Retrotech - this Sunday 21/5/23

[ppppenguin]

Don't forget to come to Retrotech this Sunday. New venue near Coventry. https://www.retrotechuk.com/

I'll be there on stall 51 flogging loads of stuff for the Broadcast Engineering Conservation Group.

[pamphonica]

Well I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the BECG stall looked a lot emptier at the end. Jeffrey even managed to sell me a nice little Sony SW radio!

[ppppenguin]

Thanks to everyone's generosity (even Pamphonica who beat down cruelly on the little Sony set) we made over £1000 for the BECG.

An overheard conversation may result in the donation of an Ampex VR2000 to our museum: http://www.vtoldboys.com/hw1960.htm#vt1 We have the earlier VR1200 and an RCA TR70B but the VR2000 is a truly classic 2" quadruplex VTR widely used by the BBC and many others. Moving it won't be easy.

[pamphonica]

Thanks to everyone's generosity (even Pamphonica who beat down cruelly on the little Sony set...

Oooh, that's harsh ! I did wait till the very end, to allow higher bids, but yes, to be fair, I was very happy with the final price, and it did contribute quite a chunk to your final total. The internal battery leakage turned out to be minimal, and mainly round the base of the telescopic antenna, so I shall definitely enjoy this tiny set.
Thanks, Jeffrey.

[Murphyv310]

Hi
A friend of mine was there and bought some items.
He wasn't too happy with the toilet facilities or the catering. Certainly for me he assured me that I had made the right decision not to go even though this time I seriously considered it especially with the offer of a lift.
A particular health problem of mine would have led to a very distressing day unfortunately due to lack of facilities, something I don't want to discuss on open forum.

[ppppenguin]

When I used the loos they were OK if a bit cramped. Easy to see that they could get rather busy at peak times. There were (I think) 4 urinals and 2 traps in the gents. Ruth assured me the ladies loos were fine. Demand for these would be relatively small at this event There was also a disabled loo.

Not being fans of burger vans we brought our own lunch. Some people got sandwiches and takeaway coffee at the local Co-op. About 10 minutes walk.

As stallholders we weren't affected by parking problems. By sheer luck we ended up parked aboout as close as possible to our stand. Some people said they had trouble finding the place. I checked beforehand on google maps and it looked easy. We used satnav just in case but it really wasn't needed. We almost overshot the entrance which isn't well signed. Some signage here would help. This is what you see as you approach the entrance if you're coming from the A45: https://goo.gl/maps/ZN78S3MbWsC19kay5 If you're coming from the A423 the signage is poor.

[ppppenguin]

We had some assistance on the BECG stand at Retrotech.

(The other hall at the venue was hosting Comicon. Some of their people decided to have a look at our event. And people think that we're a bit odd!)

[Mike Watterson]

Well, Starwars was far away and long ago.

[ppppenguin]

I forgot to add a big thank you to Mike, Frank and John Joe for getting Mike's EMI tape recorder across Ireland, then across the Irish Sea to us at Retrotech.

[Mike Watterson]

It's an interesting use of the word "portable". It's a 1955 full track mono machine, so no flipping the spools. Also I think the coating is on the outside like cassette tape.
Had great chat with Frank, who had thought he was picking up a VTR. A 1979 U-matic VCR is about the same weight (29 kg) and no-one ever called those portable. There were portable U-matics, but I only ever saw and used the "table top" models.
The first commercial 2" VTR was in 1956, though Telefunken had invented helical scan in 1953. I have a working Telefunken Magnetophon (a real portable), but it's approximately a 1965 model (made 1964-68), not the K1 of 1935. Amazing the change in 10 years as the 1/2 track is essentially better than the EMI. https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/telefunken...300_1.html
Amazingly the belts didn't need replaced, though I'd bought a set and a couple of months later I bought the exact model of microphone used, though the knob needed some repair. As it was for portable interviews the mic has a VU meter (driven from recorder) and gain control!