[QuadList] 1200 makes pictures

[Dale Lamm]

Chris, what a good recollection. Your words caused some long-submerged memories to float to the surface (like scum?).

A good engineer in Akron had a name for the ailment common to RCA quads, "Blue Ribbon-itis". Guess he spent a lot of time with a Pink Pearl eraser rubbing out the disease one leaf contact at a time.

Once I saw a remote truck with a TR-60. All the gold stake pins were tack soldered smack into the backs of the Blue Ribbon connectors. No more wires falling out after a long ride in a truck.

Had both Ampex and RCA where I spent most of my TV years. Got better-quicker at repairing RCA, perhaps because they were always failing. Good thing there was a built in voltmeter with about 50 pushbutton test points, and dozens of carefully thought out yellow scope test points right up front. What message does it send when a piece of gear is designed for quick problem diagnosis? Is it going to fail on me every few days? Mixed feelings on that scene.

Despised those old TR-22's (some were hi-banded) and their capstan-headwheel power amp modules. Yup, the ones that would eat a handful of 2N1556 Germanium transistors if you looked at them the wrong way. Gads, I can still remember the exact part number. Can't remember the RCA "MI" number, though.

Does anyone remember the phone number for RCA Tech-Alert? I'm thinking it was 609-963-7000.

AMPEX 1200's had a habit of sucking up bits of 2 inch tape that had fallen underneath into the fans. If they stalled, the linear power supplies would get toasty and fail. Nothing that some good housekeeping wouldn't have prevented, but you know how the night and weekend crew sometimes behaved.

Yes, some RCA gear had the appearance of something that was rushed to market and patched in the field, while AMPEX looked like it was built to last for decades. Still, had much respect for RCA, an outfit that sold most anything you'd need and ran a network to help create demand.

Dale
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