[BC] Fun with Quad Videotape

[Xen Scott]

At 05:31 PM 12/01/2011 +0000, Brent Hall wrote:
>Alan Kline, you had too much fun with that 90 min. reel. The station I 
>worked at in 1970 was cheap and instead of replacing worn quad spot reels, 
>we would apply the tip of a pair of scissors to the spot reel, hit rewind, 
>and watch the tape fly.

That only worked with VTRs that didn't have servoed supply and takeup
reels.

Back in my Army days (1965-1967), the TV operation where I worked had flat-
topped Ampex VR-1000 series videotape machines.  We also used a lot of early
vintage videotape that wore out much sooner than later oxide-binder formulas
of videotape.  Consequently, we discarded a lot of one hour and half hour
reels of videotape.  In order to salvage the empty metal reels for reloading,
we used to remove the videotape by turning the reel upside down on the
supply side, tape down the tension arm and then place a thin metal ruler
against the videotape as rewind was activated.  A good operator could
throw off the entire half hour or hour tape into a big pile several feet
high on the floor, in one pass, in just a few minutes.  It was lots of fun.

Xen