[QuadList] Guy's Army tape playback--Was it recorded in oneofthese?? (a...

[Dale Lamm]

[snip]

Yes, it was Townsend.  At least some of them included an Ampex proc amp that
looked just like the ones in the quads, but had different circuitry to deal
with the particular requirements of the transmitter.  I don't know if Ampex
made those for Townsend before the acquisition or if they were only used
after Ampex bought the company.

[end snip]

We had the first production Townsend UHF XMTR with their solid-state 
exciter. George T used AMPEX 1085 proc amps before selling his company. One 
board in the 1085 was custom, a high powered video driver that squirted into 
a 2C39 modulated amplifier stage. Needed a very offbeat combination of B+/C- 
voltages to modulate the 10 watt amplifier and supply bias, etc. The stupid 
custom transformer in the 1085 burnt out one day. No spare. AMPEX no longer 
supported the custom proc amp. Townsend had long sold their spare parts. 
Cobbled together five or six transformers from the junk box in various 
series configurations. Made afternoon sign-on just an hour or two later than 
usual that day.

AMPEX cameras? Vaguely remember a shoot-out with GE and RCA at a large 
church. AMPEX's camera had a funny physical layout. Sales guy said the 
plumbicon positioning minimized the effects of the Earth's magnetic field on 
registration errors as the camera was panned around. Didn't everybody else 
just slap on a mu-metal shield? BTW, the TK-46's won.