Re: [ARSCLIST] Magnetic Recording History (was OTR online?

[George Brock-Nannestad <pattac@xxxxxxxx>]

From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

re off-air recordings:

I have a 10" record in several copies on German Brunswick of the broadcasted 
Edward VII abdication speech. It was apparently also available on a white no-
text label, because it may not have been sold officially in the UK. Rumour 
has it that it was recorded off-air from a short-wave version of the 
broadcast picked up in Canada. I also happen to have a recording off-air on 
longwave AM (200 kHz Droitwich, England; now, and until it closes down: 198 
kHz). It was recorded in Denmark. It is much clearer than the Brunswick one, 
and you can hear the door slamming and not just a thud when the announcer 
leaves the microphone to the abdicating king. So, I would say that aerials 
mean everything for reception.

Kind regards,


George

P.S. At some stage I shall find the documentation and tell you about the in-
house BBC standards that controlled the bandwidth when broadcasting in the 
1930s. There was absolutely no talk of "generous bandwidth" on the AM bands 
(MW and LW).


> At 03:26 AM 2009-01-03, Anthony Baldwin wrote:
> 
> >...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.
> 
> Thanks to the Begun book, I was aware of Lorenz making steel tape 
> recorders and wire recorders, but I was unaware that they had made 
> tape recorders to compete with AEG, but that is certainly 
> understandable. It would be useful if your friend had more 
> information about these machines.
> 
> 
> >... 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.
> 
> It would be interesting to put together a short excerpt of the two 
> versions of the same recording under fair use to demonstrate the 
> difference between off-air and direct from disk (i.e. not entire 
> selections by any means so if anyone wanted to listen to the 
> selection rather than compare AM reception they'd buy the CDs). I 
> would think two or three selections of say one minute each would 
> provide the flavour of the AM transmission capability.
> 
> It would be most interesting for people to hear the capabilities of 
> AM before all of the manmade noise and the crapping up of the AM 
> broadcast chain.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Richard
> 
> 
> >Tony B.
> 
> Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
> Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.