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Re: [ARSCLIST] Magnetic Recording History (was OTR online?
On Jan 2, 2009, at 9:04 PM, Richard L. Hess wrote:
Just to clarify a little more...as I understand it, Lorenz and AEG
were two separate companies -- at least at one point.
...My pal specified Lorenz when I ask him about the brand of machine
he was using in the Wehrmacht in 1944, also mentioning that it had a
variable-speed transport adjustment.
Incidentally, being a 20-year-old swing fan he also used the
Wehrmacht's machines and elaborate antenna array to record Glenn
Miller's ABSIE broadcasts from England on 583kHz AM, at considerable
personal risk. Reception was apparently rock solid, and (ironically,
in view of the noiselessness of German recorded broadcasts) his
off- air tapes also captured the surface noise of the original
transcription discs.
Antenna science is somewhat of a lost art. Apparently rhombic and
beverage antennas are superb in digging out signals, as are some
other topologies.
... A couple of my friend's off-air tapes survived WWII. I have a DAT
copy of his recording of a Dec. 1944 Glenn Miller German language
"ABSIE 514" broadcast from Britain, as monitored somewhere on what
remained of the Eastern Front, probably Hungary. Reception is
outstanding, to the point where one suspects the BBC studio
transcription pick-up needed a new needle. Given the savagery that
must have been going on in the immediate vicinity of the receiver,
it's entirely surreal to hear Miller's calm voice and the strains of
Moonlight Serenade wafting over the ether. However, as far as content
is concerned there are no surprises: the same material is available
on commercial CD, professionally transcribed from a set of the
original discs.
Tony B.