I owned a pair of FR-80's many years ago that were surplus from NASA in Huntsville.<div>I remember being super impressed with the level of design perfection.</div><div>They were 14-track 1" machines. Found an old B&W print from my dusty archives...</div>
<div>Never could figure out why 14 when the standard for 1" for the rest of us </div><div>was 16 tracks, unless NASA for some reason spec'ed it that way.</div><div><br></div><div>They had beautifully machined 10" brass capstan pulleys that used</div>
<div>sewn silk or nylon belts, ran at 15, 30, or 60 ips, had swappable record and</div><div>playback modules for regular or FM recording, some even had little 2"</div><div>oscilliscopes for each channel! They used compressed air feeding the</div>
<div>guides, and a pressure sensor to each guide modulated the take-up</div><div>or supply reel tension. The capstan was in the middle, the tape wrapped</div><div>around an idler with an optical tachometer, and when you started the</div>
<div>tape in Reproduce or Record, the takeup would first pull the tape through</div><div>the whole head assembly and get it moving at exactly the right speed</div><div>before the pinch rollers would engage it to the spinning capstan.</div>
<div>I was quite impressed with the transport.</div><div><br></div><div>Of course this was for the space program, probably used to record many</div><div>channels of telemetry of rocket engine tests or who knows what.</div>
<div>I've since seen similar apparently compatible 14-track machines made by</div><div>Honeywell and... Bell & Howell?</div><div><br></div><div>My first exposure to the later quad-type machines like the FR-600 was</div>
<div>the guys working to read the Apollo tapes.</div><div><br></div><div>But I was always extremely impressed with Ampex's ability to turn out</div><div>such quality instrumentation.</div><div><br></div><div>It was interesting having two of them standing in my spare bedroom on 2x4's!</div>
<div>They made flawless analog recordings... </div><div>But no erase heads!!!<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 5:15 PM, Roger Brett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rcbindy@comcast.net" target="_blank">rcbindy@comcast.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
Great picture, Don!<br>
<br>
On 1/21/2013 12:57 AM, Don Norwood wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
<br>
<br>
Hi Dave:<br>
In the useless trivia department, Ampex used this style switch on the<br>
instrumentation recorders before they used it on the video decks. The<br>
VR-1100 was the first quad transport to use them but the first video<br>
machine to use them was the VR-8000 2" helical. However, they had<br>
already been in use on instrumentation decks. Here's a picture of a<br>
transport control for an FR-600 that I had and it predates the video<br>
decks. There seemed to be a lot of technology and design sharing within<br>
the company, but many video folks don't know much about other Ampex<br>
products. A similar situation existed at RCA, and both companies had<br>
government contracts for specialized products that were often far more<br>
sophisticated than what we saw in the television business.<br>
Don Norwood<br>
Digitrak Communications, Inc.<br>
<a href="http://www.digitrakcom.com" target="_blank">www.digitrakcom.com</a> <<a href="http://www.digitrakcom.com" target="_blank">http://www.digitrakcom.com</a>><br>
<br>
----- Original Message -----<br>
*From:* Dave Sieg <mailto:<a href="mailto:dave@zfx.com" target="_blank">dave@zfx.com</a>><br>
<br>
**<br>
------------------------------<u></u>------------------------------<u></u>------------<div class="im"><br>
<br>
You are very close on the push-buttons, they were from a remote<br>
panel for a FR-80<br>
instrumentation recorder, but are essentially the same ones they put<br>
on the VR-1200<br>
and 2000. Except "Play" became "Reproduce" for the NASA crowd.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br></div><div class="im">
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</div></blockquote><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">
<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>Dave Sieg<br><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/davesieg" target="_blank">www.linkedin.com/in/davesieg</a><br><a href="http://www.davesieg.com" target="_blank">www.davesieg.com</a><br>
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