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Author
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Topic: Skylab: Video tape recorder vs data recorders
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Dwight
Member Posts: 576
From: Germany
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted 02-20-2012 05:15 AM
   
I am trying to establish whether the Skylab Data Recorders have been erroneously labelled by NASA on photo S73-27467 (from a TV downlink) as a Video Tape Recorder. According to other pictures I have of the Video recorder, the reels were smaller. Does anyone have the video in question as I would like to hear what was said during the segment? |
garymilgrom
Member Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 02-20-2012 05:55 AM
Those look like 1" thick reels of magnetic tape. The one-inch video standard was a professional reel-to-reel analog recording helical scan videotape format co-developed and introduced by Ampex and Sony in 1976 - several years after this photo was taken. Therefore I think they are recording data with this machine.Note the type of transport used does not limit the type of data recorded. Analog video is just another type of data, so it's not inconceivable that NASA had a proprietary format for recording video on this mission. |
Dwight
Member Posts: 576
From: Germany
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted 02-20-2012 08:32 AM
Thanks Gary. Here is a shot of the VTR as it was checked by RCA. Completely different tape (thanks to the board mods for setting the smaller size). I managed to find some documentation on the unit and it turns out that the above mentioned Weitz photo is actually the data recorder and not the VTR. The VTR was a sealed system. The VTR consisted of two units, the Transport Unit and the Electronics Unit (EU). Thanks to JL Pickering for his outstanding Skylab Image sets which got me thinking about this in the first place.  |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 02-20-2012 11:05 AM
Considering that picture was taken near the ATM control console, a data recorder would be my guess as well if I hadn't already seen the VTR image just above. |
Dwight
Member Posts: 576
From: Germany
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted 02-20-2012 03:14 PM
After consulting the MDA documentation it appears that indeed S73-27467 is mislabelled. It is the data recorder which was not configured to record TV. Would it be worth contacting NASA to tell them? |
mikej
Member Posts: 481
From: Germantown, WI USA
Registered: Jan 2004
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posted 02-21-2012 06:10 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Dwight:
Would it be worth contacting NASA to tell them?
I've contacted both Marshall and Langley about mis-captioned photos, supplying documentation to support my claim, and they've updated the captions appropriately. |
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