Some interesting usenet discussions on bias:

http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.audio.pro/browse_thread/thread/17c77b8b1eda3520/b06338a999a09aa9 

http://groups.google.ca/group/sci.electronics.basics/browse_thread/thread/ad231ea9e375433e/

This surprised me:
Quote
An historic side note: before there were all-in-one chips, cheaper tape
recorders skimped on circuitry and eliminated the bias oscillator.
Instead, they used DC bias techniques -- the same as you'd use to move a
tube or transistor into its best operating range -- and ran the tape head
in an always-positive or always-negative mode. This had the same effect on
zero-crossing... but you can imagine what it did for s/n as the head
became magnetized.

Some early tube recorders (e.g., 1954 AC-operated Ampro) and transistor
ones (mid-60's $30 Lafayette portable) had this arrangement.

Dave

Philip Pemberton wrote:
> Not even close. Something similar to one of those handheld tape recorders
> would be fine. I'm thinking about using it to store FSK encoded data, or
> maybe just speech.
> At the moment I just want to get some sound out of this thing :)
> 
> Later.

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