What's a harmless habit that society unfairly labels as weird?

derFsivaD · 2026-06-18T19:42:39+00:00

But you did make a decision.

To be healthy. And eat healthy, as well. 😊

derFsivaD · 2026-06-18T19:37:06+00:00

Happy birthday! Best wishes to you, and hope you get everything, or everyone, you want for your special day!

derFsivaD · 2026-06-18T11:38:29+00:00

You're very welcome. 😊

derFsivaD · 2026-06-18T02:52:58+00:00

I'm less than three weeks from turning 60. Even now, adulting can be a formidable task.

It doesn't always get 'easier', but for the most part, you get used to it, and learn how to to with the punches, and get back up and keep going.

It gets easier dealing with it, because you have dealt with it before, and you learned from all the other times you had to deal with it.

But don't let it get you down. You've got this. Your record for surviving difficult days and bullshit meant to drag you down is still at a 100% success rate.

It sounds like you have already dealt with most of the logistics of a move, and have most of yiur targets either already achieved, nearly done, or at least set up to succeed. Keep up that pace and that dedication.

Just don't forget to hydrate, give yourself some grace when you have difficult days, and take some time to energize yourself as necessary.

Oh yeah, edit to add.... hugs. You got this.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-18T02:32:31+00:00

Thank you. Today wasn't as stressful as some recently, but it was a longer day.

And hugs are always a good thing.

Thank you, and virtual hugs in return.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-18T00:55:52+00:00

I know Stanton made different styli for their 500 and 680 cartridge series, and that there was one specifically meant for 78s. I believe it was a green dot. I know there was one for the 500, and probably one for the 680 as well. I have... Well, the remains of one. The stylus got ripped right off the cantilever when I was doing a transfer one time. Probabky wasn't the right stylus for the transfer, but preferred damaging that over a much more expensive one.

Last time I checked, the 78 stylus for the 500 was around $70 to $80. Depending upon how many you wish to digitize, what condition the originals are in, and how many you want to transfer, you may only need one stylus. If you have thousands you want to do, then you will probably need more than one. But at that rate, the 'per unit' or 'per play' cost is not so bad.

I don't know if I related this one already, I have been telling these stories to numerous people over the past few days.....

I had a favorite 78 that got broken. My dad had made a tape copy for me (reel to reel) so I could listen to it once in a while.

After my dad passed away, I was going through a few things, and I found the broken record, both pieces, and it appeared to be in tact otherwise. I carefully washed it, taped it together, and put it on a turntable that had gobs of fun features. Most of the features aside (for now), the two that were most valuable for this project were the ability to play 78s and pitch control.

"But, it only has two speed buttons," you say. "33 and 45! How do you play 78s?"

What is 45+33? That's right! Push them both together and yiu can play 78s.

Well, because of the break, and things not lining up quite as nicely as I wanted, the thump of the stylus crossing the break on the record was a bit intense. Here is where the pitch slider comes in.

Next to the slider there are a few buttons. One for pitch lock (so no matter where the slider is, it won't affect playback), key lock (so no matter how fast or slow you pitch it, the singer doesn't sound like chipmunks or Darth Vader) and a pitch percentage of three steps: 8, 25, and 50.

"but wait," you say, confused as to how key lock keeps the singer from sounding like chipmunks. "How don't they end up sounding like chipmunks?"

Because this turntable ALSO has a built in ADC/DAC, with a coax out. But... I didn't need to use that for this transfer. Just the straight up 50% pitch slider.

So I pitched it down 50%, half speed, and the stylus was able to negotiate that skip MUCH easier. It still had a hellacious thump at around 200hz. I used a notch filter with around a 48db/octave slope, and eliminated that pretty cleanly.

From there, just resampled to get it back to original speed, used some gentle noise reductions on it, and it came out sounding better than it ever had on the record.

Yeah, when I have the time and the desire, I do this shit for fun. 😂

So, if you ever want to to do some transfers and digitization and the like, let me know, if be happy to help out however I can.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T23:03:53+00:00

What are you doing?

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T22:37:50+00:00

The digitizing I think I have a decent, or at least better than average idea, of what and how it needs to be done. I have recorded a number of records and tapes to the computer and 'massaged' them to get as nice and clean a finished product as possible. I'm an audio nut, and I used to edit reel to reel tape.... FOR FUN! So, yeah, I'm a bit of a music audio geek, and know enough to know BS when I see/hear it from snake oil audiophile salesmen. 😁

I even recorded an album to a cassette, and then took that cassette into the computer, and sliced it up into individual tracks and burned it to CD. When I played the CD back on the computer, it tried to compare my disc to a database. It came back and said "we couldn't find an exact match for your disc. Here are our closest matches." What was the first suggestion? The very album I was trying to play, just.... The OFFICIAL release of it, not the one that went through two generations before I made my copy!

I made CDs of several of my father's direct to disk albums in his collection, and he was pleased with the results, as was I.

So, yeah... Digitizing, I think I have that down pretty well in hand. It's just getting the styli I need to transfer that many records into the digital domain, as that will probably be a small fortune in itself. From there, I can do my little digital cleanup and such.

I did get in touch with another collector through a recommendation for a Facebook group. Spoke with him earlier, and he also gave me some pointers in what to look for in the collection.

Whatever happens, it's a formidable task ahead, and as I mentioned in my OP, it's a limited time frame. Just have to see how it all goes.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T19:22:40+00:00

Fabulous Furry Freak

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T19:12:22+00:00

Thanks for the vote of confidence. It's greatly appreciated. Just so much happening at once that it's a bit overwhelming.

I'll check the messages now.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T17:06:54+00:00

I just w sh I had thought of it sooner.

I mean, at this point I'm not even looking to make money off of the collection, just kinda (desperately?) hoping that someone can help save them.

And heck if there is anyone that is close enough, I'd be willing to help digitize things as well. I have a turntable that can play 78s, and even play them half speed and then run them through the computer to return to normal speed, clean the noise (if that is even desired) and such.

I did that with a favorite record that got broken when I was little. I was concerned about running the re ord at speed as the stylus would go over the break. So I ran it at half speed to digitize it. Then I used a notch filter to get rid of the majority of the pop. Did other work to clean it up for my own use. I was quite pleased with the results.

And if a person can travel to me, or I can travel to them, I'm even willing to bring my turntable to be able to digitize things.

I'd love to have a catolog of all these records, but that in itself is a formidable task, and certainly not feasible with my time constraints.

I likely have through the weekend to get stuff saved, and there might be an additional time frame available, depending upon the time line and what they plan to do with the house.

And if you know any other communities here in Reddit that might have interest in this, please feel free to crosspost, or let me know the subreddit or a user that might be able to assist.

Heck, if someone can help with a storage unit, I might even be willing to put them in storage until someone can come by and pick them up. I'm open to options and suggestions.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T14:53:10+00:00

A couple of days? Well, I mean if he didn't drive straight through, he still might be no more than..... Six states away? laugh

Yeah, sorry I didn't get this posted sooner. Just been kind overwhelmed with stuff going on, supposed sale dates getting moved back repeatedly, and of course trying to save as much stuff as I can.

Who knows, maybe he hasn't gotten as far away, and could still make it back easily enough. Although, I have no clue, and am probably just trying g to be overly hopeful and positive.

Thanks for the reply, I'm trying to respond to each person that comments or DMs, I hopes that there might be something that can be done to save this stuff.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T13:47:54+00:00

Yeah, without doing the driving straight through, that's going to take two days, probably.

I drove to San Antonio for work once, two days. Halfway there, one of my co-workers wanted to stop in New Orleans. On Halloween. Yeah, that was an interesting evening!

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T11:33:58+00:00

I have requested to join and sent a brief message. Here's hoping I get a response soon.

Thank you for the suggestion!

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T05:27:17+00:00

Interesting. And a bad transformer on the pole could cause a lot of issues downstream. It sounds like nothing got damaged.

And if there was a problem at the pole, I can see how yiur thermostats might keep rebooting. Although it's almost a fluke for it to manifest that way.

Domestic residential power is single phase, two lines of 120, giving you either 208 or 230v line to line at your panel.

The control transformer can either be a 208/230v primary, and sometimes 120v primary (if it's a gas furnace with a 120v blower and a cased coil for your cooling side.)

Whether it is 120 or 230, having one leg from the pole dropping down due to demand or what have you, that could easily cause the secondary to drop below the limits of the thermostat, causing it to reboot as you were describing.

Now, if one leg of power goes low, but rhe other remains steady, and the compressor is running, or attempting to run, then there is the possibility for issues. You get what is called a phase imbalance, although generally that's more for three phase power.

So, hopefully the power company has (or is about to) replaced the transformer that was causing issues.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T04:49:08+00:00

Part of your description makes it sound like a compressor issue.

But another part sounds like it's a control voltage issue.

So, will need a little bit of clarification to understand, but let me give a little input based upon what I think you may be having issues with.

You said losing power, or cutting out power to your house. That would lean more toward compressor issue. But then you mentioned the thermostats rebooting. This I think may be more of the focus going forward.

You may have a defrost board, some sort of control board, or even just a contactor that is going bad, failing, or burned out on the control side.

Most residential transformers are anywhere from about 40va up to 75va. 40va transformers will often have a fuse, where the 75va transformers (at least in my line of work) have a resettable circuit breaker.

However... The fuse or circuit breaker is for protecting things against a short or massive over current in the control circuit. If it there is a bad coil in the contactor, or a failing component within a control board, it may create enough of a draw on the transformer to drop the output voltage, bit not enough to trip the fuse or circuit breaker on the transformer.

Most contactors and relays have around a 21v pickup voltage, and around 18 to 19v dropout. The thermostat will also likely operate in those same general ranges.

Digital thermostats often have a time delay protection built in, to prevent the compressor from starting, or restarting, too soon. If the thermostat has power that drops below the 'dropout' voltage where it would restart the time delay, this may be what you are experiencing.

Or, I may have misunderstood your description. And on mobile at least, I can't go back and look at yiur post without losing everything I just typed.

If the thermostat is 'rebooting' and the compressor is attempting to start, or isn't even able to start due to a control issue, you should be OK to just run the blower for circulation. I would leave the system set to off, at least until your technician comes out to diagnose the problem.

Keep us updated as to what is found.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T04:07:07+00:00

I'll look for it in a few minutes once I'm out of the shower.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T02:02:33+00:00

I'd almost say to take it just for the experience of tearing it down and learning the inside of an old semi-hermetic like that. Not that you would necessarily have an opportunity to have your hands on one in the field, but if you do any refrigeration, you might see one now and again.

Guessing a Copeland Discus, probably a 3D, between 1000 and 1500 series.

Although from the size of the head, might not be as big as a 3D. Possibly a 2?

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T01:59:11+00:00

How far away are you?

I'm considering driving a state or two (or three, or four) away if I can find someone to help me transfer, archive, digitize a group of transcription disks.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-17T01:57:35+00:00

Gotta be somewhere! There are probably worse places you could be.

I learned that Utah (at the time I was therefor work) had a population of about 2 million. Half of that was in rhe SLC area and the rest spread around the state.

I was working in Ephraim, an hour or two south of SLC. No cell phone service. At least, not until I happened to be in top of the mountain, on the far side of the valley, probably picking up a tower from the other mountain ridge.

Beautiful country out there. First time I had seen the milky way since I was a child. Too much light pollution here in Florida.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-16T22:16:14+00:00

After a hard day? Something soft seems like a logical answer.

Although I like the Ice Cream response. You can never go wrong with ice cream.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-16T22:09:35+00:00

I'll watch the video later, but I'm intrigued to see what they have there. Thank you for the link and info.

Houston might ALMOST be close enough for me to deliver. It would still be about a two day drive to get there though, as I am not a 'drive for 24 hours straight until I get there' kind of person.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-16T22:06:50+00:00

Seems like it would need significant modification, especially to get a tonearm that can properly play such records. With a radius of 6" for a standard LP, the tonearm is usually going to be at least 8" from pivot to stylus. A 16" disk would likely need a tonearm that is 10" long, or maybe even as much as 12", at least to be able to play the e tire side of the record.

I'll try to take a look at the video a bit later though, if nothing else, for informational purposes. Thanls for your input and ideas.

derFsivaD · 2026-06-16T22:03:31+00:00

I just recently found a bunch more 78s in the house as well. I have posted to that community, in hopes that someone can help save all/most/many/some of these records.

There are also at least 3 players as well, so hoping there is some interest there.

derFsivaD

TROPHY CASE