INFO wanted: SABC Mark3 TT

[ghostinthemachine]

You sure about the late 80s? All I see are 3 SABC Mk3s and a Studer A80. Not a single CD player-certainly not the obligatory bank of Studer A727 CD players,although these would be to her front and left?. Telephones seem earlier too.My wife puts the clothing,hair and makeup at late 70s.

The real sad thing is that this thread has been running for an awful long time and not a single post from ex or current SABC technical people. Are they all dead,emigrated or simply has no interest in Audio anymore? Vinyl Engine got 1 post from an ex SABC type now living in Britain.

I got this pic from Derrich Gardener's Facebook album - he used to be a presenter at Highveld. That telephone doesnt look out of place for the 80's.

Seems the SABC techs doesnt care.

[Steerpike]

I recognise the Studer & the Mk3! Interesting that no-one seems to know who the woman is/was!
The phone is a 'Lorea', the pushbutton successor to the 'Protea'.  They started appearing early-mid 80s.
Headphones look like AKG K240. Just to the left of the headphones, I think I see  a 33 RPM orange button of another Dok Viljoen.

I agree - lack of CD players makes it seem earlier.

"Highveld" is now in the same building as "702", in Gwen Lane, just around the corner from the Village Walk, and not part of the SABC. And not really worth a memory location on my tuner anymore.

[ghostinthemachine]

I recognise the Studer & the Mk3! Interesting that no-one seems to know who the woman is/was!

Her name is Elma Botes.

[Agaton Sax]

Seems the SABC techs doesnt care.  
 

I wonder why? There seems to be at least 2 former SABC techs on this very forum. I wish I could remember but one posted something about cleaning LPS/Tapes at the SABC and the other about a colleague who got busted standing on top of a rotating EMT?/Technics? turntable.

I do wish these guys would share. Not everything was bad in the old days.

[ghostinthemachine]

I wonder why? There seems to be at least 2 former SABC techs on this very forum. I wish I could remember but one posted something about cleaning LPS/Tapes at the SABC and the other about a colleague who got busted standing on top of a rotating EMT?/Technics? turntable.

I do wish these guys would share. Not everything was bad in the old days.

Who was that?  

* who and not how ... eish

[Steerpike]

who got busted standing on top of a rotating EMT?/Technics? turntable.

The Dok Viljoen could probably survive that. The thrust plate is supported by three spring loaded screws - to allow adjustment of height and "horizontal-ness". If you put a very heavy load on the platter, the springs just compress, and let the platter get pressed down until it resists uniformly around its periphery on the chassis - no bearing damage.

[mafioso]

You sure about the late 80s? All I see are 3 SABC Mk3s and a Studer A80. Not a single CD player-certainly not the obligatory bank of Studer A727 CD players,although these would be to her front and left?. Telephones seem earlier too.My wife puts the clothing,hair and makeup at late 70s.

The real sad thing is that this thread has been running for an awful long time and not a single post from ex or current SABC technical people. Are they all dead,emigrated or simply has no interest in Audio anymore? Vinyl Engine got 1 post from an ex SABC type now living in Britain.

A good fella by the name of Arthur Churms was a technician at SABC Rocklands. I used to know him a few years ago as he helped me to measure cartridges. I'm sure he has probably retired by now. His pal's name was Gordon Scott, another SABC tech and Gordon and I used to tear up the suburbs in the 60's in our Triumph TR3A's.

Gordon now has Alzheimers sadly but if I can get some info or background from A Churms, I'll post.

mafioso

[Agaton Sax]

Not SABC but  2 wonderful stories were told to me by an old cape Town "Radioman"

Apparently these repair guys use to work in flocks or herds or something,so they would trek from shop to shop to repair the broken radios people had handed in. One of them was a genius that was in high demand with ship owners to repair early Radars. Particularly the Russians demanded him and would pay top dollar. Then all the cronies would tag along to fix other things on ship. Problem was  that this genius was an alcoholic. So when word came a Russian ship was on its way with a broken Radar everybody rushed of to fetch this guy . He was in a bad way,seeing spiders , flying elephants etc. One of his mates had read that you could fix somebody's heart with electricity,so they wound one side of a stripped flex wire round his one ankle and the other side round the other and plugged it in.The story goes that he  bolted into the air,came down cold sober and wanted to kill them all,so they lost the job.

Second story: General JBM Herzog was Prime Minister ,rather prude but also a bit of a gearhead. He was very keen on getting some wire recorders in Parlement to tape speeches. So a Cape Town company supplied 2 Webster recorders. These had to be tested first so the Techies set them up in the workshop tried them and left ,throwing the mains switch as they left. That night one of the other Techs picked up a girl  and brought her to the workshop. On entering he threw the mains switch and the 2 machines started recording the proceedings. When a demo was given to the General the next day of a recording he was rather upset!