Ampex ATR102 - Meter Issue

[Jase_Sanderson]

Hiya everyone, I’m hoping someone can help solve a problem that has plagued me ever since I bought this Ampex 102 4 years ago.

My issue is whenever I’m recording in repro-mode the right meter flips out.

If i put it into input mode the problem goes away.

My playback electronics are completely fine and all calibrated with a MRL tape. But I obviously run into a hurdle when calibrating the recording side.

To isolate my issue I’ve tried swapping the audio cards so the right channel is now in the left slot. The problem still persists on the right hand side. I even bought another 2 audio cards to try and the problem still persists on the right side. So I know it’s not the audio cards.

I’ve also tried switching the meter blocks around, the problem still stays on the right. So it can’t be the meter blocks themselves.

By swapping like this I have been able to kinda calibrate the recording side, but the meter always flips out.

I beep tested the entire loom that goes from the front bottom right all the way up to the meter cards at the top/back. There’s no shorts there. All fine.

I also got told it could be the head block that isn’t seated right, that I should unseated and reseat it as sometimes if it’s not clicked into place right it could be wobbling the record head. Didn’t solve the problem

I’ve also gone through multiple sets of patchbay looms leading to tape machine. I know my cabling is right.

The heads look ok in my limited experience. They were last done in 2017 where it aparently stood in storage for 2 years until I bought it in 2019 and I’ve never got to use it except for trying to get it to work. Maybe I should sent the head block elsewhere for testing???

There’s a long story I won't get into where I feel the seller really did one on me. I bought a “working unit” - Not, I feel sad that I've spent so much money and time on this thing, so really hoping you peeps can help me get up and running.

In the linked video you can see I’m just sending 0db 1khz tone to the machine and this is what the meter is doing.



Thanks for any help, I really appreciate this group

 

[Ike Zimbel]

Have you looked at the audio that's coming from the Repro side? Could be something going on there, and the meter is just doing its job and showing that to you.

 

[radardoug]

You need to check the calibration pots on the in/out pcb. I had an ATR102 where the pot had not been soldered in properly when built. One pin was bent over, and made intermittent contact.

 

[Brian Roth]

For some reason, I missed this thread. @Jase_Sanderson ..... Have you put an oscilloscope on the XLR output of that errant right channel to look for a screwy signal?

Bri