[QuadList] Ampex Models

Tue Mar 1 07:14:59 CST 2011

Bill

That was a great session at the SMPTE meeting.  Yes I do remember Hugo  
Bundy.  A little bit of a southern character.  The state of ENG at  that time 
was so primitive.  The equipment was not designed to do what we  were doing.  
It was amazing that there were not more issues.  The cost  benefits were so 
great that we had to proceed down that path.  

Frank was a great field engineer.  I still remember how we spent a  long 
night trying to resolve why the RA-4000 would not do match frame edits with  
the AVR-2's that we had.  About 3 in the morning we proved that it was the  
boost was still on when the RA-4000 sensed lock and released tape speed over  
ride.  Then the boost would cause the machine to slip a frame.  The  
RA-4000 only needed one frame of time code match to say sync was achieved.   I had 
been going down that road and he was going down the road that the problem  
was in the AVR-2.  That was because we also had VR-1200's on the  RA-4000.  
The AVR-2 with the DC capstan was so good at lock up.

Anyway Frank gave me a great saying over this.  "Some times you need  
someone to come along grab your ears and pull your head out of your rear so  you 
can see the problem from the right way."

He came up with a fix that worked better than the factory came up with  
later when they issued a field bulletin.

Lastly, the ACR-25 was such a great machine.  It never broke unless  the 
smell of burnt plastic was from the melting of the drive hub that mated from  
the spools in the cassette acted up.  

I saw the RCA machine at other stations and how much they had to do to keep 
 it going.  You guys did it right.

Chris Hill

In a message dated 2/28/2011 9:50:33 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
wcarpen107 at yahoo.com writes:

Hi Cris and everybody!

Yes, That was a great  meeting, and my paper was sort of an alternative 
answer to the ENG  question. The handwriting was on the wall related to Eng, 
when we came  back to the Hotel later on Friday night after driving in the 
heavy snow  and found that the "crackbarrel" session in a small room on the 
lower  level was attended by maybe 200 engineers mostly out in the halllway,  
not the 25-30 that normally go to those unplanned & unstructured  sessions.

The next day, a good old southern boy from Atlanta,  Hugo Bundy (if my 35+ 
years memory is right) got up and tore apart every  piece equipment that he 
had used! 
Then he put up a slide of his  ACR-25, and stated that without this machine 
the whole ENG effort would  have been unuseable!
He said they would roll the 3/4" field tapes  many times and record each 
time until they got the one that  worked  and then use the ACR to clip the 
ends, and also that this would allow  last second changes in the news playback 
on an "as required" basis with  NO PROBLEMS. 
The ACR was his last slide and was on-sceen for over  half on his paper and 
all of the Q & A.
I was sitting next to Don  Kleffman, our Marketing Manager, and two levels 
above me, when leaned  over and asked me if I had anything to do with this 
presentation?
I  answered NO, but I was sure going to buy the man a drink or more before  
the weekend was over! Don was pleased with my answer!

Bill  Carpenter

PS: Frank Davis was always a great field engineer and a  good friend, both 
at Belo, and previously at Northwest  Teleproductions.

--- On Mon, 2/28/11, Chill315 at aol.com  <Chill315 at aol.com> wrote:

From:  Chill315 at aol.com <Chill315 at aol.com>
Subject: [QuadList] Ampex  Models
To: quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com
Date: Monday,  February 28, 2011, 4:35 PM

I was not sure of the actual count and I thought there might be  21.  The 
question was answered with all sorts of speed.   

The ones that I thought might be difficult were the E models  of the 1100 
and the 1200.  Also the VR-3000B.

I did see the VR-3000B demonstrated at the Detroit SMPTE meeting  as an 
alternative to 3/4 tape.  It worked beautifully.  The  operating cost must have 
been against it.  Frank Davis was at the  meeting and manned the booth.  He 
later became a VP at  Belo.  

I know of another VR-1200 that had the detachable monitor  rack.  This was 
sold to the University of Michigan Television  Center.  It was used in the 
studio and in a remote truck that  only did a few shows in black and white.  
There was a monitor  setup in the truck.

Now were there any VR-1001B models?  The reason that I  ask is that the 
Intersync book tells about how to install the  Intersync in the VR-1001A.  Was 
it standard in the B model?   So who can answer this question?

Chris Hill

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