new to me turntable and preamp

Ebay is hit or miss. You may find some great steals over there, but the people who sell over here are, on the whole, much more likely to have cared for their gear.

MusicDirect sells a Denon DP-300F for $329. Slightly less than the entry-level Rega and ProJect tables. These are all good tables at their price (I'd probably take the Rega if I had to choose between the 3 tables).

Remember, though, the the magic is in the setup. Don't ignore "trivial" advice such as "Make sure your turntable is level..." Pay attention to the details and you will be rewarded.

What component is currently doing duty as the phono amp? The Radio Shack or the Yamaha?

Cheers.

Tom

I'm not sure what might be causing the chirping sound, but it certainly sounds like a problem with the turntable. Even though the Radio Shack pre-amp might be pretty bad, if it's working spend your money to upgrade the broken pieces first.
You haven't really given us much information to troubleshoot the chirping sound, so tell us more about that. To me, "chirping" sounds mechanical. So you might look at the mechanical aspects of the table. Are there bearings that need to be lubricated? Also, I'm assuming that you hear this "chirping" through the speakers. If you are hearing this sound coming from the table itself, but this sound is not being reproduced through the speakers, that is an important piece of information to omit.
My point is that you have to be as detailed as you can when describing a problem to others that cannot experience it first hand.

Cheers.