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<DIV>Lee</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I truncated it a bit for the answer. Basically, your tape was made in
a defective machine.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>First thing is that I would use an external sync generator as a source of
black for the machine. This is a best practice item that has nothing to do
with the issue. It is a step that makes sure the sync generator in the
machine is working properly. The internal sync generator in the AVR-2 was
not the best for playing back. It was not stable enough to use. We
always ran it gen-locked to a very stable unit. The only time it was not
was when we took the machine out on a remote.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> [<FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>How does the RF envelope look on the scope?
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>No Scope - I can tell I have plenty of RF with my tracking
adjustment.]</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>I would also use a waveform monitor to monitor the RF envelope rather than
the meter. The meter is only a quantity and not a quality
indicator. You want to see if the individual heads are equal and flat
across the 16 lines.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>[Alignment and known good tapes play fine.
<DIV>Client has several thousand tapes made in the early 80's (probably on a VR
2000).]</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Because of this statement, it tells me that the tape is defective. If
it were a 1200 or 2000, we could go into a non-standard tracking mode to see if
we could recover the tape. An AVR-1 can play this because it plays
everything.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The control track sounds like it was recorded with the wrong phase
setting. This is done during the alignment of the Intersync. Since
you have a head that plays it, use that one and go for it. [I have 1 very
warn out head (supplier unknown) that will lock to these tapes]</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There were secrets that you learned as part of the alignment to insure that
all tapes would interchange without having to make large changes in tracking or
head adjustments. It is one of those minor items but it gave us a better
quality of tape.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Chris Hill</DIV>
<DIV>WA8IGN<BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>