[QuadList] BATC OB Van with VR-1000--Ping Trevor Brown & Brian Summers-Post permission request

[Gideon4]

I did a lot of work on Joe's OB van Monoculus, The van was fitted with 4 Pye
3" image orthicon cameras, an EMI vision mixer, and the Ampex VR1000C, all
in 625 lines. The cameras and all the mixer were valve (tube) units and
started life in 405, the Ampex was all valve except for the head switch
unit, it think. not sure if it was originally 405 lines or not?

I spent a lot of time trying to get the VR1000C to work properly without
success I'm afraid to say. I could never get it to complete the lock-up
sequence. The chief suspect was the inter-sync framing unit. It was hard to
be sure just what the problem was, I was working with no spares or back-up
and little experience. This was all back in the early 1970s.

Indirectly, Joe was responsible for my interest in television and subsequent
career in the BBC. Joe alas, died suddenly in the prime of life and
Monolcus, now abandoned went to the scrap yard.  The VR1000 spent a long
time in very unsuitable storage and when last seen was little more than a
Ampex shaped pile of rust!

I do have a number of pictures to find and scan.

There are in the BATC a number of successor OB vans, alas none contain
Quads. attached is a picture of my OB van taken a few years ago.


Regards


Brian Summers


  -----Original Message-----
  From: Ted Langdell [mailto:ted at quadvideotapegroup.com]
  Sent: 12 September 2011 16:32
  To: John Fletcher
  Cc: Ted Langdell; gideon4 at summershome.co.uk; Trevor Brown
  Subject: BATC OB Van with VR-1000--Ping Trevor Brown & Brian Summers-Post
permission request


  Hi, John,


  That article would be interesting to see.


  The BATC's Chairman is Trevor Brown (G8CJS) and the General Secretary is
Brian Summers (G8GQS), both of whom are QuadList members.


  http://www.batc.org.uk/club_stuff/commlist.html


  So no copyright is violated, perhaps they can OK a scan and post of the
article and photos to the QuadList or might have the original pictures still
at hand, and they could post from the originals.


  Might be fun to see whether there's bandwidth on an amateur satellite that
could allow uplinking a full motion, full bandwidth Quad playback to Quad
recording across the pond.


  Ted


  On Sep 12, 2011, at 7:52 AM, John Fletcher wrote:


    Speaking of quads and ATV, I have an old copy of the Journal of the
    British Amateur Television Club (BATC), ca. 1970 or so, that shows
    photos of their "OB van"... complete with a VR-1000!  Not sure if it was
    set up only for 405 line, or could also run at 625... monochrome only,
    I'm sure.

    73!

    - John


  Ted Langdell
  Secretary

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