[QuadList] Helicals, Quads, Ampex 1200E

Tue Feb 9 10:05:22 CST 2010

George...

It was very easy to move.  One person could handle  it.  It fit nicely
in a standard passenger elevator.

Needless to say it looked pretty cool sitting in the Cortez  motor
home with the head spinning!!

And despite the moving of the machine in and out of  the
building, it was very stable in its operation.

Got out of Florida mid '08...  Not planning any trip  back there!!

73,

Don Murray,  W4WJ
Fredericksburg, Texas

Retired from 40 years in Miami TV
35+  years at NBC O&O WTVJ

In a message dated 2/8/2010 4:12:56 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
georgenann at aol.com writes:

Roger That, Don,

Was it easy to move?  I was spoiled by the rubber shock  mounts and wheels 
and light weight due to the CVS TBC.

Are you still in the area?? Anywhere near  K4FBP?

73,

George Keller

-----Original  Message-----
From: W4wj at aol.com
To:  quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com
Sent: Mon, Feb 8, 2010 5:04 pm
Subject:  Re: [QuadList] Helicals, Quads

George...

WCIX-TV in Miami had a 1200E that was not only  used direct to air
from the studio, but it fit neatly in our Cortez  Motor home.  We could
record in motion with the GE PE250 that was  mounted up front!

Very neat machine!!

73,

Don  Murray, W4WJ
Fredericksburg, Texas

Retired from 40 years in Miami  TV
35+ years at NBC O&O WTVJ  

In a message dated 2/8/2010 3:58:26 P.M. Central Standard  Time, 
_georgenann at aol.com_ (mailto:georgenann at aol.com)   writes:

I am impressed how so many of you guys  remember not only the model numbers 
of the helical machines but some of the  history of them. I always had 
trouble with model numbers, Revision Numbers,  etc.
CBS only went so far as the BVH-2000's  after the BVH-1100A's as far as I 
can remember, although there is one PAL  VPR? not sure of the number, which 
fortunately has been working OK at least  till I retired. There are a couple 
of BVH-3100's (?) around.  I  don't know where they came from, perhaps a 
garage sale. They have the self  threading feature.  I don't know anyone who 
had trouble with threading  up tape and it seems like a lot of work to come up 
with one of those.   I didn't like working on them because of the keypad on 
them.  Almost  everything I needed to do was by inputting codes from that 
damn keypad, even  putting it into E-E.  Fortunately there was one maint. 
tech who would  bail me out as she remembered the codes.  When she wasn't 
around it was  a pain as the book was never in the same place twice.

Back to quads, before Ted fines us for  chattering about helicals.

I ran into one neat  machine.   It is an Ampex 1200-E with the flat deck.  
It  belonged to Charlie (Chubby) Salvato from Orange County, NY.  It was  
put together by AF Assoc.  They installed Volvo motor mounts on it with  
wheels so it could be rolled anywhere with just your fingertips.  It  also had no 
Amtec, Colortec, Proc, etc.  They put in a CVS Digital TBC,  I don't 
remember the number, but it had a "16" in it (I think).  CVS  had a mod for it to 
work with Quads, it was a board which had to be  installed in it.  I 
remember taking it to CVS to have it done for  Chubby.

This was done around the time the AVR-2  came out.  Ampex propaganda had 
fotos of 2 people picking up the top  deck then the TBC bay and showing how 
easy it was to move. Chubby bragged  how easy this machine is to move.  A 
cavewoman could do it alone. He  brought it to my home from time to time so I 
could tweak the servo,  etc. We just rolled it in and out of his van easily. 
That was the  only time I had a Quad in my garage.

It was so neat, it could be moved over  bumps easily and when it stopped it 
would just sit there and rock back and  forth a couple of times.  Then all 
you had to is plug it in the wall,  put video in and record or take video 
from it, no need for sync gen. etc.  (It still needed air). I asked him about 
it some time ago, he said he sold  it to a TV station in P.R.

By the way Chubby was known for his  "Fire Engine".  He had a big fire 
engine with a 70 ft. or so ladder on  it on which he had a camera mount which he 
rented out for sport  events.  Perhaps some of you have seen it.  Last I 
heard, his son  was running it around for him.

There was a BVT-2000 connected  to the the Ampex VR-2000's, before they 
were removed.  It was used  for SCH purposes as it was feeding Betas and D-2's. 
 I tried feeding  the BVT-2000 right out of the Demod, but it couldn't seem 
to handle the head  switching.  I tried widening and increasing the 
switching suppression  pulse but to no avail.

Another interesting thing, sometime in  the 80's, my Navy Reserve unit was 
having a triple Retirement and Change of  Command.  I was given the job of 
getting it done.  I was able  to get the "Intrepid" in NYC for the ceremony.  
While schmoozing   the museum curator we came across a room full of 2" 
video tapes.   He told me they were recordings of  flight ops. while she was in  
commission. (One of the early uses of video tape was recording flight  ops 
on carriers so the pilots could watch their landings, and they still  do.) 
Also that he wanted to get them dubbed to U-Matic as he wanted to use  them 
in displays around the ship. (The machines they were recorded on  were gone.) 
I forgot all about the first thing I learned in the Navy,  "Never 
"Volunteer" and I offered to help him out.  I also forgot how  heavy a 2" reel of 
tape can be after carrying them about a mile, from the  Intrepid to CBS, and 
back but I needed the exercise. I thought I was in deep  trouble with the 
first reel.  I found they were recorded at 7.5  IPS.  Would you believe we also 
found some 5 Mil heads on the ship  which were in good shape.  I put one on 
the Quad near my shop and had  good luck with it.  The only problem is they 
were ball bearing  heads and made about 10 DB more noise than the air 
bearing heads do and I  was trying to do this whole job un-noticed. Fortunately 
the maint. manager  at time was interested in WWII planes as his father worked 
for Grumman  designing some of them and let me get away with it for the 
small price of  VHS copies of some of the tapes.  The tapes were fabulous. I 
managed to  do about 50 reels for him. I don't know what model VTR they were 
made  on.

73,

Georger  Keller

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