[QuadList] Old jobs (was 7.5 ips experiences was AMPEX Mark Ten 5 mil head)

Mon Nov 30 14:48:48 CST 2009

Yes the NET facility had a fire.  It caught fire and it was almost fully suppressed then flared up again.  At the time the facility was operating under Mark Video.  It was the duplication facility.  There were unique machines there.  A high speed duplicator by Ampex. The AVR-1 that was the mirror image master creator.  A number of versions of the VR-1000 series.  These included 1002?  the stand up machine.  There were one of a kind items.  A tube type AMTEC.  Various versions of the intersyncs.  1000 series that had VR-1200 signal systems installed. etc.  All this history went up in smoke and put them out of business.  

3M got stuck with a bunch of the super high orested tape used for the mirrors image masters and it languished in the Detroit warehouse for years.

The building has been replaced by a dental / medical building.  The location was at the corner of Huron Parkway and Packard.

Chris Hill
WA8IGN

-----Original Message-----
From: Guy Spiller <quadruplex at verizon.net>
To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
Sent: Mon, Nov 30, 2009 2:35 pm
Subject: Re: [QuadList] Old jobs (was 7.5 ips experiences was AMPEX Mark Ten 5 mil head)

Hi David... 
Great picture....Is that you there? That must have hot sitting in there amidst all that Camden blue! 
I may have to see if I have any vintage pics from that era. We had "everything" in the same huge room....tape, switching, film and the venerable TTU-30. Luckily, with solid state rectifiers, so the only "boom" it made was the high voltage contactor kicking in or out or the occasional lightning bolt coming down the tower and bouncing around the transmitter. 
I didn't really work overnight, as the station was only on until 10:30 or 11 pm back then. I came in at 2 or 3 depending on when I could get out of school, and did camera shading and tape for local productions until that crew went home, and then I was on my own. I got my First Phone at 16, and started the solo gig immediately. 
When we first got the 1200/2000s and the Marconi color cameras in '69, we briefly did record "instructional" programs in high band at 7.5 as we had done in low band monochrome on the TR-4s before. I don't remember the specific reason that we quit doing that, but it might have been simply that some other stations that shared some of our programs, did not have 5 mil heads and didn't want to bother with it for just a few programs. 
As for the fate of Ann Arbor, I really don't remember anything about it's fate. Once we got the AT&T line from the network, it was pretty much "goodbye" to bicycled tapes. 
Guy 

DCFWTX at aol.com wrote: 

> 
> I believe the color tapes I have received were not from NET, but from > local affiliates (non-NET stations). Nonetheless, they are rare. 
> 
> Ah yes, the overnight shift. Done that (the rewards for eagerness and > a Third Phone/First Phone license). Although I never had to do all at > once (MC/transmitter/tape/watachman), I did do all of the above except > that the transmitter was 20 miles away except for one. That station > had a TT50AH adjacent to the "everything room" with TRT 1, TR4, TR 70, > and TCR 100 (shot is below). What a "kabam!" when the mercury vapor > tubes arc'd. 
> 
> 
> The other transmitter job I got roped into one summer was here at Mt. > Wilson (again thanks to a First Phone license) baby sitting what had > to have been the oldest transmitter up there, an ailing TT50AH. The > station was too cheap to remote it, and was having problems meeting > payroll weekly. Hence, no cash to buy anything new. 
> 
> When doing a combo job in Dallas during lightening strikes (and > momentary power interruptions), some VR1200's would keep on going or > go into rewind. Quite a mess this would make while running MC and the > tape room solo. 
> 
> Didn't the NET facility in Ann Arbor burn to the ground? 
> 
> David 
> 
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-- Guy Spiller 
email: quadruplex at verizon.net 
phone: (804) 379-2050 
website: www.GuySpiller.com 
Midlothian, VA 

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