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Old 12-22-2015, 11:55 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Elkhart, Indiana
Posts: 1,189
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV View Post
Before worrying about replacement heads, you should do tests to see if any are even needed. Put an oscilloscope on the output of the control head to see if it is making a signal when a tape is playing. (If you do not have a scope yet, you should get one; many used ones are cheap and not too hard to learn to use.)

Regarding the speed and test-tape issues, the key is to compare using a known-good VCR. For example, if you play a tape recorded on the Hitachi on another machine, does it play properly? (And, switching the speed while a VCR is recording may not even work; you might have to hit Stop first. But, trying each speed available is a good plan.) Make sure your test VCR can play all the speeds of the Hitachi (so, don't use a VBT-200 or VCT-series machine to try to play an "SLP" or "EP" recording).
No I don't have a 'scope and I have said this several times before on here, I can't afford to get one because all of the 'scopes I've seen for sale on ebay are going for well over $100 and I don't have that kind of money laying around.
As for the test tape I couldn't even make a proper test tape because the tuner on the VCR isn't even working right so I had no way to get a test signal into the VCR for recording test purposes.
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