I ran across this picture on another site...Can anybody here identify the portable recorder that is pictured? I saw one of these once and IIRC, it recorded on 5" reels, was motor driven (not spring wound), equipped with "Cannon" connectors, and was likely powered by wet cells (as the covering on the lower areas of the case was severely damaged, perhaps by acid). The design was primitive, perhaps with no rewind capability. There was a small round plastic "window" on the lid, so that the condition of the reels could be observed.

jr

Hi jr,

I'm pretty sure it's a TAPAK. I had one of them once, but the rechargeable lead acid battery really made a first class mess of the thing decades before I found it!


BH

Hi jr,
I'm pretty sure it's a TAPAK. I had one of them once, but the rechargeable lead acid battery really made a first class mess of the thing decades before I found it!
BH

Interesting! I could only find one picture of the Travis Tapak (in very poor condition) on the web:
http://www.schuhelectronics.com/travis_tapak.htm

A long-time broadcaster sent this link:
http://www.stancilcorp.com/history.html#50s

The Stancel-Hoffman is the unit that I remember seeing years ago, but the one that Roger Hart is holding in the Kennedy interview picture could be either.:scratch2:

jr

Ya sadly the guy took the pic down but I did find a pic of it and its goregous!!

http://web.archive.org/save/http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/nwc98/12854719/53201/53201_600.jpg

I believe that it right??

I wonder what the audio quality was like? (Probably insane)

Thanks for sharing .Very interesting.