Does anybody know where any of these are?

[JB5pro]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

It appears that the VTR sits down inside the cabinet, which constrains it to only using the 8" reels, and not the 11.5" reels that overhang the sides of the machine considerably. pix 1
jr

What a goof ball that designed that cabinet to not allow the optional 11.5 reels! I guess he was not shown the reels but he was still an idiot to not figure that out.

Where did you get your Ampex? Do you know who used it when it was new? Do you have old programs on it's tapes?
Thanks,
John

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by JB5pro

Where did you get your Ampex? Do you know who used it when it was new? Do you have old programs on it's tapes?
Thanks,
John

I got it in trade with another TV collector many years ago. I was told that it was used by a PBS station to air old B/W Zen Buddhism programs (Alan Watts?) long after most programming was in color. Later that story was de-bunked by a TV Broadcast Engineer, who told me that the 660s were not considered to be stable enough (FCC specs?) to be used "On Air"... so I am not sure how the machine was used. One of the tape labels does say "PBS 07/82/05... Rec 19 2 82...NTSC" so at least the reel had some PBS history.
The few tapes that I got with the machine had been erased.
I recorded "The Day the Earth Stood Still" on one tape... Before DVDs, it was a great way to demo vintage TVs without the normal VCR "flagging".
jr

[JB5pro]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

I got it in trade with another TV collector many years ago. I was told that it was used by a PBS station to air old B/W Zen Buddhism programs (Alan Watts?) long after most programming was in color. Later that story was de-bunked by a TV Broadcast Engineer, who told me that the 660s were not considered to be stable enough (FCC specs?) to be used "On Air"... so I am not sure how the machine was used. One of the tape labels does say "PBS 07/82/05... Rec 19 2 82...NTSC" so at least the reel had some PBS history.
The few tapes that I got with the machine had been erased.
I recorded "The Day the Earth Stood Still" on one tape... Before DVDs, it was a great way to demo vintage TVs without the normal VCR "flagging".
jr

Having the PBS/date/rec with NTSC label makes me think it more likely was used by a TV station as stated by your collector friend simply because I think most other users would not know of or have a reason to label with "NTSC". The broadcast engineer may very well have stated such from that way of thinking even lessor minds like mine have in which we sometimes think too much and and too little at the same time resulting in a conclusion that is less likely to be true based on basic logic without adequate consideration to the human factor that can exist even with in a TV station. So... in conclusion... I surmise that your 660 was in fact used to air the very tape that it still posseses.
I wish you could operate the machine and show the "Zen" tape or maybe you meant that tape was erased too