[peel] Re: Vintage Peel - Reel tape format?

[Paul Webster]

I have an old Marconiphone 4247 ... it has a 1-4 / 2-3 switch and an extra 
position "PAR".
It has not been switched on for years ... but next time you are in the area 
we could give it a try.
I think my Dad bought it in early 70s to replace a machine that had stopped 
working.
The previous one had been used (amoung other things) to record him off air 
when he was a DJ on ZD8VR in 1966.

(I'll have to find a 5-pin DIN as well to get sound out of it)

Even have the user guide .... and just scanned in the relevant part.
See attached PDF

Looks like the same as the model on the right in this picture from eBay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=110595469512
Paul
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ken" <ken_garner@...>
To: <peel@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2010 11:06 AM
Subject: [peel] Re: Vintage Peel - Reel tape format?


> I'm not an expert, Rocker, and have not possessed or used a reel to reel 
> for 25 years, but my memory tells me our old Bush Elizabethan we had at 
> home in the 60s and 70s had the tracks configured "1-4" and "2-3". There 
> were two push buttons marked thus which you pushed to select which 
> "track", giving double track mono - I am pretty sure stereo recording was 
> not possible - on each "side" of the tape reel. Might not that kind of 
> track layout explain what you're hearing?
>
> ken
>
>
> --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, rockerq@... wrote:
>>
>> Tonight I finally got around to listening to one of the reel-to-reel 
>> tapes
>> from The Decktician.
>>
>> Quality is pretty good, despite the fact that it runs at 3.75ips. The 
>> tape
>> consists of tracks recorded from John Peel shows, around 1974 - On this
>> particular tape John's links have been edited out, although the 
>> occasional cut
>> off syllable is enough to confirm that they are indeed from Peel shows.
>>
>> The deck I am playing back the tape on is a standard consumer "quarter
>> track" quarter inch tape deck - tracks one and three are stereo in one
>> direction, and tracks four and two are stereo on side two, running in the 
>> opposite
>> direction.
>>
>> On this tape, when I select stereo playback (tracks one and three) I get
>> one track in the left speaker playing forwards, plus another track in the
>> right speaker playing backwards. When I reverse the tape I get the 
>> backwards
>> track playing forwards in the left speaker, plus the original forwards 
>> track
>> playing backwards in the right speaker.
>>
>> I have two theories which would acount for this:
>>
>> The tape is recorded in mono half track - with a mono recording taking up
>> half the tape in each direction.
>>
>> or... The tape is recorded in stereo quarter track, but the left and 
>> right
>> channels of side one are recorded to tracks one and two, and the left and
>> right channels of side two are recorded in the opposite direction, to 
>> tracks
>> three and four.
>>
>> Neither of these are formats I have come across before - anyone else know
>> if either format was ever used in commercially available machines?
>>
>> Since the audio source in those days would probably have been mono medium
>> wave radio, I suspect that this conjecture is irrelevant, and that either 
>> way
>> we end up with a fairly decent mono recording.
>>
>> Cheers!
>>
>> Rocker
>>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>