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THBApollo-era Ampex VR-660C Video Recorder
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About Auction
LiveApr 25, 2024
Featuring nearly 400 items, RR's Spring Space Exploration auction is filled with flown material, astronaut autographs, Apollo hardware, and other space rarities. RR Auction support@rrauction.com
View Full Catalog (398)
- Lot Description
Rare, complete and functional Ampex VR-660C video recorder, serial no. 4192296, with power cord, extra parts and supplies, and all accessories required for operation. Most Ampex VR-660C machines have been discontinued from use, disposed of, and scrapped-it is estimated that fewer than ten units worldwide remain functional today. Spare parts are difficult to source, making the restoration of existing machines extremely difficult; the consignor notes that the critical video recording heads have not been commercially available for over twenty years, and he had to engage the only remaining company left in the USA with suitable expertise and facilities to custom manufacture a set of ferrite heads in order to bring this VR-660C back to life.
This is a representative, operational example of the units used during Apollo to record backup telemetry and video data transmitted from the spacecraft. During Apollo, three large Australian ground stations with their huge antennas were used by NASA to communicate with the Apollo spacecraft and receive and record the video and telemetry from the orbiter and the lunar lander. Telemetry was recorded on wideband Mincom recorders, and the video from the RCA slow scan converter was recorded on VR-660 machines as a backup in case the microwave video links from Australia to the USA failed. Images from the period show the VR-660s at the Parkes and Honeysuckle sites. The use of the Ampex VR-660 machines is also discussed in the journal article 'On Eagle’s Wings: The Parkes Observatory’s Support of the Apollo 11 Mission,' published by the Astronomical Society of Australia (Volume 18, 2001).
The VR-660x series of machines was manufactured by Ampex from about 1963, with the introduction of the VR-1500, followed by the VR-660, then the VR-660B which included electronic editing, and culminating with the VR-660C circa 1967 which added broadcast quality color capability and other unique features. NASA selected the VR-660B/C machines because they could record 5+ hours continuously on a single reel of tape, an unheard of recording time for any video device of the era.
The lot includes:
- Ampex VR-660C video recorder, complete, SN 4192296, with power cord
- Ampex VR-660C video recorder, incomplete, spare parts donor machine
- Empty aluminum and plastic 2" tape reels, various diameters
- Ampex VR-660x alignment extender cards
- Binders, Operation and Maintenance manuals, for VR-660B and VR-660C
- Additional reference information furnished on DVD-R media
- Remote joystick VR-660 control panel, with one cable
- Spare parts: Used video head (2), audio head, burnishing tape, silver splicing tape
- Recording tape, 14" diameter reels in plastic shipping case, 2" quad format, one NOS sealed reel and one previously recorded reel
- Recording tape, 8" diameter reels in boxes, 2" quad format, previously recorded
- Bulk tape eraser, accepts various size tapes up to 14" reel, AC powered
- Ampex tip penetration gauge assembly, model 1809425, SN 0969141
- Ampex TBC‐6 time base corrector - Shipping Info
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