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NOISES OFF AND AN EARLY INTERVIEW

In the 1960s we were thrilled to hear the glorious sounds of Hondas, Yamahas, Suzukis, MZs, MVs, Gileras and the various Singles and specials as they flashed through the start and finish area.

I desperately wanted to be able to hear these sounds again when I was at home. It was purely by chance that while I was reading an electronics magazine I was drawn to an ad showing a "Portable Reel-to Reel tape recorder" using 2.5 inch tapes! It was not expensive, in fact postage was about half the cost of the item ------ so I ordered one.......and within a week it arrived in excellent packaging.



I opened it to find "batteries not included" so I had to wait until the Monday to purchase the required type which were rather heavy....and only a blank reel was enclosed so it was another journey into town where I bought three tapes and in the evening I sat and got the thing working, recording a few test phrases...



Now I tried the small reel on my larger home-based recorder to find to my dismay that the speeds were totally different so my recording was reproduced much slower than it had been recorded ----- so I played back on the little player, recording the sound using the microphone attached to the big one....Reproduction lost a bit but it was acceptable and this is how I would transfer my recordings..

So it was packed and I took it to TT 1963 to try it out......It worked fine and I used up a few tapes. labelling the boxes in which they had been bought so I could idendify what I had recorded..



. I needed a few extra batteries (they didn't last long) and bought them on my way up to the paddock and had just loaded the brand new batteries when we heard that Jack Ahearne had done a Ton lap in the practice which had just finished, splitting the MV ridden by Mike Hailwood and the Scuderia Gileras ridden by John Hartle and Phil Read.

I was first on the scene to catch Jack as he returned his Norton to his van after his special lap.....



I requested that I do a quick interview and used my little recorder..He chatted with me for some time and I thanked him..............and here after 56 yeaRS I STILL HAVE THE RECORDING where we discuss his lap and the engine in the machine which had been prepared for him by Geoff Monty and Dudley Ward.. It is a nice memory of that day....



We also used cassette recorders









We now use mini-cassette recorders or phones





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