[QuadList] Training Classes

[george keller]

Chris,

First of all, the AMPEX Training was the best.  They had some great instructors who had a knack for getting the point across.  Lou Bitton and Cecil Brown were tops as was Tom Oliver.  You couldn't help learning from them.  They also had a deep insight into the equipment. Lou was just a natural, he kept everything funny and interesting.  Cecil did also, he was a retired AF E-9 which is nothing to sneeze about.  Tom Oliver was a retired Navy CTMC (Chief Petty Officer) from my outfit, albeit different part of the world.  John Ranke just plain knew his stuff and it showed. These guys also wrote the trainning manuals and most of the docs on the machines. AMPEX's docs were great also, you could trace any circuit through the whole machine with ease which was a great help also.  Every signal was labeled as to what it's purpose in life was.

I consider myself a "Slow Learner" so that is more testament to these guy's training proficiency.

Most of the Sony schools couldn't even hold a candle to the Ampex guys. They were OK, even I learned a good bit from them but one didn't leave the classes with the feeling that you just learned a whole lot.  Fortunately their documentation was pretty good.

Also, the engineering behind that equipment and it's manufacturing were outstanding.  They weren't even a TQM outfit, but their product was almost perfect. That's what helped make maint. guys look good.  After all where can you find something like an AVR-1 still make perfect pictures after such a long period of time.  I wish I could buy a car that worked so well.

I guess this all made it possible to dope out most of the machine thru OJT, my guess it that you are an above average tech with a lot of patience.  Now and then you might run into someone who had the training, but just didn't get it, but even that was a help because the more you had to help these guys and get them up to speed, the more you would understand the machines.  I actually found it to be a big help myself.

Hope this answers the question.

George Keller





-----Original Message-----
From: Chill315 <Chill315 at aol.com>
To: quadlist <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
Sent: Wed, May 18, 2011 3:13 pm
Subject: [QuadList] Training Classes


I never had the chance to go to a training class for quads.  I found that I could keep them going with the best of them.  We were a production house and I got to the point where I could trouble shoot them with ease.  Part of the way that I kept them going was to keep an eye on the lock up times.  Any time a VR-1200 was over 4 seconds it was time to go through it.  We felt that 3.5 was the norm for us.  Also we did a 25 head hour check.  We felt that we should be able to record on any machine and play it back on any other machine with minimal adjustment.  We optimized so that the playback of an alignment tape and a recording were almost identical.
 
The machines we had were very well taken care of.  It showed in the quality of the output.  
 
Did people find the class that good?  I have a training manual and notice that it basically went through each system and explained it.  The books from Ampex were very good and I was able to get that information from them.  I did see that there were some notes that were handed out in the class.  Some of these applied to different versions.  Like the Intersync notes are not that good for the last version.  One can not use them for the last version and do the alignment correctly.  
 
So how much did you glean from the class and how much from working on the machines?
 
Chris Hill
WA8IGN

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