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

[Guy Spiller]

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