From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad re off-air recordings: I have a 10" record in several copies on German Brunswick of the broadcasted Edward VII abdication speech. It was apparently also available on a white no- text label, because it may not have been sold officially in the UK. Rumour has it that it was recorded off-air from a short-wave version of the broadcast picked up in Canada. I also happen to have a recording off-air on longwave AM (200 kHz Droitwich, England; now, and until it closes down: 198 kHz). It was recorded in Denmark. It is much clearer than the Brunswick one, and you can hear the door slamming and not just a thud when the announcer leaves the microphone to the abdicating king. So, I would say that aerials mean everything for reception. Kind regards, George P.S. At some stage I shall find the documentation and tell you about the in- house BBC standards that controlled the bandwidth when broadcasting in the 1930s. There was absolutely no talk of "generous bandwidth" on the AM bands (MW and LW). > At 03:26 AM 2009-01-03, Anthony Baldwin wrote: > > >...My pal specified Lorenz when I ask him about the brand of machine > >he was using in the Wehrmacht in 1944, also mentioning that it had a > >variable-speed transport adjustment. > > Thanks to the Begun book, I was aware of Lorenz making steel tape > recorders and wire recorders, but I was unaware that they had made > tape recorders to compete with AEG, but that is certainly > understandable. It would be useful if your friend had more > information about these machines. > > > >... A couple of my friend's off-air tapes survived WWII. I have a DAT > >copy of his recording of a Dec. 1944 Glenn Miller German language > >"ABSIE 514" broadcast from Britain, as monitored somewhere on what > >remained of the Eastern Front, probably Hungary. Reception is > >outstanding, to the point where one suspects the BBC studio > >transcription pick-up needed a new needle. Given the savagery that > >must have been going on in the immediate vicinity of the receiver, > >it's entirely surreal to hear Miller's calm voice and the strains of > >Moonlight Serenade wafting over the ether. However, as far as content > >is concerned there are no surprises: the same material is available > >on commercial CD, professionally transcribed from a set of the > >original discs. > > It would be interesting to put together a short excerpt of the two > versions of the same recording under fair use to demonstrate the > difference between off-air and direct from disk (i.e. not entire > selections by any means so if anyone wanted to listen to the > selection rather than compare AM reception they'd buy the CDs). I > would think two or three selections of say one minute each would > provide the flavour of the AM transmission capability. > > It would be most interesting for people to hear the capabilities of > AM before all of the manmade noise and the crapping up of the AM > broadcast chain. > > Cheers, > > Richard > > > >Tony B. > > Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask] > Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX > Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm > Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.