ALTEC LANSING CORPORATION O58 TANTA MONICA BOULEVAT, ALTEC LANSINO TECENICAL LETTER NUMEER 5 APPLICATION OF THE a= }22-C_ LIMITER ‘The Limiter amplifier han been considered a valuable tool for many years. It is especially needed in connection with the large high quality Public Address eystens, Essentially the liniter amplifier operates euch that ite cain ie fixed up to & predatersined qutput, Eeyond this pornt an increase of Inve} at tbe input doce not produce & corresponding increase in output, Actually an increase of 10 db input increases the output by only 1 db, “This lisiting effect 18 accomplished without distortion of the signal wave form. ds much as 20 db limiting can be obtained, A liatter 40 different than a compreceer in that the limiter does not go inte operation until # cettain cutpat lewel is obtained. Another fora of autosatic gain contro? {a the comprasuar type explifier. It begins to compress 20 db below the wanted maximin and sqceetes 20 db range into 10 db or dt has a 2-1 ratic over thie range, The compressor in # more difficult circuit to balance for thumps since it is changing the gain « large-share of the tine, The Uaiter with ite 10-1 ratio is preferred because it acts only as @ safety valve when the need arises, In broadeasting stations and recording studios it prevants overmcdulation and allows « higher average level of recording without danger of distortion, It compensates for variations in voluas resulting from changes in the MICROPRONIE: LOWORPEAR OAS AMPLITOCRS © Phan SronmeEnsspeakers position with respect to the microphone and for different voices using the same microphone, In high powred public address systeme its use will prevent sudden or accidental peak power which oan cause annoying loud sounds and loudepeakers fallure, A few of the many applications of this saplifier are as follows: Many Large Public Address syétens such as. the Prigge Stedite in Detroit and the University of Kentucky Field House use Alteo Miniter amplifiers to protect the spesker driver unite and at the sane time insure that the Public Address Syavem will not be overdriven by an excited announcer and blast the audienc A tani dog track installed an 4-J27-0 liniter for the express purpose of maintaining the top level of the systes at « point where the surrcunding naigtborbood would not complain. OUtLe Jett, communication supervisor for the Onion Pacifip Railroad with headquarters at Omaha uses dltec Lansing eqiipment throughout the many passenger and freight ‘terminal yarde dn the Union Pacific syaten. He reports distinc’ advantages of keoping the ‘top lewel of train calling and paging at the point where passengers in sleeping cars will not be awakened shile the ‘train ie in a terminal during the night. They alec Bebc the level constant from the control tower in the freight yards when talking to train man on the ‘tracks, The use of the liattarg has reduced’ neighborhood complainta, The Voice of america has recently inetalled forty 322-C limiters for 11 of their outgoing facilities. ‘The Glann Olecn Recording Stodios have 35 in use on their TV channels, Al) America Cables & Redio, Ino, use d-322-0 amplifiers on their radio ehpmele in the Carribean aréa where static ie very intense andeccording to their supervisor, Kenneth: Barbier, the perceatage of reliable transeission has saterially isproved- The 0, S. Navy air Minsile Center st Polot Mugu, California uses lO Altec Mmitera in their various. comminication and telenetering cireuits which aro concerned with missile firing. Mr. Brown of their organization reporte that the efficiency of his circuits hos been maintsined at an exceptionally high level after tho axplifiers were placed in, service and because of the con sorvative design their problen with vacuum tate and component failures rave beon greatly reduced. before using these liatters they had considerable difficulty in maintaining @ good signal to noise ratio and in many cases BIsSile launching was performed without obtaining proper data. Tue Limiter amplifier 1s installed at the point nearest the final power axplifier. It has an inyat Layedance of 300 obme or bridging tap. Its QUIpEt impedence te 560 chm and ie capable of mpplying 1 watt, The gain 16 65 db maxim og thet At can serve ag 4 line amplifier haring broadcast spcifications in terms of noie and distortions For high quality performance {t has been considered necessary to have puch pull cirentts in all stager of the amplifier ant good balance is « requirenent. ‘The input stage uses type 1612 variable mu tubes to accomplish the limiting. The second stage 1s resistance coupled 67 penthode tubes and the output stage uses the 4V6 bean power tubes, The acreen and plate erid on the 1612 type ‘tubon varies ovor wide limite with limiting and a static balance ia accomplished by soans of adjustornt VA and ¥2, Ordinartly it fe sufficient to balance th