charge you for the tube and my regular minimum charge for a service job that would not normally require removing the chassis. You do not deserve this break, but I hope the experience has taught you a lesson. The next time, have faith in me or take your work to someone you do trust. Here's your bill. Pay Miss Perkins out front.'
Elmer snatched the bill from Mac's hand, looked at it, and then started for the door. As he reached it, though, he stopped and turned around. He swallowed hard a couple of times and then blurted out, 'I've been an old fool!' Without another word he bolted through the door.
'Say, that was better than a soap opera,' Barney exclaimed. 'I guess Elmer proves that in radio servicing the customer is not always right.'
'That saying came from the retail selling business,' Mac agreed; 'and it most certainly does not apply to any kind of servicing. After all, there is no reason to suppose that the customer knows anything about the equipment he brings you to repair. If he did, he would probably repair it himself. A funny thing is, though, that few of the men customers like to admit this ignorance. They like to have you believe that if they just had the tools and the time, they could repair their radio and TV sets themselves.
'The good technician does not destroy this fiction, but neither does he buy it. He listens politely to the customer's opinions, but then he relies on his own knowledge and experience to determine what is wrong and to correct it. He does not take refuge behind that business of the customer always being right to justify putting in parts not needed or performing unnecessary services, any more than a doctor would take out a sound appendix simply because the patient is convinced his gall bladder pains are from appendicitis.'
'Yep,' Barney agreed, 'I guess it is part of our job to protect customers from their own ignorance!'
Posted October 13, 2020
Television For Macular Degeneration
Mac's Radio Service Shop Episodes on RF Cafe
This series of instructive stories was the brainchild of none other than John T. Frye, creator of the Carl and Jerry series that ran in Popular Electronics for many years. Mac's Radio Service Shop began life in Radio & Television News magazine (which itself started as simply Radio News), and then changed its name to Mac's Service Shop after the magazine became Electronics World. 'Mac' is electronics repair shop owner Mac McGregor, and Barney is his eager, if not somewhat naive, technician assistant. 'Lessons' are taught in story format with dialogs between Mac and Barney.
Television For Macbook Pro
- Mac's Service Shop: Not Always Right - March 1956 Radio & Television News
- Television DX - September 1951 Radio & Television News
- Magnetic Shielding - December 1955 Radio & Television News
- Tape Recorder Tips - July 1958 Radio & TV News
- A Typical Day in the Shop - July 1955 Radio & Television News
- Barney Turns Inventor - February 1950 Radio & Television News
- Thoughts on Test Equipment - July 1954 Radio & Television News
- Mac's Radio Service Shop: Portable Patter - April 1950 Radio & Television News
- Mac's Service Shop: Buying and Using a Pocket Calculator - May 1974 Popular Electronics
- Electrostatics at Work - February 1973 Popular Electronics
- Telephone Pickups and Other Subjects - April 1954 Radio & Television News
- Mac's Service Shop: Not Always Right - March 1956 Radio & TV News
- Barney's Dog Show - May 1954 Radio & TV News
- Zenith's 1973 Color Line - March 1973 Popular Electronics
- Always Something New - February 1958 Radio & TV News
- The Time Is Now - March 1958 Radio News Article
- Was Ist Los? - May 1958 Radio & TV News News
- A Little Dog and SSB Tuning - November 1958 Radio & TV News
- New Breed of Test Equipment - September 1972 Popular Electronics
- Barney is Promoted - May 1948 Radio News
- Motorola's 1974 Color TV Receivers - November 1973 Popular Electronics
- New Uses - June 1958 Radio & TV News
- Satisfied Customer Insurance - May 1952 Radio & Television News
- What's Right with the Service Business - May 1955 Radio & Television News
- Summer Seminar - June 1956 Radio & Television News
- Simple Things First - January 1960 Electronics World
- Pride and Prejudice - April 1955 Radio & Television News
- Unusual New Equipment - June 1955 Radio & TV News
- Insurance Jobs - May 1956 Radio & TV News
- Radio Interference - January 1972 Popular Electronics
- How Good Are We? - April 1960 Electronics World
- The Not-So-Simple Sets - October 1963 Electronics World
- Changer Chatter - May 1959 Electronics World
- Servicing Amateur Equipment - July 1959 Electronics World
- How It Started - February 1960 Electronics World
- Two for One - March 1960 Electronics World
- Grasshoppers & Compatibility - December 1959 Electronics World
- Safety in Medical Electronics - July 1969 Electronics World
- Getting the Most from Your Service Dollars - February 1972 Popular Electronics
- Electronics and Psychology - May 1969 Electronics World
- Biological Effects of Electrical Shock - May 1973 Popular Electronics
- Keeping Abreast of Your Field - April 1969 Electronics World
- Servicing Without Service Data - February 1974 Popular Electronics
- Modules and the Technician - January 1973 Popular Electronics
- Salvaging Dunked Radios - July 1972 Popular Electronics
- A Versatile Pocket Calculator - May 1972 Popular Electronics
- Cost of Color TV Service - February 1969 Electronics World
- Leakage Current Testing and Using Square Waves - April 1973 Popular Electronics
- Medical Electronics Servicing - October 1969 Electronics World
- Philosophy of a Kit Manufacturer - November 1972 Popular Electronics
- Fix It or Junk It? - September 1969 Electronics World
- Electronics in Automobiles - September 1973 Popular Electronics
- Being an Amateur Pays Off - August 1973 Popular Electronics
- Electric Shock - August 1969 Electronics World
- A New TV Antenna - December 1972 Popular Electronics
- Single Sideband for the CB'er - June 1970 Popular Electronics
- Meter Accuracy Specifications - April 1972 Popular Electronics
- How to Be a Good Customer - January 1969 Electronics World
- Shelf Life of Capacitors & Batteries - August 1972 Popular Electronics
- Skeeter G's and Test Patterns - June 1951 Radio & Television News
- Designing a Receiver for Cable TV - June 1969 Electronics World
- Electronics and the Energy Crisis - April 1974 Popular Electronics
- Bill Gets the Full Treatment - December 1949 Radio & Television News
- Looking Forward and Backward - March 1951 Radio & Television News
- Taming Transients - July 1963 Electronics World
- Case of the Bad Bypass - December 1963 Electronics World
- Advertising for Dessert - July 1949 Radio & Television News
- A.C.-D.C. Bread and Butter - October 1952 Radio & Television News
- Worth of His Hire - May 1961 Electronics World
- TV and the Little Guy - April 1951 Radio & Television News
- A Breathing Spell - February 1955 Radio & Television News
- Spring Fancies - April 1952 Radio & Television News
- Service Bench Chatter - October 1951 Radio & Television News
- Carbon-Tet Can Kill - February 1952 Radio & Television News
- Something Borrowed - January 1952 Radio & Television News
- Barney, Beauty, and BCI - October 1948 Radio & Television News
- Automation and the Technician - July 1961 Electronics World
- A Windy Subject - March 1953 Radio & Television News
- All Work and No Play - March 1952 Radio & Television News
- Barney, Beauty, and BCI - October 1948 Radio & Television News
- Safety in Servicing - January 1954 Radio & Television News
- Mac and Free Estimates - January 1950 Radio & Television News
- Intermittents Still Pursue - February 1949 Radio & Television News
- Barney Is a Big Boy Now - January 1949 Radio & Television News
- A Little Lightning - July 1948 Radio News
- Mac Quotes Benjamin Franklin - October 1949 Radio & Television News
- Barney Talks A.C.-D.C. - September 1949 Radio & Television News
- Barney Takes on Color - February 1955 Radio & Television News
- Something Borrowed - January 1952 Radio & Television News
- Barney Plays 'Twenty Questions' - November 1948 Radio & Television News