Welcome to the Ampex OldTimers website, established July 7, 2015, highlighting a group that’s been gathering annually since the 1980s.

This site is dedicated to the Ampex Pioneers and those who followed, including Ampex Data Systems employees.

The group holds an annual picnic and barbecue in the San Francisco Bay Area where Ampex was and is located and has been holding Zoom on-line gatherings in conjunction with the picnic and at other times. More ZOOM events are being planned.

Please share with Ampex Corporation or current Ampex Data Systems employees, retirees, contractors and spouses.

James will show how Ampex Data Systems continues exploring how to process and record “spectrum,” a trip that started at Ampex in 1946 with the initial foray into analog magnetic audio recorders, then instrumentation recorders, and kicked spectrum recording up a notch with the first successful video tape recorders operating in the Megahertz range using FM modulation.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

CONNECT: Click here if you’re a current or former Ampexer, Ampex Data Systems employee, contractor or contractor employee, or family member and would like to attend the the annual Ampex OldTimers BBQ, Picnic and Zoom. That takes you to the group mailing list. Details about the event will be sent to you.

RESEARCH: Find a growing amount of information about Ampex here on AmpexOldTimers.org, the Ampex OldTimers Facebook Page, and at AmpexHistory.org, a virtual museum site curated in part by the former Ampex Museum of Magnetic Recording’s Peter Hammar.

ZOOM Events: Find out when and how to register for Ampex OldTimers and for PUBLICLY OPEN events about Ampex with Ampex OldTimers. check back here in late August for details!

SUPPORT: This website is maintained in part by financial support from current or former Ampex employees and contractors, the folks behind the Quad Videotape Group, the Quad Videotape Group Facebook Page and by people like you. 

Quad Videotape Group members have organized the annual Ampex OldTimers Barbecue and Picnic since 2014, relieving Ampex OldTimers Fred and JoAnn Pfost, so they could mingle with their colleagues and friends. They were fixtures at the event until several years ago, and enjoyed being able to circulate without needing to monitor the registration table and other aspects.

Click the button here to keep more content and activities happening! You’ll be able to choose where your donation goes, how much you want to donate, and how often. THANKS!