Building a Magnetic Tape
Recorder from Scratch, (1949-1952)
by Hans G. Mesch
It
all started with a letter to our regional radio station in Hamburg, the
Nordwest Deutscher Rundfunk (NWDR), when a
friend and I politely requested a closer look at the technical part of the
radio station.
As
a 16-year-old boy this was my greatest wish. Ever since I built a crystal radio
as a 13-year-old, and a radio with German military surplus tubes (RV12-P2000)
as a 14-year-old, I knew working with radio equipment was going to be my
future.
About one month later I received a reply and
a date: Sunday, June 12, 1949 / 10 o’clock in the morning. I was allowed to
bring one friend. I chose my
friend Gerhard. At 10 o’clock sharp we were met by an engineer who took us on a
two hour tour, from studio B through control rooms and concert halls, where the performances were recorded on magnetic tape
recorders for later transmission. Finally we were taken into a studio where our
conversation was recorded on magnetic tape and thereafter played back to our
amazement! We heard voices
we did not recognize. That was the moment I decided I was going to build a
magnetic tape recorder. Little did I know about the difficulties I had to face, primarily due to my lack of knowledge. It all started
with lots of experimentation. I did understand the basic principle of the
recorder but was missing the finite technical points that could only be
achieved by reading the appropriate literature.
However, technical literature was difficult to find in those days. With the moral support from my friend Gerhard we
planned our project.
The
tasks that needed to be addressed were the following:
1)
The Magnetic Tape: We were told the
tape was coated with small metal particles. We found
an old 8mm film on a 3 inch diameter spool. With a fine metal file we slowly
and laboriously removed the desired metal shavings from a block of steel.
Thereafter we glued the metal shavings onto one side of the 8mm film strip;
what a job!
2)
The Recording Tape Head: We knew that the tape head needed to be non-magnetic. We traded a multi position rotary switch for
a coil wound on a Mu-metal core. After removing the thicker windings we
cut a very narrow slot into the ring
and wound hair thin wire through the slot, 4000 windings to be exact. Gerhardt
and I took turns, making it a weekend job. It was time-consuming
because about every 50th winding the wire broke and had to be
soldered and insulated.
3) The Tape Transport: We employed a small 12
VDC motor to turn an empty 3 inch spool to unwind the loaded 8mm film spool
while pressing the film against the recording head.
4)
The Playback Head: At the time it was
our plan to also use the recording head as playback head.
5)
The Signal Amplifier: Months before, I had
built an amplifier for an old record player, which also served as a PA system.
The vacuum tubes had been removed from military radio equipment that the German
Army had left behind in the woods during the last days of the war.
6) Erasing the Magnetic Tape: Easy, use a magnet WRONG! Little did we know at the time, total magnetic saturation of the tape made the detection of future recordings for the much smaller recorded signals impossible.
7)
The Final Test: We finally shouted into the carbon microphone as the 8mm film
rushed across the slit of the recording head. We then connected the recording
head to the input of our amplifier. After rewinding the 8mm film our
prerecorded “magnetic tape” passed once more across the now playback head. - We
heard nothing! We repeated it several times with the highest amplifier gain
setting and still --- wait, did you hear that? No. – Again, nothing.
We
realized then the 8mm film was too thick and indeed the whole thing was nothing
but a pipe dream. I had lost all hope. Meanwhile I worked on other electronic
projects that had caught my interest.
Had
it not been for my friend Gerhard who encouraged me not to give up on the
Magnetic Tape Recorder, the project would have stopped right then and there. Of course, we
knew that without the tape the professionals were using, our project would have no chance for success.
The
BASF ( Badische Annelin und Soda Fabrick) in Bavaria was the only company that
produced this tape. But to purchase such a tape was another story! Our first
letter to BASF: Received no answer. Our second letter was answered: “ BASF only
sells to radio stations and film studios”. In our third letter we explained
what we boys were trying to accomplish. Someone at BASF must have had a heart
because one month later, to our astonishment, we received a 1000 meter (3000ft)
tape for the price of the 20.- DM.
It
took me a while to come up with a better tape transport for the much larger
tape reels. Two old turntable discs supported the tape but the right motors were
hard to find. With my 18th birthday coming up by the end of the year
I wished for money to buy a synchronous drive motor and another smaller (fan)
motor to the wind our precious tape. I had also repaired radios, vacuum cleaners,
doorbells, etc. that brought in some more needed money.
With
a rather crude transport system mounted on a plywood board, the new magnetic tape and the home-wound recording/playback head we actually produced the
first positive results. Nothing to get too excited about, but a low volume garbled voice was audible and sure
sounded better than nothing at all.
Finally, we identified the
recording head as the weak link in the system. Months later we discovered the
location of the AEG supply store in Hamburg that dealt with spare parts for AEG
and Telefunken magnetic tape recorders. The idea was to purchase a used
recording head. After a long time
the AEG clerk returned to the desk and asked for the recorder model number. We
told him we had not assigned one yet. When he found out that we were going to
build a tape recorder from scratch he advised us to save our money because it
had been unsuccessfully tried before. Twenty minutes later we left the AEG
supply store with a 30.- DM used playback head. One could tell it had been used
because the playback head had worn down some of the Mu- metal across the slit.
A distinct difference between our head and the AEG head was the width of the
slit. Our slit was about 1 mm wide; the AEG slit was less than 0.1 mm (meaning
better frequency response). The AEG Mu-metal ring consisted of two halves, each
side wire wound. The two halves were mounted between two cast-iron rings; a
very smart design. From now on we were able to show some rewarding progress,
slowly, step by step. The new head functioned as recording and playback head and for the
first time we heard our voices more clearly, but
still not loud enough. We solved our problem by building a preamplifier with
two additional tubes. However, excessive 50Hz hum
put a damper on our progress. (The German Power stations generate 220 Volt AC,
50Hz)
The partial solution to the problem was found by
relocating our power transformer as far away from the playback head as possible
and then rotating the transformer slowly for a minimum of 50Hz hum. By now we had
used about half of our magnetic tape without erasing the pre-recorded section.
Erasing the tape with a magnet was a no-no!
Since Christmas 1950 was near, I was hoping for money to buy the missing recording and
erasing heads. Santa was good that
year. So, we were not only able to buy two heads but also a
better synchronous motor to allow us to move the magnetic tape in a more
constant speed (At that time we had not heard of piston drives.) Meanwhile we found some literature (Radio Magazine)
describing how magnetic tapes are erased with a 32 kHz signal. We found a
schematic for a simple oscillator and calculated the capacitance and inductance
required. We had to wind our own coil for the 32 kHz oscillator. Having found a
coil of unknown inductance, we needed to
determine the constant (K) of the ferrite core. We accomplished that by placing
a 500 microfarad capacitor in series
with the coil and placed the LC network between our radio receiver antenna
input and the antenna. We selected a radio station with a known frequency and
then started to unwind the coil until the station was no longer heard. We then
disconnected the coil and counted the remaining windings of the RF coil. Now we
knew the number of coil windings. We also knew the frequency and the
capacitance. With that data we were able to determine the constant K of the
ferrite core, enough information to calculate the windings for the 35 kHz
oscillator. In order to make sure we were providing enough RF power we selected
the high-power LS50, a tube used in military radio equipment. We also read
that a small amount of the 32 kHz RF signal would be beneficial for the
demagnetization of the playback head.
The
final results were stunning. The quality of our
voices had improved and the signal was also more amplified than before. However, the music recordings left something to be desired
because the tape speed was not constant. The two guides that positioned the
tape over the three heads were stationary and not turning. But, we later found some rollers that improved the tape’s
constant speed.
In
spite of all progress made over the last few months we still could not totally
get rid of the 50 cycle hum during playback recordings. I am not sure who came
up with the idea, but by placing a coil with about equal impedance of that of
the playback head, wired between the playback head and the preamp, we were able to reduce the hum. We positioned the
coil several centimeters below the playback head and turned the coil around
until the 50 Hz signal was almost completely canceled and only a slight hiss
was audible. We then found a spot where we could mount the coil, generating the
same results.
Approximately
1 ½ years had gone by since we started this project. The reasons were component delays, other more interesting
projects, and extreme hot and cold weather conditions experienced throughout
the year under the attic roof, without insulation
for my Radio Shack. Even a thick warm Jacket and Grandma’s heating pad on my
back would not allow me to stay up there more than 20 minutes during the winter
months.
At
the age of 18, I started my three year apprentice’s period in a radio shop and schooling in my hometown
(Kellinghusen) where I had access to a lathe, allowing
me to improve the rollers of the tape feed and other drives. Finally, I mounted all components on a large aluminum sheet. A
friend of mine did not like the wooden frame I had built and took it upon himself to surprise me with a more professional
version.
Magnetic Tape Recorder final
completion: April, 1952
We
later added some features to our Tape Recorder that allowed us to produce ecos
during the recording operation by feeding a small signal from the playback head
to the input of the recording amplifier, among other things.
When
word got out that we had built a tape recorder we received invitations from our
small City Symphony Concert group to record their practice sessions and another
from a Senior Group for recording one of their speeches. Since we had no idea
what to charge for our services, we accepted donation which were more than
generous.
It
must have been late 1953 when the first
commercial reel-to-reel Magnetic Tape Recorders became available in Germany,
made by AEG and Grundig.
A
lot of time has passed since then. I spent about 6 Years in the Semiconductor
industry (IR) and an other 32 Years in world of Aerospace Egineering, (TRW, Redondo Beach, Ca.) and always enjoyed my
work.
My
friend Gerhard studied to be a lawer and retired as a Judge in the city of
Hamburg .
I
would have never written about this subject, had it not been for my friend
Randy Elvis, who bugged me more than once to tell the story. I have to say, it was relatively easy
for me, because I had kept my notes and pictures over the years. And as a benefit, it was nice going down
Memory Lane once more. Thank you Randy!
Typical
Magnetic Tape Recorder, the same we saw at the
NWDR Radio Station in
Hamburg, in the year 1949. (Picture from Internet)
German developments (Wikipedia Encyclopedia)
Magnetic tape recording as we know it
today was developed in Germany during the 1930s at BASF (then part of the chemical giant IG Farben) and AEG in cooperation
with the RRG. This was based
on Fritz Pfleumer's 1928 invention of
paper tape with oxide powder lacquered to it. The first practical tape recorder
from AEG was the Magnetophon K1,
demonstrated in Germany in 1935. Eduard
Schüller of
AEG built the recorders and developed a ring shaped recording and playback
head. It replaced the needle shaped head which tended to shred the tape.
Friedrich Matthias of IG Farben/BASF developed the recording tape, including
the oxide, the binder, and the backing material. Walter Weber, working for Hans
Joachim von Braunmühl at the RRG, discovered the AC biasing technique, which radically improved sound
quality.[11]
Magnetophon from a
German radio station in World War II..
During World War II, the Allies noticed that certain German officials were making
radio broadcasts from multiple time zones almost simultaneously.[11] Analysts such asRichard H. Ranger believed that the broadcasts had to be
transcriptions, but their audio quality was indistinguishable from that of a
live broadcast[11] and their duration was far longer than was
possible with 78 rpm discs. (The Allies were aware of the existence of the
pre-war Magnetophon recorders, but not of the introduction of high-frquencybias and PVC-backed tape.)[12] In the final stages of the war in Europe,
the Allied capture of a number of German Magnetophon recorders
from Radio Luxembourg aroused great
interest. These recorders incorporated all of the key technological features of
modern analog magnetic recording and were the basis for future developments in
the field.
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