Digitizing NASA-ESA Taped Imagery, project to digitize 60s-70s data Options

[apollo16uvc]

Hello dear readers,

Here are some satellite telemetry tapes I have acquired. They are from the 60's to 70's.





These tapes contain the raw signal received from satellites at NASA tracking stations like GFORKS, STIAGO and WINKFIELD.

It seems that there 2 telemetry tracks, 4 misc tracks (Including a reference track) and one voice track.

I am working on getting a recorder to play these tapes. If you know the location of any 7-track instrumentation recorders (Ampex FR-100, FR-600) that would help.

Here is a sample of tape 3141/2N003 played back on a 1/4 inch 4-track Akai at 7.5 I.P.S: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k2jbyoka6n50yhh/3...168-2.flac?dl=0
The tape number on the boxes and documentation is 3141/2N003. The number on the reel itself is 10786-16-8.

Satellite: 1963-014A & B (ERS5)
Recorder: FR-100
Speed: 15 I.P.S
Station Name: GFORKS

Here is an other sample from a different tape: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php...1683;sess=54302

Here is a video showing the tracks: https://youtu.be/I85-aZuupxM
With this we have proven that something is on the tape, and it can be picked up with a sound head. This is the case with most of my tapes.

I am currently talking with someone who has several 1/2 8-track studio tape recorders, and we are looking into getting an Otari MX-5050 8 unit working. This unit is most useful because it can play at both 7.5 I.P.S and 15 I.P.S, which is what we need. All mechanical functions seem to work fine, and the input VU meters register when the build-in tone generator is switched on. But... there is no sound from his tape! (His own audio, not a NASA tape)

This recorder is currently undergoing repairs.

Other tapes I have acquired are ESA tapes from the same era.
I have tested out three of the five ESA tapes with a magnetic viewing solution, and all three clearly showed 7 tracks like the NASA tapes. This means they have not been degaused or overwritten with an audio recorder. The tracks look like raw telemetry, not computer tapes. One tape has a label that clearly says it came from a tracking station. I think we should be able to digitize these too eventually. The tracks are very clear.

The tapes I have tested are:
TD-1 (Tape ID: 1117-09-08-
ESRO 1A (Tape ID: 800 645 08 10B)
HEOS A2 (Tape ID: 1115 06 11B)

I have made two videos on it in dutch.
First, a tutorial on how to make your town magnetic viewing solution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_kA0cnkBLI


And finally, a video where I visualize the magnetic tracks on 3 tapes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAjU2AHIksA

I have attached some photos of the tracks to this message. I promise I will publish a big archive with detailed scans and photos of all ESA and NASA tapes currently in my possession.

Macro photos (Large!)
https://imgur.com/a/rnlJH9P


So what are we looking for?
I am interested to know if its possible to determine the frequency of a track with the track photos.Is it possible to replace the 8-track head in an 1/2 inch Otari tape recorder with a 7-track head, perhaps from a computer tape drive?Is it possible to decode the digitized raw telemetry data into numbers, perhaps a spreadsheet or interactive database?Would people be interested to crowdfund some of the greater expenses that may be required?
Best regards,Niels

[Gerald]

Here is an idea of how to convert the diagram into a bit stream:


When coding the upper potential with 1, and the lower potential with 0, with a more or less fixed clock rate, we get pairs 01 or 10, never 00 or 11. So, such a pair, or transition, appears to encode a bit.
It should hence be fairly straightforward to convert the signal into a bit stream.

[apollo16uvc]

Here is an idea of how to convert the diagram into a bit stream:


When coding the upper potential with 1, and the lower potential with 0, with a more or less fixed clock rate, we get pairs 01 or 10, never 00 or 11. So, such a pair, or transition, appears to encode a bit.
It should hence be fairly straightforward to convert the signal into a bit stream.

Hello Gerald,
Thanks for checking up on the signal! looks pretty good. I shared this with other people, and they think the signal looks like manchester or NRZ coding.See the following diagrams that

look very much like our signals:I think it loos most like Manchester. But which one?
kaq9 from the apollohoax forum said the following:
"The 01 and 10 (never 00 or 11) sequences is call "Manchester coding", and it was a very popular line code at one time. It still is, though there are better alternatives now. It eliminates any DC component from the data and pushes the spectrum away from zero so it can be transformer or capacitor coupled or recorded on magnetic media using old-style electromagnetic-type heads. It's also self-clocking."
Hopefully this helps. Once we got more of the signal processed into a bit-stream i can send a sample to the american with the computer tapes, maybe he will recognize something.
I noticed the compression of the MP3 files I provided corrupt the signal quite a bit.
These lossless FLACs come right off the video recordings made with my Nikon camera. So no weird compression artifacts or bitrate limits are happening.
The spectogram you got your code from was from TD-1A-1118-07-09-A. I made the spectogram with Audacity.
ESRO-1A-680841-292-230

TD-1-1117-09-08-B

TD-1A-1118-07-09-A

TD-1A-1135-05-10A