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ChRnZN
Din of Doom


Registered: 12/21/08
Posts: 6,265
Loc: ADK
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Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10)
#28291273 - 04/23/23 11:00 AM (1 year, 26 days ago) |
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Hi everybody. I just acquired an old computer cassette tape labeled C-10, Cat. No. 26-302 that can only be played on an old Radio Shack TRS-80 Cassette Player. There aren't many on ebay, and I was wondering if someone on here had one of these TRS-80's lying around somewhere so they could listen to the tape and find out what is on it. Play time of the tape is only 5 minutes on each side. It looks like it is an audio recording of someone describing a problem they had at work. The person I got it from recently passed away and I do not have a way to find out what is on this mystery tape. Feel free to pm me too.
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stubb
Dahg Rastubfari


Registered: 03/23/19
Posts: 1,382
Loc: Memory
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Re: Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10) [Re: ChRnZN]
#28291359 - 04/23/23 12:14 PM (1 year, 26 days ago) |
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Quote:
ChRnZN said: can only be played on an old Radio Shack TRS-80 Cassette Player.
What do you mean? Tandy cassette drives are just standard mono tape decks.
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ChRnZN
Din of Doom


Registered: 12/21/08
Posts: 6,265
Loc: ADK
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Re: Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10) [Re: stubb]
#28291437 - 04/23/23 01:25 PM (1 year, 26 days ago) |
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They're made to be played on computers. It's an extremely outdated mode of file saving, we're talking about a time when you couldn't get a tv smaller than the dresser you keep your clothes in because they weren't invented yet. Apparently someone thought it would be a good idea to save a measly kilobyte of data on a special cassette that only a rare cassette player could play because there was no other method of saving digital data. This cassette came from a large institution in the city where this "cutting-edge" technology was the only way for teachers to save their files on a secure, private database. Just thought there might be somebody out there who dealt with the same thing.
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stubb
Dahg Rastubfari


Registered: 03/23/19
Posts: 1,382
Loc: Memory
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Re: Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10) [Re: ChRnZN]
#28291697 - 04/23/23 03:48 PM (1 year, 26 days ago) |
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I've archived hundreds of TRS/Apple/Commodore tapes. I just use my AIWA tapedeck.
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ChRnZN
Din of Doom


Registered: 12/21/08
Posts: 6,265
Loc: ADK
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Re: Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10) [Re: stubb]
#28291746 - 04/23/23 04:06 PM (1 year, 26 days ago) |
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They're not the same tapes. Your TRS tapes are for a computer and apple / commodore tapes are for systems and games. My C-10 tape won't play on the average player or computer available to the public because it was made for being re-recorded by a larger system at an institution that stores hundreds of tapes like mine for the purpose of collecting and putting all the recordings in order. It's a work related thing, not a thing that was available to consumers. That's why I'm confused why he had it in the first place.
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stubb
Dahg Rastubfari


Registered: 03/23/19
Posts: 1,382
Loc: Memory
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Re: Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10) [Re: ChRnZN]
#28291755 - 04/23/23 04:09 PM (1 year, 26 days ago) |
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Alrighty then, I guess I can't help you.
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,729
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Re: Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10) [Re: ChRnZN]
#28292372 - 04/24/23 03:02 AM (1 year, 26 days ago) |
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Quote:
ChRnZN said: It looks like it is an audio recording of someone describing a problem they had at work.
Trying to interpret what you said: the one option that won't be the case here would be audio recorded as digital data onto a tape using a TRS80 system due to the lack of computing power and D/A & A/D circuitry in that platform. If the tape is audio, you should be able to hear it when played on any old tape deck. If the thing sounds like white noise when played on a regular tape deck, it's likely data, and it might be a text document along the lines you state - or anything else, basically.
I'd try and make an audio capture on a pc/mac and then run it through the wav2cas utility, then see if you can take a peek into the data. See e.g. here: http://knut.one/wav2cas.htm
Good luck and have fun with it; finds like these are a bit like modern-day archaeology - never quite know for sure what you'll find, but there's always an interesting story or two attached to it!
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ChRnZN
Din of Doom


Registered: 12/21/08
Posts: 6,265
Loc: ADK
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Re: Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10) [Re: koraks]
#28292528 - 04/24/23 07:28 AM (1 year, 25 days ago) |
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Thanks for the link. I think that is actually for doing what I want to do backwards - that is, recording a trs tape from a wav file. I do hear white noiss and blips when my tape is played in a regular cassette player. I was just saying my tape looked like a regular audio cassette because it fits in a regular tape deck and it has no markings that say anything like "this is a different kind of tape" or "you need machine x or y to play this tape." My dad used to have a machine that could read these things a decade ago, but he got rid of it because he doesn't work any more. Now I just need to find a person who held on to one of these things, probably for nostalgic value.
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,729
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Re: Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10) [Re: ChRnZN]
#28292582 - 04/24/23 08:20 AM (1 year, 25 days ago) |
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Quote:
ChRnZN said: Thanks for the link. I think that is actually for doing what I want to do backwards - that is, recording a trs tape from a wav file.
It does that too, but it also does it the other way around: decode digital data from a sound recording.
Quote:
I do hear white noiss and blips when my tape is played in a regular cassette player.
Yeah, that sounds like data alright! Give it a try.
Quote:
I was just saying my tape looked like a regular audio cassette because it fits in a regular tape deck and it has no markings that say anything like "this is a different kind of tape" or "you need machine x or y to play this tape."
Ok, but do you know if it was in fact used with a TRS80 system? These audio cassettes were also popular with early Commodore systems found in many homes in the 1980s through early 1990s. I don't think the encoding is the same as with the Tandy system. I'm sure there's a similar tool for decoding the data though.
To make a recording, all you need is a regular audio (i.e. HiFi) tape deck with a line output. Hook it up to the mic/line input on your computer's sound card and make a recording. Then run that through the decoding software. No dedicated data drive is needed for this.
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ChRnZN
Din of Doom


Registered: 12/21/08
Posts: 6,265
Loc: ADK
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Re: Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10) [Re: koraks]
#28294479 - 04/25/23 09:22 AM (1 year, 24 days ago) |
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Yes, I know it was used on a TRS80 system. It is labeled on the cassette tape.
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,729
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Re: Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10) [Re: ChRnZN]
#28295610 - 04/26/23 01:40 AM (1 year, 24 days ago) |
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That's a bit of a give-away indeed
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LogicaL Chaos
Ascension Energy & Alien UFOs




Registered: 05/12/07
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Re: Radioshack TRS-80 Cassette Player (for C-10) (The C is for Classic as Fuuuuck) [Re: ChRnZN]
#28299509 - 04/29/23 02:09 AM (1 year, 21 days ago) |
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I looked it up, damn! This came out before I was born! 
In case someone here doesnt have this classic 40 year old tech, eBay has a couple listings right now.
Heres one here: Radio Shack TRS-80 Player/Recorder
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