PARTS IS PARTS

Many thanks to all of you for your continued support throughout this past year. We are always working to satisfy your A/V needs with just one phone call.

Many of you are aware we have had several changes in the A/V industry this year. We will continue to try to keep costs down and find replacements for those parts that have become obsolete.

Please remember we are a service company and supply parts. We are not a dealer selling new equipment. As your A/V problems or questions occur please give us a call as we may have the solution. Maybe you have an answer or suggestion too. We will gladly pass along your information and suggestions in the service bulletin.

Happy Holidays to all--

INFOCOMM COMES TO ORLANDO FEB 14

INFOCOMM is the national A/V equipment manufacturers show. The site for 1991 is Orlando, Florida during February 14 thru 16. AECT, the Association of Education and Communications Technology joins with ICIA, International Communications Industries Association to present a show filled with new A/V products available in the coming year.

For those whose districts belong to AECT, your district can purchase a $35 one day pass from AECT or at the entrance. This is your opportunity to give some direct input to the manufacturer. For more info call Shannon at AECT- (202)-347-7834.

TECH TALK

This has been another year of change for the A/V business. AudioTronics Corp declared bankruptcy early this year although we did not find out till late February (after INFOCOM).

Telex bought the phonograph line and ATC is under reorganization keeping the cassettes and card readers. Since late September ATC has begun shipping cassette parts and our backorders are dropping.

Telex, who moved all the ATC phono parts and tooling to their plant in LeSueur, Minnesota, is shipping phono parts and plans to continue the production of the record players.

BLOWS LAMPS

With the advent of the 82 volt lamp an all too frequent problem becomes, "blows lamps as fast as I can put them in".What the lamp people have done is strike a compromise between the fragile filament edition of the halogen lamp and its sturdier brother, the 24 volt version.

The higher efficiency dichroic reflector halogen lamps meant better illumination with less input watts. To toughen up the filament structure the 82 volt lamp was invented. With just a diode in series with the power line, the half wave AC at the lamp was an effective 82 volts. When it all works it is nice ...but a problem occurs when the lamp quits. If the diode opens, that's cool, but if the lamp quits and shorts out, it puts one hungus strain on the diode.

The diode has 2 failure modes. The first and best is for the diode to open. A new lamp plugged into the unit just won't light. The worst failure is for the diode to effectively become a piece of wire and all the line volts arrive at the lamp socket waiting for a new victim.

When overheads come into the shop it is a simple matter for us to check the diode before inserting a new lamp, but what do you tell the teacher out in the school? How should teachers check the projector before offering a sacrificial lamp or two or three? It takes a while sometimes to learn all is not right with the projector.

One of our customers came up with what we think is a real gem. He advises the AV users to try an ELH lamp (the 115 volt big brother to the ENX) in the projector first. Install the lamp and turn the projector on. If the ELH test lamp lights BRIGHT then the diode is bad and the unit needs to go to the shop. If the light is DIM then the diode is OK and you can go ahead and install the new ENX lamp with confidence. Best of all the user probably can borrow the ELH lamp from their KODAK CAROUSEL projector. Our thanks to Carl Smith at Long Beach Unified School District in Long Beach, CA for that one.

LAMP FAILURE

We are often asked why a lamp fails, especially when more than the normal number of lamps are being consumed by a certain piece of equipment. One thing to remember is some of the A/V lamps have as little as 25 hours rated life and most have no more that 75 hours. Outside of the regular causes like burnt socket pins and poor socket pin tension, improper cooling, physical shock while in operation or at the beginning of the cool cycle, there are outside sources for help in determining the reason for lamp failure.

Both of the major US lamp manufacturers maintain lamp failure analysis labs. You can send suspect lamps for failure analyses. Ask for a failure report and be sure to include an address or fax number. The companies would like you to go to your lamp vendor or local representative but you and I both know that more than half the time we don't know exactly where the lamps were purchased. We can all tell GE from GTE (Sylvania) but it's hard to tell if it was purchased from Howards AV and Donuts or Midwest Film Supply.

Thus F.Y.I.:

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. Att: Product 4164/Rosemarie Nela Park Cleveland, OH 44112

GTE/SYLVANIA Att: Mr. Merle Morris 416 E. Washington Winchester, KY 40391

NEW CALENDAR FORMAT

This is the sixth year for the "Month at a Glance Planning Calendar" and this is the first year of the "18 Month Audio/Visual Planner". We have a new vendor this year that has produced a calendar that we think will be even more useful than our previous version. It can be used not only by those of us who measure the year from New Year to New Year but also by most of you educational types that think the end of the year is June 31 or whatever day the kids are out of school. Use it whichever way you want.

Our 91/92 version will be out of the printers early enough in 91 to get you the next one before July 1st (we hope). We have listened to you about earlier versions, your likes and dislikes and with a local house doing the production we can be even more sensitive to your needs. If you have any suggestions to include in the next issue there is still time so let us know. We do know about the poor choice for cover stock, it sucks up finger marks like crazy. We promise it will be changed but for this year it will just look like you are a really hard worker.

PRB A/V CROSS REF

PRB which has been around a little longer than KMR has just recently published a Projector Recorder Audio Visual Cross Reference guide and price list. PRB offers a complete line of rubberware and some other useful items as well. To get you through the January doldrums and ward off any cases of severe cabin fever KMR will gladly send you a copy of this enticing document. Just give us a call, no need to send postage or money order.

For those of you that are presently PRB direct customers remember that KMR, as a PRB distributor, can sell the PRB products to you at the same price and you can mix the PRB items on your orders with the over 40 manufacturers we represent. As we say "your one stop AV source" or even better one PO can do it all. When ordering PRB items please specify the PRB part number.

CTT LAMP DEAL

Speaking of lamps, have we got a deal for you. KMR happens to have a few cases of brand new GE and Sylvania CTT Tru-Focus 1000 watt 120v 25 hour lamps (for B&H 500 series 16 mm projectors). The last time we looked at the list price it was over $35 so....how about 5 lamps for $35. If this is for your own use or for your youth group or church and you send us a check with your order we will throw in the shipping free..Merry Christmas.

THE GOOD OLE PHONOS

For the last 30 or so years the largest percentage of classroom phonographs were driven by the GI (General Industries) phono motor. This motor was used by all of the Big Players in the classroom phono business, ATC, Califone, Hamilton and Newcomb. In 1988 GI announced it would no longer produce the phone motor and sold the product tooling.

With Newcomb gone both Califone and ATC traveled off-shore for a replacement. KMR has always been partial to the old GI design. Look at the service record. The motor just runs and runs, 10 years or so, almost unattended and with a little oil on the bearings and an idler or two it's good for 10 or 20 more years. For years we have been able to offer you this replacement GI motor in the mid-20 dollar range. But with the reduced production levels and the increased assembly labor costs this last great bargain has become more dear. Our single piece replacement motor price is now $42. We feel it is still a bargain for a "quality install it and basically, forget it part." Just call KMR for this reliable workhorse motor.

Along with the the demise of the motor from the GI line the idler production was also zapped. We do have a source for the compatible idlers used in these serviceable phonos. Idlers and cartridges have also experienced price increases due to above mentioned reasons.

SUB FRESNEL

KMR has a substitute fresnel lens with a 14 inch focal length that works as a direct replacement at just $32.50 that fits several brands. The manufacturers lens that they replace are Bell & Howell-P/N 202805, Buhl-P/N 80-2814, American Optical-P/N 3641-702 and 3M-P/N 78-8704-4800-4. Our replacement fresnel lens is USA manufactured. We have noticed that some of the very early 66 models which use the FAL lamp have a different corner mount arrangement and our lens almost doesn't get grabbed sufficiently by the mount clips. If you have any of these projectors that you are trying to mount our replacement lens into and have discovered this problem please let us know. We will have new mount clips which will fully retain the lens by late 1st quarter 91.