Telamon wrote:
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none ""dave\"@(none)" wrote:

Telamon wrote:
In article ,
"David Eduardo" wrote:

"Telamon" wrote in message
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In article ,

There were very inexpensive tape players in the 60's. They were just
fine for voice. They were little reel to reel type. The reels were only
a few inches in diameter and the tape was thick. The head was offset so
you could record on the other side by turning the reel over. I had one
as a kid.
The Norelco / Philips was one of those. 3" reels, two track mono.

Other kids in the neighborhood had them. Then the high
performance audiophile units were developed with the big reels. The
main problem with tape was the high end audio was weak and the
amplifiers had to be biased for more gain at the high end.
There were plenty of decks usable for DXers with 7" reels and 3 3/4 ips
speed that could record an hour per track, mono, in two track
configuration.
As mentioned, many had lots of RF emissions that interfered with the BCB
(MW) and were not good for DX use, but others could be shielded or used
out
of the box and were less than $200.
The problem with these over many years is the tape formulation kept
changing to improve the high end so you needed to have amplifiers with
selection switches depending on the tape formulation. Some even required
different heads (gap) depending on the ferro grain size in the tape.
I never experienced that. By 1960, the format for 2 track mono (forward
and
reverse) and, later, for two track stereo were the same in consumer and
boradcast applications. You are likely thinking of the mid to late 50's
stuff, which was not as standardized.
Nope. Before my time.

Consumer decks used 4 tr stereo, 2 tracks in each direction.

The inexpensive units that were around for kids or dictation were
monaural. The stereo units were for the audiophiles.

Quarter Track Stereo was the release format used by the record
companies. Most were 3.75 ips. some were 7.5 ips.