Yes, it was a joke.
However, I know I read it in one of Shirer's later books, none of which is
in my library. Perhaps these are in a format that can be word searched
somewhere?
Steve Smolian
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Biel
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 10:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Noise floor and AM X-mitter bandwidth, was: The
revival of the audio cassette
From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad
>> As to noise, it is worth considering that it was European medium wave
>> that carried the transmissions in which it was impossible to know
>> where Hitler was when he spoke because they had used the Magnetophone and
not a lacquer disc.
This fairy tale makes no sense what-so-ever. As for location, Hitler was
speaking where the announcer said he was speaking, whether it was true or
not. A recording would only adjust the TIME he was speaking.
This fable was spread initially by Jack Mullen in describing this mysterious
machine they were hearing. He first said that they heard Hitler speeches at
unlikely times and places, but he later changed his story to live CLASSICAL
CONCERTS they were hearing at unlikely times.
Mullen was really covering up his ignorance of a machine which was not a
secret, was publicized and promoted before the war, and was discussed and
shown numerous times in numerous public German publications during the war.
I think that Rainer Lotz, who has done detailed research in German wartime
radio and recordings, will back me up that the Magnetophon was not used to
try to have Hitler in places he was not.
From: Steven Smolian <[log in to unmask]>
> On the matter of Hitler on Magnetophon, Shirer, I can't recall which
> book, talks about hearing Hitler at the Anschluss and the rebroadcast
> as he was driving back to Germany, in which the pitch had been raised,
> deliberately, to make it more exciting, he surmised.
> Thedre was no time to make a pressed record. It could have been done
> from a lacquer on a vriable speed turntable, but the tape was simpler,
maybe?
The standard studio Magnetophons were not variable speed. German radio did
not really use lacquers per se, they generally used vinyl Decelith.
But the British had been using the steel tape Blattnerphone and
Marconi-Stille machines since 1930, so having long recordings with no record
scratch was commonplace even before the Magnetophon.
Additionally, around 1937 some broadcasters used the Philips-Miller
mechanically recorded but optically played back film recorder, which also
allowed long continuous recordings of high quality and minimal
scratch.
> That raises the quesation as to if they should be transferred at
> normal pitch or as the one at which it was later distributed. I assume
> it was broadcast in real time, sans helium, helium being a scarce
material.
> Steve Smolian
I assume this is a joke, because if there was a change in playback speed
that is not a change in the original broadcast nor is there any way you
could know what speed it was changed to unless a recording of THAT
transmission exists.
From Michael Biel
>> Although there were legal limitations in Europe to the frequency
>> response of AM broadcast transmission to 4.5 KHz. to protect even
>> adjacent channels, here in the U.S. there were no such limitations
>> until the mid 1990s, and even then the limits were set at about 10
>> KHz. In the mid 1930s there even was a class of stations which were
>> REQUIRED to have a transmission frequency response that had to be at
>> least to 10 KHz. Many AM stations exceeded 13 KHz. And receiver
>> manufacturers did build radios which were wideband. It was only in
>> the 1970s when the number of short-spaced stations skyrocketed that
>> receiver manufacturers reduced bandwidth to reduce interference, and
>> consequently the radios made every AM station sound like crap.
George B-N replied
>----- I am simply astounded. The US AM stations must have been quite
>low power, because an inter-channel distance of 20kHz was quite
>unimaginable for the 1930s European system (we had 10kHz then). There
>were definitely local low-power stations but that would not help if the
>large transmitters were 10kHz apart and the small ones went above 5kHz.
>Well, well, learning never ends. Best wishes, George
American AM stations ranged in power from 100 watts to 50,000 watts plus WLW
which had a transmitter in 1934 that was 500,000 watts. The high powered
stations were placed on frequencies which were cleared of other stations,
called Clear Channels. They were allocated their frequencies so that they
had several hundred miles of interference-free daytime coverage and a
thousand or more miles during the night. The lower power stations were
closer together but most were day-timers, and they were far enough apart
that during the day they would not interfere. They signed off at sunset. A
10 KHz frequency response would give interference to the first adjacent
frequency, and anything more would give some splatter to the second
adjacent, but at night that would be less of a problem as the power of those
sounds were weak. The current rules, called NRSC-2, keeps the sound to just
under 10 KHz to allow for the second adjacent frequency stations which are
now closer together than they had been allowed before the 1970s.
Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
|