what's this piece of equipment

[Alan McCall]

Sparta Remote Turntable Console was the name I remember too.

Back in the early 1980s, someone was selling one because he had purchased it to use at weddings and such. Then he found out how heavy it was. Not exactly something one person can easily pop in the trunk and take to an event.

Well, I ended up with it. It has a Sparta AS-30B console with five pots and two Sparta turntables.
I used it on-air at my Part 15 AM station in the 1990s and up until around 2004.

These days it's part of the production room, and still working! It no longer has the legs, so it is installed on part of the U-shaped studio counter.

[Kelly Watts]

Gates also made a version of this for remotes back in the days when you trucked out the records to a remote and did it all.  The Gates unit only had one mike input so the capabilities were somewhat limited.  One station I worked for aded a shure mike mixer on the side of more capabilities.

The basic thing a I also remember abotu the Gates unit is that it was HEAVY! 

[Mike]

Hi,

Thanks for the input.  I remember a name similar to the name "Sparta-matic" used for the cart machines.  (Or, have I forgotten that, too?)

I've been checking the magazines on the American Radio History website and so far have come up empty. 

Going back forty years I remember running across an ad (or was it an equiopment catalog?) for this unit and it displayed the name that I remembered from earlier. 

Oh well, thanks to everybody that wrote in.

[PirateJohnny]

Somebody just bought one on ebay for $2795.  Yes, two thousand, seven hundred ninety five dollars.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/170893368723?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

[DavidEduardo]

Thanks for the input.  I remember a name similar to the name "Sparta-matic" used for the cart machines.  (Or, have I forgotten that, too?)

I've been checking the magazines on the American Radio History website and so far have come up empty. 

Sparta-Matic cart machines were widely advertised. Check that site, but in the Broadcast Engineering Magazine search like this:

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Broadcast-Engineering/Broadcast-Engineering-IDX/search.cgi?zoom_sort=0&zoom_xml=0&zoom_query=sparta-matic+tape&zoom_cat[]=1&zoom_cat[]=2&zoom_per_page=100

Also, the site will have about 20 issues of Broadcast Programming & Production available in a few days, and there are numerous ads for the Sparta cart machines there.

There is also a Sparta Century cart machine on eBay right now at http://www.ebay.com/itm/SPARTA-CENTURY-SERIES-4610-TAPE-DRIVE-CART-/280803322657?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item41612eab21