Many years ago my Astatic 'Rochelle salt" crystal element died from prolonged exposure in my garage. The output from it was low, and distorted. With a burst of curiosity, and desperation I took the bad element apart. Prying off the aluminum diaphragm was delicate with a razor blade, and inside the piston was disconnected. I recall that Astatic used some sort of glue or glyptol to secure the piston. I reassembled using candle wax to secure the ends of the piston (tilting hot candle), and the diaphragm was reattached to the base with automotive gasket "form-a-gasket". My methodology was far from ideal, and the use of wax was used only because that is what I had at the time.
The result? The damn thing worked WONDERFULLY, and sounded great too!! This was in the winter, and I enjoyed the microphone until summer when the garage got hot (Texas heat). Apparently the wax softened, and the mic output went way down. I ended up replacing the element since AES carried them at that time. YMMV, but it worked for me...for a while! Regards, Jim JKO ______________________________________________________________ AMRadio mailing list List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Partner Website: http://www.amfone.net Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html Post: mailto:[email protected]
