Author Topic: Huge lot of Apollo 11 CBS audio tapes  (Read 2627 times)

Offline apollo16uvc

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 262
  • Astrophotography on the moon rules
  • Next to LEM, at Descartes Highlands, on the Moon!!!
    • Dutchsteammachine
  • Liked: 291
  • Likes Given: 2
Huge lot of Apollo 11 CBS audio tapes
« on: 09/19/2018 08:30 pm »
I have been working on digitizing a lot of 48 1/4 inch reel to reel tapes. Each contain about 30 to 60 minutes of Apollo 11 CBS TV coverage.

The earliest date is some time before the mission starts, and then the tapes cover the mission events closely. It looks like every moment of the CBS broadcast is on them. Complete broadcasts.

I am about halfway done, the tapes ahead of me are moldy so I need to clean each of them before playing.

You can find them here: https://archive.org/details/thirdpartyaudiotapes
Under designator Ebay-4.

Ebay-4-RT5-22A is the landing or start of lunar EVA. Ebay-4-RT5-23A should be on soon which continues coverage of the EVA.

So far every single tape starts with the CBS jingle, and a printed out page with names of the involved people, mission events and exact runtime. Sounds impossible if these were recorded by hand.

So I think this lot is some kind of archival copy, or requested for educational purposes from CBS. There was a label on the box that said something about it being sent to a school.

What do you guys thing? I am interested in the origin.

Here are some photos of the tapes and my setup:




PS: The archive.org link has many other tape archives, some are dutch recordings, and ABC recordings. If you got any amateur recordings, I'd love to add them to my archive. I can clean and digitize tapes too for you, just hit me a PM!

Enjoy listening, tell me I did a great job!
« Last Edit: 09/19/2018 08:40 pm by apollo16uvc »
Support me on: Patreon

Offline saundby

  • Member
  • Posts: 42
  • The Villages, Florida
    • Acedev, the Comic--Welcome to the Rocket Factory
  • Liked: 25
  • Likes Given: 5662
Re: Huge lot of Apollo 11 CBS tapes
« Reply #1 on: 09/19/2018 08:39 pm »
Wow, that's great!

How do you clean the tapes without damaging the oxide?

Offline apollo16uvc

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 262
  • Astrophotography on the moon rules
  • Next to LEM, at Descartes Highlands, on the Moon!!!
    • Dutchsteammachine
  • Liked: 291
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Huge lot of Apollo 11 CBS tapes
« Reply #2 on: 09/19/2018 08:43 pm »
Wow, that's great!

How do you clean the tapes without damaging the oxide?
Luckly none have had the sticky-shed syndrome so far, so they do not fall apart.

I just fast-forward them and hold sponges with Isopropyl alcohol  against the tape. Two passes gets rid of all the mold. I also clean the reel to make sure no spores are left behind. Some people just run the tape through the machine, this may appear clean, but doesn't actually kill the mold and also infects the machine.

I did a full video of it here, I think this was Ebay-4-RT5-22B or 23A



You can see how fking ugly this tape looks in the beginning. And I have cleaned tapes much worse than this.

An other benefit to running the tape a few times before the final digitization, is they you find dried-up splices, and loosen the tape up so it plays better next time. Tape that has been wound for decades sometimes gets stuck to itself.

Using alcohol may get rid of the lubrication, but after so much time this has likely dried up anyway. Type of lubrication depends on tape stock. It can always be re-applied if absolutely necessary but so far I never had a problem.
« Last Edit: 09/19/2018 08:50 pm by apollo16uvc »
Support me on: Patreon

Offline apollo16uvc

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 262
  • Astrophotography on the moon rules
  • Next to LEM, at Descartes Highlands, on the Moon!!!
    • Dutchsteammachine
  • Liked: 291
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Huge lot of Apollo 11 CBS audio tapes
« Reply #3 on: 09/20/2018 06:52 pm »
Protip when digitizing audio: Turn off any non-essential wireless electronics, like your mobile phone! If I got a dollar for every recording I had to scrap due to radio-interference (Audible and non-audible)... I could buy a decent meal.
« Last Edit: 09/20/2018 06:53 pm by apollo16uvc »
Support me on: Patreon

Offline kking

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 121
  • Topmost, Kentucky
  • Liked: 10
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Huge lot of Apollo 11 CBS audio tapes
« Reply #4 on: 09/26/2018 01:40 am »
I really enjoy the tapes sometimes finding something I don't have. My audio goes back to Mercury and Gemini too.

Offline kking

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 121
  • Topmost, Kentucky
  • Liked: 10
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Huge lot of Apollo 11 CBS audio tapes
« Reply #5 on: 09/26/2018 01:54 am »
Been awhile on my Apollo 11 tapes. I got NBC TV, NBC Radio, CBS Radio, Couple other networks too.

Offline apollo16uvc

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 262
  • Astrophotography on the moon rules
  • Next to LEM, at Descartes Highlands, on the Moon!!!
    • Dutchsteammachine
  • Liked: 291
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Huge lot of Apollo 11 CBS audio tapes
« Reply #6 on: 09/30/2018 03:29 pm »
I have digitized some more tapes, we've now got the entire EVA + the world reaction to the landing and EVA as covered by CBS. Curious to hear what other countries have to say about it.

I really enjoy the tapes sometimes finding something I don't have. My audio goes back to Mercury and Gemini too.

No problem! I like putting this stuff online for people to relive, or discover for the first time. There is just something magical about hearing it come from a tape. Same as with the several hundreds of slide photos of the EVA's on TV, working on putting those online too.

Which broadcasts do you have? I dont have any Mercury and Geminis stuff yet, would be interested to put that online at my archive!

Been awhile on my Apollo 11 tapes. I got NBC TV, NBC Radio, CBS Radio, Couple other networks too.

Awesome, I am very much interested in those recordings, may I put them online?

I can digitize them for you if you want, all you need to cover are the shipping costs.

Regards,
Niels
Support me on: Patreon

Offline kking

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 121
  • Topmost, Kentucky
  • Liked: 10
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Huge lot of Apollo 11 CBS audio tapes
« Reply #7 on: 09/30/2018 11:05 pm »
I have all of Mercury Gemini Apollo Skylab ASTP. Some unmanned like Ranger 7,8,9, Surveyor, and some unmanned Saturn Launches.

Offline kking

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 121
  • Topmost, Kentucky
  • Liked: 10
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Huge lot of Apollo 11 CBS audio tapes
« Reply #8 on: 10/01/2018 02:00 am »
I have about 95% of my audio collection already digitized and got them on a external hard drive that plugs into the USB port so I can listen to anytime. As I write this I'm listening to NBC TV of the Apollo 4 launch.

Offline AegeanBlue

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 699
  • Raleigh
  • Liked: 263
  • Likes Given: 49
Re: Huge lot of Apollo 11 CBS audio tapes
« Reply #9 on: 10/01/2018 09:38 pm »
I have digitized some more tapes, we've now got the entire EVA + the world reaction to the landing and EVA as covered by CBS. Curious to hear what other countries have to say about it.


I think this particular Greek article may be of interest to you:

http://www.kathimerini.gr/776583/article/epikairothta/ellada/otan-aytos-patoyse-to-feggari-egw

Yes, it is in Greek, and Google Translate will mostly give you the gist, butchering it at times. It is from 2014, the 45th anniversary of Apollo 11 and it has the perspective from a professor of the National Technical University of Athens who was watching it at home, the head of the Athens Planetarium who was in Houston as a science reporter, a famous Greek film maker who was in Moscow and a USSR perspective, and several Greeks who were mostly kids at home. The last one is an American archaeologist, the head of the Tiryns excavation who at the time was digging in Greece.

 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement Northrop Grumman
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
0