[BC] indentifying the equipment

[Larry Wood]

My high school station was given a couple of the Ampex Q-Mat machines around 1974. These used the 12" tape mats. I was wondering if that was them in the photo. We recorded IDs, PSAs and had several songs recorded on them because we didn't have cart machines. I though they were pretty cool and they worked quite well. High tape noise though, not good for FM.

Larry Wood

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"Tapecaster" was a regular cart machine.  When I went to work for KUDE in oceanside, they had just pulled out their two Gates Spot Tape or Spotcaster (I don't remember which) machines and had put in a Sparta 4-banger.  That wide magnetic belt with the slider was a headache, especially when the jock didn't quite get the handle centered on the tape track."Spotmaster" was of course a cart machine -- one of the first, IIRC.  They used the Viking mechanism that used a cocking lever. 
 
Anybody besides me remember the Ampex machines that used a REAL floppy disk, about the size of an LP?