Does anyone know if there exists an audio cassette recorder that can be set to tape the radio on a timer, like a VCR? There is a late-night radio show that is past my bed-time, and I would like to tape it and listen in my car on the way to work the next morning. Tape length isn’t a problem, I can live with just taping the first hour or so.
There are lots of devices, here are two …
Cassettes: Versacorder
Digital: Radio Prgroam Recorder
Or you could plug your radio into the audio input of the VCR and set your VCR to tape it (kinda like dubbing from a camera, but with no video).
Presumably you would get audio but no video.
Oh, and you would have to listen to the radio on your TV, so no can fix in the car (unless you have a car that has a video in it and if you’re that ruch, maybe you should get your driver to saty up all night and tape it for you).
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- Or you could get a regular appliance timer, set the radio station to the one you want, and put a tape in the tape recorder and set it all to record off the radio, and then plug it into the appliance timer you have set to the time you want to record. - DougC
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An “appliance timer” (which is usually a motorized dial with cogs that trip an on-off switch) isn’t accurate enough for radio taping. You need an electronic timer with a display that a) can be accurately set to the local time and b) can be set to a precise on and off time. I do radio taping with a unit like this that I purchased at Radio Shack, that has multiple day/time settings.
This is actually an excellent solution, given its limitations. In the days before CD jukeboxes, I knew some folks who would use this method to record songs from CDs onto VHS tape and then have 6 hours of uninterrupted music for parties.
There is one important caveat about this method, though: you must have a hi-fi VCR. I have tried this technique on non-hi-fi and the results are nothing anyone would want to spend even a few minutes listening to.
However, the OP said s/he wanted to play it back in his car the next day. It’s unlikely that he has a VCP in his car.
Most newer component tape decks (a category that has not undergone much innovation since the advent of recordable CDs) have either a timer record switch, or are capable of being left in record mode with the power off, so that when power is applied it immediately starts recording.
So if you already have a component tape deck, all you really need to find is the timer alluded to by SavageNarce.
You know, I have one of these digital timers (used to have an iguana and used it to cycle it’s heating and lighting system) and I thought of this idea also, but I discarded it because I thought leaving the tape engaged with the power off for long periods of time might damage the rollers or recording head. So, this technique works okay? I might give it a try.
(BTW, the VCR idea is a good one, but not really practical since I don’t have a VCR in my car.)
If you’re using the timer idea:
If it’s a really low-end tape deck, with entirely mechanical controls (you’ll feel lots of stuff moving around as you push the buttons), this will work. However, as you fear, the pinch roller and capstan will be pressed together all night, which can make a flat spot over time. But this will take months or maybe years to develop, and if it’s a cheap deck, you probably don’t care.
Most quality cassette decks have what the industry calls a “full logic” mechanism; that is, the pushbuttons are only electrical switches. The electronics of the unit actually decide when, why, and how fast to move all of the mechanical stuff around. If the deck happens to have a button or some other method to enable the use of a timer; great. If it does not, you’re pretty much SOL, as the deck will revert to “stop” mode if you cut and then reapply power to it, as a timer would.