[QuadList] Helicals, Quads

Mon Feb 8 18:20:07 CST 2010

Bill,

I can't say when it was built and now that I think of it, it may not have been in it's original frame, possibley a bit smaller.  I knew Arnie now Arnold and Lou.  Did some work at AFA on days off.  Arnie is good guy, made it fun working there.

73,

George Keller

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Carpenter <wcarpen107 at yahoo.com>
To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
Sent: Mon, Feb 8, 2010 6:23 pm
Subject: Re: [QuadList] Helicals, Quads

I think this must have been done very early in the days of A.F.A, since Arnold started the business by rewiring some quads which required new harnesses, to replace ones that were cut during union problems. I remember that it may have been a TR-70 that he rebuilt. The AVR-2 was introduced at NAB1974, in Huston, Tx, and later that year, Lou Siricasano, who was a Ampex salesman in the Mid Atlantic area and I hitched a U-Haul trailer to his company car and did some demo's at stations on the way to a SBE show in Pittsberg.  It was the first time they ever had a Quad at this show. 
A short time later, Lou joined Arnold and that's when things really took off for A.F. Assoc.
These were very interesting times in the Quad world!

Bill Carpenter

From: Don Norwood <dwnorwood at embarqmail.com>
To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
Sent: Mon, February 8, 2010 3:02:10 PM
Subject: Re: [QuadList] Helicals, Quads

George:

Thanks for sharing more of your great stories!

There actually was an Ampex model VR-1200/E.  There was also a VR-1100/E.  You can see brochures for them in the literature section of my website:  http://www.digitrakcom.com/ under the Ampex 2" tab.

Obviously, I don't know what machine was used to record the aircraft video, but there are some Ampex publications showing VR-1100's in that service.  There is also documentation of them using VR-660's for the same application, and when I first started reading your story, I thought maybe that's what the tapes would turn out to be.  By the way, the noise of the BB headwheels varied considerably from one head to another.  I have a couple of them that sound essentially the same as air bearing, and then some that don't!  

Don

----- Original Message ----- 
From: georgenann at aol.com 

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.

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.

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