[QuadList] Ampex AVR-3

[W4wj at aol.com]

The AMPEX Engineering crew, along with The Doctor,  spent
quite a bit of time in the WTVJ Tape Room working on  our
5 AVR-3s.  The crew was constantly on the phone  with
RWC giving them the changes that needed to be made in the  machines that 
were still in the build pipe.
 
After all was said and done... the machines were  the
best after the AVR-1...  They did the job in  standalone,
machine-to-machine, and computer controlled  editing
with the EDM-1...!!  Two second rolls were the  norm!
 
It was a sad day when the machines were rolled out the 
door to go back to AMPEX for checkout and  delivery
to a U-MATIC customer in Mississippi!!
 
 
Don Murray, W4WJ
Retired from 40 years of Miami TV Engineering
35+ years at NBC O&O  WTVJ  

 
 
 
In a message dated 3/10/2011 8:56:55 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
wcarpen107 at yahoo.com writes:

Hi Lee, and everyone,

When the machine was first  built after the NAB 76 Introduction we found 
out there were many  problems and that caused the largest field retrofit in 
Ampex's history.  
I don't know of anyone who has the all details, but I do remember  there 
was some wiring changes in the TBC area, to solve some ground loop  problems.. 
These problems and the Autotracking problems were the reasons  why they 
weren't used as playback machines in edit suites.
All the  machines that were delivered were retrofitted.
At one time I had  fifty machines in Hollywood that were "out of service", 
with most being  in three machine, high end edit suites.
This all happened because the  project engineer and the product manager had 
other things as major  distractions during they design phase. 
It all got dumped on me and I  pulled to together the best group of 
engineering folks from other  projects and then formed a retrofit group of field & 
sustaining  engineers to do the retrofits.

The factory then incorporated the  same changes in all machines leaving the 
factory. 

So in summary  probably the first 150 machines were retrofitted in the 
field, and the  remaining units, about 350 were factory built to incorporate the 
 changes. 

The retrofitted units probably have wiring changes that  are functionally 
the same, but look different because two different  field engineers made the 
mod's. The machines in the LA area were all  done by a group of six Redwood 
city based sustaining  engineers.

Bye for now, Bill Carpenter


--- On Thu,  3/10/11, lee williams <lasvegastvengineer at yahoo.com>  wrote:


From:  lee williams <lasvegastvengineer at yahoo.com>
Subject:  [QuadList] Ampex AVR-3
To: "Quad List"  <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
Date: Thursday, March 10,  2011, 3:10 PM

    
I was wondering if anybody knows just how many  different flavors of 
AVR-3's did Ampex make? 
 
I am working on 5 of them and can clearly see 3 distinctly  different types 
of wiring harnesses between the machines. 
 
So far, the only cards I find that will not interchange  between the models 
is the #22. 
 
Is there any kind of quick reference (other than the  manuals) to tell 
which series of cards work best with which  machines? 
 
Also does anybody have a spare #15 audio card that they  might be willing 
to sell? 
I have one that shorted out and totally charred. 
 
Thanks 






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