by MTN Chief Engineer, Jim Derks

It's that time of year again when Minnesota weather starts adversely affecting equipment. Special care must be taken in transporting and using MTN equipment. Cold equipment should not be powered up until it has reached room temperature, usually a half an hour is enough, longer if its extremely cold. The purpose is to give moisture, which condenses on the cold equipment when brought into a warm area, a chance to dry off. Most VCR's have a dew sensor which inhibits the operation of the equipment until it is dry. This condition usually appears as an "auto off" condition with either a warning light or a "dew" indication in the operation display. Also your tape should be kept warm before using. Cold itself will not damage the tape or equipment, but it does seriously affect its operational characteristics if used in this condition. Battery operation is also affected by cold - although not bad for the battery itself as cold storage extends the battery life - the battery output capacity may be reduced to as much as half what it was at room temperature.

When ever possible transport the equipment in a warm car. This will also speed up your check in at MTN as the checkout person will not check any cold equipment until it has warmed up. Also, when shooting outside in the cold, it is best to have your equipment warm just prior to using.

On to new things, MTN is about to start a very large project and would like volunteer help, especially if you have a little soldering and cabling experience. MTN will be redesigning and moving the existing Playback facilities into a new location. The new location, for you old timers, is the old MTN studio, located at Paragon on Plymouth Avenue. Our original plan, was to relocate playback at Saint Anthony Main with Paragon's help. But, negotiations broke down after years of talking between the City and Paragon.

The designing and preliminary work will be started after the first of the year, with the actual tear down and move to occur around the next intermezzo in April. I'm going to need some help in disconnecting and sorting cables, removing, moving and reinstalling equipment into racks, and soldering connectors on cables. If you are interested in helping out, please get in touch with me. I expect the move to take about 4 to 6 weeks. This a great opportunity for those of you interested in learning more about the technical side of video and how playback is constructed. This could also look good on your resume.