Re: [ARSCLIST] Wired: One Giant Screwup for Mankind

[Jim Lindner <jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think that putting together a one off machine with a phase locked  
loop would be pretty straight forward - but rather then even worry  
about that - I would just pull the data off and do a "virtual" tbc of  
it in software. IF there is some sort of control track pulse it would  
be very simple, correction of timing error in software would be  
pretty straight forward to  interpolate. In the article (and others)  
there is this persistent discussion of them "fading away"... this it  
unlikely  - IF they can find the tapes - it is likely that they were  
reasonably high coercivity so the RF carrier may be a bit weaker -  
but probably still more then good enough to read - particularly  
considering some of the head technology that exists these days.  
Probably not a small project - - but this is a very "do-able"   
one....... of course finding tapes is a pre-requisite. What surprises  
me - is the general surprise that they were "lost" in the first  
place. This is a recurring theme for decades now - and I fear it will  
be repeated for many more....



Jim Lindner

Email: jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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On Jan 10, 2007, at 11:17 AM, Richard L. Hess wrote:

> Wired Magazine has written about the lost Apollo 11 tapes -- again.  
> Still not found.
>
> This is a good summary, though the last several paragraphs repeat  
> at the end.
>
> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/nasa.html
>
> This would most likely be an Ampex instrumentation recorder.
>
> It would take some work, and the timebase would be less stable, but  
> these tapes could probably be played on a cobbled-together system  
> using an audio recorder. The timebase stability of the Ampex  
> instrumentation recorders was better since the heads were right at  
> the capstan (which was grooved).
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
> Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
> Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/ 
> contact.htm
> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.