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Remember the BBC micro and other computers of that era, which used audio tapes to save programs? I recall a BBC TV programme about technology from when I was a kid. In at least one episode, they played such a tape on the air, so that we could record it (by holding the cassette recorder near the TV speaker), and then load the program ourselves.

Is this a false memory or can someone else confirm seeing this?



Something similar was provided via radio (not TV): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASICODE

It's possible that the BBC broadcasted data in the same way (conceptually, even if not in format) on their TV programme.


It's probably true. The rate of data on the tapes was probably slow enough that even over a lossy TV broadcast signal it would still survive.

I think the Commodore Cassette drive was 50 bytes/sec?


I was able to copy Commodore cassettes using my father's high end audio setup. A friend with a standard two-tape deck ended up with corrupted tapes though, so the bit rate must have been close to the limit of the medium.


Your friend probably had a problem with azimuth (head alignment), which can usually be fixed with a small screwdriver:

http://www.endino.com/archive/cassettes.html


Yea that is correct. I'm pretty Sure Micro Live did this.




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