Word: hums
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Explaining that she did not notice the reels turning because the top of the recorder was closed, Miss Woods said that she discovered her error only when she hung up the phone and then listened to the tape. She was horrified to hear the loud hum instead of conversation. She said she rushed right into the Oval Office and told Nixon. "I've made a terrible mistake. I accidentally pushed the record button and part of the tape is empty." He replied...
...part of the controversial tape was played in the courtroom. The quality was surprisingly poor, with much of the conversation between Nixon and Ehrlichman indistinguishable. Nixon was heard to remark: "In the '68 campaign the press was violently pro-Humphrey." After Haldeman entered, the hum began. It was a steady sound that did not waver in its medium-high pitch. But after 5½ minutes the hum suddenly became softer, and some sporadic clicks could be heard for 13 minutes...
...June 20 conversation with Nixon. They revealed that the only discussion of Watergate occurred just after the chitchat about Ely?and where the hum began. Said Haldeman's notes: "What is our counterattack? PR [public relations] offensive to top this. Hit the opposition w/ their activities ... Do they justify this less than stealing Pentagon Papers ...? We should be on the attack for diversion...
Ample Time. Buzhardt said that, without informing Miss Woods, he had used her recorder and re-created the overriding noise. On blank tape, one hum level was created, he said, when the secretary's electric typewriter and her Tensor lamp were both turned on; a different hum resulted when only the lamp burned. The recorder's internal circuitry was apparently capable of picking up the electrical "noise" from current flowing through the lamp and typewriter. Other experimenters claim to have duplicated a similar noise on tape when using similar equipment...
...possibility that the tape submitted to the court might not be the original recording but a copy. It might have been made in a bungled attempt to alter and then splice parts of the initial tape. To this expert, the telltale sign is the series of clicks during the hum. Clicks, he reports, are produced when unskilled tamperers try to cut and splice tape. The buzzing sound then might even have been introduced to try to conceal the earlier attempt at deception...