VLA Master Slides

If in October 1979 you had visited the room at the VLA site which now houses the Widar, you might have seen the console of the DEC System 10, which was the original mainframe computer for the VLA. Any computer of that era had tape drives, which you may have seen in earlier films such as "Dr. Strangelove," but which were in a set of racks to the left of the picture. For the first few years of the life of the VLA, all data was processed though this computer. It was upgraded soon thereafter, so a visit during the filming of "Contact" a decade later would have shown the later model. The people in the picture were the DEC 10's guardians, operators, and supporters, (l to r) Gareth Hunt, Ina Cole, and Al Braun. Since Gareth is on the phone, it is likely that the photo was taken when there was a problem, and a call to the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for hardware or operating system software support was in progress. However, everyone looks fairly relaxed, so presumably a positive outcome was imminent.

Records of the NRAO

Still Image

Slide

NRAO/AUI/NSF

VLA_769

Photographs Series

VLA Unit

VLA Master Slides Subunit