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curiousmarc

curiousmarc

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curiousmarc posts

And we have TV from the Moon!

A small step for CuriousMarc & Team, but a giant leap for the Apollo communications restoration project. We just transmitted a black and white TV picture using the original Apollo microwave equ...

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Nevada Haul

https://youtu.be/z0mXPbxbMiI

I'm just back from a trip to Nevada where I attended the Nevada swap meet and met with awesom...

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Hewlett-a-Sketch with a HP 7035B X-Y recorder

Disabled viewer Kevin Counihan had donated a HP 7035B plotter to the channel a while ago. I finally got to it, because I needed it to plot curves for an audio filter I made for the Apollo setup.&nb...

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Power RF components donation for Apollo testing

We just received a these hefty RF components, donated by R&D Microwaves. These are two 100 W loads, a 200W directional coupler, and a 30 dB 100W attenuator. R&D Microwaves is a company in N...

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Tek 222 Oscilloscope Video Early Access

I got a bogus copyright claim on my next video about the fantastic Tektronix 222 mini oscilloscope. Always annoying. But let's turn this into an opportunity and give the Patreons early access while...

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Nice video about the IBM 360

Not my video, but we have collaborated with the CHA channel in the past. This one has some footage of “my” IBM 360/50 that I had not seen before, as well as the footage of the NASA RTCC in Hous...

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Will be on Keysight’s “Live from the lab” Thu. May 19, 9 am Pacific

Well that would be later today in my time zone as it’s past midnight. Sorry for the late notice, I just found out myself about the live chat part. They’ll show a video they shot in my lab and I...

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Clutch job on the big IBM tape drives

The IBM 729 vacuum column tape drives at the Computer History Museum need our help again. I am working on a tape that won't load because of a mechanical problem, and Ken is working on one that won'...

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The Cutest Tektronix O'scope

Meet my new old Tektronix 222. It's a classic early digital scope from 1988. At 2 channels, 10 MHz, 8-bit sampling at a rather pokey rate, it's not a screamer even for the time (my monster Tek 7854...

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Stanford Dish Visit

Well, wouldn't you know it, Steve M., the current engineer for the nearby SRI space antenna, better known as the Stanford Dish, is watching the channel. This thing is a mere 10 minutes from where I...

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Teletype Model 31

This footage is courtesy of Patron John L. He recently got a Teletype Model 31 going. He told me it is a small portable teletype originally meant for airplane use. It prints on a narrow 1/4 inch ri...

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Opening the Apollo Pre-Modulation Processor

We just opened the PMP, or premodulation processor box. It's the box that comes after (or before, depending how you look at it) the transponder. It is described by Collins as the heart of the syste...

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NASA PM Tx back on Apollo frequency, link double-locked

There are a lot of good looking vintage green lights in the lab tonight. We have just successfully returned the NASA PM transmitter to its original Apollo frequency. Our Apollo transponder now lock...

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Apollo S-Band SDR Reboot

Many of you have asked how one would redo the Apollo link with modern electronics. And I believe one of the nicest way to do it would be using SDR (Software Defined Radio) technology. At least for ...

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The Apollo PM receiver is back on its original frequency!

We finally received the crystals from Laptech in Canada. Frequency is right on the money (new one at left, the old one at the "wrong" frequency at right). They were spec'ed at +/- 10 ppm and we got...

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Another vintage components donation

A viewer that wishes to remain anonymous rescued a batch of old components from the dumpster of his company. And they are quite interesting. They are mostly from the early 60's. Early Germanium sem...

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Monster E&L Breadboad System

Thanks to your support, I just got a big bad vintage solderless breadboard system off eBay. Actually, two of them.

We use breadboards quite a bit in the lab, and when there are several of us ...

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HP 9825 Crowbar

I wanted to keep the crowbar design for the last episode and grand-finale of our HP 9825 repair series, but this is dragging on as we have been distracted by Apollo stuff and the re-emergence of Co...

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The IBM IO Tester thinks it is a chronomter

https://youtu.be/sv0nwF3uzUY

I just hooked up the restored IBM IO Tester blinkenlight panel to an Arduino to make it blink...

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Large IBM installation in the 1970s

A tip from a viewer, this video has really neat footage of an IBM datacenter, an IBM 370 I presume. Gorgeous and iconic IBM terminals, the super duper 20,000 line per minute laser printer. Not sure...

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HP 8568 RF Analyzer: Restoration within a restoration

In previous posts, we explained that will need to retune our Apollo PM test receiver to the original Apollo CSM frequency, because its frequency had been changed to support another project, one of ...

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Quick IBM IO Tester Restoration

You probably remember seeing us unbox this big gray box recently. It is a donation from viewer Brad Proffit (thanks Brad!). 

2021-11-14 09:29:27 +0000 UTC View Post

My TI Silent 703 terminal is overclocked!

Next in our unboxing was the TI Silent 703 from eBay. This one started strong, printing its waterfall test with no problems, in eerie silence:

2021-11-06 21:11:48 +0000 UTC View Post

We made two good HP 4957A with two bad ones!

You saw us unbox my HP 4957A in a previous video, and as expected, it did not even power up. This was a cheap non-working machine I got for parts. This was to help getting my other  "good" HP ...

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(Spoiler Alert) Good job Patreons on guessing the PS/2 fault

Here are the results of the poll:

And you guys did pretty good, much better than the average comm...

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Original manual for our PM receiver found!

Over the week-end, Mike, Marcel and I flew to a private collector that might have other items to help us with our Apollo comms restoration. The collector, who is super nice, is also very private an...

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Place your bets on the PS/2 “planar” (motherboard) fault

Las Vegas time! Put in your bet! 

In Part 4 of our IBM PS/2 repair adventure, Eric changed t...

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Apollo PM Test Receiver First Light

I am falling further and further behind in my videos, but our current latest advance was to power up the PM test receiver. Previously we had done receive tests using an HP mixer to bring the microw...

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Apollo Uplink Box Progress

https://youtu.be/nALBEotYQzs 

...

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To the Moon and Back with the Apollo Transponder

Progress continues with our power up of the Apollo transponder. We achieved frequency locked turnaround transmission: from Earth to the Moon, then back. With Earth being simulated by the two antenn...

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