TRS-80 Pocket Computer (PC-1) software tapes from Tandy: degraded leader adhesive, break-away

[FalconFour]

I recently acquired an entire mountain of Pocket Computer goods... a big chunk of it was about 30 boxed copies of PC-1 and PC-2 software on cassette.

Going through them, the first one I wanted to review and sell was the Business Statistics software. (yuck, lol). Every one of them had a bad leader. It'd be a gamble whether you could actually extract the opposite leader out of the cassette, as about 30% of the time, it'd be stuck down... and only the magnetic tape would come out - the leader would still be adhered to the spool. Inside the shell.
View attachment IMG_8772.jpeg

The ones that do come out, I can "peel away" the leader in the splice super easily - like it was just waiting to let go.



I suspect there'd be a lot of these tapes out there with such degradation... just waiting to be played one last time, then sucked into the shell, gone forever (or until you crack apart the shell and retrieve it).

I've taken the opportunity to become quite adept at resplicing leaders, using new (not NOS) splicing tape and a (admittedly, poorly made) splicing block. It's been a skill-building exercise for sure.

 

[bzotto]

Your splicing block looks good to me! I use a metal splicing block and splice tape from duplication.ca which carries good repair supplies for cassettes:

duplication.ca: Analogue Media Tech (Amtech)

Analogue Media Technologies Inc. (Amtech, Analog Media, duplication.ca) provides CD DVD duplication and replication, audio cassette duplication and loading, vinyl record pressing, multimedia inserts, boxes, sleeves, mailers, posters, and vinyl jackets. We also carry a range of multimedia...

www.duplication.ca

(A nice thing about their splice block is that it will hold the tape securely in place in a channel to help you to position the tape well.)

Nice work.

 

[FalconFour]

Haha... yeah, the problem with this block is that it only serves as a flat surface; the tape channel is a fraction of a millimeter too small, the wood surface doesn't form a scissor action against a razor blade, and the lines aren't even cut straight. I think it's more a symbolic piece of art than a useful tool. It sure looks nice, but I really wish metal blocks were more available. I just bought the "most likely to work" thing I could find on eBay with a bit of searching.

Yeah, it's working out, but my technique is vastly different from what I'd seen on YT. Cut with scissors with an eyeballed angle (mostly seems about right ), lay an edge of the leader tape in the track, align the leader against the same edge, and slide the tape & leader to overlap perfectly (but only halfway down the tape), then stick down. With that perfectly aligned, I then join the magnetic tape to the other half of the tape by eye. Ends up looking pretty darn sharp, and now that I've done, ehh... (stares at pile)... about 30 splices on 15 tapes in 8 boxes... I'm pretty good. haha.

As I was getting into this, I started to think either Google was crazy, or I was crazy, because I couldn't find anyone broadly commenting on leaders that detach with a whisp of breath. Then, I reaffirmed my sanity by holding a cassette in one hand, pulling the tape out, and with the other hand fully occupied simply holding the cassette, I was able to detach a leader just by changing the direction the tape was held at. Held together only with thoughts and prayers! (And then I proceeded to splice it, too. )

(Also playing them each through my Minisette-9 into the PC-1, reading each program. Each problem I've had was a result of the player: the azimuth was bad for one set of problems I was having, and the batteries were dead for another. After solving those, they really play quite reliably!)