Thanks to a note on MMD in February, we started a group of people
interested in building roll scanners.  In three short months, thanks to
a fantastic spirit of collaboration, we have taken big strides forward.
Our greatest asset is Mr. Gene Gerety, a professional engaged in the
design of advanced scanning systems.

Gene has put in a tremendous amount of work on our behalf and designed
a very advanced printed circuit board based around the National
Semiconductor LM9830 chip.  This unit contains all the electronic
circuitry required to build a roll scanner not only capable of scanning
to an accuracy sufficient to enable the master to be re-generated, but
it even does so at real-time paper speeds.

The circuit board will be commercially produced and manufactured to the
highest standards.  Gene has already collected the 25 orders necessary
to put the first batch into production but there's still time for more
to be added.  The cost of the unit is $290 and orders may be placed by
contacting Gene directly on <ggerety@snet.net>.

Those interested in joining the group can do so by logging on to :-
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rollscanners

We still use the Yahoo system for e-mail exchange but, owing to
technical problems, Warren Trachtman has generously provided us with
our own alternative website at :-  http://www.iammp.org/

IAMMP stands for the "International Association of Mechanical Music
Preservationists".  You will find full technical details of Gene's
unit, ROLLSCAN-1, on this site together with other technical documents.
Various members have already joined forces to develop, and eventually
manufacture, a generalised transport system and it looks certain that,
within a few months, there will be several high quality scanners in
operation, capable of scanning every conceivable type of roll.

Richard Stibbons
Cromer, England