Setting anti-skate

Maybe you guys could answer my question.. I don't have the most accurate arm in the world, however the only use for anti-skate I have found is not to fix any sound issues cause I don't seem to have any, but the Leader blank track of the album when I set down the stylus would sometimes Take off with inertia plowing into the first track? So I added a small washer to the weight on the fish line to up it by like a Gram and this solved the problem .. Why is this? I hear or see no difference adding or subtracting anti-skate weight just simply keeping the cartridge from taking off a little once in a while.. I measured my original weight with dital stylus gauge by just removing the anti weight off the arm and setting it on the scale, and then put on the washer with it, it went from 3.1 gram to 4.1 gram and it seems to have solved this, is there something else I should do to correct this issue or is this it?

Undertow, what you've done (adding the washer) has WAY increased the anti-skate force necessary for regular groove tracking. Take it off! Also, DO NOT exceed the manufacturer's max. recommended VTF, because that will force the coil out of alignment with the magnetic field (or if it's a MM cartridge, the magnetic field out of alignment with the coils).

Records are made with a raised edge (and center) to keep the groove area from touching other records when stacked up (like in a changer) so if you set the stylus down in this lead-in area with today's light tracking forces and sensitive arms, yes, it's going to slide or plow into the first track. You need to set the stylus down right in the first groove. And return all your AS and VTF settings to normal.

Dougdeacon...Setting antiskating using a highly modulated groove does make sense. Such a groove is when mistracking will occur. Less modulated grooves will be OK with antiskating a bit high.

Its not that widely spaced is better. The widely spaced tracks indicate that these are very highly modulated (in other words very difficult to track). So, presumably, if anti-skating is optimized, the cartridge will track better through these grooves. But I don't think I agree that trackability is the purpose of antiskating. Its an indirect by-product of the purpose: to provide equal force at both sides of the groove. So we need to come up with the best way to observe that equal force is indeed being applied, particularly for our favored low-compliance cartridges with which we cannot really see the deflection. What about installing a cheap high-compliance cartridge, and using it to calibrate the anti-skaing method? Track this cheapo at exactly our intended force, and note the deflection when the needle is dropped on the record, at various points on the record. Then adjust antiskate, and switch cartridges.