EH Scott 800B

[dewickt]

Latest Project is to get 800B up, all working except I have no Idea where to plug in the "Dynamic Noise Suppressor", looks like I pull a tube plug the lead in and put tube in top of leads connector - but which tube ?? Sandy G has a real beauty here, he did a bang up cleaning job, love to work on a radio that is spotless.

[jt1stcav]

Damn, what a beauty (and a beast)! Also love those two tuning-eye tubes.

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by dewickt
Latest Project is to get 800B up, all working except I have no Idea where to plug in the "Dynamic Noise Suppressor", looks like I pull a tube plug the lead in and put tube in top of leads connector - but which tube ?? Sandy G has a real beauty here, he did a bang up cleaning job, love to work on a radio that is spotless.

Terry, if you like working on "spotless" radios, I think you'd love working on my 1963 Zenith K-731. This radio was an ebay score last year and was absolutely clean, inside and out, when it was delivered to me--and it works well, of course. Even the cabinet is almost perfect, with only a few almost invisible imperfections (and I mean almost invisible--I have to look long and hard to find them myself; they don't show on a quick examination of the set).

Whomever had this before me took really good care of it. I'm glad, because this set's cabinet fits in just perfectly with the rest of the furniture in my apartment (one of at least two reasons I bid on it in the first place; the other is I just plain like anything made by the original Zenith Radio Corporation, and yet a third is its incredible sound for a table radio, especially in the bass range--the set has a 5x7 oval speaker and an electrostatic tweeter, the first of its kind I have seen in over 30 years of electronics experimenting).

I'm not familiar with any of the H. H. Scott receivers, but I'd guess the two eye tubes were for AM/SW and FM.

BTW, I'd be careful about leaving that big speaker unprotected on your bench. One slip and . . . !!!

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by jt1stcav
Damn, what a beauty (and a beast)! Also love those two tuning-eye tubes.

Jim, with reference to the descriptions of your audio system: What? No tuner? Yours is one of the first audio systems I've seen without one. You probably have better FM stations to listen to in Lakeland than I do here in my small town. I'm about 35 miles east of Cleveland, about a mile or so from the south shore of Lake Erie. The only two kinds of programming we get on FM radio here (aside from the NPR affiliate, of course) are rock and country. There is a classical station on 104.9, but unfortunately it is drowned out by a country-western station in the next town on 104.7; there is also a smooth jazz station on 107.3, but it is far enough away from here (50 miles or so west) that I can't hear it, even with my Terk amplified FM indoor "tower" antenna. I live in a fringe area for FM and TV reception from Cleveland, so even getting the city's stations is difficult (thank goodness for Comcast digital cable; there is an easy-listening station, channel 427, which I listen to when I get tired of the stuff on the regular FM stations).

[Chad Hauris]

Jeff, an outdoor antenna can really help FM reception. I use a TV rabbitears antenna spread out so the rods are horizontal and fastened this to a bamboo pole stuck in the ground. It allows me to pull in a 10-watt translator station from 30 miles away.
If you live in an apartment you might could stick this type of arrangement out in the balcony or behind a bush outside the window, etc.

You have to watch out for amplified indoor antennas...in my experience they amplify interfering stations too much causing worse reception than non-amplified antennas. Also a digital tuner is recommended as it seems to usually have sharper selectivity than most analog-tuned FM receivers.

[Tom Bavis]

Hey Terry - I found a reference to the Scott Dynamic Noise Suppressor in Sams - it's 8-21. Might help. Of course that's the only folder missing from my set #8...

[jt1stcav]

Originally posted by Jeffhs
Jim, with reference to the descriptions of your audio system: What? No tuner? Yours is one of the first audio systems I've seen without one.

Besides the NPR station in Tampa, there's absolutely nothing on the radio worth listening to IMO! When I had my ol' Carver TX-11 FM only stereo tuner, I may have used it here about a total of 50 hours in the past 18 years (when I bought it new in '84 I was stationed in Germany and there were loads of classical and jazz stations to listen to). I do have a small collection of vintage tube AM radios (Philco, Emerson, Zenith, etc.), but there's only one oldies station in town I'll listen to...the rest simply suck!

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by jt1stcav
Damn, what a beauty (and a beast)! Also love those two tuning-eye tubes.

Jim, I just saw the pics of your present audio system. You say you have a Magnavox amplifier. Would that be the unit the rest of your system is resting on? If so, the cabinet (what little of it shows in the picture) looks great. Was that unit originally a stereo console or even a 3-way system (TV, AM/FM stereo/phono)? I'm curious, because I like all makes of console units (but Magnavox and Zenith are my favorites). Living in a small apartment, I don't have the room for big consoles as I did when I lived in the Cleveland area. But I still like looking at pictures of those magnificent Magnavox, Zenith and other console entertainment units from years past. The large Magnavox 3-way color theater consoles from the mid-'60s, with the "Phantom" total remote control, are my favorites from the original Magnavox Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana (I also have a good friend whose parents had a Magnavox b&w table model TV with the Phantom remote back in the '60s and '70s--it served them well and worked well for years); however, I can't say I care much for today's Philips-Magnavox, as I understand the new ones are built so cheaply and flimsily it is almost too easy to shove the set off the table, stand, etc. when you push a button on the front control panel beneath the CRT. Better to use the remote for all control functions, IMO. The new "Zenith" televisions built by Gold Star are built solidly enough (I think), but have other problems (CRT doesn't last longer than two years and the sets develop chassis troubles galore after a year or two, especially when the CRT shorts and takes much of the video circuitry with it).

BTW, I looked at the pics of your previous sound system and was impressed by the looks of the cabinet your first system was installed in (before you had to sell most of it off). I have a smaller version of that cabinet, in which my TV, VCR and cable box are installed. Yours looks very nice (I'll bet it was a heck of a thing to get into your living room as big as it is, though), with the TV on top and the rest of your gear built into it.