An analysis of an example old tape found at a boot sale. This one includes 1961 Radio Hong Kong featuring a Space Race news article... Mercury Atlas 5 with Enos the Chimpanzee.
Fascinating project. That’s the magic of discovering tapes that are decades old. Potentially from the mundane to the shockingly explosive! Nice work again on a machine worth saving.
I have some old 3 inch reel tapes (with original mailers and stamps) from a guy in the Vietnam war. He and his folks sent the tapes back and forth for 2 years. (a have a huge box of them) It's fascinating to listen to them discussing everything from the war to cooking hot dogs. I also have the original machine that came with the tapes. A Craig 212.
November 29th,1961. It’s great that the recording has such detail that makes it so easy to date. I also think it would be a great idea to digitize it and send it over to a museum in Hong Kong or something similar.
The chimpanzee Enos was launched into orbit on November 29, 1961, so there’s the date of that tape. Enos survived his spaceflight, which was a dress rehearsal for John Glenn’s historic orbital flight. AM radio did sound that good before regulators reduced the bandwidth in order to allow more AM broadcast licenses to be issued. AM radios were also of higher quality. I have tapes that I recorded that prove that. wish the old standards would be restored.
Dad was in Radio back in 50’s & 60’s. I have maybe 500 reels like this but nothing to play them on anymore. Makes me want to find a decent reel to reel. Thanks
good stuff! I lately found old tapes with radio recordings of the moon landing accompanied with cut out newspaper articles from that day. Can't wait to have my tape recorder refurbished. it's always nice to stumble upon such things!
I love old tape recorders too, and not quite sure exactly how many I have. I'll dig 'em out and count them when I get a wet afternoon! I made recordings of all sorts of stuff when a teenager (I'm now pushing 70) and like to hear them occasionally and listen to the news from back in the day. Also recording nonsense with mates on my parent's Grundig TK120, which I now own. Interesting video, cheers! I've got some tapes of radio shows where the oxide is shedding and I want to transfer onto better tape when the opportunity arises.
I also bought a reel of tape from ebay. it was mostly people playing cards and drinking tea, but at one point the TV was turned on which allowed me to date the recording accurately. Very accurately. "Half a minute past six-thirteen" on Sunday 18th Oct 1964. The day Alec Douglas-Home announced his cabinet after winning the general Election three days earlier. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-t0eZY8DTcck.html
i have a box filled with reels took one without a box and it recorded perfect from begining to the end, amazed how it was stored without the protection ,the others might be good also and in their card or plastic boxes, early 70´s ferric tapes only
Thanks for the reference. Jon does make it sound very jolly..... but it still ends badly for the goose (and with detail). I don't know why but when listening to it the images formed in my head juxtaposed against the young voice reading the words seemed odd, but now I'm remembering the Brothers Grimm etc when I was a child, so yeah, it's normal.
The high quality of the audio, notwithstanding the mains hum, suggests that it was recorded from an FM radio. FM broadcasting began in Hong Kong in 1960 though I can't definitively prove that Radio Hong Kong was simulcasting on FM in 1961. Alternatively it may have been recorded from Rediffusion's HK cable service which carried radio stations.
This account of how the United States ruined AM radio for listeners in the USA pretty much reflects how the same thing happened across the planet. In addition to a reduction in audio quality at the transmitter, the quality of electronics inside of radios suffered when so called PLL based circuitry became the industry standard. “Around 1990, in an effort to further reduce interference between and to allow yet closer placement of AM stations, the FCC accepted the recommendation of the National Radio Standards Committee (NRSC) to limit AM audio to 7.5 kHz. This caused significant loss of fidelity in AM station audio quality.”
Interesting video. Is that a Grundig TK18? I had one when I was a young teenager. I dont recall what ever happened to it but around 4 years ago, I bought one off an ebay seller. It came with around 20 tapes. All recordings seem to be top 20 music charts of the late 60s early 70s. Unfortunately, the person who made the tapes was very good at stopping and starting the tape before the presenter spoke and didn't record any news items either.
@@MrZenitJ I went to jr.high/high school in the 1960s and it looked a bit like the Wollensak recorders we had at school. It also resembles the AIWA recorder I bought in 1965, and still have, though the electronics don't work at all. I need to buy another recorder, or fix mine so I can copy some old tapes I have.
Sounds like a specific BBC World Service / Far East Service. Was Radio Hong Kong local. ? Presumably recorded from Radio to tape via the Tape Out socket of the radio.
I've had a quick look at some pictures of the machine and I would say it's not the same machine, although I would suspect one or both took some ergonomics from the others design...
hi i have worked on decks like this yes tubes = high volts there's one well make they used high volts in to the tube's i only went over to akai 4000ds because i know i would not get a buzz beware the brenell mini 8 uses 240v around the relays the thing is they put the 240v in the same cable and the dc volts when a did the full service i made alot of changes big time the deck has 240v right to the deck and the power unit has a 240v lead to the mains funny things that deck was made well in alot of places but a let down on the 240v side of it
I have ahandfull of home recording from all kinds of people. would be nice to make a show with them, im sure copyrwight may be an issue, why i cannot share them, but somemare just people talking with songs back in the day..even some are on paper disks.. i converted,,
@@Christian-fu8vx I know but it's such a shame there is a time limit to tape, which I know can cause all sorts of problems but the sound to me is without question better than any digitised format regardless of the master. Even recording from digital seems to make the sound more rounded and warm. Just taste and preference I suppose.
@@Moonlightshadow-lq4fr Yes, you're absolutely right. There are some fantastic cassette brands like TDK or maxell, which had best quality. I have cassettes which are still from the 70s still sounding very good. It is also worth to record cds on long lasting high quality cassette tapes.
