[QuadList] story and introduction: AVR-1 tape shredding

[georgenann at aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: William R. Short <wrs3 at hurstwic.org>
To: quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com
Sent: Wed, Jan 13, 2010 8:37 am
Subject: [QuadList] story and introduction: AVR-1 tape shredding


This recent discussion about AVR-1's shredding tape prompted me to de-lurk. 
 
An introduction: In high school and college days, I worked during summers and school vacations for WHEN AM and TV, the CBS affiliate in Syracuse. One of the duties was video tape operation and maintenance. 
 
The summer I first started working, the station had 4 VR-1000's with varying levels of modifications and updates. The last summer, they had three AVR-1's and one ACR-25, which remains the most amazing electro-mechanical contraption with which I have ever worked. 
 
And that was the end of my experience with television broadcasting and quad tape. My career after school took me in other directions. 
 
My AVR-1 tape shredding experience had nothing to do with strobe lights. At the time, the program Lassie was syndicated, and the distributor required that all stations play the same episode simultaneously. They sent it out on tape, and local stations were required to dupe it and send the original on to the next station, so that everyone could play their dupes on the assigned airdate. 
 
While duping from one AVR-1 to another, I heard a bad noise from the machine playing the master, saw a bunch of red lights, and no more playback on the monitor. The tape had been severed. 
 
A post-mortem showed nothing. The only thing out of the ordinary was a piece of hold-down tape lying on the edge of vacuum column, not the normal place for one of those. 
 

THERE ARE SOME THINGS SCIENCE IS POWERLESS TO ANSWER!!!  GK


The tape was deformed on either side of the break. I cut out some, spliced it (the first and last time I've ever done that, since even the VR-1000 at the station had an Editec), and restarted the duping process. It didn't look pretty on the monitor when the splice passed the head. 
 
So, what happened? Did the hold-down tape fall off the overhead monitor bridge (where folks often stuck them) and gum up the works? That was always my theory. Did the previous station in the circuit damage the tape and not bother to leave a note in the shipping case? 
 
It never occurred to me that a servo might have gone haywire until reading some of the discussion here. I always thought my experience was an anomaly, and that AVR-1's were very gentle on tape until I read the comments here. 
 
Best regards, 
Bill Short 
 
 
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