RCA 1" field recorder help
 

I have a RCA TH-50A 1" field recorder deck which is a re-badged Sony BVH-500A deck. It was a portable 1" field recorder from the late 70's which did not have the color heterodyne boards installed for space and necessity in the field. B&W confidence playback only in the field with a few color flashes for fun.

It needed a TBC adaptor box to play color in the field or on-air and is connected to the blue connector in the photos attached...with credit to Labguy's website for the photos. The adaptor also supplied the DC to the deck.

I tried a 12v 75w 3/4" AC adaptor to push the deck but no joy. More amps needed.

Does anyone have one of these laying around for sale because you don't know what it is or it is taking up space in your shop? It is a Sony CA-500 number. Possibly a RCA THP-50 or RCA THP-500 number. No pic of the adaptor available.

I have a bunch of 80's 1" I wish to xfer and I don't want to go for the big studio versions.

75W should be more then enough to run the deck unless something is wrong with it. I can run my BHV-500A and Hitachi FP-Z31A off of a Sony AC-500 power supply. Sorry I do not have the adapter or the breakout cable that took that adapter plug and turned it into connecters for a standard TBC.

Matt

I think very few of the heterodyne adapters were ever sold. The broadcasters who used these field recorders had studio machines for playback. Matt is correct, an AC-500 should be able to power it. I think they draw less than 5 amps. You may be able to pick up an inexpensive used frame sync that will work for playback.

I will do some investigation this weekend to see if I can get my BVH-500a to produce acceptable color pictures through my DPS-235 frame store/sync/TBC.

I will report back.

The BVH 500a draws 60W at 12V which is 5A, although I would think startup would be a bit more.

Matt

Thanks for the contributions. My RCA does try to start...the tape path tightens up and then drops and for a few frames shows video then quits. The battery/power indicator shows no voltage.

I do have a spare frame sync to try if I can get it to play. Not sure how heterodyne color would work on a FS directly. The RCA has no feedback inputs if needed.