"blinkbox" wrote ...
I work at a state agency that defends death row inmates. One of our
cases
involves a police broadcast tape from the early-mid 1980s. It logs a
12-
or 24-hour period of police-band communications, on 12 or 16 separate
tracks (separate broadcast channels?). It is vital that we find out
what
is on this tape. However, it is an old-fashioned reel-to-reel tape,
and
we have no way of listening to it. The tape box is 11" x 11" x 1.5"
thick, and it says, "Magnasync/Moviola Corporation -- Logging Audio
Communications Tape". Does anybody out there know how we can find or
modify equipment that will enable us to listen to this tape? The
magnetic
tape itself is very wide -- as wide or wider than a regular VHS video
tape. This is a capital case, and any help you can offer would be
greatly
appreciated.

1) www.magnasync.com They are still a major player in that business
and I'd be somewhat surprised if they couldn't just play back the tape
or recommend the most convienent location that could help you.

2) There are experts who specialize in forensic audio engineering. They
would either have the equipment or have access/contacts to it. They are
likely known within the legal community.

3) Scott Dorsey over in news:rec.audio.pro may also have some insight
into recovery of older reel-to-reel audio tapes. His email address is
listed as: kludge (at) panix.com

Those tapes are likely recorded in a track configuration and tape speed
that are unique to the communications logging application. They are
probably not playable on standard audio production equipment.