The tapes arrived today. Their condition appears fine and clean, and I was able to verify a signal with my DIY MVS!!
Photos to go with this post can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...jz?usp=sharing
From my vantage point, the cases, reels and tapes. appear in good condition. The tape is evenly wound, there is no spoking or holes in the winding.
The tape unspools easily by gravity and doesn't seem to stick to the underside of the reels. Nor do I get any shedding or stickiness on my cotton gloves when handling the tape.
There are a few hairline scratches along the shiny side of the tape but I assume this is to be expected? Obviously I don't know how many times these were played/recorded on. The dull side is clean. Tape lays down flat and doesn't want to curl. Edges of the tape appear straight.
I viewed one reel with a DIY magnetic viewing solution. Methanol and fine carbonyl iron powder. Tape C59078-A1-3C, Apollo XI Moon Walk GMT.
Unlike the two other reels, this tape does not have a rubber restrainer that keeps the tape from unspooling inside the case. The first meter or so of this tape is slightly curly and the edges are uneven. After that it becomes good.
It took a few tries and some waiting, but... we got a magnetic signal on the tape!! Certainly audio on one edge, helical scan tracks in the middle and control pulses on the other edge.
See Google Drive photos above for full resolution photos.
I would view more sections and the other two tapes like this... but shortly after this the (briefly submerged in the methanol solution) piece of tape started to curl heavily inward. I dried and cleaned it off carefully and spooled the tape back. Hopefully this section will straighten out...
One other thing of note is that the reels got IDs (E.I C59078-A1-3C) on the underside that match with the labled cases. So they must have matches the labels at one point in time... The cases do not appear to ever had any other labels stuck on them.
Experts, does this look like Ampex Type A?
Is it possible to judge the condition from my photos and description? Any hints of SSS or shedding?
Kind regards,
Niels