<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 9.00.8112.16440">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY
style="WORD-WRAP: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space"
bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>RCA developed the little "very very high gain"
Nuvistor tube, in the late fifties, for the much more refined and
affordable next generation color TV line. The "NewVista" (tuner) sales tag
logo went on the sets around 1960 in the CTC-12 era. The Nuvistor RF amp in the
front end of the tuner, for color reception out on the fringes from all of those
fifty foot high rooftop antenna's made all the difference in the world and left
RCA's #1 competitor, Zenith, in the dust as far as tuner gain
went.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>It did'nt take Ampex (probably Charlie
Ginsburg) very long to call up RCA and say how about send us a crate'full'a
those hot little devils.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>My Ampex VR-1000C (1960) here, has a Mark 10 head
with a Nuvistor front end.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>We're just finishing up a very nice what you migth
call a "springwinter" this year. How sweet it is.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Steve Spears</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Orrs Island, Maine</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"
dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=scottgfx@mac.com href="mailto:scottgfx@mac.com">Scott Thomas</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=quadlist@quadvideotapegroup.com
href="mailto:quadlist@quadvideotapegroup.com">Quad List</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, February 22, 2012 2:51
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [QuadList] OT: Ampex
Engineering</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>I was reading up on what Nuvistors were, I knew they were tubes
from the many discussion of headwheel preamps here, but I didn't know much
beyond that.
<DIV>On Wikipedia they mentioned an Ampex audio tape recorder called a MR70
that used Nuvistors extensively and I started researching that.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I found this video on someone's restoration of a MR70</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIDHs3kmGj4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIDHs3kmGj4</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>What I find interesting about this is the consistency in how Ampex tape
machines worked. How you could just push the reels back-and-forth seems like a
magic trick for someone raised on Sony Umatic, Betacam and Type-C machines. It
would seem that nobody else engineered things quite like Ampex did.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Sorry for the diversion, now back to your regular programming.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Scott Thomas</DIV>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>Please trim posts to relevant info when replying.<BR><BR>Change subject
to reflect thread direction.
Thanks.<BR>_______________________________________________<BR><BR>Send
QuadList list posts to QuadList@quadvideotapegroup.com<BR>Your subscribe,
unsubscribe and digest options are
here:<BR>http://mail.quadvideotapegroup.com/mailman/listinfo/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com
<P>
<HR>
<P></P><A></A>
<P class=avgcert align=left color="#000000">No virus found in this
message.<BR>Checked by AVG - <A
href="http://www.avg.com">www.avg.com</A><BR>Version: 10.0.1424 / Virus
Database: 2113/4823 - Release Date: 02/21/12</P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>