BATC Forum

Hello All

I am new to the forum and I hope I can help those in the group keep their Ampex C format VTR's going for more years to come.
I have a good selection of V-Mag re tipped Ampex and CMC heads in PAL and NTSC flavours for VPR2/2B, VPR6 and VPR3 VTR's
Also a growing spares stock of IC's, transistors, some capacitors and special resistors as well as many mechanical items. I have a huge selection of TBC2/2B modules (not all tested though) I dont have it all yet but as soon as the Covid restrictions reduce I can get some C level mechanical kits that some past colleagues have for me. These kits have major items e.g. Capstan motor, scanner assemblies, tape idlers, pancake motors, brushes etc

I have some Ampex machines of my own, two of which are in working order and the others in restoration (2x Ampex VPR2B's and 2x Ampex VPR3 VTR's using a variety of TBC's (TBC2/2B/3/6)

There are more of us oldies keeping the Ampex kit going and I am a part of a small group that has helped each other with items/parts and tech help. If I can pass on this information etc to others in this group I would be more than happy to assist.

I am an ex-Ampex Video service engineer (I worked in the EAME dept in Italy, covering East Africa and Middle East countries) and can help with service information and documentation (i have most manuals in PDF form to send out FOC)
I also have some pictures (when I can find them) of some old OB trucks parked at Qatar state TV (next door to Al-Jazeera)

regards

andrew

Thats interesting when I worked for an Organization
In Denmark Hill South London a long time ago now.
A chap called Andrew with a surname begining with P
Serviced our VPR 80's.
was that you ?
Regards Roger G8HKN.

yup, sounds like me alright. This would have been when I was still at Ampex in Reading in the late 1980's (until 91 when most of us got made redundant) The EAME office relocatedfrom Rome, Italy in 1987 and so I joined AGBL and worked all over the UK on all the C format machines (except VPR5)
Denmark hill?, was that the Met police department by the railway line? Like fort Knox that place.....

I used to meet a chap called Mike Flockhart, we nicknamed him at Ampex as Flockhart of the yard, a really super nice chap....always slipping off for a quick ciggy.

Andrew i have sent a private message to you on the forum

Hello

I wonder if anyone here might be able to give me a clue as to what is wrong with my Ampex VPR-6 please. It developed an issue where it won't shuttle (wind fast in any direction) because something is up with the take up side, It will play a tape well enough but as soon as you select shuttle the take up just droops and then it drops out of tension. This is from memory as it has been quite some time (a year or 2) since I've looked at it. I did actually buy a another machine hoping that a board swap would fix it but the one I bought also had a similar fault. When I did the board swap, the behavior would change slightly but it basically did the same thing.

The hours are very low on the machine, I think the first 3 digits may still be zeros, but I appreciate that certain components degrade over time even if in use or not.

I do have the service manuals but I really don't have a clue as to what part of the shuttle / take-up control circuit it is likely to be. Or is it the physical sensor itself? I guess not as normal speed play is OK.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Jonathan

Hello @omnibod,

I have just purchased n AMPEX VPR-6 that I am trying to get back into running condition. Working through the obvious mechanicals first, I have found replacements for the pinch and tension rollers, but the tension arm stops/bumpers have eluded me. As the ones in the unit have completely returned to their natural state of tree sap in the bottom of the machine, I need to use something. Do you (or any other kind folks here) have replacements for those? Or can I just use any round rubber hose (assuming I would need to be close to the original diameter, which I can't measure from the puddles - so also asking for help on that one! ) as the bump stops. I would hope that their specification (diameter, density, etc) isn't too critical to operations.

Thanks!

Geysto