Playing 1/2 inch NASA data reel through 1/4 inch audio reel to reel recorder

[Chuck(G)]

That NASA 9-track tape may, in fact, have nothing at all to do with the others, which are labeled with "PIoneer" tags (or an abbreviation thereof).

The "ZELLNER" and "VESTA" made me wonder, as neither Pioneer 10 nor Pioneer 11 did any imaging in the asteroid belt (Vesta is a large asteriod). A little Googling turns up this:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19780021064.pdf

Benjamin H. Zellner is an astronomer who was at the UofArizona at the time. His specialty was asteroids. To the best of my knowledge, he's still around--he may have some additional information to contribute about the data on the tape.

How's that for a Sherlock Holmes impersonation? Give me a roll of rusty mylar and I'll track down the owner.

 

[T4600C]

Thanks a lot for the tape and all the information you have gathered. I am sure it will help research.

Remember everyone, you can find the tapes here: https://archive.org/details/SpaceData

A lot has happend since reading the Zellner tape.
Chuck has given NASA SAT 1179 an other go and it reads much better now.

We've finally been able to read an Pioneer tape: Pioneer 11 4138N. This is a 7-track tape written at 556 BPI. Unfortinately we dont know which type of drive and mainframe it was written with so we don't know how to read the data. If someone wants to have a go at the SIMH file that would be great.

I am glad and amazed we got so far, the journey has been awesome.

 

[T4600C]

greetings! I got great news: We have processed the first image from one of my Pioneer tapes.

All thanks go to Leo for processing the first image on Pione-QK7992H tape. Thanks a lot for your work Leo!

Some info:
The image data should contain two colour channels, blue and red, but for now we have just processed everything as grayscale. We are not sure yet how to process the colour channels. The image data is 6-bit with 64 intensity values. It has been processed into a PNG.

RAW image:

Contrast equalized:

https://imgur.com/a/i6l8RUO

Update: A GIF with three images recovered so far:

 

[soviet9922]

What is in that image ?

 

[T4600C]

What is in that image ?

I think this dataset is suppose to be zodiacal light.

 

[T4600C]

Hans and Daschmid have been doing some great work on deciphering the Switch Action tapes. Here is some information we found recently.

Here are some more educated guesses about the format:

Example of header:
R/L 40M67790-6 E/O 2T-0038 REV AS D/I 11/10/72 ECP 10-3205 E

- The headers at the top of each file imply this is controlled
engineering data. The strings starting with '40M' look like NASA
part numbers, and the E/O (Engineering Order), REV (Revision) and
ECP (Engineering Change Proposal) fields are familiar from other
NASA documents.

Example of other lines:
S 04 11 M DI 0083 SIB THRUST FAILURE IND L DO 0083 ON C H

- Columns 7-12: incrementing ID?

- Columns 13-22: appear to describe the primary hardware operation
associated with the measurement. There are a few different
formats, but I think:

{L,M} DI #### = Get Digital Input ####
{L,M} DO #### = Set Digital Ouput ####
D EE #### = Discrete Event Evaluator ####

The 'L'- and' M'-tags stand for the 'Launch Control Computer Complex' and 'Mobile Launcher'.

- The three character field starting at column 24 is the systems
area/responsible position for the measurement/command:

SIC - Saturn V 1st Stage
SIB - Saturn IB
SII - Saturn V 2nd Stage
IVB - Saturn V 3rd Stage
IU - Saturn Instrumentation Unit
INT - Integration
EDS - Emergency Detection System
LSE - Launch Support Equipment
NAV - Navigation
PL - Propellant Loading
PWR - Power
OAT - Overall Acceptance Test?
EDV - ?

- Colums 28-52: Measurement Nomenclature

- Colums 54-67: (sometimes) hardware operation to execute command
e.g, if "SIC TERM COUNTDOWN SEQ RESET L DO 0131 ON"
writing "ON" to Digital Output #131 would execute
"TERM COUNTDOWN SEQ RESET"

I think this is a reasonable guess at the formatting.

Lets look at some tapes from Apollo 16 and Skylab 2:

Looking at the headers from each:

Tape 2909, Block 3:
R/L 40M17360-11 E/O 8S-0405 REV D D/I 06/15/71 ECP 10-3148 E 511 BASELINE

Tape 1179, Block 12:
R/L 40M17360-11 E/O 8S-0413 REV M D/I 10/28/71 ECP 10-3206 E 511 FRT-1

'511' is AS-511, the launch vehicle for Apollo 16. 'FRT' is 'Flight Readiness Test'.

Detailed info on AS-511: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19730025090.pdf

There's a table of prelaunch milestones on page 3-2 (46). AS-511 had its Flight Readiness Test on 3/7/1972 and was launched 4/16/1972. Considering the long lead times for checkout and configuring hardware (AS-511's S-IVB arrived at the Cape in July 1970), the dates on the tape seem reasonable. Note also that Tape 2909 has headers for revisions 'A'-'D' and 1179 has revisions 'E'-'M'

Tape 2090, Block 0:
R/L 40M67790-6 E/O 2T-000000 REV D/I ECP 10-
Block 2 ends with:
40M67790-6 206 BASELINE

Tape 1820, Block 54:
R/L 40M67790-6 E/O 2T-0038 REV AS D/I 11/10/72 ECP 10-3205 E
Block 56 ends with:
40M67790-6 206 BASELINE

Here '206' is SA-206, the launch vehicle for Skylab 2.

SA-206 flight manual: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740021163.pdf
SA-206 postlaunch evaluation: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19730025087.pdf

Again the dates line up(With our tapes)

In the SA-206 postlaunch evaluation there's some discussion of an anomaly at launch, where the ground Digital Events Evaluator (DEE-6), recorded a momentary "thrust failure indication and cutoff start indication". These two discretes are present on the tape, although unfortunately the evaluation doesn't say which discretes they were:

D D EE 0083 SIB THRUST FAILURE IND
D D EE 0085 SIB CUTOFF START IND

I doubt now that this file was associated with the LVOS. Based on IBM's paper describing the system, it appears that it was first used on ASTP and wouldn't have been in use at the time the tapes were created:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19750051202.pdf

Very detailed information about the RCA-110A's and their interfacing equipment: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19690001882.pdf

The 'L' and 'M' tags in the file are 'Launch Control Computer Complex' and 'Mobile Launcher'. So:

S 04 11 M DI 0083 SIB THRUST FAILURE IND L DO 0083 ON C H

Defines Switch Action #0411:
Mobile Launcher Digital Input #0083
name=SIB THRUST FAILURE IND
on receipt: SET LCC Digital Output #0083 to ON

There's a matching entry for L DO 0083:

S 04 11 L DO 0083 SIB THRUST FAILURE IND NONE C H

Which would correspond to a light or other indicator on a Firing Room Console.

There's also a DEE entry, which I'm guessing tells the Digital Event Evaluator to log changes associated with that Digital Out:

D D EE 0083 SIB THRUST FAILURE IND


Check out these two extremely detailed docs:

Saturn Launch Computer Complex Programmer's Manual: http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/Documents/SLCC_Programmers_Reference_Manual.pdf

AS-503 Verification Test Programs, 73V1201: http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/Documents/AS-503VerificationProcedures.pdf

You won't find a definition of the the actual Switch Action Table tape format, but the tape is clearly describing the configuration information for the SLCC system.

On page 3-9/3-10 (56 in the PDF) of the programmer's manual, it mentions the "Discrete Executive":
"The Discrete Executive initiates logging at both computers. There are a number of different types of discrete tables each containing specific data. These tables are:
* LDO and MDO Profile table
* LCCC and MLC Discrete Status tables for IODC's 5 and 7
* General Discrete Log table (LDI, LDO, and MDI Changes)
* MDO Issue table"

Section 4.1.1 on 4-3 (p.66) describes "Launch Vehicle Input/Output, Discrete Input/Output" and give details on LDI/LDO's and MDI's/MDO's, which as suspected are LCCC/MLP Digital Input/Outputs.

73V1201 contains the test procedures for verifying the LCC computer software and interface to the launch vehicle are operating correctly. There's a lot of interesting details here, but first check out "Discrete Initialization and Modification (NT98/NT99)" (p.24). Section 5.2.2 (p.27) says:
"5.2.2 Place cards in the card reader to perform the following action table modification:
MDI 0010 0N - LDO 1200 issued ON
MDI 1200 0N - LDO 0010 issued 0N
LDI 0033 0N - MDO 0619 issued 0N
LDI 0619 0N - MDO 0033 issued ON"

That sounds an awful lot like our tapes. My guess is they're the input data for the NT98 Discrete Initialization Program, which unfortunately isn't described in detail. If anyone can locate the following documents, I bet we'd find what we need there:

Specification for the Operating System for the Saturn V Launch Computer Complex, Volume 1, Revision 1.
MSFC No. III-4-440-4

Operator Reference Manual for SLCC Progranrning System,
MSFC No. lII-4-440-5, IBM No. 68-F11-0003, dated 15 June 1968.

User Instructions for Saturn V Launch Computer Complex Operating System and Test Programs
MSFC No. III-4-462-1

There are numerous references to specific LDI/LDO/MDI/MDO numbers in the test procedures and while all of them don't match up with the data in the file, many do. On page 39 while testing the $DMON display monitor program, LDI0346 and MDI0459 are associated with the "ground camera arm switch" on the vehicle camera networks panel. Sure enough:

S 15 10 L DI 0346 INT GND CAMERAS ARM COMD M DO 0346 ON C B
S 15 10 M DO 0346 INT GND CAMERAS ARM COMD NONE C B
S 20 03 M DI 0459 INT GND CAMERA ARMED L DO 0459 ON C B

Another interesting example is the Launch Vehicle Data Adapter communication interfaces. See the "LVDA STATUS CODE CONVERSION CHART" on p.146. The LVDA sends back binary words on MDI0733-MDI0738:

S 31 13 M DI 0733 IU MODE CODE 1 IND L DO 0733 ON C G
S 31 14 M DI 0734 IU MODE CODE 2 IND L DO 0734 ON C G
S 31 15 M DI 0735 IU MODE CODE 3 IND L DO 0735 ON C G
S 31 16 M DI 0736 IU MODE CODE 4 IND L DO 0736 ON C G
S 31 17 M DI 0737 IU MODE CODE 5 IND L DO 0737 ON C G
S 31 18 M DI 0738 IU MODE CODE 6 IND L DO 0738 ON C G

For example, if MDI0736 and MDI0734 are ON that indicates "PREPARE TO LAUNCH WITH A PLATFORM"

My current thinking is that the tapes are describing the discrete I/O configuration of the two RCA-110A computers used to interface between the Launch Control Center and the Mobile Launcher. Switches and indicators on consoles in the Firing Room were wired into an RCA-110A computer (The "Saturn Launch Control Computer Complex"), and from there commands could be sent across a serial link to another RCA-110A in the Mobile Launcher. The Mobile Launcher computer communicated with relay racks and other equipment on the pad and LV, including the Saturn LVDC.

 

[T4600C]

First attempts at merging the blue and red channel from a B/R photo:

 

[T4600C]

lets welcome this post to 2019!

I have decided to release an unfinished version of the processed data from Pione-QK7992H done by Hans.

there are 12 files on the tape, of which we have confirmed 6 to be image files, and have decoded them. There are 3 B/W images and 3 duo-colour images. (file1, 2, 6, 7, 11, 12)

As to what is on them... we do not yet know. If you know anybody that could help, tell him about me!

As for the 6 remaining files, we are not sure what those are. Their ASCII metadata is similar to the image files, but the data is different. By processing some of the remaining files anyway, we get weird patterns that could hint to some kind of image format, but we don't know!

Hans has separated the binary data from all 12 files from the SIMH file and put each in their own folder. When applicable he converted them to images. Each folder is supplied with the raw binary data and readable ASCII metadata.

Note this is unfinished, as some non-image files have only their metadata supplied, not the binary data. This will be done later when Hans has the time.

https://archive.org/download/SpaceData/Pione-QK7992H-Processed-Alpha.zip
(File scanned by VirusTotal, no positives: https://www.virustotal.com/#/url/65fdc7a34fb300a82fb02bcaaebdcaf06befbcb89a9013625ef191a69ccc3c63/detection)

There are a few more tapes that need to be digitized, Chuck will try a second pass on those when he has the time.

In the mean time I have acquired some NASA tapes that were used to record satellite telemetry data at tracking stations in the 60's and 70's. These tapes were used in Ampex FR-100 and FR-600 recorders to record the raw telemetry signal as it was received. Below are some photos. More info coming soon.

 

[T4600C]

I have also acquired ESA satellite tapes, also appear to be telemetry.

I have tested out three of the five ESA tapes with a magnetic viewing solution, and all three clearly showed seven 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-B)
• 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 second, a video where I visualize the magnetic tracks on three tapes:

Here are some photos of the tracks. I promise I will publish a big archive with detailed scans and photos of all ESA and NASA tapes currently in my possession.

I have also make zip archives for all seven NASA satellite tapes I've got so far. They can be found here. The seven zip files mentioned here start with "Sat-" and will be updated and renamed to later versions when hopefully we manage to digitize the tapes and process the telemetry.

 

[T4600C]

Some interesting new finds, did we play telemetry?

Last week I took the time to play some ESA tapes (1/2 inch 7-track) on my Akai X201D (1/4 inch 4-track)

The tapes played:
1.
SAT: ESRO 1A
TAPE ID: 680841-292-230
ESOC/Section TLM: 13496
DATE: 24 JULY 70
2.
SAT: 720,141
TAPE ID: 1135 05 10A
ESOC/Section TLM: 21554
DATE:
3.
SAT: TD-1
TAPE ID: 1117 09 08 B
ESOC/Section TLM: 16837
DATE: "Day 089"
4.
SAT: TD-1A
TAPE ID: 1118 07 09 A
ESOC/Section TLM: 16672
DATE:

To give you an idea of ​​how satellites sounded in the 60's and 70's check out this website with recordings.


I made a video where I play the tapes and show it on an oscilliscope:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SnRvu9bfFk

Some remarkable details:
ESRO 1A has a lot of activity at the beginning, it looks like a reference signal that is being adjusted. There pitch changes and there are periods of noise. Eventually we receive a stable signal which is certainly more complex than a simple sine wave.

ESRO 1A:
Oscilliscope:

Spectrogram: seems to show a kind of square wave, would this be satellite data?

Signal played at 20% original speed, sounds like morse code.


The space between the signals is similar to track 6 of the ESRO 1A tape:

TD-1
Oscilliscope : The wave of this signal swells up and comes down again.

Spectrogram : And here you can see that too.

TD-1A
Oscilliscope:
This signal has two harmonic waves:

And when we zoom out, it has a kind of block pattern:

But when it is very interesting to delay the signal, it sounds like a morse code again.
Spectrogram:

Signal played at 15% original speed, sounds like morse code again.

A lot of new information that will take some time to process.

It seems to me quite possible that this is the received data. If we find documents from the relevant satellite with information about telemetry, should it be possible to create a program or circuit that processes the signal?
A program could convert it to a spreadsheet. How much volts the battery outputs every second for example.

I do not know anything about it, but the ESA recordings do not seem to be FM-modulated, since such a wave looks very different.
The NASA recordings are usually not, so apparently AM and FM modulation was not common in recordings from this time.
The NASA documentation usually also has "Direct" recordings and not "FM"

I am looking for people who may be able to help with the relevant satellites, and who are more acquainted with this kind of work.

Niels

 

[T4600C]

Gerald from the unmannedspaceflight forum has the following idea:

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, seems to code a bit .
So it should be fairly easy to convert the signal into a bit stream.

Then it only requires us to find the relevant documentation so that we can write a computer program.

Voice found on beginning of NASA tape

On satellite tape 'Sat-SNTAGO-120J827' a voice can be heard briefly at the beginning. The voice probably tells us the recording time. "The time is 11 5 AM"

The satellite is Upsilon 61, the recording date was Sept 7, 1961

I had to play the recordings backwards.
Here the fragment as an MP3 file.

 

[Chuck(G)]

The voice and the accompanying audio is what the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) would transmit on 2.5, 5, 10 15 and 20 MHz on station WWV. See WikiP entry

Back in the day, the WWV signal was the US time standard. Canada had a similar signal originating from the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa.

 

[T4600C]

The voice and the accompanying audio is what the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) would transmit on 2.5, 5, 10 15 and 20 MHz on station WWV. See WikiP entry

Back in the day, the WWV signal was the US time standard. Canada had a similar signal originating from the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa.

Hmm, interesting. I already found it strange, because the accompanying tape document does not list any of the tracks as a voice channel(Unlike most other tapes where track 7 is a locally recorded voice annotation channel.)

However, track 3 is listed as "WWV Signal" so this clears up our mystery. Thanks.