"Electron-52D" - the Soviet miniature reel tape recorder ( recorder ) of a simplified construction release of the late 1960s. Widely known for the television movie Seventeen Moments of Spring .
Content
History
In the 1950s and 1960s, after the advent of the transistor and before the era of cassette recorders, the world produced many small-sized models - pocket-sized - reel tape recorders [1] [2] [3] [4] . Among them there were solid devices intended for journalists or special services (for example, Nagra SN [5] ), but in the majority they were cheap unpretentious products with low quality recording and playback. They were suitable only for recording speech and therefore served as electronic notebooks or children's toys. Many of these recorders had a simplified design to the limit. In their tape drive mechanism, there was no drive shaft and pinch roller, and the tape was stretched simply by rewinding from reel to reel. Naturally, at the same time, the speed of the tape draw was obtained variable from the beginning to the end of the recording, because it depended on the diameter of the roll on the receiving reel. The electronic part was also simplified to primitiveness: DC magnetization was used, permanent magnet erasure, the simplest frequency correction circuits, refused the built-in loudspeaker .
One of such simplest, and at the same time the smallest, models was copied at the Poltava Electromechanical Plant (according to other sources - at the Kazan Radio Component Plant) and no later than 1969 was put on sale under the name “Electron-52D Voice Recorder”. The prototype was a Tinico tape recorder of an unknown Japanese manufacturer (it was also found under other names). The copy had some differences from the original, and, according to some evidence, was made at least no worse than the prototype. In the instruction manual, the recorder was called “Memory of a Business Person”. However, there was no tradition of using electronic notebooks in the USSR, it was impossible to listen to music on Electron, and for a toy it cost too much - 81 rubles. A full-fledged class III tape recorder then could be bought for 100-120 rubles. Therefore, demand for Electron was not observed, and the issue, apparently, soon ceased.
In 1973, the television movie “Seventeen Moments of Spring” was released, immediately gaining unprecedented popularity. One of the brightest details in the film was a miniature voice recorder, which was used in SD and the Gestapo for secret sound recordings. Agent Klaus, with such a device, rubbed his confidence in Pastor Schlag, and Stirlitz, on Müller’s instructions , recorded his conversation with Martin Bormann . The sound recorder with the Siemens logo was like two drops of water like an Electron-52D, but the plot was much more capable than in reality: it recorded long conversations and played them without an external amplifier and loudspeaker. Small-sized tape recorders really existed in the mid-1940s, but they worked primarily with magnetic wire rather than tape, and their dimensions were slightly larger than Electron. An example is the German "Minifon" [6] [7] .
Technical Description
Two-track tape recorder. Uses a conventional type 10 magnetic tape (width 6.25 mm, thickness 37 μm) on non-standard coils. The transition from track to track - rearrangement of coils.
The tape drive mechanism of the recorder is a single-engine, simple construction. During the working stroke, only the receiving coil is provided, so the speed of the tape varies from beginning to end of the tape from about 3 ... 4.5 to 7 ... 9 cm / s. No means of stabilization or speed adjustment are provided. Fast rewind is only possible backward.
A universal amplifier is assembled on three germanium transistors. In playback mode, it is loaded on a miniature earphone, which also serves as a microphone in recording mode. Magnetization - direct current flowing through the head . Erasing is carried out using a permanent magnet. The range of reproducible frequencies at a minimum speed is from 300 to 3500 Hz with an unevenness of 16 dB, the coefficient of non-linear distortion of 15 ... 20% - such characteristics provide hardly satisfactory reproduction of speech. There is no volume or recording level adjustment.
The time of continuous recording and playback of one track is 8-10 minutes, with a thinner tape, respectively, longer.
Power sources:
- for an electric motor - two nickel-cadmium batteries TsNK-0.45 or two cells 316 ;
- for the amplifier - the Krona battery .
Operating time from one set of batteries is about 6 hours.
The dimensions of the tape recorder are 165 × 70 × 50 mm, weight 0.5 kg.
Notes
- ↑ Rick Maybury. Tape recorders and players . dustygizmos.com . Date of treatment May 29, 2018.
- ↑ Ralph D. Thomas. Audio Evidence And The History And Evolution Of The Audio Recorder . PIMALL . Date of treatment May 29, 2018.
- ↑ Rick Maybury. Spycorders Date of treatment May 29, 2018.
- ↑ Eric Wrobbel. Pocket And Portable Tape Recorders . ericwrobbel.com . Date of treatment May 29, 2018.
- ↑ Tim Prebble. Beautiful Tech: Nagra SN . Music of Sound (March 9, 2011). Date of treatment May 29, 2018.
- ↑ Ralph D. Thomas. Minifon Portable PIMALL (2008). Date of treatment May 29, 2018.
- ↑ Ralph D. Thomas. Minifon Pocket Wire P-55 Kit . PIMALL (2006). Date of treatment May 29, 2018.
Literature
- Voice recorder "Electron" // Radio: magazine. - 1969. - No. 9 . - S. 31 .
- Bodlovsky K. Improving the dictaphone "Electron-52D" // Radio: journal. - 1971. - No. 9 . - S. 37 .