Steven C. Barr wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ted Kendall" 
> <[log in to unmask]>
>> I just hod-rodded one of those Fostex 8 track things - surprisingly 
>> good!
>>
> "8-track" tapes used 1/4" tape, but arranged in an "endless-loop" format;
> they actually, being stereo, used all eight tracks (.25"/8) on the tape. 

You have not taken into account that there is a guard band -- meaning 
"space" -- between the tracks.  They are narrower than .25/8 .

> Metal
> (IIRC) portions at either end of the cartridge signaled the player to 
> play
> the next set of tracks...


In a continuous loop tape there is no "either end".  That is a 
cassette.  What they did was use a foil adhesive tape to splice the ends 
together, and this foil completed the circuit which moves the head down 
one step.. 

> this would continue (as I discovered one drunken
> night...?!) for as long as the player was operative...?!
>
Because when the fourth program plays the foil tells the head to bounce 
back to the top.  Sober people figured that out the first time they used 
their machine.

> I would guess that the tape, if removed from its cartridge, c/would be
> played on an r2r machine, providing it was capable of playing 8 separate
> tracks on a .25" tape (standard r2r "stereo" on a back & forth 
> format...?!)
>
> Steven C. Barr
>

Funny, there have already been 3 or 4 postings earlier today that 
discussed doing that very thing, including one that gave the actual 
width of the tracks.  21 mils.

Dan Nelson wrote:
> I modified a Viking R2R  deck with 2 Nortronics 4 channel 1/4" tape heads. Each played  2 pairs of stereo tracks (4) the other head played the alternate channels. 

Are these the quad 8 heads Richard Hess mentioned?  Regular 4 channel 4 
track heads wouldn't work with 8-tracks, 

Mike Biel  [log in to unmask]