Hi All,

Am having a bit of a clean out of unwanted gear and amongst the stuff is a Meisei Electric Co Ltd CF-501 AM Transmitter that covers the Aust AM band with a vernier dial to select frequency.

Output I think was only a few watts...maybe 5 at best and was used to provide Cine Fi Audio to drive in cinemas where the speakers were all removed and replaced with a stretchy bit of wire that one popped over the car antenna and BINGO you had quite good radio reception of the movie soundtrack...albeit MONO only.

As Stereo soundtracks arrived the Cine Fi gear was pensioned off for small FM transmitters again at around 5 Watts and cars with good stereo receivers then had great in car stereo sound.

This transmitter is 110V input for the mains and comes with the Divider unit (CT-701) and the Ramp Splitter unit (CF-801c) mounted on a
19 " rack mount plate as is the transmitter which is in VG physical shape as being very well made by the Jap Company Meisei I believe.

FREE to a good home you pay the freight from WA otherwise its off to the rubbish tip with it. My Email is unhidden.

Lindsay

Interesting piece of drive-in history. Some photos would be great for posterity.

I remember those clips for the radio antennas. I guess the theatres were tired of people driving away with the loudspeakers still tucked inside their windows.

I think the original one at the drive in here outputted PP #807's?

^ Would not be surprised if they used 807s -- they were everywhere.

I think you might find that the 807's were just used in the normal 100V audio line feeds to the ramps as by the time Cine Fi came along transistors were all the go but transistorised amps feeding 100V lines reticulated around the drive in ramps did NOT like lightning at all.
A couple of DI 's that I know of converted to the semi conductor amps only to get some nasty surprises of NO Sound after a thunderstorm had gone through.
Some went back to using valve amps but with more modern valves at the time such as KT66 etc. I used to service a country drive in sound system that had three hefty valve amps with 4 x KT 66 in parallel push pull with 650V on the anodes. They could do 100W RMS for 24 hours on test and barely get warm.
I treated those babies very carefully as the 650V DC was nasty stuff.

Will see I I can get some photos sorted of this Cine Fi gear just for the record.

Is it still available? thanks

Hi Burnt Out Electronics,

Redxem has contacted me re possibly acquiring it subject to the freight cost to NSW etc.

Photos have been taken and sent to Brad to upload and I need to weigh the thing and get a quote on freight for Redxem.

Will keep you posted.

Lindsay

Update...9/9/20

All packed and ready to despatch to Redxem out near Tamworth..sounds like it has found a good home.

Lindsay