--- Begin Message ---
The 'spectrumarchive.org' site mentioned by Russ references the 1986 spectrum
recording from Providence, RI that Craig Healy made via VCR. I dubbed this to
a Perseus file several years ago.
Spectrum recording likely goes back to the early '60s (JFK era). Not long
after that Gordon Nelson talked about a "Monday morning recorder" as a sort of
joke in DX News but I'm fairly sure that his contracting work that included
dealing with intelligence agencies clued him in to the existence of the real
thing, most likely using professional-grade wide videotape similar to that in
the TV broadcast industry. That would have predated Craig Healy's VCR set-up
by a quarter century. Most likely converters with filters were used to move a
chunk of spectrum into the ~3 MHz or so of spectrum that the tape system could
record at decent dynamic range. Conceivably this conversion would be done in a
way that even a slice of VHF spectrum used for aircraft communications could be
moved into the recordable base band.
I believe that Thomas Witherspoon has in his possession a number of SDR files
passed along by Dave Goren to whom I'd supplied a hard drive in 2014. Besides
the 1986 and 1991 "VCR DX" files, a good number of 21st century DXpedition
recordings were included. Pick the right file and you could relive the
programming of long-gone blasters such as 1314 Norway.
The hard drive also included a library of aircheck audio files, many from the
'60s / '70s heydays of Top 40 radio with an emphasis on the Boston and NYC
markets.
It would be good if the site at least put up a directory of its file holdings
in both the RF and audio domains, if not going all the way to allow downloads.
The hard drive I contributed is likely just a drop in the bucket of their total
holdings.
Mark Connelly, WA1IONSouth Yarmouth, MA
<<
In the discussion of history or recordings, some of you might want to check
out this site: spectrumarchive.org. For SW, there's shortwavearchive.org.
Both of these are run by Thomas Witherspoon in NC, who gave a most
interesting presentation last March at the annual SWL Winterfest. He might
be interested in some recordings. I had promised him some from my old
Northern NJ audio recordings but haven't been able to make the time to
cherry pick those and send them on.
Russ Edmunds
WB2BJH
Blue Bell, PA
Grid FN20id
>>
Mark Connelly, WA1ION
--- End Message ---
_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@hard-core-dx.com
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca
Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original
contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its
editors, publishing staff, or officers
For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org
To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
