I just received my first online edition of ATPM; thank you for the best publication of its type I’ve ever seen.

How can I retrieve previous issues of ATPM?

—Charles G. Lynch

A couple of months ago, feeling desperate, I sent an e-mail to ATPM explaining how, at 82 years, I was appalled to be confronted by Mac OS X; that I didn’t know how to use it or to learn it especially as I was suffering from loss of memory. Step forward the readers of ATPM. John Petty, Matthew Coates, and Jack Schachtebeck all offered help, and I don’t mind confessing that I used them shamelessly. But each one helped me to solve a puzzle or two. Now I’m feeling much happier with the new system and beginning to have a suspicion that it’s better than OS9. Thank you ATPM.

—Marius Pope

Hi there. I stumbled across your site while looking for FireWire info about my new (for me) Power Mac G3/300. It’s a pleasure to find such a clean and well-run site with clear, concise, and helpful, to-the-point articles. Thanks again.

—Richard Woodruff

Using an old turntable, a pre-amp, and an iMic, in addition to LP signals I receive a radio broadcast. Has anyone encountered this? Could a new, good turntable be the answer? Any ideas? Much thanks for any help.

—Robert Frye

Usually the phono pre-amp has a Radio Frequency (RF) filter to block the FM.

I just contacted a radio engineer friend and here’s his help to find where the RF is leaking in. At each step, listen for the RF to go away.

1. All devices need to be grounded to the same power plug. If they’re plugged into the same wall outlet with a power bar, that will do it.
2. Connect everything up and listen for the RF.
3. Disconnect the turntable from the pre-amp.
4. Connect a cable to the pre-amp to mimic the turntable cables. If you hear RF, then you may have bad turntable cables. This is where your problem is.
5. Disconnect the pre-amp from the iMic. If you hear RF here, you have a bad RF filter in the pre-amp. This is the most likely the source—a pre-amp with a cheap RF filter.
6. Disconnect the iMic (highly unlikely since this is an analogue problem). If you hear RF, you’ve got bad sockets on the iMic, I guess.

In each step, disconnect and reconnect a few times to be sure you are hearing the RF.

Hope this helps.

—Brian L. Reimer

I believe I have determined that the Radio Shack pre-amp I was using leaks. I have located a better one. As far as I can tell, the radio signal is gone. Should it fail, I still have the other tests you said to try. Meanwhile, I want to thank you and your engineer friend for your outstanding assistance. It’s spared me further anguish and the cost of a new turntable. Please know that it is greatly appreciated.

—Robert Frye

I can’t seem to get Internet Explorer in Virtual PC 2.1.2 to work with the internal modem in my iBook. Could you please tell me how to get this to work?

—Jobby Wan Kenobi